It’s not a perfect implementation certainly, games like Dragon Age, Life Is Strange, or the Telltale games do a better job of making a meaningful feature out of the conflicting motivations of key characters. How some of the narrative plays out depends on how you develop your relationship with these people. There are two major military factions: the Guards and the Samurai, which are at loggerheads with one another, and there are a number of other key personalities among the individuals and political heads of the town. This is new, and its inclusion in the game is superb. In addition to the fight against the Oni, you’ll also have to contend with the various personalities in the village that you set up as your base this time around. Just getting something ready for a review ? #PS4share /X8OLUQzx1e You play as a warrior who somehow got pulled into a time hole when the Oni first appeared in the world, and have popped back into existence ten years later, when the Oni have just about destroyed the world. The base narrative remains the same humans, partnered with Mitama, are still engaged in a losing war against endless hordes of Oni. So Toukiden 2 has replaced its predecessor as my favourite example of this particular genre.
Toukiden 2 really doubles down on the narrative, and it’s sublime. That story, so steeped in the rich and vibrant history and culture of Japan, elevated the basic monster fighting to an entirely different level. Monster Hunter games are held together by the thinnest whiff of a story, where Toukiden went all in with an apocalyptic story of demons (Oni) invading earth and humans partnering with the spirits of deceased heroes (Mitama) to fight back. Related reading: Matt’s review of the first Toukiden, as ported to PlayStation 4 as Toukiden: Kiwami.īut – and it’s a big but – Toukiden was very much its own game, and I found it to be far more interesting than Monster Hunter, because it was a much stronger narrative experience. It featured protracted battles with very large monsters, loot grinding to improve your character’s equipment, and Monster Hunter’s mission structure, where environments were broken up into small “stages” and you had a time limit to complete each mission. Toukiden took some of the ideas that drove Monster Hunter, yes. It was easy to look at the original Toukiden and dismiss it as a clone of Monster Hunter.