In celebration of The Last of Us Day 2021, the first image from The Last of Us HBO series has been revealed and it shows Pedro Pascal's Joel and Bella Ramsey's Ellie in the post-apocalyptic world made famous in the PlayStation exclusive of the same name.

While we don't get to see their faces, the image gives fans of The Last of Us and newcomers an idea of how these characters will be adapted for this live-action series.

Look for the light @HBO #TLOUDay pic.twitter.com/fl5ZCP7MG7

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) September 27, 2021

Developing…

CyberConnect2 has established itself as one of the best in the business when it comes to anime-to-video-game adaptations, with the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series standing tall as some of the most faithful and visually spectacular of that group, along with Dragon Ball Z Kakarot offering up an extremely respectable take on the storied legacy of DBZ.

The team’s next project is the truly excellent anime, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and based on my early experience with The Hinokami Chronicles, it’s exactly what you’d expect from CyberConnect2: absolutely jaw-dropping recreations of Demon’s Slayer’s most memorable story moments, approachable combat with some of the wildest super moves you’ll ever see, and more than a few rough edges, but none sharp enough to dampen the excitement of a big Demon Slayer fan.

If you’ve played any of the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, a lot about The Hinokami Chronicles’ story mode will be very familiar. This is an abridged retelling of the story of Demon Slayer, covering the events all the way up to the end of the first season, focusing primarily on the biggest moments of the 26-episode anime. Hinokami Chronicles actually takes a page out of the playbooks of the first two Ultimate Ninja Storm games by putting you directly in the shoes of its main characters, whether that's Tanjiro, Zenitsu, or Inosuke, and lets you wander around its world, talking to NPCs, finding collectible memories that unlock scenes from the anime and sniffing out demon scents that lead you towards your eventual destination.

You’ll also do battle with plenty of non-canonical enemies in the form of basic demons, which tend to just leap out of thin air and attack you in certain areas, but the real stars of this mode are the big battles against the main villains of each arc. These are epic fights against foes that can power themselves up and become all but impervious to your attacks, forcing you to fight against them very differently than you would a normal enemy in versus mode. Deal enough damage to them and you’ll trigger one of CyberConnect2’s famous QTE-laden finales that are nearly shot-for-shot recreations of the same climatic scenes from the anime using in-engine visuals. These are truly a sight to behold and only serve to further prove that CyberConnect2 is the master of bringing anime spectacle to the world of video games.

Fighting mechanics-wise, The Hinokami Chronicles will also be pretty familiar to those who play arena fighters, especially those who played CyberConnect2’s previous games, even though there are some pretty substantial differences. But on a basic level, there’s one button for attacks, and that button can be mashed for a basic combo, or modified by holding up to launch them into an air combo, or held down for a combo that ends in a hard knockdown. Each character has three special moves that generally enable them to extend these combos, end them emphatically with a big chunk of damage, or provide some other form of utility. Urokodaki, for instance, can use his third special move to lay a trap on the ground, Inosuke can use his to bullrush through attacks, and Tanjiro’s can be used much like an invincible wake up attack.

Special moves are tied to a blue special meter that also governs your ability to use things like jump cancels and dodge cancels, so it becomes very important to be mindful about it as a limited resource tied to some of your most important techniques. It also doesn’t regenerate while dodging, but regenerates quickly if you’re able to pause for a second and not press any buttons.

One of the biggest differences in Hinokami Chronicles is the inclusion of a combo timer, which seems to be used primarily as a way to prevent infinites, but also smartly encourages and rewards some riskier play. When you perform a standard combo, an orange combo timer will countdown the remaining time you have before the opponent automatically jumps out and resets to a neutral position. The move that begins the combo is what determines the length of your combo meter. Certain characters, like Zenitsu for instance, have far reaching special moves that can begin a combo from nearly full screen, and in cases like these, the combo timer will be red and be fairly short. Inosuke on the other hand has a rekka style special move that gets a green combo timer, giving him a massive amount of time to deal big damage if he lands it.

Where things get interesting is when you’re able to use a risky parry to deflect an enemy attack with perfect timing. Landing one of these also gets you a green combo timer and really lets you add on some massive damage. It’s a great example of risk vs. reward and also limits that awful feeling of just being stuck in a combo for an eternity and not being able to do anything about it.

Hinokami Chronicles is also a 2-on-2 fighter, with your partner being tied to a two-bar meter with both offensive and defensive options. You can spend one bar to call your teammate in to do one of their two assist attacks, and you can hold the tag button down to swap them out, though it’s important to note that you both share the same life bar. Crucially, though, you can also spend both bars to have your partner come in and scoop you out of a combo, which can save your life and also put you in an advantageous position.

On top of all of that there are also push blocks, guard weakening strong attacks that can power through light attacks, a special powerup mode that increases the strength of your attacks, another power up called Surge mode that temporarily gives you unlimited meter, and of course, the aforementioned super moves that are among some of the most impressive you’ll ever see.

All this to say that despite the fact that Demon Slayer’s combat is simple on the surface level and may initially come across as being shallow, it’s easy to see that a lot of thought has been put into some of the deeper mechanics.

Overall, The Hinokami Chronicles is shaping up to be a promising start for what is almost sure to be a series of Demon Slayer games. The story mode looks to meet the same standard of quality set by Ultimate Ninja Storm and Kakarot, and the fighting mechanics are familiar, but feel thoughtfully tweaked both to more match Demon Slayer’s fighting style and to improve upon some of the weaker parts of Cyberconnect2’s prior games. We’ll find out how the rest of the game fares when Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles releases on October 13, 2021 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

This Sunday has brought with it a nice selection of tech and home deals. Looking to get the latest iPad? You're in luck, as several models are currently on sale over at Amazon. We've also got some handy deals on fun RGB Smart Lights, gaming mice from Razer, a great air purifier and more!

Daily Deals for September 26th, 2021

Back in Stock (Including 1TB Model): WD Black SN850 M.2 SSD with Heatsink

The Western Digital official storefront has all models of the SN850 SSD with heatsink in stock right now, and that includes the extremely hard to find 1TB model. This is currently the most popular (and probably the best) SSD to get for your PS5 storage upgrade. It's blazing fast drive with transfer speeds rated at up to 7,000 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface and it comes preinstalled with a heatsink. It's also confirmed by Western Digital themselves to be compatible with the PS5.

Video Game Deals

More Daily Deals for September 24

Benedetta was reviewed out of the New York Film Festival, where it made its world premiere. It will debut in theaters on Dec. 3.

Master provocateur Paul Verhoeven — known for erotic thrillers Showgirls and Basic Instinct, but also for biting sci-fi satires Robocop and Starship Troopers — returns for the first time in five years with Benedetta, a French-language period biopic that’s far less concerned with facts and details, and far more preoccupied with matters of the spirit and the flesh. Set in 17th century Tuscany, the film retells the rise and fall of Benedetta Carlini, a Catholic abbess whose undoing, according to some historical accounts, was owed to her lofty egotism, though most attribute it to her lesbian relationship with a fellow nun, Sister Bartolomea. The blasphemous subject matter is right up Verhoeven’s alley, and he crafts a suitably salacious piece. It may not have anything novel to say about religion or desire, but its presentation of sexual and political power makes for an incredibly enjoyable 127 minutes.

As a child, young Benedetta has a unique relationship to the Virgin Mary, whose statuette appears to grant her mystical wishes. This opens up an important avenue for her middle-class family, who’s able to enroll her in a prestigious convent under the tutelage of the stone-faced Sister Felicita (Charlotte Rampling), albeit for a hefty dowry, which qualifies Benedetta as a “bride of Christ.” From the get-go, the film unfolds at the hypocritical intersection of money, power, and religion, which feel so intrinsically bound here that even supposed miracles by Benedetta are looked upon, first and foremost, as a means to political ends. The overarching plot is constantly contorted by these larger forces, but a more intimate story emerges just as quickly, when a newly enrolled Benedetta is instructed, in no uncertain terms, that she must not feel comfortable in her skin (“Your worst enemy is your body,” she’s told).

After this brief prologue, the main story begins 18 years into Benedetta’s stint at the abbey, where her waking thoughts are often consumed by bizarre visions of a heroic Christ, who appears to her as a knight and slays serpents with his sword, as if he were protecting her from Biblical sin. It’s incredibly absurd, and oh so fun to watch. Benedetta is played, as an adult, by Virginie Efira, whose chemistry with Bartolomea actress Daphne Patakia is immediately palpable as soon as the latter arrives. Bartolomea, a traumatized, rough-around-the-edges newcomer to the convent, makes no secret of her feelings for Benedetta, who ends up quickly lured into bed and tempted out of her forcefully reserved demeanor.

The movie wastes little time in having the characters find excuses to be alone, because their journey isn’t so much about discovery or innocent intimacy as it is about the way their explosive sexualities are swiftly mapped onto the existing structures in and around the convent. The story they’re telling is, by and large, a story that’s already unfolding around them, in silent glances and quiet power plays elsewhere, only their version of the tale is told with their bodies. Efira and Patakia light up the screen when their characters are swept up in ecstasy, and as their story advances, each subsequent sexual encounter becomes an opportunity for Benedetta to let loose her ambition and exert new forms of power.

Cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie brings a skilled and measured eye to these sequences. Her camera never shies away from nudity — doing so would only run counter to a story about characters breaking free from bodily shame — but her lighting subtly draws our gaze towards the characters’ faces during sexual acts, no matter what’s in the frame. However, their bare bodies are lit evenly during scenes where their physicalities, and the way they move across the screen, are meant to signify change. Sometimes the nudity is playful, as Benedetta and Bartolomea’s frolic signifies a steadily increasing comfort. Other times, it becomes an opportunity for Efira to saunter and stand tall over Patakia, and for Benedetta to seize control of their sexual dynamic, just as she begins to climb the abbey’s hierarchical ladder.

These stories of sexual and political power run parallel to one another, and their clash proves to be a source of personal conflict for Benedetta — a woman as committed to Christ as she is to herself — but the film seldom explores their broader overlap in any meaningful thematic sense (despite one particularly provocative use of the Virgin Mary’s image). It often skirts close to exploring the intersection of suffering with both religion and sexuality, but its instances of spiritual and physical masochism are barely woven together, despite the presence of self-flagellating rituals; the extent of Verhoeven’s commentary on the matter is limited to fleeting, unspoken exchanges. However, the edit’s fleeting nature works wonders for the movie’s surprisingly snappy dialogue, which takes conversations about spirituality and laces them with piercing snark. To slow down and linger on these exchanges would be a disservice, given how unrelentingly funny the film ends up being.

Despite its lack of meaningful visual exploration, Benedetta is gorgeous to look at, from the way its dim, candle-lit chambers illuminate sweat and bodily contours, to how its borderline farcical blood-red wash during several scenes matches Efira’s volatile performance. Benedetta is a woman caught somewhere between madness and liberation. When she lays down holy edicts, she does so in a voice that may or may not be her own, offering Efira and the actors around her the chance to play within a wonderfully theatrical space, where the operatic is allowed to clash with the naturalistic, and where there are few limits to what a performance can achieve. When Benedetta assumes poses and positions reminiscent of religious paintings, Efira rides a delicate line, radiating a Christ-like mercy while allowing brief displays of opportunism to pierce her holy veil.

The sly way Benedetta recreates Biblical imagery calls into question the nature of that imagery in the first place. This simple idea is perhaps Verhoeven’s most overt critique of religious institutions — how holy can something truly be, if it can so easily be aped and bastardized? — but the inevitable backlash to the film is much more likely to stem from its unapologetic displays of sensuality, and its sense of unashamed physical freedom in a religious context, a critique that ends up much more nuanced and self-assured than broad statements about religious iconography.

Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has won its fourth-straight weekend domestic box office with ticket sales of $13.3 million, holding strong against the lackluster debut of Dear Evan Hansen's $7.5 million.

As reported by Variety, Dear Evan Hansen – which cost $28 million to produce – was predicted to earn at least $10 million between Friday and Saturday of this weekend, and instead only made $7.5 million. As Variety notes, this is not as tough of a loss as Cats' $6.5 million debut was, as that musical had a budget of $100 million.

In our review of Dear Evan Hansen, we said that this adaptation of the Broadway hit "offers a moving but jarringly miscast musical about community and mental illness."

Dear Evan Hansen may have a chance to earn back more of that budget as it is only available in theaters until October 14, unlike others that arrive in theaters and streaming services on the same day.

Shang-Chi, on the other hand, continues its dominance with total domestic ticket sales equalling $196 million. This weekend also saw the film surpass Black Widow's $183 million domestic box office performance as the highest-grossing movie of the year. However, it's important to remember that Black Widow was available via Disney+ Premier Access whereas Shang-Chi is only available in theaters until Disney+ Day on November 12.

Globally, with ticket sales amounting to $166.9 million, Shang-Chi has made over $363 million since it was released in theaters on September 3.

Free Guy took third place with $4.1 million, Candyman earned the #4 spot with $2.5 million, and Clint Eastwood's Cry Macho rounded out the top five with $2.1 million in ticket sales.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.