So this game came out a couple of days ago, and it's pretty much the PS Vita's best answer to Monster Hunter so far (Ragnarok Odyssey had great combat and the challenge was perfect, but not much in the way of armor upgrading/progression and Soul Sacrifice was just rubbish) and now I'm wondering if anyone else has picked it up yet. It's a lot of fun and the online multuplayer works really nicely, but it would be a lot better with friends.
For those that don't have it/have no idea what it is check out my (fairly extensive) review/guide here:
Summary
Toukiden is a 4 player monster hunting game made by Tecmo Koei. It trades MH's clunky but exceptionally functional combat for a more flowing warriors based combat (although it doesn't have charge attacks) with only 6 weapons but a number of different types of equippable 'Mitama' (souls of dead warriors) that provide both passive buffs and give you 4 spells that can be used in combat. The Mitama range from healing ones that give you spells for instant healing, area healing and stamina recovery to offensive spells which help break monsters' breakable bits easier to support rolls or melee oriented buffs and so on.
Combat
The combat starts easy with smaller monsters that take a few hits and then slowly builds to big 'boss' monsters that take between 5 and maybe 30 minutes to take down (depending on your skill and weapon choice) that have a wide variety of breakable parts. In this game, instead of carving monsters for loot you basically exorcise their broken body parts (or whole bodies in the case of smaller monsters) for loot, so one of the main objectives of fighting large monsters is breaking all their parts. For example, the first real boss is a giant spider (about 1.5-2x your height) and you can break all of its individually, as well as a pair of claws and its horns. All the parts besides the horns can be individually looted, but it has to be done shortly after they are broken off or after a while the monster will 'charge' for a moment and pull the broken parts back on. Since breakable parts are usually integral to the monster's movement they reappear shortly (even if looted) as spectral limbs that can be re-broken more easily (usually just to cause a stagger). Parts that cannot be looted (like the spider's manly horns) have a chance to drop items in mission complete screen (and you get bonus rarer items for breaking all the parts before killing any boss).
One unique aspect of the game is that most of the named characters you meet throughout the game can join you in missions (which tend to allow a set number of participants, but usually 4, the player and 3 party members) and each use a specific weapon (I'll get to weapons later). This does make the single player both a little easier (some of the bosses are actually much, much harder without a party, so the game does provide an optional challenge) and more fun, because you aren't doing everything alone *cough*Monster Hunter*cough* even if you don't have friends that play it.
Equipment Progression and Character Customization
As for character customization and equipment, the game does have a fairly standard character editor (with most of the models coming from Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends I believe) and like Monster Hunter (but sadly unlike Ragnarok Odyssey) it also has a huge number of unlockable/buildable armors and weapons. Generally every boss monster you fight has their own armor set (and the defense generally goes up with each new boss, but elemental defenses don't, they are boss specific, and the weight, which I think only affects how long it takes to fall back down when knocked miles into the air by a monster, varies randomly between sets) and weapon set. The upgrading in this game is a little strange though, weapons can be upgraded for free by using them in battle (same with armor) which nets them a small increase in either attack, precision (crit basically) or elemental strength (or a combination of the three) and occassionally another slot to equip Mitama to your weapons (up to 3). Beyond that weapons can be upgraded when you have the right materials, however with weapons from bosses this generally requires much higher level bosses later in the game and non boss weapons tend to gain upgrades periodically every couple of chapters (I think there are about 10 chapters, each taking a couple of hours or more, depending on whether you grind all the armor and weapons or not). This isn't too much of a problem though because you get new bosses (and therefore new equipment) fairly regularly, so the pace is never too slow.
Story
The game, also unlike Monster Hunter, does have a story that is well written but a little generic, with characters that vary from incredibly clichéd and annoyingly ultra kawaii (but also realllly bitchy) little girls to a couple of actually very interesting support characters and team members (although most of the characters fit some sort of japanese cliché). I won't say too much about the story, but basically, you live in feudal Japan (although I don't think it's ever stated that it is actually Japan) and malicious monsters called 'Oni' appear (basically just japanese demons, they aren't even called anything specific in the japanese release) to devour the souls of humans. Thus you, a slayer, are tasked with eradicating these demons. One really cool thing about the game is that all the different game maps are set in the same place, but the oni's appearance has disrupted time, so they appear through different 'ages' usually around the same time period as the game is set, but one of them is set in the stone age and the rest are just more or less modern.
For those that don't have it/have no idea what it is check out my (fairly extensive) review/guide here:
Spoiler:
Summary
Toukiden is a 4 player monster hunting game made by Tecmo Koei. It trades MH's clunky but exceptionally functional combat for a more flowing warriors based combat (although it doesn't have charge attacks) with only 6 weapons but a number of different types of equippable 'Mitama' (souls of dead warriors) that provide both passive buffs and give you 4 spells that can be used in combat. The Mitama range from healing ones that give you spells for instant healing, area healing and stamina recovery to offensive spells which help break monsters' breakable bits easier to support rolls or melee oriented buffs and so on.
Combat
The combat starts easy with smaller monsters that take a few hits and then slowly builds to big 'boss' monsters that take between 5 and maybe 30 minutes to take down (depending on your skill and weapon choice) that have a wide variety of breakable parts. In this game, instead of carving monsters for loot you basically exorcise their broken body parts (or whole bodies in the case of smaller monsters) for loot, so one of the main objectives of fighting large monsters is breaking all their parts. For example, the first real boss is a giant spider (about 1.5-2x your height) and you can break all of its individually, as well as a pair of claws and its horns. All the parts besides the horns can be individually looted, but it has to be done shortly after they are broken off or after a while the monster will 'charge' for a moment and pull the broken parts back on. Since breakable parts are usually integral to the monster's movement they reappear shortly (even if looted) as spectral limbs that can be re-broken more easily (usually just to cause a stagger). Parts that cannot be looted (like the spider's manly horns) have a chance to drop items in mission complete screen (and you get bonus rarer items for breaking all the parts before killing any boss).
One unique aspect of the game is that most of the named characters you meet throughout the game can join you in missions (which tend to allow a set number of participants, but usually 4, the player and 3 party members) and each use a specific weapon (I'll get to weapons later). This does make the single player both a little easier (some of the bosses are actually much, much harder without a party, so the game does provide an optional challenge) and more fun, because you aren't doing everything alone *cough*Monster Hunter*cough* even if you don't have friends that play it.
Equipment Progression and Character Customization
As for character customization and equipment, the game does have a fairly standard character editor (with most of the models coming from Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends I believe) and like Monster Hunter (but sadly unlike Ragnarok Odyssey) it also has a huge number of unlockable/buildable armors and weapons. Generally every boss monster you fight has their own armor set (and the defense generally goes up with each new boss, but elemental defenses don't, they are boss specific, and the weight, which I think only affects how long it takes to fall back down when knocked miles into the air by a monster, varies randomly between sets) and weapon set. The upgrading in this game is a little strange though, weapons can be upgraded for free by using them in battle (same with armor) which nets them a small increase in either attack, precision (crit basically) or elemental strength (or a combination of the three) and occassionally another slot to equip Mitama to your weapons (up to 3). Beyond that weapons can be upgraded when you have the right materials, however with weapons from bosses this generally requires much higher level bosses later in the game and non boss weapons tend to gain upgrades periodically every couple of chapters (I think there are about 10 chapters, each taking a couple of hours or more, depending on whether you grind all the armor and weapons or not). This isn't too much of a problem though because you get new bosses (and therefore new equipment) fairly regularly, so the pace is never too slow.
Story
The game, also unlike Monster Hunter, does have a story that is well written but a little generic, with characters that vary from incredibly clichéd and annoyingly ultra kawaii (but also realllly bitchy) little girls to a couple of actually very interesting support characters and team members (although most of the characters fit some sort of japanese cliché). I won't say too much about the story, but basically, you live in feudal Japan (although I don't think it's ever stated that it is actually Japan) and malicious monsters called 'Oni' appear (basically just japanese demons, they aren't even called anything specific in the japanese release) to devour the souls of humans. Thus you, a slayer, are tasked with eradicating these demons. One really cool thing about the game is that all the different game maps are set in the same place, but the oni's appearance has disrupted time, so they appear through different 'ages' usually around the same time period as the game is set, but one of them is set in the stone age and the rest are just more or less modern.