Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Season 4 (2024)

The fourth season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, subtitled Hashira Training Arc, is short, at only eight episodes long (although the first and last episodes are double the usual length). The season picks up straight after the previous one, where Tanjiro and the two Hashiras are severely injured and are healing. You kind of feel, due to the subtitle, shortness of the season, and where it started, that this could be more of a breather story arc, before it ramps up again for the final battle of the series.

Given the big bombshell of the previous season where we now know what Muzan wants, and how it is within hand’s reach for him to achieve it, time is running short. Demon sightings have decreased, and the Demon Slayer Corps know that Muzan is planning something, yet they will be also able to use this relatively downtime to train its members. Given that they have encountered some significant casualties themselves, it was decided to collate all the Hashiras together to give comprehensive training.

It’s a predictable structure, especially heading towards the middle of the season. Since Tanjiro will join in the training himself, you’d know that he is going to cycle through most, if not all, of the different Hashiras. It’s great to see the return of Hashiras that we already know about, especially if they haven’t turned up in a while, but hoping we will get to see the rest. Although it feels like shortchanging them if they don’t get a whole season to themselves either.

We were always told how much Hashiras are on another level but it’s even more apparent here when most of the Demon Corps trainees are not that great. It’s a miracle that they even survived from being killed by demons. Only Tanjiro so far (as Zenitsu and Inosuke are not the focus for this season yet again) has impressed the different Hashiras with his enthusiasm, stamina and skill. The season is one that is more relaxing and lower stakes. From time to time, it teases something more, as a powerful demon is secretly keeping tabs on what is going on. However, that’s not the focus for much of the season.

Accompanying the more relaxing tone is the humor and silliness. Zenitsu was always a bit silly and exaggerated in his behavior but when he does eventually show up, it’s dialed to eleven. You’ll either like or hate the character. Similar for all the other no name supporting characters, they’re deliberately drawn in a simpler way to invoke humor and silliness. It does work most of the time, and despite the boring nature of the story content, it manages to hold it up well enough to keep it engaging.

Most of the season feels very slow, especially when initially it begins with setting up the expectation that each episode will focus on one Hashira. Even then, with Tanjiro going through their “training” (more like random challenges with little guidance), it kind of skips a lot to the part where Tanjiro is successful and moves on. It then glosses over a few other Hashiras in a token effort before focusing on another. This makes it then feel like it is rushing with not enough episodes to flesh everything out properly.

While the pacing can seem a bit off, as you know that the plot is building up to something, but it just cannot reveal it until the end, the payoff is worthwhile. Suffering through a lot of slow scenes, you get to the season finale where we under Muzan’s plans on how he wants to defeat the Demon Slayer Corps… and the Demon Slayer Corps’ counterattack. It’s intense and the saddest part is that just as it builds up the crescendo, you know that it has to end in a cliffhanger as it prepares for the final arc. It skyrockets your anticipation though and it sets it up nicely.

Overall, the fourth season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is probably the weakest season, but only because it allocated a whole season to a bridging arc. It’s one that clearly sets up the final battle for the whole series, as everything is coming together now. The Hashiras are united, Muzan is prepared to battle them, and the final episode literally puts them all into one location. It’s not a super boring season even though it has a lot of slow scenes and barely any plot advancement, but the payoff was worth it as it managed to build a lot of hype and anticipation for the final clash.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy United Star Raider Calcitron (Deluxe)

Review:  #845

Name:  Calcitron

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Star Seeker

Line:  Generations - Legacy: United

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Deluxe

Mold Status:  retool of Legacy United Nucleous

VEHICLE MODE:

Calcitron transforms into a rocky vehicle mode, which in concept, shouldn't, but in reality, it does.

It's a unique vehicle mode, and for something that is fantastical, there aren't any massively exposed robot parts.

He's a good size for a Deluxe, and since he is so compact, he feels quite nice in hand too.

His robot weapon, which is a pickaxe, can peg onto the back.

There are wheels so that he can roll on a flat surface.  He's a retool of Legacy United Nucleous, and the only difference in vehicle mode is the robot weapon, which suits the icy theme.

Officially per the instructions, you can unpeg the back, combine it with the weapon and then attach it up front as some sort of ramming weapon (or to clear the ice?).

He comes in a three pack with Thundertron and Nightstriker, which is a weird theming combination to be fair.

A neat vehicle mode, where the rocky appearance also nicely doubles up as an icy appearance.

TRANSFORMATION:

Calcitron doesn't partsform which is great (the flipside is that he doesn't have a good weapon mode for other Transformers).  The back unfolds to become the legs, while the arms are from the sides.  Fold the two front wheels in and flip up the head and you're good.  It's a simple transformation but one that works well.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is not bad looking either, if you are not fully against the theme.

He wears a semi-significant backpack, which is the roof of the vehicle mode, although this isn't too bad especially when it is detachable (more on that later).

The other retool from from Nucleous is the new head, and it looks great.  It gives him a rocky monster type vibe.

Height-wise, he is about standard for a Deluxe.

Articulation is really good, even by the standards of contemporary Generations figures.  He has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles.  It's not just the articulation but the range of them that's great.

This is mentioned in the instructions and still not sure why this is emphasized but you can remove the wing shaped pieces from behind his forearms and peg them to behind the shins.  Maybe to fill them out a bit?  Not sure, it looks better underneath the arms anyway.

He comes with two weapons, an axe, and the roof of the vehicle mentioned earlier, which can be a shield.

First up is the axe and it looks awesome as a weapon.

The roof of the vehicle?  Not so much.  It's held awkwardly so it can't even really pass off as a gun.

You're better off just stowing the roof away on his back and ignore it completely.

A fun robot mode that looks great, despite only having two shades of blue.

OVERALL:

Calcitron benefits from a great mold, so he is a fun figure.  Although he would not be the reason you would get the set (that would be Thundertron).  Nevertheless, at least it is not a lazy retool, as some thought has been put into it with the icy theme, new head and new weapon.  So much that he doesn't feel like a rip-off.

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Biomutant (PS5)

Biomutant is an open world action game from a small developer, which makes the game all the more impressive when you first boot it up. The graphics are fantastic, making the world vibrant and colorful. Upon closer inspection, yes, there are imperfections and blurry bits, but it manages to keep up the illusion throughout most of the game. The game takes place in the future, where the world has been polluted to the point of no return. Remnants of the human world are still scattered about, and the Tree of Life is the only thing sustaining the world, but even that is slowly being poisoned, and it is up to the protagonist to solve that problem.

The game can be overwhelming at first. In the start, you set up your character, picking from a class which affects the stats, and a bunch of other stuff. Then over the course of the first few hours, the rest of the game’s systems are introduced. However, these mechanics can feel like they are not explained well, and that they do not all gel together properly. There’s just something off about the whole package, which drags the game down.

The core of the gameplay loop is exploration to get loot, so that you can get stronger and keep on going. Combat is simple, and a combination of melee and ranged attacks. The protagonist has guns which you shoot and then can also get up close to slash. There are special moves you can unlock as well as a few weapon types. Yet combat doesn’t feel deep at all, and hits lack impact, so you don’t feel like you’re properly doing damage. The camera in battles is also a bit awkward, especially when you’re trying to lock onto a specific enemy.

The loot being the biggest thing feeds into the crafting system, which is easily one of the most addictive parts of the game. You gain parts that you can use to strengthen existing weapons, or to craft completely new, stronger ones. That’s the main way to get stronger, quicker. There’s also a leveling system, where each level provides you with points to put into specific stats so you can get a character build that fits your playstyle. This gameplay loop should be the thing that keeps you going but unfortunately the bland combat doesn’t make it that satisfying.

The story is very weak. There is a permanent narrator who is providing the exposition. It is constantly talking, providing commentary when it may be unwanted, and you just wanted to explore in silence. The worst part is that all the characters in the game speak gibberish, so for dialogue, you get them speaking gibberish and then the narrator then translates. It’s a very slow and annoying way to converse. The game uses a quest system, so you go around finding new quests to complete. The main quest is simple int that you are tasked with defeating four strong enemies and is quick.

Unfortunately, the game falls into the trap of having repetitive missions in an open world. These start to become too repetitive from the middle of the game. You’re tasked with facing four major bosses, and the approach to each boss is always you doing fetch quests to find parts to get some sort of special vehicle or mount. Once you acquire the vehicle or mount, you have to use it against the bosses. This is the other big flaw of the game; these major bosses change up the gameplay to not use the battle system… rather you are forced to use the new vehicle or mount you had just acquired. Some boss battles also have a terrible design, which makes it frustrating.

While exploration is always fun, especially just searching around the place for items to pick up, for some reason, you end up having good enough equipment very soon. This is to the point that the new stuff that you find is often not better, and you end up having to scrap them. Similarly for the crafting system, it might take you a while to get enough good parts to craft a better weapon. Sidequests are plenty and you’ll be constantly unlocking them. They’re also fetch and hunt quests, but some have amazing rewards so it can be worthwhile to do.

The meat of the game is not the story, but all the other stuff. The story itself is a straightforward story with no twists, despite the semi-interesting post-apocalyptic world that has remnants of human civilization, but everything is not human. Fighting the four bosses, and conquering all the areas is repetitive and bland, and it’s short. The game takes around 10 to 15 hours to complete, if you do a healthy-ish dose of the side content. After which you can go back before the final boss and just keep on exploring, although it'll be the same stuff that you’ve already seen.

Overall, Biomutant, considering its small development team, is an impressive game. Unfortunately, it’s not an amazing or even a solid game. There are a lot of flaws, mainly concerning the mission structure and the poor story. Both are too repetitive and simple. The combat is off, feeling too floaty. However, there are pockets of potential where it can be addictive and fun, such as the exploration and crafting mechanics. If you have time, it’s worth a dabble, going in fully knowing and expecting these flaws.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy United Star Raider Nightstrike (Micromaster)

Review:  #844

Name:  Nightstrike

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Star Seeker

Line:  Generations - Legacy: United

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Micromaster

Mold Status:  redeco of Generations Selects Skar (itself a retool of Siege Ratbat)

ALTERATE MODE:

Nightstrike is a black and white redeco of Skar, or probably more familiar to you, was Siege Ratbat.

Officially he transforms into a "shield", but we all know it's the equivalent of a tape / block for Soundwave.  The back is a little bit insubstantial though.

As a Micromaster, he is quite small.  Above is a comparison against a Deluxe.

He comes in a three-pack along with Thundertron and Calcitron, although he's more paired towards Thundertron (you'll see why in robot mode).  It's not really a good alternate mode to be honest, and lost even more purpose as he isn't even supposed to fit into Soundwave anymore.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is fine, the wings flip out from the back and you rotate it down.  Push down the head, and flip down the tiny feet.

ROBOT MODE:

Despite how bad the alternate mode looked, the robot mode is great, and looks awesome as a robotic bat.

He has two tiny feet but still surprisingly manages to stand fairly easily.

Head sculpt is okay, it's a bit harder to make out the details with the black and white color scheme used.

Articulation is not great, basically you can only swivel his wings up and down.  The splash of teal added isn't too bad either.

He is designed to interact with Thundertron by perching on his right shoulder.  There are two slots there that correspond to his legs.

Just based on that interaction alone makes Nightstrike an awesome robot.

OVERALL:

If you're going to get the set, it wouldn't be for Nightstrike.  He does add value though, as being able to perch on Thundertron's shoulder is surprisingly cool.

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