Yes, this is one of the biggest examples of the 2010s trend of needlessly turning existing franchises into open world games. Yes, it doesn't look great on PS4 or run great on Vita. Yes, combat often devolves into mashing your special attack button. However, I still really really like this game. I think the weapons are cool and varied, there's a good amount of mechanics to manage, and a good variety of viable builds.

I think this game would be more popular/ more people would know it even exists if:
1) Monster Hunter World didn't come out less than a year later and blow every other hunting game out of the water
2) KT ever put there games on sale literally ever. Seriously, why is this game still so expensive.

Much better than the demo suggested. I think the big issue is that it was a sequel to a pretty by-the-numbers Monster Hunter clone, albeit one which was massively streamlined. This game takes that streamlined style and puts it into an open world; completely inappropriate for a Vita game but it fits on PS4. I really enjoyed the trips into the Oni territory, mapping the area out and aiming for the save point. I'd certainly play another - the combat itself is still great. I played throughout as an archer and the increased speed of the game meant that I was constantly shooting bits off enemies, which certainly didn't get old during the 25 hour campaign.

I never know what to expect going into games of the "hunting" genre (well, outside of Monster Hunter, anyways). Toukiden 2 piqued my curiosity, and I'm glad I picked it up, as I feel like it's an underrated title amongst its peers.

I played this game on the Playstation Vita, and while I don't think they'll blow you away, I think the graphics look quite nice for a Vita game. Draw distance is pretty damn high, and the world itself is never broken up by loading screens. The 2D character artwork is done by Hidari, and I absolutely adore his style. 3D character models are kinda typical Koei Tecmo fare, but they don't look bad or anything, just fine, that's it. All of the music is phenomenal. A mixture of orchestra and traditional Japanese instruments come together to create melodies that consistently planted themselves firmly in my brain.

Gameplay-wise, I do feel that your options can be overwhelming, to say the least. I'd argue that this game is closer to Dynasty Warriors in controls, but closer to Monster Hunter in gameplay. My weapon of choice was the chain whip, and there were times where I felt like all I was really doing was turning my square/circle buttons into mush. The other trick up your sleeve is the "demon hand". I'm sure there's a bunch of tips I skimmed over in the tutorials, but the demon hand's most defining feature for me was the ability to tear off entire body parts from your oni enemies. All the oni are unique in terms of designs and attack patterns. Better yet, the aformentioned demon hand can severely cripple oni, causing them to completely shift their attack strategies (I always feel bad when an oni loses both its legs and can't do much of anything), or morph into something entirely different. It's extremely engaging stuff, definitely the highlight of the combat in my eyes.

Aside from your weapon of choice, the other deciding factor of your character's abilities are the mitama you collect. Mitama carry the essences of famous figures from Japanese folklore, each with their own unique artwork to boot. There are three slots to use mitama in: one that controls your manual abilities (think items in MH, healing and the like), one manually-activated special ability, and one ability that automatically activates under certain conditions. Mitama also unlock boosts as you continue to use them in battle, and you can equip three boosts at a time. It's a lot to take in at first, but the system provides quite a bit of depth in terms of what you can achieve in terms of loadout and playstyle.

Overworld exploration is decent enough. The game has a huge, interconnected map that only expands further as you unlock more quadrants. Each area has collectibles sprinkled across the map, some treasures, trinkets, and pieces of lore to track down. There's also a meaty quantity of sidequests to accept. This doesn't stop the world from feeling fairly barren, however. After a certain point, I just started ignoring the smaller oni that roam the overworld, in favor of dashing srtaight towards my next objective. It doesn't help that fast travel points are too few and far between.

Of all things I didn't expect to engage me as much as it did in this game, it was the story. I won't go into explicit detail, but essentially, your character gets warped into a future (but still feudal) version of Japan, and ends up becoming a middle ground for a massive class divide in a village under attack by oni. All the characters grew on me in due time, can't say I outright disliked any of them (aside from the villain, he felt a bit too cliche for my tastes). It can come off as wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey nonsense, but the general story beats and character interactions make up for it in my eyes.

The last thing I expected out of Koei Tecmo was a phenomenal hunting game. If you're looking for something a bit more grounded (less God Eating or Freedom Warring), I highly recommend checking this one out. I'd even go as far as to call it the best Monster Hunter substitute for the Vita.