Toukiden: Kiwami

Runs great on steamdeck. Just make sure you launch it in windowed mode and use GE Proton.

Coming from Monhun, this felt more like a frenzied fight against demons (compared to the methodical hunts that go on in Monhun) which is nice if you're looking for a fun and casual game to just wail on something solo or with friends.

My only major complaint is I found the in-game glossary to be extremely lacking in information and ease of use. I'm not complaining about loot or effect discovery but when you've already discovered something like a monster drop or Mitama effect, the least the game could've done was provide details on how to acquire it again or show which Mitama had certain effects.

This is an old good game. At first glance, it looks like it's just another monster hunter styled game, but it's got a whole lot of style going for it. I wish this was more popular so people were around to play it with.

I'd recommend this game purely from how much fun I've had with it. Definitely worth a buy when it's on sale.
Yes it is an old game, with lists of cons mentioned by other reviews. Perhaps because I knew what I wanted (experience the complete story) and what I'm stepping into (had previously played the original JPN PSP version), the cons didn't bother me that much.
Some things I enjoyed:
- THE STORY, MAN. It's simple cheesy and cliche but it works in its setting and the payoff at the end was satisfying.
- THE STORY BGMS?? Especially those from the final chapter in Kiwami? -combusts in emotions-
- Each character was unique with their own motivation, quirks, backstory, and resolution arc. Their side quest shenanigans reinforce how they're not just another slayer NPC but a whole character in their own right.
- As a player, the way I actually felt like a part of the characters' community, especially through the side quests and the journalist sisters in Kiwami.
- Hidari's character portrait art are chefs kiss.
- The combat difficulty being much more forgiving compared to (eg) MonHunt: most story missions are accompanied with extremely capable character NPCs (i was often carried by them), players are guaranteed at least 10x health recoveries (and sometimes refillable) regardless of what combat style they chose, you are only knocked out when health is depleted and can be revived by friendlies on the spot to continue fighting (only when they fail to revive you within the time limit, then you're considered truly fainted).
- Intentional or not, the use of character NPCs to demonstrate how some mitama styles were supposed to look like in practice: notable impressions were seeing Reki use the Space-style to warp *out* of incoming danger (Space-style has a skill that randomly warps the player across the battlefield), and seeing Horo use the Support-style to nullify/mitigate damage for allies in the area at the cost of her health but it works for her setup *because* she's a mid-long range combatant (before this i'd read that skill as a close combatant and thought it useless).
My only gripe with this game is there's no way to revisit the story dialogues without replaying from start. I think the CG cutscenes are vibrant and expressive for its time (2014/15), but truly majority of the story were covered in un-replayable dialogues and that's where the story and characters came to life most. I'm sure to think of this game for a long time. A 10/10 for me in terms of how much fun I've had. Just late to revisiting it so now there's not many peeps to cry about the story with.
Edit: WAIT... THIS GAME HAS NG+ ?????? FROM 2015???? WHAT

I enjoy this game so much that I pretty much intend to come back and 100% it eventually, God willing.

I wish there were more review options than just yes or no for the "Would you recommend this" question.

So, this game is what I call a "Monster Hunter Clone". But it's only a loose one. It has the same basic set up. Hunt a big monster, use it's part to make better gear, then go hunt a bigger monster.

But that's all the similarity. Lets start with the combat. Monster hunter is very much about patterns and openings and you have to dodge, just spamming an attack will very much get you a quest failure. Toukiden has decided that it's okay if you pretty much just stand in one place and mash the basic attack button. You can easily clear most story missions this way with a basic NPC party. There is enough healing that you can just tank most hits rather than care about avoiding them. The whole loop revolves around cutting off limbs, and you can't actually damage the Oni until a limb is removed. So if you hit a body part, it works towards putting it in an enraged state. then once the limb is removed and purified, you can hit the shadow limb to actually bring down the health bar. but you can't seem to do health damage until a limb is removed. the whole removing limbs loop is actually insanely tedious. every Oni just feels like a bullet sponge.

The Oni. Monster Hunter does this some as well, but there are only a small number of different types of Oni to hunt, and most of the list is clones with different models or variants or something you fought earlier. The list of things to fight feels pretty small.

Crafting.
You can craft weapons and armor like other Monster Hunter style games, but there is much less of an upgrade path. you are mostly just making new gear. Gear can level up and be fortified, but this costs you nothing other than using it to get exp on the gear. there is no material or gold cost to fortify. Same for the mitama's. Gear is more accessible, but there is a huge lack of crafting. Why would you fight the same thing multiple times if you don't need materials. There is actually a decent amount of build variety though for the lack of crafting due to the RNG variances of the mitama skills.

Which is another point I have about the length of the game. There are 13 chapters in the Kiwami version. the original game was 7 chapters. Each chapter has 15-20 missions. With everything listed above, the game just feels like a slog. Like it's way too long. This isn't even counting the multiplayer lobby which has something like 17 chapters of missions. there are a lot of mission in this game if you want to complete them all, but they get boring around chapter 9 of the story if you are doing every mission.

The game can be enjoyable, but it feels way to long for how simple and dull it is. I don't like to quit games, I like to finish them. otherwise I might have stopped or taken a break from this game by now. My problem might be trying to compare it to monster hunter. it's similar enough, but there is yet to be a Monster Hunter Clone that is anywhere near as good.

I hesitate to rate this as do not recommend because there are good and enjoyable parts about it.

The story is fun. The Tenko are cute. The characters are entertaining. The world is beautiful.

I did enjoy it for awhile, but I'm at the point of "when will it end so i can move on to other games" which is never a good mental stage to hit of any game. It just feels a bit long. I could be thinking about this differently though. The base game was 7 chapters, that was a self contained story. The Kiwami part takes that to 13 chapters. I should see it like MH:World and MH:Iceborne. The Kiwami part is the expansion. But there aren't really any gameplay or mechanics changes between the two parts, just a few new Oni and a new difficulty level in the later chapters.

I don't really recommend Toukiden, but I would tell people about it and not say to avoid it either. I would say play it, I am. I will eventually get around to Toukiden 2 and see if its better. But currently Toukiden is lower on my list of Monster Hunter style games.

This game is amazing cant understand how I did not hear of it sooner 10/10 so far