Tyler wrote a good post about Toukiden: Kiwami today!
The amount of content packed into Toukiden: Kiwami is daunting. The first seven chapters (which themselves contain over 100 missions) are taken from the original Toukiden: Age of Demons release. Several more chapters filled with brand new content have been added on once you complete Chapter 7, making it both an enhanced version of all the original content and a full sequel. Nobody who purchases Toukiden: Kiwami can ever say they didn't get their money's worth.
Toukiden: Kiwama is the expansion/sequel to last year's PlayStation Vita exclusive Toukiden: The Age of Demons. In it, demons known as Oni have recently returned to wreak havoc on the world after being quelled many years ago. Nobody knows why the Oni have returned, but it is now up to a group of warriors known as Slayers to once again put a halt to the Oni uprising. You will be trained in the ways of a Slayer and soon meet many other Slayers from across the world that will teach you and fight alongside you against the Oni.
When starting out, you'll be equipped with a simple set of armor and the choice of one of 10 weapons including a long sword, gauntles, a naginata, and a rifle. Once you've selected your lead weapon you will be trained and get an opportunity to test it out. Luckily, if you end up not liking the weapon you've chosen you can easily swap it out once you've complete the intro section of the game.
Weapons in Kiwama can be enchanted with Mitama, which are the spirits of fallen Slayers that you will unlock along your quest. Mitama come in different varieties such as attack focused and protection focused. Your Mitama of choice will also affect the in-quest buffering spells you're able to cast.
Weapons, armor, and Mitama can all be upgraded and fortified as you use them in battle. During these battles you will also collect dozens and dozens of materials which are used to craft new weapons and armor. Generally speaking, these newly crafted weapons and armor are much stronger and you'll generally want to assemble new weapons regularly. Upgrading the weapons you currently own can be helpful, but crafting a new better version of the weapon will be much more noticeable in the field.
While there are a good number of unique Oni enemies in the game, the sheer number of missions in the game mean that you'll be battling the same ones over and over. The same can be said for the boss Oni. The first time you battle a gloriously designed boss Oni you'll have a blast hacking away at his extremities and savoring the victory once you've finally vanquished him. Just prepare to run into him many more times i future quests, with less exhilarating results.
Combat is easy to learn and takes place on several different maps such as the Age of Grace and the Age of Honor. Basic combos exist when using the light and heavy attacks and there are also several special moves that can be unleashed during longer battles, but for the most part prepare for a steady dose of hacking and slashing. An evasion technique and the previously mentioned spell casting also help to give the combat a bit of diversity, but keep in mind that this is a monster hunting game and combat in the genre is rarely compelling.
Instead, and as with all monster hunting games, the truly compelling aspect of the game is playing with other people. My time spent with the multiplayer portion of the game was far and away the most enjoyable. Assembling a team with unique weapons and Mitama attributes made for more enjoyable and successful hunts. Planning strategies of when to separate and when to work together made for a smoother experience. I had almost no problems with the online lobbies and Toukiden: Kiwama even features cross-play between PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 owners, and it does it all almost seamlessly.
The single player campaign is a bit more of a drag, however. When you're not having fun with friends online you start to realize that slaying Oni using the same basic combos can get monotonous. You are granted AI partners during the single player missions to help you with some of the dirty work like harvesting fallen Oni souls, but it's just not the same as playing with friends or even strangers online.
Interestingly, the single player missions (classified as Chapters) and the multiplayer missions (classified as Phases) are handled as separate campaigns. And while this does add even more content to the game, I'm not sure it's truly beneficial. The missions within each Chapter and Phase are extremely similar so you're essentially having to complete them twice. This creates an added layer of repetitiveness on top of many of the missions already feeling a bit repetitive.
If you're not interested in essentially completing the game twice, I wish I could recommend just finding a partner or two and sticking with the multiplayer missions. Unfortunately that's not a viable solution either. If you stick with the multiplayer campaign and forgo the single player one, you'll miss out on the entire story. You'll also miss out on the ability to upgrade your Mitama beyond level 3 and several of the story allies won't be available to you in multiplayer if you're not playing with four humans.
Interesting campaign design aside, Toukiden:Kiwami is still an enjoyable monster hunting game that's jam-packed with content. It's also easy to comprehend and features some of the cleanest and easiest-to-understand menus I've seen in a game of this genre, making it a great entry point for someone just looking to test the waters of the monster hunting world. Just make sure to bring a friend (or three) along for the ride.
it. Still funny. 
