As a longtime fan of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, I was initially thrilled to try out Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board, a board game adaptation of the beloved manga and anime series. With the inclusion of iconic enemies like Muzan Kibutsuji, Enmu, Gyutaro, and Daki, I was expecting an immersive and exciting gaming experience that would transport me to the world of Demon Slayer.
“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” is an extensively beloved anime and manga franchise, brimming with compelling characters who work tirelessly to shield innocents from hidden perils. My spouse and I are avid enthusiasts of the show, amassing numerous Banpresto, Figurizm, and Masterlise figures for our personal collection as a testament to our fandom. This is what drew me towards “Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board!”, an engaging virtual board game adaptation of the series developed by CyberConnect 2 and Sega.
As a dedicated fan who’s been eagerly anticipating the release of Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board on PC, I was disappointed to find that the wait wasn’t worth it. Upon playing this game for approximately 10 hours since its recent arrival on additional platforms besides Nintendo Switch, I’ve come across several aspects that leave me puzzled about who this title is intended for.
In a creative twist, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board transforms various storylines from the manga and anime into Mario Party-style game boards. Each board brims with recognizable scenes and allusions from the series, delighting fans like me. For instance, Asakusa and Mount Fujikasane are featured in Board 1, while Board 5 showcases the Swordsmith Village with its hot springs, training dolls, and Haganezuka in hot pursuit. True fans will enjoy these nods to the original content, even if they’re only brief encounters.
Players navigate the game board by tossing dice and advancing to various spaces with alternate paths to different destinations. Similarly, maps incorporate distinctive means of travel in accordance with their unique settings. For instance, you may travel from Asakusa to Northwest Town via boats, ride rickshaws through Yoshiwara Entertainment District, or circle the tracks on the Mugen Train. Interacting with numerous NPCs that appear when landing on specific spaces adds an element of repeatability to the game.
From a gamer’s perspective, when it comes to choosing characters in Sweep the Board, I get to pick among 12 options, which include Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke as my top picks. Additionally, there are Hashira members like Mitsuri, Gyomei, Rengoku, Sanemi, and others to choose from. Surprisingly, Nezuko is not a playable character, but she plays a crucial role by helping the player in last place. This assistance often comes in the form of an extra dice roll or a free item. I personally find this concept intriguing because even though Nezuko transforms into a terrifying demon in her Awakened state, she’s still just a child who deserves protection. Therefore, having her support rather than actively participating seems more fitting to the storyline.
As a dedicated gamer, I’m thoroughly impressed by how exquisitely the characters in this game have been designed and brought to life through stunning renders and fluid animations. The original voice actors from Japan and England have really drawn me in, allowing me to connect with each unique personality – Zenitsu’s excitement, Inosuke’s boldness, Shinobu’s cheerfulness, and Giyu’s nonchalance – all resonating beautifully with the source material. However, I must admit there’s a small issue: each character seems to lack distinct abilities or perks, which would have greatly enhanced the gameplay experience for a board game centered around controlling powerful fighters. Instead, we’re left with standard dice rolls and Slayer Dice that offer identical bonuses.
In the game Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board, your primary objective is to accumulate Rank Points during a match, which may last anywhere from 5 to 30 turns. Each day begins with a series of minigames for players. Among these, I particularly enjoyed Team Memory Matching and Zenko’s Zealous Performance. The former involves flipping portraits until you find matching pairs. In the latter, it’s like playing a musical rhythm game. However, my absolute favorite is Don’t Miss a Beat! where I had to navigate through Tsuzumi Mansion’s labyrinthine corridors while leaping over pits and evading Kyogai the Drum Demon’s hurled projectiles.
As a gamer, I found myself disappointed with certain minigames in the game. Some of them were too easy, like Last One Jumping where all I had to do was press a button at the right time to skip rope. Others, such as Demon Sleigh-er, required me to move side to side to pass through speed bursts while avoiding obstacles, but they felt repetitive and lacked excitement. And to make matters worse, some activities were repeated multiple times during the same match, making the experience feel overly redundant.
As a gamer, I’ve unfortunately encountered some issues with the controls in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board feeling unresponsive or “janky” at times. Bummer, right? This game provides options for solo play, online gaming, and local split-screen for up to four people, with any remaining slots filled by the CPU. For local split-screen sessions, I opted for a keyboard while my wife went for a Logitech F310 gamepad. Let me tell you, using a gamepad was a game-changer in terms of comfort during our gaming experience. However, there were moments when using a keyboard became quite the hassle, particularly during minigames that required tracing drawings or following diagonal directions with the WASD keys. To make things more confusing, button prompts seemed to switch mid-game! Rolling a die and ending a dialogue, for instance, usually meant hitting the “E” key, but unexpectedly, there were instances where pressing the “Q” key was necessary instead. I’m not entirely sure if this inconsistency was a bug related to using both a keyboard and gamepad setup in local play.
During a player’s turn, reaching the destination spot on the board triggers its transition into the night phase. This is when formidable enemies like Yahaba, Susamaru, and the Hand Demon appear in Asakusa/Mt. Fujikasane, Enmu and Akaza in the Mugen Train, Gyutaro and Daki in the Entertainment District, and so on. I was taken aback by the addition of these adversaries, portrayed as challenging boss fights complete with brief scenes inspired by the anime. Muzan’s emergence several turns later extends the night phase and multiplies the perils.
I’m not overly thrilled about the boss fights against Greater Demons. They mainly involve mindless button pressing or quick-time events with a lack of originality and complexity. A few encounters stand out, like the one with the Daki, but mostly due to disoriented button prompts that made the battle more perplexing than thrilling. It was unfortunate to find myself growing bored with what should have been exhilarating boss battles.
Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board has a major drawback: it fails to live up to the expectations of a competitive board game or party game. In contrast, other well-known titles like Mario Party Superstars, The Jackbox Party Pack, Talisman, Catan, and Monopoly offer elements that define these genres, such as chaotic activities, enjoyable minigames, or opportunities to hinder opponents’ advancement. The thrill of surpassing others and the prospect of seizing their accomplishments or advantage can lead to intense, frustrating, and sometimes humorous situations.
In Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board, regrettably, opportunities for stealing advantages from opponents or claiming another player’s Hashira ally are scarce. While evaluating the game, I searched for features that would enable such actions but was unable to find them. Apart from a couple of usable items, like one that gathers all players near me and another that swaps my position with a chosen target, there seems to be no way to manipulate situations drastically, leaving everyone else amused instead.
In the best-case scenario, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is merely a competition to reach various destinations or Greater Demon locations to collect more Rank Points. No matter how well I played or how high my score was, mini-games only awarded a small amount of coins for buying items, and defeating Greater Demons granted just a few Rank Points. Similarly, the unpredictable appearance of these spots could favor the player closest to them, an event over which I had no influence.
I was taken aback to discover that Kagaya, the Hashira’s coach, distributed unpredictable post-game perks as well. For instance, in one bout, additional Rank Points were bestowed upon the participant who spent the greatest amount of gold. In my subsequent attempt, however, the unique reward went to the player who advanced the most spaces. Additionally, outside of the primary gameplay, you can try each mini-game and boss battle again through quick runs, and purchase cosmetic rewards with coins such as stickers, anime avatars, alternative outfits, and wallpapers. Nevertheless, these additional activities don’t offer much excitement.
As an avid fan of Demon Slayer, I was disappointed with Sweep the Board’s lackluster offering. After a few hours of gameplay, the experience felt monotonous and tiresome to the point that I wouldn’t recommend it to even the most passionate manga and anime fans. Instead, I’d suggest checking out The Hinokami Chronicles from the same studio if you’re a Demon Slayer fan. And for those who prefer party or board games, there are already countless other engaging options available to choose from.
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2024-07-17 23:09