Rumour: Unsurprisingly, a Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles Sequel Is In Development | Push Square

Assassin's Creed Hexe, which is currently a code name and is set to launch after the Japan-set Assassin's Creed Red, is the subject of a new report from Insider Gaming, which claims the title is aiming for a release in 2026. You'll apparently be playing as a female protagonist called Elsa, who comes equipped with supernatural abilities. One of which is said to be the ability to control cats, with footage sent to the outlet supposedly depicting a chase sequence where the player distracts guards by taking control of a feline.

Kazuma Kaneko, whose career as a character designer at legendary JRPG studio Atlus has spanned almost four decades, has officially left the company. Kaneko has joined COLOPL, a developer and publisher headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, where he will work on a new IP.

If you were concerned that the PS5-exclusive Stellar Blade, out 26th April on PS5, might run afoul of Sony's censors, fear not. Developer ShiftUp is advertising that the game will remain entirely uncensored in all regions, including Japan.

Everybody's Golf developer Clap Hanz will continue to broaden its horizons now it no longer has any formal partnership with Sony, as its next golf game will enter the virtual reality space, but it's only launching on Meta Quest headsets. The game, named Ultimate Swing Golf, releases next month on 16th May 2024 only on Meta Quest 2, 3, and the Pro variant.

Stellar Blade developer Shift Up quite clearly took a lot of inspiration from PS4 great NieR: Automata during the making of its soon-to-be-released PS5 exclusive, but in the case of Automata director Yoko Taro, he thinks that the student has already become the master. In an interview with IGN Japan (via Eurogamer), Taro says Stellar Blade «is a really amazing game. I'd say that it's much better than NieR: Automata.»

In case you'd forgotten, EA and its studio Cliffhanger Games is working on a Black Panther game. The announcement was one of those that's more of a recruitment drive than anything else, so it's likely still years away from release. In fact, the team is still growing; interestingly, one recent job opening confirms the game's structure will be that of an open world title.

The first quarter of 2024 has been crazy, especially if you're a fan of Japanese games. The release schedule has been pretty much non-stop since January, and so earlier in the week, we asked the Push Square community to vote on their favourite titles of the last four months.

Square Enix has released a new Japan-only trailer for upcoming action RPG Visions of Mana — and it's specifically designed to play on the nostalgia of longtime Mana fans. The video depicts the life of a man who's grown up with the franchise, from grabbing his first Mana title as a kid, to watching the games evolve over the course of entire console generations. Finally, he sees a billboard for Visions of Mana, and the cycle is complete.

Team Ninja has (rather stealthily) released two updates for Rise of the Ronin. The first of these patches (1.02) arrived on the 29th March, while the second (1.03) has only just dropped. However, if you were expecting the developer to address the title's disappointingly flexible frame rate, then you're out of luck.

Outspoken Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada has made a bold claim that is unlikely to ruffle any feathers in the broader audience: younger gamers prefer team-based games because they can blame, at least partially, any losses on their teammates rather than having to take sole responsibility for losing on themselves.

Despite Dragon's Dogma 2 boasting marginally better launch sales than Rise of the Ronin (with both titles releasing on the same day), it's Team Ninja's PS5 exclusive that's managed to stand stronger in the latest Japanese charts. Indeed, Ronin has actually done quite well for itself, shifting an additional 20,000 retail copies over the last week, bringing its total to a fairly respectable 85,000 units. It was topped only by Princess Peach: Showtime!.

A well-known Sega leaker has confirmed that a sequel to Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is currently in development. The first Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles was released in 2021, based on the 2019 anime adaptation of the same name. Hinokami Chronicles was developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Aniplex in Japan and by Sega globally. CyberConnect2 worked on a number of action-heavy anime style games before Hinokami Chronicles, such as the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Hinokami Chronicles, much like the Ninja Storm series, has both an action game focus and a 3D arena fighter multiplayer mode.