Toukiden: Kiwami

Toukiden: Kiwami - A Monster Hunting Gem

What I Loved:

Fast-Paced Combat:

Content Galore:

Beautiful Visuals and Soundtrack:

Smooth Multiplayer Experience:

Room for Improvement:

Final Thoughts:

Movement and action feels clunky (old game so of course), enemies are annoying to fight instead of fun and the breaking mechanic makes you have at least one AI follower unless you enjoy staying still for a long time.
Characters have arcs out of nowhere (like the medic being scared of doing medic stuff until a mission later suddenly its no longer afraid).

All in all don't bother, play Toukiden 2 instead, improves in every aspect of kiwami.

I hate having to give this game a negative review.

I really like this game. On other platforms. This game is a port of an old PSP game that originally released in 2014, came West on the Vita (Toukiden: Age of Demons), got a DX upgrade (Kiwami) and a PS4 port, and then a PC port. Unfortunately, the PC port is terrible. My computer is not the best, but it can run most modern games on medium to low settings.

But this game? It struggles. Which is quite a shame, since the game is a fine, if simplified, version of Monster Hunter.

By that I mean the progression is very linear. I have no issues with that, and it is this simplicity that is partly why I have played it more than Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter, though clearly the superior game, gives me too many variables. These variables are good: They lead to everyone playing the game with their own style. But for me, it overwhelms. And this game did not give me such issues.

I love the games music, the visuals, the character art, the characters are written simply but are effective, the plot is serviceable and does the job, but also, does nothing special. But I came to like the characters and felt sad for them at the appropriate story beats.

I really like this game, and I got the PC version so I wouldn't have to keep going to my Vita to play it, but I think I'm going to have to in order play more of it. Maybe it will work better in windowed mode?

Another sour note: This game is expensive. It's almost always full price, and even on sale, it's never really that cheap. You would figure with how old it is, it would have dropped in price. But that's Tecmo Koei games for you. Their games are always come at a premium. I got it in the Steam Winter Sale, and it was still $24, and with the DLC, came out to slightly more than 30. I got it because I thought more modern hardware would have an easier time with it that when it originally launched. Whelp, there's some egg on my face...

Long story short: Good game, but avoid it on PC.

The materials management is too much of a chore and just kills the enjoyment of the game. Does not make sense why the inventory is limited when this game is primarily about combat. It's not bloody NMS or any other survival game. Also it is capped at 30fps and sometimes just randomly crashes out.

Did not enjoy the combat.

play Toukiden 2 instead, this game has bad port:
- Capped at 30FPS
- Need ALT+TAB to open the game
- Gamepad required, in-game left click forces the game to minimize makes mouse unusable

eh, it was ok

It's alright, a tidbit repetitive but that's the case for all these type of game from that era.
The gameplay loop is fun, the weapons are interesting, I enjoyed the story and characters's development, haven't tried the online yet but it's probably mostly dead judging by the steamcharts stats.

• Game controller is RECOMMENDED,
Keyboard only no mouse support

• Ingame Vsync is broken, force vsync in GPU driver
to avoid Fullscreen 25FPS

• Game is locked to 30FPS, because it's a console port
for me it's fine but I don't know about you.

• the game is more on God Eater than Monster hunter
you have NPC companions.

• overall it's an enjoyable game.

In short: it's ok. If Steam had "meh" rating, that would be it. Take a look at Toukiden 2 first, it's better in almost every way.

Hunt giant monsters, craft gear from their bodies, hunt more giant monsters. Rinse, repeat. Sounds like Monster Hunter? Yes, it does. Only monsters are Oni and there's a lot of semi-historical Japanese fluff all around. And multiplayer is somewhat stilted compared to MH.

The single-player story is nothing to write home about, exploration is limited to "missions", so no free-roam, all progression comes from gear, the control scheme is rather convoluted.

So... yeah. I couldn't finish it because core gameplay loop grew a bit redundant after 30 or so hours. Until it did though, it was fun.

Since Toukiden 2 is released, which keeps the core gameplay loop more or less intact, but improves on almost everything else, look at that one first. If you end up wanting more, come back here. And probably wait for a sale, because although there's a lot of content here, most of it ends up feeling extremely samey, so I don't feel like the full price is entirely justified. 30-40% discount seems reasonable.

Toukiden is one of my most beloved games of all time. I've clocked well over 200 hours on Toukiden Kiwami on ps vita alone and this is my third time buying it and now I'm going through it on PC. The vanilla release Toukiden has about 100 hours worth going through the main story and quests, then you have the expansion Kiwami, which includes the base game and adds new weapons, mitama playstyles, and another 100 hours of content.

When I first saw Toukiden I scoffed at it thinking it was a shallow and stereotypical Monster Hunter clone. Then some time passed and I saw more gameplay and decided it might be worth giving it a try since we didn't have monster hunter on vita. The fool I am, I ended up falling in love with this game so hard. All the characters I laughed at for being stereotypical became my most cherished friends and I realized that sometimes stereotypical archetypes can actually be a wonderful thing when done right, and given a fully fleshed out backstory. Playing this game, I felt a genuine desire to protect the village and everyone in it, and I fucking cry every time because I love these characters so much. This is actually saying a lot for me since normally I don't give a fuck about people but this game makes me stop being a misanthrope when I play it.

It's only a shame more people don't appreciate it, online lobby's will usually be pretty empty but honestly the single player is where this game really shines since you can take your allies with you into battle so even if you don't have any friends you're all good.

This PC port got a pretty bad reputation since Keoi Tecmo was relatively new to bringing their titles over to PC so it had a few compatibility issues with OS and Nvidia graphics card combinations. However I think they patched most of it up, granted it's not a perfect port you will still find an odd bug or two but that's PC gaming for you. Honestly I bought this steam release fully expecting a broken port but I can safely say I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it runs. There is a stability option in the launcher which you can turn on if you have issues with your game crashing every now and then. For me personally I found that running toukiden in compatibility mode for windows 7 works a lot better and I can leave the stability option turned off so I get the benefit of full graphics. It might still crash every once in a blue moon and it's not too much of an issue if it does since it auto saves after every mission. It's really not that bad at all.

The pros far outweigh the cons here, it's an excellent game that will give you plenty to do for an absurd amount of time and plenty of feels and top tier waifus and husbandos. Nagi got the big tiddy. I definitely urge you to give it a try, you can always refund it if you don't like it or encounter any problems. I haven't gotten to Toukiden 2 yet but I'm really excited for it! FYI even though 2 is newer, if you skip Kiwami you'll be missing out on a wonderful story full of inspiration and wholesome morales about never giving up and cherishing those around you.

Seems like the people who don't like this game only want to complain about framerate and graphics and such. These are the people that don't get that graphics and framerate have very little to do with whether a game is fun. I was on the fence about getting this one, except I noticed most of the reviews are all about framerate, or that you need a controller, or about porting this from a console. I got the game on sale ( $30 ) and just have fun fightning monsters and such. Some people don't understand that you don't get a video game to look at it and stare at it. You get a game to play it. Graphics has nothing to do with whether a game is fun or not.

If gameplay is more important than graphics, then go for it. It's a lot of fun. If you only care about graphics and framerate and such but don't care about gameplay, then pass it by and ask why you even play video games to begin with.

Also, most people compare it to Monster Hunter, a game I have not yet played. I may have to go find a monster hunter game and see how they compare.

The bad reviews are mostly because
- This game had a rough launch.
- Mouse/keyboard support is unacceptable and basicaly makes it unplayable unless you have a gamepad.
- 30 fps lock (I could care less if the game looks good and is entertaining)
- Monster Hunter fans upset over seeing this carbon copy of the franchise.
- People thinking it's repetetive and grindy. (Thats the point of this genre)
- People hate reading subs (There is no English dub)


Now that that is out of the way, lets get to the good stuff.

This isn the most shameless recreation of a monster hunter game ever made (moreso than Freedom Wars, Soul Sacrifice, Godeater, etc...) and I mean that in the best way possible. Lets face it, MH fans had nothing on PC. Sony just took the opportunity since Capcom has been holding the MH series over the burning building that is Nintendo for the past few years. For the record I think both Nintendo and Sony are horrible companies, so I have no bias there. I'm here to enjoy myself, not pick sides between companies that give two shits about me and only care about my wallet. I can care less who came up with the ideas first if someone starts doing it smarter, And that is capitalism (at least what it's SUPPOSED to be)

I'd recommend this if:
- You like Monster Hunter games, or others like it.
- You like the combat mechanics in Dark Souls, Dragons Dogma,
- You don't mind grinding boss fights for badass armor/weapon rewards.
- You have a few mates to co-op with.
- You're into Jrpg's and want to try something similar.

And that's kinda it. Unfortunately, this genre isn't one with a very large audience, and thats what makes this such a treat. There aren't enough games like this because it's a risky investment, especially when Capcom sits on the MH throne dominating it. I agree this game had a lot of problems, and it still does. But, I'm also really glad Sony decided to port this (If you can call this halfa** job a port) because it means not only that PC gamers can have more of this genre, but I think it's very likely that Toukiden coming to PC will cause MH to come to PC as well, especially if it does well.

If you're into this sorta game, definitely get it. It's one of the better ones.
If you're on the fence, wait for Toukiden 2 (March 21 2017 for PC release) It will be more fleshed out, and has open world and all those goodies. Hopefully they'll put some f***ing effort into porting it next time.

Anyway I'm definitely gonna support the hell out of this, even if it has its flaws. I've been a huge MH fan since the original, but I won't shame a good game for copying a good thing. Plus, IM TIRED OF MONSTER HUNTING ON A LITTLE 3DS! Come on Capcom...

10/10 If you're my clone.

Before you even think about getting this game, please be advised that it requires a controller (to be remotely playable.) I recommend the Xbox One controller simply because it works on PC without any special software. Most of the bad reviews I've seen were because the person didn't have a controller. That's not to say this is going to appeal to everyone. But I can't imagine anyone without a controller liking this game.

I'm recommending this game. Why?
Simply put, this is as close to Monster Hunter you're going to get from a PC game. There are a lot of similarties. Mostly the game works pretty well in the same way Monster Hunter works.

Difficulty:
It's not as difficult because the controller scheme is much more simple. You don't use the analog sticks to swing your weapons like in the original Monster Hunter. It's also easier because the monsters (I've played the first 3 chapters) are just not as deadly - at least in offline solo play. But you get to a point with the large monsters that it's challenging enough that you'll bring other group members.

Grouping:
You can group with NPCs in offline mode, or you can group with real players in online mode.
Max group size is 4.
In solo mode, the NPCs will run the mission while you just stand there, until you find a large/boss monster.

Weapons & Armour:
All the gear is from Japanese history/lore. It's Japanese themed. If that's ok, you'll like the game. If not, go find another game.

Upgrading:
Like in Monster Hunter you have to carve off (or in the case of this game do a purification ritual to pick up) pieces of monsters in order to get gear crafted. You don't craft it yourself. You take it to the village blacksmith and he crafts and upgrades it for you. To get the better gear, you have to fight the harder monsters.

Weapon 'sockets':
Weapons have sockets. You put souls of fallen heroes that you find inside those sockets. That's how you get access to special abilities. You get a lot of these souls and they all have a specific style and specific bonuses. For example, if you want to be 'a tank' then you go with a defender soul and you can then put it in any weapon. The weapon does not determine your role. But there are definite advantages to different types of weapons based on what style you choose.

Story:
It's not completely baffling like a lot of Japanese games I try to play. It took me a while to get into the story. But once I did, it got to be engaging.


Cons:
The one thing I don't love about the game is that the boss fights aren't (yet) deadly enough. They can take a long time but that's mostly because the bosses have a ton of hit points. But it's not tedious and boring like Dragon's Dogma. I feel like the bosses should be able to punish mistakes a lot more readily. They should be able to wipe a stupid party (i'm thinking of Land and Sky from Monster Hunter.) But this is a minor con. I am a huge Dark Souls fan, and enjoy punishing games. This game is just not like that. At least not in solo mode.

Overall, I recommend this game because it's fun. It's not perfect. It's 3.5 or 4 out of 5. But I haven't stopped playing it for a couple of days.

In the first few 10's of hours I couldn't help but feel like I was playing a lesser Monster Hunter(MH) game. As I put more time into this game I came to realize it has a surpringle deep combat system and the macro strategy(in town) is very different from MH. Armor crafting in particlular is very simplified compared to how MH does crafting. The whole crafting and gathering of non boss materials is streamlined in comparrison to MH. If you really enjoyed taking pickaxes out on gathering quests and coming back with piles of the exact ore you were looking for, you will be very disappointed. The Mitama system in this game is very deep, but it is also very confusing and a bit overly complicated. You'll probably want to google a spreadsheet or mitama solver to have the best builds possible.
All-in-all I would say I now prefer combat in Toukiden, but I really love the Armor and gathering in the MH series.

As a monster hunter and Dark Souls fan, this game is worth it.

While, on its face, one might readily assume it to be a Monster Hunter Clone ported to PC, there's a lot more to this game than that.

Saying this is a "just" a Monster Hunter clone is like saying Pillars of Eternity is "just" a Baldur's Gate clone. When, in reality, both of those games are building on the series they reference by adding new mechanics and systems and building on the game design.

Rifles for example have been given more mechanics and interesting choices than Monster Hunter bowguns. Along with there also being bows. The entire Mitama system of Spirits and their special abilites adds a lot of choices and ways to augment the game to your playstyle too!
Or how monsters usually have more than half a dozen breakable locations that impact play, and leave parts on the ground for you to try to collect (or else risk the monster healing a bit if you don't get them in time).

--Quality of Life Changes--

There are numerous quality of life changes like a WAY easier time gathering materials (no more farming the same monster 50 or 60 times to get that last rare drop).

One of the best changes is the Slayer vision, a sight mode you can turn on that drains your stamina (used for dodging and attacking) but reveals how damaged different monster parts are -- showing how close they are to being knocked off for harvesting (or carves in MH... though way more often than carves). This vision also shows you total monster health so you can always check if you're close to killing it or have a while to go and can focus on getting a few more parts. (Making this have a direct drawback of reducing your ability to attack and dodge is a nice counter balance in their design so players can't use it all the time)

There's lots of little changes to help, like not having to pick up the map as you enter the area, not having to waste time or money on paintballing things or chasing it between zones to deal with it. It's more focused on the fun of the combat when you're out on a hunt.

You also get an adorable fox creature that you can send off to scavange areas for you to find crafting items. Later in the game you also get command of a second squad to send out to farm monster materials for you as well!

Additionally, in MH, you could end up being screwed by having a weird party size, three people ended up being worse than solo because you lost access to the cats. This game fixes issues like that by letting you take AI party members with you (who have real stories and are interesting characters in their own right). OR you can choose to go it alone and not take them with you if you'd rather not!

--Difficulty--

One reviewer called this game "too easy" which, as a long time Souls and Monster hunter fan, I disagree with. I'd say it's approachable early on, but anyone who's played Monster Hunter knows that the begining of the game monsters are just the warm up, if you're interested in harder things, keep going to get higher tier monsters and armor and higher level versions of creatures. Like in MH there's 3 different difficulties for most monsters, and some monsters don't appear in earlier points in the game! Just remember that you only have to do the missions written in *Red* to progress to the next chapter. You don't have to do every single hunt to continue in the story or get to higher tier enemies and things (but you can always come back later if you want to)

--Story--

Lastly, the storyline is a lot more interesting and engaging than one would ever expect coming from the Monster Hunter series. You feel like you've been dropped into an anime series where you're a principle character engaging with these interesting people and finding out about their strengths, flaws, interpersonal interactions, learning their quirks... and you progress towards a real goal that seems important and pushes and tests the characters involved to grow and become better people.

--Porting--

This game gets a lot of flak for porting issues, and I think a lot of the problems arise based on people using Windows 10. That said, Dark Souls 1 had horrendous porting issues too, and while that was an issue for some, it didn't stop people from enjoying the game. Dark Souls still has great reviews because people were willing to see past the port and rate it based on the GAME itself.

If you choose not to play this because of percieved porting issues, you're cutting off your nose to spite your face, you're missing out on a great experience for what might be a minor inconcenience -- I haven't found any issues with porting myself and think a lot of the whining comes from the "OMFG 60 FPS or GTFO" crowd. Most of us don't see the difference or care when it doesn't affect play.

Toukiden Kiwami is a MH like game with pretty good story. The game offers 100+ hours for completionist, and 80++ hours for casual gamers. It has terrible review because of the port, I bought this 1 year ago and played it on my laptop, it wasnt pretty, low fps and crashes. I bought it again after I built my pc, and it played smoothly on 30 fps without crashes. My spec is i5-6600K, 1070, 16Gb.

I will explain some elements of the game now, please bear with me.

Upon starting new game, you can create your character by choosing gender, face, hair, clothes. Clothes are changed according to your armor, same thing goes with weapons. One of the good things in this game is weapons and armor can change if you upgrade them to next tier, but not all weapons and armos can be upgraded.

For weapons, it has 10 kinds of weapons, from dagger, long sword, spear, mace, gauntlet, rifle, sickle, bow. So, pretty good variations huh. Each has their own unique skills set and abilities. I personally pick dagger, cause its fast, and I can run around the map shinobi like. For armors, each armor has 4 parts, body, legs, gloves, and helmets, by equipping the same set, you will get bonus atributtes. Armors and weapons can be enchanced, and/or upgraded to the next tier using materials and some money. Or you can craft new ones in the blacksmith, but the best weapons is obtained by upgrading weapons.

Besides weapon and armor, this game has mitamas. Sort of accessories, mitamas are the soul of the dead warriors that got devoured by the oni. There are 300 of them, each has its own types, from deceit, attack, defense, healing, speed, etc. I personally pick deceit, speed, and attack. How many mitamas you can equip is depends on the slot your weapon has, you can increase the slot by enhancing the weapon. Max is 3 slots. There are certain combination of mitama that could get your boost.

For battle, its similar to God Eater, you have to break Oni's body parts to weaken them and to get materials by purifying the body parts you cut down. The Onis are well designed, some are cool enough to be my wallpaper.

My opinion: Personally, I prefer this game than God Eater, cause the atmosphere and the setting fit right in, and the story is better than God Eater, and the weapons, onis, armours are all better in design than in God Eater. But unfortunately, its a KT game. So, the game doesnt get that much love to shine, and like adding insult to injury, KT granted the game with bad optimization.

Conclusion: I recommend this game because it deserves your attention if you like God Eater or Monster Hunter. If you have good PC, buy this on sale, prepare yourself for the Toukiden 2, if its work, good, you will enjoy it a lot. If it doesnt, refund it. I hope Toukiden 2 has good port.

Many people say this game is nearly a copy of Monster Hunter, this is true but personally I think a combo of Monster Hunter and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams is more accurate.

I've been tempted to go out and buy a 3DS just to play Monster Hunter again, until I played this. It's a great alternative if you don't want to buy a whole new system for one game.

Compared to Monster Hunter (MH)
-Toukiden: Kiwami has a more basic gameplay (no sharpning weapons mid fight, no tagging the monster, npcs to help most of the time[optinal]) --this can be good or bad based on your gameplay likes--
-This game is less grindy and less rng based ( you have many other ways to get matierals, your Tenko, the Guadrian Tree, a second party to send out while on your own mission)
-This game also has a far better story then MH, which has been my only compaint about MH

You should enjoy this game if you like:
-Monster Hunter
-Hack N Slash games
-Japanese based Sci-fi.
-Awsome looking weapons and weapon collecting (I've always had the habbit(obsession) of doing this in RPGs)

Play Time
It took me about 20 hours to complete the base story of the game(chaters 1-5), with very little matieral or Mitama farming. After Chapter 5 you can do other more challenging missions and Infinite Missions, as well as collect weapons, armor, Mitama. There are also DLC, which i dont own yet, that should add even more game play time.

Combat
Nothing special, but a good hack n' slash system. Likely more advanced then basic hack n slash games.

Stroy
A basic story of portect the village and kill the monsters, but Toukiden: Kiwami has very good character developement.

Music
Simple traditional Japanese instramental music. But its fits the setting of the maps very well.

Things some players may not like
-REAQUIRES a controller to play
-locked at 30 fps
-optional DLC

This is a port of a console game so some people disslike the port, but I've had very few issues personally. No keyboard support, no proper way to close the game short of alt+tab (that I know of) and my headphone volume locks to the volume set at launch.

I think of Koei-Tecmo as a kind of two headed ogre, the ungainly fusion of two wholly separate giants I remember roaming the land of my memories of youth. On one hand, Tecmo is known for over-the-top, unforgivingly fast paced games like the Ninja Gaiden series and cheesecake/beefcake heavy fighting franchise Dead or Alive, while Koei is best known as a publisher of borderline educational and contemplative "historic simulation" strategy games, such as Nobunaga's Ambition, with some forays into action like the Samurai Warriors series.
When the planets align just right and both heads on that ogre manage fuse their respective interests juuuust right, you might just end up with a game like Toukiden.
To spite being accused of, "just being a clone of Monster Hunter," Toukiden has a number of strong differences, both cosmetic and functional. The combat is *far* more straight-forward, centering around direct action sequences and easier to approach equipment and movement sets. This is probably the influence of the Tecmo head of the ogre. From the Koei head, however, we have a setting and visual motif that are influenced by classical Japanese mythology and history.
The end result is a system familiar to players of Capcom's Monster Hunter games, but wholly different in many key respects. Gone is the need to stop partway into key battles to resharpen weapons and chow down a hotdog to avoid exhastion, along with the cumbersone inventory management system. Still here, however, are the fights including foes of massive scale, the limb-damaging and severing mechanic, and the collection of specified enemy part drops to manufacture weapons and armor.
Koei's head of the ogre did have one more interesting word on the matter. Toukiden employs significant historical and mythological figures as equippable "Mitama," sort of a guardian spirit, which change the support spells and buffs that the player has. Each of Toukiden's playable zones are based on one or more specific era or "Age," in Japan's history, and hosts notable Mitama from the corresponding ages. The character designs also do that strange Koei-Tecmo thing, where they just barely split the difference between modern and classical fashion. Not many women showing off tons of cleavage, though, as one might expect.
The bottom line is that, somehow, all of this comes together and *works.* And it works surprisingly well. Some hardened Monster Hunter players will definitely complain that Toukiden lacks gameplay-complicating features like hunger and weapon degradation, but I feel as though the game is better without such distractions. The two-heade ogre certainly thinks so.

Edit_01: Jan 13, 2016
I've played enough time to give it a fair review.
I've been wanting this game for months before its release on steam, and when it came out, I didn't buy it immediately. I pretty much guessed it will be buggy and pricey. so I grabbed it 6 months later after patches were made. at 50% off.

Buy this game if:
+You like Japanese setting
+You like monster hunter

Do not buy this game if:
-You don't have controller
-You only have low end PCs
-You don't want 30fps-lock
-You expect an English voice over

Performance: 7/10 (for my rig)
This is a good game, but not so good port. If you play using keyboard, it'll be really uncomfortable especially if you haven't played any monster hunter games. I had to use "Joy To Key" in order to have my PC controller work, It's sad that I had to rely on third party program but I still enjoyed the game. I had to play with the settings and graphics card settings a little bit to get the best result I can get. So if you expect to play it right away, you might get disappointed. I am giving this a positive review because the game performance is working perfectly to me other than the controller support and the game itself is pretty good. don't hate my review just because it's not working for you, that's why you have your review, and I have mine.

Gameplay: 7/10
It is monster hunter. period. just slightly different mechanics with MH.
before the edit, this is what I said in the review:
"This is more easier than any of the monster hunter game, you can take your time picking up loots while your NPC party pretty much beat up every monster in the game and then "Mission Accomplished". I'm not against about party, but I don't feel good enough when slaying bosses because it's not giving you any monster hunter sensation like few mistakes could affect the entire battle. Gameplay is Monster hunter with smash button."
It really is easy as pie for the first few chapters, but the real challenge starts in chapter 6, where the mission will actually give you some thrill. I would give it 8.5 rating for the gameplay, but the fact that this is copied from monster hunter kind of affected its originality. so it deserves a 7.

Story: 8/10
If it comes with plot and story, I think this is where Toukiden beats Monster Hunter. It gives you more pressure or urgency to go forward to find out what's gonna happen next. pretty solid turn of events, every protagonist has their own story and challenges to overcome. Each one has too much worries, pride, anger, regret, guilt, and insecurities that even a physically strong person can be mentally weak.

Art: 7/10
Is good. Character designs are remarkable.
this is what I said before the edit: "Atmosphere is okay but it looks dense to me especially the backgrounds, it looks low poly and textures are lazy. They spent a lot of time on characters, monster and items, but fk the backgrounds in particular."
It is still kind of true, but I've come to notice that polygons aren't so bad for the backgrounds. it's just the textures, lacks of contrast and resolution. the desert looks pretty good though. so, yeah, Characters are remarkable but fk the backgrounds in particular.

Sound and Voice: 9/10
They hired the most talented VAs, It's in Japanese but I'd prefer it 10 times over a not so good English. Music is great, fits the setting perfectly.

Over all: 7.6/10 (7.5 before edit)

I am happy with the game. Great game but not so good port. If it wasn't for controller support and performance tweak, I could have given it higher review.
for those who are wanting a mouse support for this game, the game would easy as a kids game(It's already the easy version of MH, what more do you want), hence, unfair for console version of the game. you know who complains about mouse support? someone who probably hasn't played any rpg game in console or FPS pc gamer.
I like the way it is now.

PS: Doesn't work anymore on my skylake computer,
Edit: it works again for some reason. I don't know why but I'm back again to grinding items and achievements.

Despite porting annoyances, I'd highly recommend this to anyone who has been waiting for a PC based game of this genre.

So yes, the port is less than ideal. You must have a controller to play, it doesn't even recognize a mouse. It's frame capped at 30fps, less than we PC gamers are used to. It has some issues with nVidia cards that require a work around. But even with all that, I'm having a blast!

I've played Monster Hunter on 3DS a few times, and loved the game in concept but really wanted it on a bigger screen with a better controller (I don't enjoy playing on handhelds personally.) Not owning a Wii or PS4, there weren't many options. Toukiden has been everything I could want there, in fact I enjoy the game itself more than Monster Hunter, mechanically and for the fact it does have some basic story involved.

So if you're in a situation like I was, wanting a monster hunter style game on PC, and own a controller, absolutely jump in.

Edit 3.5: Short conclusion: I personally enjoy the game content itself, but list several shortcomings below. If you still want to buy the game after reading this, there's a really good chance you'll enjoy it.

You may enjoy this game if:
* you like co-op action/RPGs or games similar to Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star Online (PSO)
* looking for a feudal / ancient Japanese themed setting
* have a game pad or don't mind playing with keyboard without a mouse
* have an existing group of friends playing this game for multiplayer co-op
* do not mind playing in full-screen
* do not mind playing with capped frame rate of 30 FPS
* appreciate a well-rounded soundtrack
* don't mind payng full game cost (at the time of this review)

Do NOT get this game if:
* (Partial Addressed as of 7/6) if you have any of the "problematic" hardware or software (may want to check the discussion boards here to see what those have been) as you may be troubleshooting or reconfiguring your hardware just to play this one game
* you're hoping for an seamless multiplayer interface as it is a lobby-based interface that requires a player to be idle in a lobby for you to join (cannot play a mission, cannot select a mission, cannot be crafting.)
* no automatic refresh or join on the lobby system, either create a lobby and wait around or manual refresh to find a compatible game
* you use keyboard and mouse, because the game cannot reassign actions to the mouse (if the reverse happened, where a PC port to console required you to use a keyboard/mouse to enjoy the game, I suspect many console gamers would not be pleased that their primary interaction method is not supported)
* you like to play in windowed mode and have a decent framerate -- the game speed is literally tied to frame rate, so a steady frame rate of 20 FPS means 66% gameplay speed
* you like to play games at 60 FPS and run at normal gameplay speed (Omega Force had the DW6 port for PC capable of running at 60 FPS in 2008)
* would like to use the keyboard to chat with people you meet, input names or notes -- you have to use the game's UI to select one letter at a time
* would like to look up the Steam name of someone you meet to chat with them there, because there doesn't seem to be a way yet -- use the preprogrammed messages in the game instead
* you would like an English dub or even English subtitles for the "battle cries," -- neither exist and I don't think they will
* do not like a UI that does not move if you move too fast through it
* if you would like to customize your face by eye style, eye color, nose style, mouth style, chin style, or facial hair -- you have 1 of 20 pre-configured faces per gender to choose from and possibly only two with facial hair that does not reflect your hair color
* if you want other body types per gender -- as you cannot be a slim ninja, a short rifleman, or a hulking hammer wielding warrior, you all have the same body size

Minor things I personally don't like on top of the above:
* animation locks and slow animations can make combat feel not as fluid as Dynasty Warriors 8 (a Tecmo Koei game)
* segmented maps with multiple loading screens during a mission
* (7/6 update) frame rate dips in full screen have been rare these days

Things I do like:
* the music
* the Japanese era-like setting
* story character portraits
* used to like forcing V-Sync on the GPU and running at 60 FPS even if the game speed is doubled ~ actually feels more fluid (accidentally ran with V-Sync off and the game was running 200+ FPS ~ could not even select Continue) (7/6 Update) this is no longer a possibility with the current executable and is far more stable across my three machines
* variety of bosses to fight
* variety of combat styles and configurations
* the ability to hide helmet on most armor styles
* hoping senpai will notice me in the hot springs
* no crashes on primary machine yet

The store page game summary reflects single-player gameplay elements and story well enough.

Conclusion as of July 2, 2015):
I saw the negative reviews in the most helpful section and could not find a positive review for many pages so I looked at the positive reviews only. I was cautiously optimistic for what looked like a "samurai" themed co-op action RPG. Some may wonder, "You have a lot of hours clocked in and it works for you, why don't you recommend it? I don't understand." In terms of the game working for me, I feel like I happen to be lucky. I typically don't feel lucky with these pre-2012 machines, but it's like this game was made for it (and that's bad in 2015.) At first I tried to give the game at least three hours to give my review some weight and then once I was past the reasonable refund point, I felt obligated to get my money's worth. I'm also starved for this niche atmosphere with RPG elements. The gameplay is a 3 out of 5 stars for me with co-op tipping it upward.

I probably dialed my expectations back to 2007, because when I think about things we've seen in other games these past fews years: separation of character face options, the ability to dye clothing, drop-in and drop-out co-op, responsive controls, KB/M support (look at almost any 3rd person action game for working examples), the list goes on. And then I realized how much potential the game doesn't tap into, but even before that, some basic PC features aren't addressed properly. Even the "console expectation," that the game will work right out of the box is not an unreasonable expectation. Even still, there's a few things that would nudge this game into the recommended / thumbs up side:

* Keyboard and Mouse support
* Improved PC optimization
* Support for 60 FPS

In general, if Koei addressed those three points above on top of not cutting out features found in console versions, I believe that TK could prevent most of the negative reviews (and probably get a lot more sales out of not just this game, but their other products as well.) Please consider this for the future TK.

IM going to be honest here. I like the game, I really do, even with is issues. I can only play the game with a cap of 15 fps in mission and in town i cry. but as long as I dont play multiplayer i can deal with it. As for why I dont recomend this game at the moment is because it suffers TECMO-itis. its a terrible port. Keyboard support is there but you have to dig to find it out. Avoiding the Elephant in the room of FPS and that its a TECMO title, i will say this. It can be good. DONT BUY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW! Wait a while, see if any of the issues get fixed. if they dont TECMO is missing out on a large niche on PC. if they do then WHOO! but as it stands wait out the storm for either a Dark souls like fix from the community or for the company to get off their knickers. If that happens ill Gladly recomend this game to people.

No mouse support
awful keyboard binding
controller is needed for better experience
bad optimization
30 FPS lock in 2k15
minimal setting

Edited because i needed to get off in mind
The game itself is actually fine, i'm playing like for 100+ hours on vita ver, grinding good gear, getting good mitama build and so on, it's pretty solid for Monhunt clone, but the PC port itself suffer crashing and control problem, which i prefer this game using Mouse + Keyboard (yes i'm planning maining ranged instead melee) but the game forces me to use controller again

until it fix, i'll stick with my vita version thank you
probably going to refund in 11 days if there is no patch available

Another one of KOEI Tecmo's amazing ports

Avoid at all costs
If you want a run down of their track record so far just look for other games and look at the reviews on Steam
The only good ones worth mentioning would be both Dynasty Warriors 8XLCE and Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires


Pros:
Monster Hunter Style Gameplay
Online

Cons:
Locked 30FPS in the year 2015
THE YEAR 2015
DID I MENTION IT WAS 2015?
Trying to push it above 30 will make the game unplayable.
Framerate dips to 20 during dialogue
Framerate dips 25 or lower during fighting (The more crucial parts where you DO NOT want frame drops)
Absurd amount of money for a game more than a year old that has been ported to hell and back
No Keyboard and Mouse Support (At least mention that it is required to have a Gamepad to somehow enjoy the game)


Vague and I mean VAGUE system requirements
For example:
(And this is the Recommended one)
OS: Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 (64bit required)
Processor: Core i7 2600 3.4GHz or better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1980*1080 pixel over, True Color
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 21 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c over

What does that even tell us
"Graphics: 1920x1080 pixel over, True Color"
WHAT?!


I wish I could describe the game a bit more, but the ugly state that it is in prevents me from doing so.
Thank you Steam for giving us the option to Refund the game

I'm a fan of KOEI, but with these kinds of releases they're shooting themselves in the foot.

REMEMBER
CONSOLE GAMING IS A PRIORITY FOR THEM
DON'T EXPECT THEM TO GIVE AS MUCH ATTENTION TO THE PC MARKET

Currently, there are a large number of problems with the game. It is a direct PS4 port, which means the keyboard and mouse support is non-existent. If you want fluid gameplay on the PC, you'll need to find a way to use a console gamepad on the PC. The online game play has its own problems, monsters are out of sync with other players, more often than not you will see your allies swinging mindlessly at nothing. You will only experience this problem if you can even find an online lobby.

There is no communication options with other players besides pre-set messages that you have to scroll through a menu for. If you are lucky enough to have an enjoyable time experience this game in a random lobby with other players, there is no options to add fellow Slayers on Steam. In addition to this, the online game hub is very limited, it's a message board room where you can pick up missions, quests, and change equipment. If you want to do any sort of gear upgrade, you must leave the online lobby into single player mode to craft items. You risk losing your place with a possibly very good Slayer party.

There is no way of playing with friends on your Steam friends list, unless you live close enough to one another and you just happen to find the other person's lobby when searching online. I tested this with a friend of mine from Hong-Kong and it was not going to happen. We created games with passwords, and there was no way of finding or joining one another's lobbies.

There are, however, positives, not many, but they are there. The game is fun if you can get into a lobby with other fellow Slayers who know what they are doing and are competent. The 30 frame-rate cap is not as big of a problem as all people are making it out to be, the game is pretty, the 30 frames is very playable. The removal of the cap would be a huge improvement for the experience though. The gameplay is nice and polished, no graphical glitches, no gameplay glitches thus far.

For $60, and the immensely poor optimization, the game is not worth your money. Save your money until the game is patches and fixes these basic issues. Considering that it is not playable as a PC port, I will not recommend this game to anyone as of yet.

I will recommend this game to the die hard fans out there looking for a Monster Hunter equivalent on PC. If you have a console game controller and know how to use it with your PC, definitely give it a go, the game is fully playable with a console controller. If you have any questions about the actual gameplay or would like to see the game play, feel free to drop by my twitch stream at www.twitch.tv/ricecraker . Hope this review was helpful, and happy hunting!

Awful port.
30 FPS lock.
No mouse.
Awful keybinding, you can't rebind many important things.
Controller support is limited to the already existing controllers (Xbox 360 and PS3or4).
Nothing more that console version.
60€.
Refund time.

Its a interesting looking game, that is if you can play it. Its full of bugs, doesnt work for some people (me being one) and for those people who care (which I dont) its locked at 30fps. I would love to play this game in its working state, but right now this game should not be for sale, as it doesnt work at least for 95% of players. If this is ever fixed, I'd probably recommend buying. But right now its a poorly ported game.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IN ITS CURRENT STATE

This is a list of all issues we've known so far on day 1:
- Breaking the 30 FPS lock breaks the entire game
- Lowered FPS while in Windowed mode
- UNPLAYABLE FPS while in the village even if missions run fine
- Quests not giving out appropriate rewards
- Online mode completely broken (for now)
- Broken particle effects
- Broken light shafts
- Constant crashes for no apparent reason

I have over 150 hours logged into the Vita version of this game. I love it. It's a great game. But do NOT buy this version of Toukiden Kiwami.

The game is locked at 30 FPS. There is no going back from that. But FIX YOUR DAMN GAME KOEI. This is completely shameful. We paid $60 and receive a broken heap of a game? Come on! Warner Bros. did the same mistake and look all the good it did to them. Don't make the same mistake.

Another terrible PC port by Koei Tecmo:
- No mouse control.
- Terrible keyboard control: Q, E, R, F to control camera. L, P and Backspace to attack.
- Framerate is capped at 30fps. Sometimes it's capped at 20fps for no reason. Neither CPU nor GPU was in 100% usage when the game runs at 20fps.

The game itself is decent, but play with the controller, or grab other versions instead. The game is nigh unplayable with only the keyboard.