Toukiden: Kiwami

Toukiden: Kiwami is a demon-slaying action RPG that blends Monster Hunter-style combat with deep Japanese mythology and an emphasis on narrative. Originally released as an expanded version of Toukiden: The Age of Demons, Kiwami doubles down on content—new demons, new weapon types, new story arcs, and nearly double the game length.
If you're into hunting giant beasts, customizing your gear, and slicing through grotesque oni with a katana the size of your character, this is your kind of game.
At its core, Toukiden is a monster-hunting game with a faster, more anime-influenced flavor than Monster Hunter. You play as a Slayer—part of a dwindling resistance against the rampaging Oni that threaten to devour history itself. Your job? Destroy them before they erase the past.
Combat is flashy and fluid. You can choose from a variety of weapons—swords, spears, bows, gauntlets, scythes—and each has its own move set, combo rhythm, and strategic depth.
One standout mechanic is Targeted Purification: once you've damaged an Oni’s limbs enough, you can sever them and purify the remains, preventing the monster from regenerating. It’s a great blend of action and strategy that keeps fights dynamic and encourages precision.
Rather than traditional skills or classes, Toukiden uses Mitama—the souls of historical Japanese heroes that you equip to your gear. Each Mitama provides stat boosts, passive bonuses, and active abilities based on its class (e.g., healing, defense, speed). There are hundreds to collect, each with its own lore and synergy potential.
It’s a smart system that adds customization without overwhelming the player, and it doubles as a neat way to learn about Japanese history.
Unlike many hunting games, Toukiden: Kiwami puts a surprising amount of effort into its story and characters. Your base of operations—Utakata Village—is filled with named NPCs, subplots, and evolving relationships. While the story doesn’t redefine the genre, it’s heartfelt and helps keep you invested between hunts.
The setting leans hard into traditional Japanese aesthetics—expect torii gates, ghostly cherry blossoms, and demons inspired by Shinto folklore. It gives the game a unique identity in a genre often dominated by Western or fantasy styles.
Visually, Kiwami shows its roots as a PS Vita title—it’s not stunning by modern standards, but it has charm. The art direction is strong enough to carry the dated textures, especially in Oni designs, which range from grotesque beasts to elegant nightmares.
The soundtrack is stirring and dramatic, with traditional Japanese instruments layered into sweeping orchestral tracks. It does a great job of selling the scale of the battles.
Highlights:
-Fluid, satisfying combat with real weight
-Deep and flexible Mitama system
-Strong narrative and worldbuilding for a hunting game
-Massive content upgrade from the original Toukiden
-Great enemy design rooted in Japanese folklore
Drawbacks:
-Repetitive missions in long sessions
-Visuals are dated, especially on larger screens
-AI partners are serviceable but unremarkable
-Multiplayer community is largely inactive (as of 2025)
-The grind can wear thin if you're not into loot loops
Toukiden: Kiwami is a compelling alternative to Monster Hunter, with a faster pace, more accessible systems, and a distinctly Japanese mythological twist. It’s a perfect choice for action-RPG fans who want intense boss fights and character progression without having to study a wiki for hours.
Though it's showing its age, Kiwami still holds up as a meaty, stylish, and satisfying demon-slaying adventure.
Recommended for fans of Monster Hunter, God Eater, Japanese folklore, and action RPGs with a focus on customization and co-op potential.
Rating: 7/10

This is a decaffeinated Monster Hunter. It's not bad. The story is quite good. But, if you can get it on discount, is always better. I would really recommend it :D

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.

takes dumps all over wilds

I DON'T CARE ABOUT MONSTER HUNTER WILDS

Do I have this game