Just another day in Utakata.
Toukiden is a series of Action RPGs published by Koei Tecmo, with the overall gameplay being heavily inspired by the Monster Hunter series.
Throughout history, warriors known as "Slayers" have been protecting the Midlandsnote from malevolent beings from the Otherworld known as "Oni" in secret. Eight years prior to the beginning of the story, a calamity known as the Awakening opened a massive gateway to the Otherworld and brought an era of destruction as the Oni hordes ravaged the land and its people, forcing the Slayers to step out of the shadows and take charge of the fragmented remains of society.
Like other hunting RPGs, Toukiden focuses on elements that Monster Hunter didn't at the time, such as an overarching story with interesting characters (who have proper names), some of which being able to help you in battle, and a world that heavily references Japanese Mythology and Shinto.
Games in the series:
- Toukiden: The Age of Demons (PSP, PS Vita, 2013-2014): The first game in the series. Its flagship Oni is the Chthonian Fiend.
- Toukiden: Kiwami (PSP, PS Vita, PS4, Windows, 2014-2015): The Updated Re-release of the first game. Its flagship Oni is the Snowflame.
- Quiz Battle Toukiden (Android, iOS, 2014): The first mobile spin-off in the series, where you still fight Oni, but by answering questions. No, seriously.
- Toukiden 2 (PS Vita, PS3, PS4, Windows, 2016-2017): A sequel to the previous two mainline games, this time with an open world. Its flagship Oni is the Brutebeast.
- Toukiden Mononofu (Android, iOS, 2017): The second mobile spin-off, with a simplified combat system. Its flagship Oni is the Adedakini.
Other media:
This series provides examples of:
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- 100% Completion: Much more manageable than other games in the genre due to the game keeping a viewable checklist of every item you've found, every piece of gear crafted, how many different skills you've used and whether or not you've destroyed every body part on a large Oni before.
- Acrofatic: The Jollux and Bladewing. Both are quite round but can still move with considerable speed.
- Action Girl: Every female Slayer, both NPC and Player Character.
- Alien Sky: In addition to each Age of the Otherworld having a differently colored sky, a giant sphere of light inside a vortex of clouds can be seen in the middle of the sky pretty much everywhere. When the weather is clear, it's bright enough to be mistaken for the sun, and it has been there at least since the Awakening.
- All Myths Are True: Played with. Many of the Mitama are referred to in-universe as fictional characters, such as Kaguya and Jiraiya, yet the presence of their Mitama implies that they were living people who were killed by the Oni at some point. Some Oni, especially the smaller ones, are also based on Yōkai and other creatures from Japanese mythology, and if Manhunters being called Ushi-oni by some villagers is any indication, some of the stories about them might have originated from Oni sightings prior to the Awakening.
- Anachronistic Soundtrack: Downplayed. Most tracks use standard orchestral and traditional Japanese instruments, but a few also use a synth bass. The first game's soundtrack also has a remix of the credits theme with an electric guitar and other modern instruments.
- And I Must Scream: The Oni devour souls. Spiritually sensitive people, such as Kikka, can hear the constant screams of people whose souls are trapped in an Oni's body. The Mitama themselves often comment how grateful they are that you saved them from this fate.
- Antidote Effect: There are a number of skills that allow you to resist status ailments. However, taking one means you're giving up one of your very limited skill slots, and is only useful against one or maybe two large Oni. The status resist skills become even more pointless when it's considered that a Healing ally can cure them.
- Apocalypse How: The setting is currently in the aftermath of a Societal Collapse. Human civilization has been reduced to a small group of primitive outposts and villages that struggle to survive. The Oni are attempting to bring about a Universal Metaphysical Annihilation by devouring souls and warping time, with the ultimate goal of distorting time and space so severely that history essentially unmakes itself.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Justified, as the Slayers have been isolated from normal society and their weapons are specifically designed to kill Oni.
- Artificial Stupidity: While NPC allies are frequently stronger than the Player Character, they are also very stupid. Notably, they aren't very good at dodging, particularly against large Oni that charge frequently, and while they try their darndest to revive you if you go down, they fail to realize when doing so might be a bad idea and feel the need to activate a buff before doing so, even if the extra second spent not reviving will kill you.
- There are also moments where the AI just can't figure out what to do, and may spend several seconds running back and forth doing nothing.
- Fugaku's AI in particular is incredibly spotty and will consistently run in a straight line and push Oni around rather than actually attacking.
- Averted in Toukiden: Kiwami, where allies now dodge all the attacks they ran into in the first game, and are brutally efficient. They even time their destroyer attacks to keep the enemy in perpetual knockdown!
- Asian Fox Spirit:
- Mitama based on the legendary kitsune Kuzunoha (mother of Abe no Seimei) and Tamamo-no-mae appear in the game, though they are Healing type instead of the Deceit some might expect.
- The Celestial Fox, or Tenko, gathers items for you between missions. A few others can be seen wandering around Utakata as well. Contaminating one with an Animus core creates the two-tailed large oni Snowflame and its variant Nightstorm.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Using the rifle will allow you to see miasmal nodes, which works as this.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Most of the weapons and Mitama types have some attack or skill that sounds great on paper but isn't actually that great.
- Space-type Mitama have the Warp skill, a short cooldown teleport with a huge number of charges allowing it to be used with impunity. Too bad it requires you to break your combo to enter the Stance of Communion and use, the distance it covers is huge and rarely practical and it can be somewhat difficult to aim when you're in a hurry.
- Bows have quick-nock arrows and homing arrows. The former allows you to throw out fast area of effect attacks, good for smaller Oni. Unfortunately, it deals so little damage that trying to use them can take just as long or longer as using direct charged shots. Likewise, homing arrows allow you to target multiple targets with long range homing projectiles, good for detonating cursed arrows...except they take more Focus and time to line up and deal less damage than using basic charged shots to detonate cursed arrows.
- The spear's Brace, which allows it to stop charging Oni, requires incredibly precise positioning and psychic levels of prediction to use reliably, especially against late game Oni that require it to charge for a few seconds to actually stop them.
- The knives' dash, which allows you to rapidly attack while sprinting. Weaker than its spin attack and harder to maintain because you're constantly in motion.
- The sword's Vacuum Slash. It doesn't deal noticeably more damage than the standard attacks and requires you to charge for a few seconds, during which time most Oni will move or just attack you.
- Weapons with the Sky element. It's basically like the Dragon element from Monster Hunter... except it's not weak to itself. In fact, very few Oni are weak to Sky, and your weapons might be outclassed by the time you fight them.
- Badass Adorable: Hatsuho, and probably Nagi. Maybe Ōka as well, though she's closer to Amazon than adorable.
- Badass Crew: The Slayers, the Midlands' first, last and only line of defense against the Oni hordes.
- Badass in Distress: Ōka, Fugaku and Hayatori all have a rather bad habit of running off alone and getting into trouble.
- Back Stab: Deceit-type Mitama cause all your attacks to gain massive Critical Hit chance if you are attacking your target from behind.
- Barrier Maiden: Kikka, and the purpose of Shrine Maidens in general.
- Belly Mouth: The Jollux, Edax and Putrox have an enormous mouth on the belly that's usually closed. Once they're enraged, the mouth opens and they bounce along like a man-eating Pac-Man.
- Berserk Button:
- Destroying their body parts is a good way to make the large Oni very cross.
- Threatening Kikka is not something you want to do if Ōka is within earshot.
- Flying Oni make Fugaku really, really mad. This is because the Oni that destroyed his village and ate most of his friends resembles a giant bird.
- Big Damn Heroes: Several of the offline missions involve the Player Character and one or two allies running in to rescue someone who ran off alone or has been corned.
- BFS: Every single sword in the game. They are far longer than their wielders are tallnote , which is a good thing since most enemies that matter are far taller than the humans. It's also Ōka, Kamuna and Tōya's preferred weapon.
- The Cimmerian King combines this and Blade Below the Shoulder for a very intimidating effect.
- BFG: The rifles are as big as, and in some cases, bigger than the user is tall. The Chthonian Cannon is a particularly ridiculous example.
- Big Sister Instinct:
- Ōka has a very overt one toward Kikka.
- Hatsuho claims to feel one for the kids of Utakata. However, her definition of "kids" includes Yamato and her fellow Slayers.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: The Final Boss of the first game, the Cimmerian King, has a giant sword in place of its left arm. Its Palette Swap Amaranthine King swaps it for an axe instead.
- Body Horror: Some of the Oni are downright horrifying. One example is the Viper Queen, a large Oni that seems to have crawled out of one of Junji Ito's nightmares. It's a giant creature with the shell of a snail and snakes for legs, and growing up between them is the body of a busty woman...with stony, cracked skin, a gigantic mouth with too many teeth, horns, sharp claws and a third eye on its forehead.
- Boss Arena Recovery: Many sections of the map have small prayer shrines that can be used once to refill your health or Mitama skills. Some require your Eye of Truth to be seen.
- Break Meter: Present in two varieties for the large Oni, and visible with your Eye of Truth.
- One is a purple bar above their health. When this purple bar is depleted, the large Oni goes berserk, but damage can be done to its health.
- The other is for individual breakable parts. Initially, they are highlighted white, and change color from white to yellow to orange to red as they take more damage and finally break off.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Some of the non-mandatory missions, particularly in the offline single player, are incredibly difficult, often requiring you to fight multiple large Oni at once with fewer allies or by yourself.
- Bullfight Boss: Most of the large Oni have an attack where they will charge blindly at you. If you've destroyed their legs, they will stumble at the end of the charge.
- Camera Centering/Camera Lock-On: Which are very helpful for keeping track of some of the faster or more elusive Oni.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Stamina is called Focus, CriticalHits are called precision strikes and elements are called attributes.
- Carry a Big Stick: The club from Kiwami.
- Character Customization: You can select the name, gender, hairstyle, hair color, face, skin color and voice of your character. The hairstyle and hair color can be changed later anytime in the game. Toukiden 2 adds more features to this such as manually adjusting each part of your face, changing the pitch of your voice and more.
- Charged Attack: Most weapon types have a Hold-type charge attack of some kind
- Additionally, every weapon has a Collect-type in the form of the "Destroyer" attack, which only becomes usable after dealing enough damage.
- Spirit-type Mitama also qualify, giving you access to a variety of damaging spells that become more powerful the longer you charge before casting them.
- Chick Magnet: A male protagonist is definitely this with being able to turn every female in town into a harem. A female protagonist is a Dude Magnet as the same applies except with guys though a lot of subtext is still there for the females as well.
- The Chosen One: The Player Character, naturally. They possess the power to both communicate and bond with the Mitama, whereas everyone else can either only bond with them (Other Slayers like Ōka) or only communicate with them (Shrine Maidens like Kikka and Shikimi)
- Climax Boss: Remember the Chthonian Fiend, that Big Red Devil in the tutorial? That's the Oni commander and boss of chapter 4. Since it's directly responsible for pretty much everything you've gone through up to that pointnote , punching it in the face is a catharsis of the finest degree.
- Combat Medic: Nagi, which is why she's one of the more popular party members. The player can also be this if you equip the right Mitama and skills.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: Ad-hoc mode in both PSP and PS Vita, as well as online-mode for PS Vita only. Considering that past certain points the Artificial Stupidity of the NPC will really begin to shine, you would want to have human allies to tactically take down the Oni.
- Crapsack World: Boy howdy.
- Humanity scrapes a meager living out in the few remaining uncorrupted regions and show little to no sign of ambition outside of day to day survival.
- Young girls are raised being taught their sole purpose is to be a Living Battery for the shields that keep the monsters at bay, and end up living short, miserable lives. In most villages, they're not even allowed to go outside.
- The Oni have ravaged and twisted the world into a bizarre temporal mess, where the very air is toxic, and are constantly laying siege to the last remaining human settlements so they can kill the inhabitants and devour their souls.
- And to top it off, the Awakening happened when most of the characters were children.
- Critical Existence Failure: Played straight for players and small Oni, who can operate at full capacity so long as they have at least 1 health remaining. Large Oni on the other hand, will get weaker and stumble as you sever limbs and deal damage, provided they don't fly into a blind rage when sufficiently damaged.
- Critical Hit: The Precision stat, which is present on some weapons.
- One unique characteristic of the gauntlets is that they can get guaranteed critical hits if you hit the attack button just as the attack connects.
- One of the skills for Attack-type Mitama is to give all your attacks 100% critical hit chance for a limited time.
- Critical Status Buff: Some of the skills you can earn from your Mitama increases your attack and defense when you're near K.O. There is also an inversion of this, where the buff is when your Life Meter is full.
- Creature-Hunter Organization: The Slayers in general, being Oni hunters. But mostly the ones in Utakata and Mahoroba, since they're in the spotlight.
- Crutch Character: All of your NPC teammates are significantly stronger and better equipped than you when you start the game, provide much needed damage and distract larger Oni. However, as the game goes on, you start to catch up to and surpass them, and their shoddy AI begins to outweigh their advantages. This is especially evident in the Free Alliances Version of Toukiden 2 - since you can't complete the story, the other characters won't get upgraded weapons for Expert difficulty and you'll have to rely on other players or bots of their characters to progress.
- Cuteness Proximity: Hayatori, despite being The Stoic, is very easily distracted by the sight of Tenko and repeatedly asks for permission to touch the one that lives with you.
- Cutscene Power to the Max: A particularly egregious case during Nagi's personal arc. After defeating your first Terragrinder, its body does not fade after being purified. Then it opens its eyes and launches a volley of spikes at you, an attack that it does not have in game. It also has all its limbs during the scene, even if you severed and purified them during the preceding battle. It happens again with the Bladewing in Chapter 4, but only for Fugaku to deal the final blow.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Nearly all the bosses are like this.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Everyone.
- Ibuki, the easy going and friendly womanizer, hasn't truly cared for or loved anyone since he failed to protect the love of his life from Oni during the Awakening, and feels that giving any effort is pointless because there's some things that you just can't change.
- Nagi, the well-mannered and soft-spoken scholar, has crippling self-esteem issues after she botched a surgery and killed her closest friend, with whom she had made a promise to become the best doctor in the world.
- Hatsuho, the resident Genki Girl, is a Fish out of Temporal Water who got lost in the forest one day and came out 40 years later to find her entire family and all her friends dead, her home under siege by Oni, and her surrogate little brother now a middle aged man she barely recognizes.
- Fugaku, the fight-loving big guy, is the sole survivor of his village, which was destroyed by the Oni, and was forced to watch his friends be slaughtered and eaten, including a little girl whom he was very fond of.
- Hayatori, The Quiet One, is a former child assassin that turned on and killed the people who raised him when they ordered him to kill a young girl his age. He questions whether he did the right thing or not and feels he doesn't have the right to trust or be trusted, so he distances himself from others as punishment.
- Shūsui, the enigmatic record keeper, was originally from the north, where the Awakening first happened. When the Holy Mount withdrew all Slayer forces to defend the Midlands, Shūsui's home and loved ones were lost. This lead him to become The Mole for the Council of Elders.
- Kiwami adds one more in the form of Sōma, the resident Ace and leader of the 3rd Division of the Hundred Demon Corps. He goes out for random missions often, and is one of the people in Utakata who are suspected to be a mole for the Council of Elders because of this. As it turns out, his comrades (the original 3rd division of the Hundred Demon Corps) died during the first Awakening 8 years ago, leaving him critically injured, and wracked with guilt. He keeps heading out to random missions to honor the dying wishes of his 16 comrades who died in the battle. And you help him honor the 16th one.
- Dark Fantasy: This is not a game where samurai battle each other for honor. This is a war for the survival of the Midlands, and prior to your arrival, the humans are losing badly.
- David Versus Goliath: Every battle versus the large Oni.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: How you defeat any large Oni. Knowing where to hit will cut the number from 1000 to, say, 800.
- The knives deserve special mention, as while they have the lowest power rating of all weapon types they attack faster than every other weapon.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!: In the Oni's case, even if you destroy their limbs, they can grow phantom copies and continue fighting as normal. Inverted in Toukiden 2, where you can use the Demon Hand to permanently destroy some of their body parts and make them hardly be able to move, let alone attack in most cases.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Slayers' job is to regularly kill incredibly dangerous demons that eat their victims' souls. Then again, Slayers in general (possibly excluding the extras with rookie gear) are much more powerful than regular humans.
- Downloadable Content: Like God Eater Burst, there is a long stream of them. One of them is gaining Toro Inoue as a Mitama.
- There is also a collaboration DLC with "Soul Sacrifice" in the form of the Noble Raiments armor set, a new weapon (specifically, a copy of the spear stabbed through the Cerberus' stomach) and a new large Oni (the aforementioned Cerberus). This is unlocked in Kiwami after you reach Phase 10 in the multiplayer portion of the game.
- Dream Weaver: The Oni Viper Queen. It renders people comatose by inviting them to stay in their dreams and happy memories, then devours their soul after they've slept for 100 days or die of other causes. Hatsuho chooses to accept its offer and nearly dies, despite knowing full well what will happen to her.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ibuki gets extremely drunk after a rescue mission goes bad. Ōka and Fugaku imply this isn't the first time he's done this.
- Dual Wielding: The knives. These are Hayatori and Yakumo's weapons.
- Early Game Hell: When you just start the game, you will wonder just why you're even joining the fight against the Oni, because everyone else outclasses you by leaps and bounds.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Between Age of Demons and Kiwami:
- The types of prayers you can do for the offering box used to have much more vague names and a wider variety of boosts. Kiwami's prayers have boosts that fit their names better.
- Your Tenko couldn't be customized, but her color would sometimes change after returning from her journeys. The order of the colors in this image
◊ implies they depend on which Age she had last visited, and that she would remain white if you sent her to the Age of Grace. - Some large Oni had different elemental resistances and weaknesses; for example, some that currently have two of each only had one. The Sky element was apparently also weak to all other elements instead of resisting them.
- Between Kiwami and 2:
- Most large Oni could be found in many different Ages, making it unclear what their actual habitats were. There were also several Mitama from the same Oni you could only obtain in specific Ages. Since Toukiden 2 has an open world, most Oni stick to one Age and you can obtain all their Mitama no matter where you fight them.
- You can see what material you got from an Oni's corpse or body part right after purifying it, but the ones from horns and other minor body parts only showed up along with the mission reward. Now every material you get is immediately shown to you, including rewards from missions and quests.
- Between Age of Demons and Kiwami:
- Early Localization Weirdness:
- In the first game, village chiefs were called "captains" and captains were called "unit leaders" (the last two are used interchangeably in Toukiden 2).
- Inverted with the Sacred Guards mentioned in Kiwami, which where renamed to just "Guards" in Toukiden 2.
- Setsubun was called "Winter's End" in the first game, but Toukiden 2 confirmed that the Slayers celebrate it four times a year, and the one celebrated in that game is likely between summer and fall.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Oni, inter-dimensional and nigh-unkillable monsters, qualify.
- Despite possessing physical bodies and internal organs standard of terrestrial life, they are all entirely tertiary. The Oni cannot be killed so long as their incorporeal essence is undamaged.
- An Oni's essence warps and corrupts everything around them, is fatal to humans and animals and is created by time paradoxes.
- The Oni are driven to slaughter and devour all non-Oni life, despite having no need for physical nourishment and instead trap their preys' still conscious souls within their bodies.
- Many of the Oni's "body parts"note utterly defy the laws of physics and are described in-universe as being otherworldly.
- Elemental Powers: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Sky. Some Oni are weak against certain elements while strong against some others.
- Equipping a Control type Mitama in Toukiden 2 lets you summon pets with any element you choose in battle.
- Emote Animation: What JRPG would this be without them.
- Empathic Weapon: Certain weapons can be fused with a specific Mitama when fully upgraded, turning them into a new, unique weapon based on the Mitama. They are the most powerful weapons in the game.
- Empowered Badass Normal: The Slayers. Bonding to a Mitama just means you're capable of magic and surviving a hit from the Oni, you still need to be balls to the walls awesome if you want to have any hope of fighting back.
- Enemy Scan: Your ''Eye of Truth". It reveals the Oni's HP, how close their body parts are to breaking, and certain hidden things, such as prayer shrines and invisible small Oni.
- Energy Economy: Conventional money has become all but worthless after the Awakening, so everything is paid for in "Haku", which is the magical substance that binds everything in the physical world together, including the physical forms of the Oni. Prayers and Mitama upgrades are feeding spirits Haku to appease them or make them stronger.
- Equipment-Based Progression: Player characters never level up and only become stronger by crafting new weapons and armour or upgrading them through use in battle. Similarly, special powers and passive boosts are (mostly) acquired by equipping Mitama.
- Evil Counterpart: The Council of Elders is this to the Slayers, being a secret organization that protected the world from Oni, but employed horrific and inhuman methods to do so.
- Excuse Plot: Inverted. When you fight each large Oni for the first time, you usually see a cutscene of it appearing out of a portal, roaring and facing the camera. When an Oni is particularly relevanty to the story, you get a different cutscene while the former is used in a different, optional mission. In the case of Pyropteryxes and Harrowhalfs, this kind of mission is mandatory and is connected to the story.
- Fainting Seer: Using her power to sustain the barrier protecting Utakata or divine the Oni's intentions really takes it out of poor Kikka.
- Flaming Skulls: Blazing Souls and Shadow Souls are floating flaming skulls that breath fire. Shadow Souls are also invisible unless the player uses the Eye of Truth.
- Four-Star Badass: Yamato. Technically, all the Slayers have a rank, but only Yamato is consistently and respectfully referred to as "Captain".
- Friendly Fireproof: Thankfully implemented, because attacks are flashy, incredibly damaging, and often have a huge area of effect. If you actually hit your friends, you do no damage and cause no knockback. Unfortunately, this also applies to the Oni.
- You're actually encouraged to hit your friends at times, because friendly fire can remedy certain Status Effects like sleep or being frozen. If you have a Healing-type Mitama, you can cure every single status ailment, even burning and poison, by hitting your allies!
- Genki Girl: Hatsuho, who is always upbeat and eager to help out.
- Giant Flyer: Several large Oni, for example Pyropteryx and Bladewing.
- Giant Spider: The large Oni Manhunter and its tougher Palette Swap Bloodhunter.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The 200 Mitama. Good luck getting them all. Kiwami adds another 100 Mitama to find.
- Heal Thyself: Mitama of every type have a skill that allows you to yourself, though Healing-type Mitama excel at it.
- The Medic: Equipping Healing-type Mitama also allows you to heal your friends as well. NPC ally Nagi fills this role quite well.
- Historical Domain Character: By the library-load. What would you expect from a game developed by Koei Tecmo's Omega-Force Division? They are your Mitama, and they range from ancient mythological figures in Kojiki to famous people of the Meiji era. If two historical figures are related, their Mitama probably have a combination boost.
- Akechi Mitsuhide: Luck-type. As well as his daughter Hosokawa Gracia (Healing).
- Date Masamune: Attack-type.
- Fūma Kotarō: Speed-type.
- Hattori Hanzō: Speed-type.
- Honda Tadakatsu: Defense-type.
- Ishida Mitsunari: Luck-type.
- Miyamoto Musashi: Attack-type.
- Oda Nobunaga: Space-type.
- Sanada Yukimura: Attack-type.
- Sasaki Kojiro: Speed-type.
- Sarutobi Sasuke: Speed-type.
- Takeda Shingen: Deceit-type.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Defense-type. As well as his grandchildren Tokugawa Iemitsunote (Space) and Lady Sen (Healing). And his distant descendant Tokugawa Yoshimunenote (Attack).
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Speed-type.
- Uesugi Kenshin: Attack-type.
- Yagyu Jubei: Attack-type.
- The Shinsengumi: Kondo Isami (Attack), Hijikata Toshizo (Defense), Okita Soji (Attack), Saito Hajime (Speed).
- Other Meiji Restoration figures: Tokugawa Yoshinobunote (Deceit).
- Japanese Mythology: Izanagi (Speed), Izanami (Deceit), Amaterasu (Space), Tsukuyomi (Healing), Susanoo (Attack), Yamato Takeru (Attack), Izumo Takeru (Defense), Kumaso Takeru (Luck).
- Hold the Line: Some mission requires you to hold against waves of Oni. Narrative-wise though, you're always holding the line because Utakata is one of the final defenses against the Oni.
- Horror Hunger: The Oni's primary motivation. Technically, they only need their victims' souls, but some Mitama mention having been swallowed whole, meaning that some Oni eat their victims' bodies too.
- Impending Clash Shot: This happens in basically every game's cover.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Hatsuho falls to her knees in a mess of tears when Yamato finally gives her the letter her parents left for her, after the Player Character rescues her from the Dreaming Disease.
- It Can Think: Very early on, the Slayers of Utakata realize that the Oni are not mindless beasts; they're smart and they're organized.
- Item Crafting: Courtesy of Tatara, so long as you bring him the materials.
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople): The land where the games take place is all but stated to be Japan, since real locations like Yokohama and Izumo are mentioned and most Mitama existed in real life. In Japanese, it's called Nakatsu Kuni, which is an archaic name for Japan, while the English version calls it the Midlands.
- Jack of All Stats: The sword and chain & sickle are this, both having decent damage, speed and range, though doesn't specialize in either one.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: The most effective way to whittle away the HP of the large Oni. Of course, you need to make them down first by destroying their feet-equivalent.
- Worth noting that many large Oni can and will do this to you as well, as there are no invincibility frames for getting knocked down or standing up.
- Lady of War: Ōka and Nagi. But Ōka will drop all her cool if Kikka is in danger.
- Some of the available female Mitama are this as well.
- The Legions of Hell: What the Oni are, if the Otherworld counts as hell.
- Level-Map Display: To the upper right of the screen. Toukiden 2 changes it into a minimap that doesn't show the entire area.
- Life Drain: One of the skills available for Attack-type Mitama.
- Life Meter: The green bar at the top of the screen. If you take damage, some of it are lost while some turns red; if you stay out of the action for a while the red part will regenerate back to green.
- Light Is Not Good: The Sky element is usually associated with light or lightning. Of course, it's also used by some Oni...
- Limit Break: Your Destroyer attack, which instantly breaks whatever breakable body part it hits and instantly kills any smaller Oni. You can only do this after you've filled your Weapon Gauge, after which it goes back to zero. Kiwami adds the United Destroyer, which can destroy multiple parts at once, but requires you to be close to your teammates to pull off. And Toukiden 2 has the Oni Burial: depending on the body part you use it on, it can be either the same as a regular Destroyer or it can permanently destroy it and limit the Oni's attacks or movement.
- Loot Command: The Ritual of Purification has to be carried out on each corpse and severed limb if you want drops (except "Minor Part" rewards for breaking horns and such). This requires the player to be stationary, which gets a bit dicey against large Oni. Thankfully, in Kiwami, you can command your allies to do the purifying for you.
- Love Transcends Spacetime: Used by the Oni, shockingly enough. The reason Oni are able to travel through time is by harnessing the human soul's desire to be reunited with those they love.
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M-Z
- Macross Missile Massacre: You can do this with any bow, logic be damned.
- Manual Leader, A.I. Party: Single-player mode.
- Mighty Glacier: Gauntlets. Far and away the highest possible damage output in the game, but they attack slowly, have short range and require your target to be stationary to get the most out of them.
- As far as enemies go, the Hell's Warden and Hell's Sentinel. They're incredibly slow but have some of the highest health pools and hit like trucks.
- Kiwami adds the club, although it could be a Lightning Bruiser in the hands of a good Slayer.
- Mooks: The small Oni.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Harrowhalf and its variant Dreadhalf. Each of its arms is attuned to different elements (except Sky).
- The Nightblade is basically a Harrowhalf with lower body of a snake.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: The fact that some Oni are basically Monster Girls with Barbie Doll Anatomy doesn't phase your allies in the slightest.
- One-Winged Angel: Most Oni get bigger and scarier after you whittle down their HP.
- Organ Drops: Oni drop limbs, claws, tongues, and so on after they're defeated. Certain more exotic items border on Essence Drop.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: The Cimmerian King and its variant, Amaranthine King.
- Palette Swap: There's one of most Oni, both large and small. All small Oni have "unclean" and/or "underworld" variants, which yield more valuable items while being marginally tougher or having an elemental attack. Meanwhile, most large Oni have a different colored version that is more aggressive, stronger, has a different elemental affinity and has some other minor aesthetic changes.
- Playing with Fire: Some of the large Oni, such as the aptly-named Pyropteryx. The Chthonian Fiend on the other hand takes this up to eleven, in that it's unlikely you can survive a direct hit from his fiery blast.
- Power Fist: The gauntlets. Notable in that they are amongst the most ridiculous examples in the history of video games: Each individual gauntlet is about as big as your character's torso. They are also Fugaku and Raizō's preferred weapons.
- Practical Taunt: One of the skills available to Defense-type Mitama. In addition to drawing the Oni's focus onto you, your defense is temporarily increased.
- Pre-Order Bonus: Depending on who you pre-ordered the game with, you can get extra equipment, unique Mitama and bonus online missions.
- Pretty Boy: Ibuki. Hayatori is as well, but as a Ninja he rarely ever reveals his face. Your character can be one too.
- Punched Across the Room: When a large Oni start charging at you, dodge.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: The only differences your sex make are how some armor looks, how people react if you walk in on them in the Pool of Purity, and whether or not Ibuki will flirt with you.
- Randomly Drops: The majority of the materials. There are so many of them that there is an in-game collection record that takes note of what Oni drops which items and what can be foraged in which areas. It was moved to the encyclopedia in Toukiden 2.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: The Flurry special attack for gauntlets, which starts off slow but gets faster and faster the more hits you land, and culminates in a shockwave producing Megaton Punch.
- Recurring Riff: The first game's title screen theme, "Midlands Requiem". Unlike "Proof of a Hero" from Monster Hunter, it doesn't play when you're about to defeat a powerful Oni, but its melody is used in the Slayers' headquarters themes and some emotional tracks for important moments in the story.
- Relationship Values: With your NPC Slayer allies and some of the townsfolk. They run the full range from "Acquaintance" to "Friend" to "Soulmate".
- Repeatable Quest: All missions can be repeated, but quests (as in, sidequests) can't.
- Samurai: Zig-Zagged. The game takes place in a pre-modern Japan. The Slayers aren't samurai, but they still use medieval weapons like swords and spears. However, the Mitama are supposed to be the souls of famous historical figures, some of whom were samurai.
- In Toukiden 2, an entire faction of outsider Slayers calls themselves the Samurai.
- Sand Worm: Earthfangs are small worm-like Oni that burrow through the ground and sometimes manage to pop up underneath a character's feet.
- Scenery Gorn: The Oni have really devastated the countryside surrounding Utakata.
- Sequential Boss: Some missions requires you to fight one boss after another (after another...). In a few cases in those missions, if you're taking too long to dispatch a boss, the next one will come to fight you anyway.
- Serial Escalation: So you can defeat a Manhunter. How about two Manhunters? How about a Manhunter, a Windshredder, and a Jollux in succession?
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The ultimate goal of the Council of Elders and Shūsui. They want to cause a second Awakening so they can go back in time and stop the first one from ever happening.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: If you bathe with certain characters of the opposite sex with whom you have fully strengthened your bond in the Pool of Purity the screen fades to black and gives a text box saying the two of you bathed together, but the dialogue beforehand hints that the two of you have sex.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Can happen to the entire cast, thanks to the Pool of Purity.
- Shows Damage: The body parts of the large Oni become purple and translucid after you break them.
- Snake People:
- The Nightblade/Sableblade pair have four arms, two wielding over-sized weapons, and some magical powers. Their faces are very reptilian and rather masculine.
- The Glaciabella/Mortabella introduced in Kiwami have a woman's torso and an inhumanly beautiful face, along with soft "wings" growing from the back. The real head seen when it goes berserk is very snakelike, with its mouth opening just above and behind the woman's face.
- Sniper Rifle: Kiwami adds the rifle as an alternative to the bow. Its moveset includes tossing grenades.
- Spam Attack: Some of the most powerful combos in the game involve using a weapon's special move and using the right combination of skills and Mitama abilities to keep it going indefinitely.
- Spin Attack: You'd be surprised at how many large Oni have this kind of attack. You can also do this using knives, by holding the circle button.
- Sprint Meter: The yellow bar below your HP bar represents how much Focus you have, which is drained when sprinting, dodging or using special attacks, and regenerates when not in use.
- Stock Ninja Weaponry: The chain & sickle, which is Hatsuho's weapon. The actual ninja character, however, uses knives.
- Stone Wall: The spear. One of the least mobile weapon types, but with long range and two attacks that are guaranteed to interrupt enemies if they connect.
- Suddenly Voiced: Inverted. At certain points, the characters will talk with no voice acting present. In Toukiden 2, it can even happen mid-conversation.
- Survivor Guilt: A major theme for many of the characters, but deconstructed for Fugaku. While he admits that he feels responsible for the deaths of his loved ones and wishes that anyone else besides him could have survived, he also believes that it's wrong for him to wallow in self-pity or refuse to move on with his life, and he knows that his friends and family would want him to keep on living. This perspective is critical for helping the Player Character snap Ibuki and Hatsuho out of their respective Heroic BSODs.
- Swirly Energy Thingy: How the Oni appears in this world. These are actually portals from the Otherworld.
- Swiss-Army Weapon:
- Of all weapons, Kiwami's rifle, depending on which bullet is the next one to be fired. Outside of the default sniper and piercing bullets, Scatter-type ammo turns the boomstick into a shotgun and Explosive-type makes it a grenade launcher. That's if we don't count the Absorb bullet (who restricts an Oni's movement) and the Delay bullet...
- The sword & shield in Toukiden 2 is the only weapon with three attack techniques and has separate movesets for its two stances.
- Take Your Time: No matter how urgent the next story mission is, there's always time to grind items to make new gear or complete quests.
- Temporary Online Content: Surprisingly averted with the main games' servers, which are still running after more than 10 years. The two mobile spin-offs weren't spared from this fate, but mobile games in Japan aren't known for lasting long anyway.
- The Anime of the Game: Each of the mainline games got a promotional anime short animated by Studio 4°C.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: The reason the world is so twisted and dangerous. When the Oni consume a soul in the past, history itself is changed little by little. Destroying the Oni frees the souls they consumed, returning them to their proper place in history.
- Title Drop: Similar to Monster Hunter, the very last mission of the hardest difficulty, both in single-player and multiplayer, is named after the game... in Japanese. In English, the last mission of the first game is called "Age of Demons" (with a "The" added to the online version), while Kiwami's last mission is called "The Ultimate Challenge" (since "Kiwami" means "Ultimate" in Japanese).
- Turns Red: Destroying one of their breakable parts or just inflicting enough damage to their physical form makes medium and large Oni become slightly more aggressive, but their actual health is vulnerable to damage. During this state, the Oni get glowing red eyes and the entire environment takes on a dark purple tinge.
- When they have low health (the condition for this may change depending on the Oni), they enter a state called Rampage in which the sky turns blood red and the Oni gain a new moveset and/or radically change into a more fearsome or monstrous form.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Yellow for Sky and blue for Wind, respectively.
- You Are Already Dead: The sword's Gouge ability, which adds stacking marks to every body part you strike while the ability is active, and detonates them when the ability deactivates.