Toukiden Mononofu

Toukiden Mononofu
Developer(s):	Omega Force
Publisher(s):	Koei
Release Date:	Japan: March 26, 2017 (Android) April 12, 2017 (iOS)
Genre:	Action role-playing game
Game Modes:	Single player, Multiplayer
Ratings:	ESRB:
Platform(s):	Mobile devices

Toukiden Mononofu (討鬼伝モノノフ) is a free-to-play Toukiden mobile spin-off. Micro-transactions can be used to purchase Jewels, the in-game currency for limited rare gacha roulettes and other paid content.

Hisashi Ishikawa is the director, and the producer is Shigeto Nakadai. According to his commentary, Omega Force wanted to release another smartphone title. They wanted a "quick and easy" action game to adapt for small touchscreens, so they chose this IP. The new narrative for this game was created so that it could be simple for people unfamiliar with the series to understand and play. Earnest production for this title started in January 2016.

The game's narrative takes place a few months after Toukiden Kiwami and about a year before Toukiden 2. It is set within the northern regions where the protagonist guards Shinonome Village.

Server testing for the Android version started on March 13, 2017 and ended March 15. The first 1,000 users will receive 50 Jewels for the game's proper launch. Services shall end on April 2, 2018.

Gameplay

System

Unlike its predecessor, this game presents a simplified replication of Toukiden's gameplay. At the start of the game, players can name their protagonist; assign their avatar's gender; and customize their avatar's skin tone, facial features, and voice. Changes to the 3D avatar will be updated in real time.

After the player finishes the starting tutorials, they can go to the Mission map and tap on a icon on the world map. Each icon represents a segment of the main story, which are divided into multiple battles. Clear these battles to progress with the main story. Finish Chapter 2 to completely unlock all of the gameplay and village features.

Once an area is purified, the player can continue to challenge giant demons from its story chapter by tapping the purple dimensional vortex on the map, which follows the game's side quests. These demons are harder than the main story battles and can drop rarer materials and weapon scrolls. Alternatively, the player can choose the Event scroll for daily missions for materials, mini-challenge events, and other limited time events.

Battles drain a given amount of the avatar's Energy to initiate, and the maximum capacity of Energy is determined by an avatar's level. Depleted energy can be restored by leveling up, using Jewels, or by waiting. It takes five minutes of real time to restore one Energy.

There are currently five weapons in this game: Katana, Twin Swords, Spear, Spiked Club, and Bow. Each behave and animate in a manner that mirrors their canonical actions, with many of a weapon's secondary features being stripped down. Normal attacks can be done by tapping the touchscreen. Special skills are limited to either a weapon's Special Attack or Special Skill from Kiwami and are performed by rapidly flicking the screen twice in a given direction. Commands vary depending on the equipped weapon.

Equipment can be assigned to the party, sold for Haku (in-game currency), or strengthened by Ren in the village. An equipment, item and materials index can also be checked here. Like the base game, the player sacrifices Haku and materials they earn from battles to bolster each piece of equipment. Exact duplicates of equipment can be fused to "Awaken" a weapon's maximum level cap; weapons must have matching elemental property for them to be used for Awakenings.

Another blacksmith feature is the option to craft weapons. If the player performs well during battle, they may be rewarded with a weapon scroll. Ren can use this scroll, Haku, and materials to forge it as a weapon for the party. While the player can know a weapon's type, element, and rarity in advance, a weapon's true identity won't be known until it is created.

The Mitama from the first game and Kiwami can be equipped onto a character's weapon and individual pieces of equipment. Super Rare (5★) weapons have two Mitama slots, meaning that a single character can potentially equip six Mitama simultaneously. Characters can only activate the first two they can have on their weapon during battle.

Mitama have their affinities for certain types of equipment based on their type; this is easily indicated to the player within the equipment screen, as a Mitama's type at the lower left corner of their icon will begin to pulsate for each piece of equipment. If the player syncs Mitama with their avatar's equipment, they can be rewarded with bonus stats or elemental immunities.

Fuuka can fuse, strengthen, or buy Mitama from the player avatar for Haku. She can either fuse together Mitama or non-descriptive spiritual essence to level up Mitama. As a Mitama levels up, they can learn skills that will activate whilst they are assigned to a piece of equipment which can provide status ailment immunities, increase defense power, and so forth. If there are duplicates of the same Mitama, fuse them together to increase its maximum level capacity, or "Awaken" them. Awakenings can happen five times per Mitama.

Magatama can be dropped or obtained through events. Haku and magatama can be used for Mitama fusions which can increase the damage rating of a particular weapon type through a set percentage. Each Mitama has their preferred weapon bonus and magatama color for the fusion. It can be done once on any Mitama.

Weapons, equipment, and Mitama can be drawn from the gacha using Jewels. This is the only way to obtain Super Rares. Free Jewels can be earned by completing missions like slaying specific demons, earning S ranks from hunts, or through daily missions. Visit Kanrai at the store to purchase Jewels with real world currency. When the player dismantles certain types of equipment, they can gain Spirit Stones which can be exchanged for limited goods and Mitama or potions that restore Energy at the Shop.

Combat

Players may hunt alone or work with others to form teams of four. Solo players can fight beside two NPC helpers—whom can be personally equipped, named and altered by the player—and one randomly selected player to act as their AI controlled fourth member. The player can sacrifice one Jewel before battle to pray at a shrine and increase their party's status for a single battle.

Multiplayer is an optional feature that can be selected before the start of a hunt. It allows four players to collaborate together in real time. Whoever posted the multiplayer notice can wait for their party members to arrive and start the battle at their discretion. Empty slots can be filled in with the poster's NPC helpers if the four member limit isn't reached. Multiplayer battles can be joined by any player by default. Friends can send personal invites amongst themselves if they desire private battles. There is no chat option available, but players can use stamps of this game's characters to convey simple words of gratitude.

Elements continue to adjust damage ratios for teams and demons. If a player avatar is wielding a weapon with an element that the demon is strong against, they will do less damage. Opposing elements deal more damage and vice versa. The final target's elemental weakness will be noted for the player in advance at the battle selection screen.

Once the team faces the final target of each hunt, the player will be shown each force's "Combat Gauge" at the top of the screen. Having an advantage over the demon will reward attack and defensive buffs to the party. The amount rewarded depends on how high the advantage is for the team. An evenly matched combat gauge will negate this bonus. A demon's starting prowess is noted in advance at the battle selection screen.

Movement is limited to the inner and outer squares that surround a demon. The player can move their avatars back and forth between squares by swiping the screen in a single direction. It's encouraged to move around the map for evasion. Demon attacks are telegraphed by red shining circles on the field. Like the base games, other field hazards may be generated by the demon to further limit the player's movement.

During battle, there are three optional abilities that can be used by the player's avatar:

1. Tamafuri (Mitama skills): reddish icon that surrounds a Mitama's portrait. Can be used once it is fully highlighted red.
2. Onichigiri (Killing Blow): blue icon that is the same as the base games; a powerful attack that can instantly break off a demon's body part and grant invincibility during their execution. Fight near party members to create a link that boosts the Mononofu power needed for it.
3. Matoi: yellow gauge underneath the player's health. Fill it by attacking repeatedly and/or using Mitama skills. Once it reaches 1,000, the speed and power of a player avatar will greatly increase for a limited time.

Broken body parts are automatically purified for the player in this game. They drop blue, red, or yellow icons to quickly replenish Mitama, Mononofu, or Matoi gauges.

When the final demon reaches half of its health, it will enter its second form ("Tamahami"). The player's team will perform a unified attack on the demon to lower its health and re-evaluate the Combat Gauge. During this attack sequence, the beneficial innate skill on each party member's weapon will activate. Percentage bonuses granted by the Combat Gauge may differ than the start of the battle.

Botan will state an optional strategy for the player to follow at the start of each battle, like breaking off a body part and so forth. If the team successfully meets this requirement before the second form, they will perform a group Killing Blow ("Onichigiri-Kiwami"). Players can additionally increase this sequence's damage ratings by tapping the red numbered kanji on the screen. It can be increased based on the number of player avatars in the party, meaning solo players can go up to one (壱) while multiplayer teams can max it out to four (四).

If the player avatar should fall in battle, a continue option shall appear with the price tag of three Jewels. Choosing to accept a continue negates high scores for the battle but allows players to keep their earned experience and loot.

Should the team slay the demon, battle performance will be graded with C being the worst and S being the best. During solo play, bonus Jewels are rewarded if the player completed the battle without being hit, winning with their entire party intact, receiving a S rank for the first time, or by completing any of the optional objectives during battle. If the player completes all three optional objectives, they can unlock the Quick Launch option within the equipment strengthening menu, which helps players to expedite their material grinding by sending their party to automatically clear a selected mission for a key material. Multiplayer battles will reward 100 Jewels to whoever did the most damage; varying amounts of Jewels will be rewarded to other ranks.

Grading is followed by the material rewards screen. Three Jewels can be used to double the amount of rewards received. Afterwards, the player has the option to send a friend invite to a team member. Friends will often pop up as the default helper for solo battles. They can always be switched out if the player prefers.

Characters

Characters from the base game return. This page will only list new additions.

• Botan (牡丹) - 200-year-old Barrier Priestess of Shinonome Village. She lost her life during the demon's onslaught and became the protagonist's Mitama. Acts as the game's navigator.
• Sekka (雪華) - Current Barrier Priestess of Shinonome Village. Beautiful and dutiful, Sekka radiates kindness to those around her. Formerly lived at Sacred Mountain before Shinonome and is an old friend of Ōka's. Childhood friends with Fuuka and Fuuka's older sister; acts like Fuuka's surrogate older sister.
• Kanrai (寒雷) - Shinonome's shopkeep. Formerly a Slayer who fought beside the village chief during the "Awakening". Friends are the village chief and Ren's father. Survived the fight against the "one-thousand killer demon", but his arm was crippled as a result.
• Ren (錬) - A strong, sisterly blacksmith who offers weapons to Slayers. Formerly a Slayer who fought during the "Awakening". Fought alongside her father who died fighting the "one-thousand killer demon"; Ren survived with wounded arms but retired shortly after due to the trauma, losing her will to return to the front lines. Initially distrusts Ōka due to her being an outsider, but soon trusts Ōka's sincerity.
• Fuuka (風花) - Mitama priestess who can hear Botan's voice. She serves as the village mascot. Friends with a Tenko named Dotera and trying to learn the Tenko language. Her older sister was the Barrier Priestess before Sekka.

Related Media

This is one of the titles that was presented on stage at Tokyo Game Show 2016.

Pre-registration rewards players with Yukimura Sanada's soul and other items; additional goodies become available as the amount of retweets for the game rises.

The following IPs have crossed over for limited-timed events that reward collaboration equipment and other rare items: Warriors All-Stars.

Ishikawa and Nakadai appeared as guests for the April 27, 2017 Denjin ☆ Gacha Nico Nico Live stream, which is where the Warriors All-Stars collaboration event was first announced to the public.

This game is among the few titles selected to promote the movie Shinobi no Kuni.

Gallery

Botan

Sekka

Kanrai

Ren

Fuuka

External Links

• Official site, Official Twitter, Official LINE, Official promotional video
• Google Play listing
• Famitsu interview, 4Gamer interview
• Kazutoshi Sekiguchi, Takashi Morinaka, Shigeto Nakadai and Kenichi Ogasawara playing the game
• GameWith demonstration and review