Genji: Dawn of the Samurai

"This Game is Proof that the only reason Dungeon Siege is popular is because of quests"

Intro: This game is about two Japanese samurias theyre on a mission collect Amahagane is a magical sphere used to slow down time; apparently thats's all it can do for Yoshisune, the main character, but for other people it can cast some powerful spells like in the hands of the Heishi, the evil group which conquered Japan during a war between the Genji clan and the Heishi. So to kick start the game Heishi troops come after Yoshisune and with the help of a friend he fends them off and is taken to a pagoda with someone who asks him to fight for them.

There might be a glimmer of hope to this very bad game. There was a town! A town, can you believe it? As if this game was going to be as long as Final Fantasy Games instead of taking only 7-10 hours of gameplay, but no, there were two buildings I believe, and only 4 extra people to talk to. There was a weapon shop, and a guy who sells bracelets or something.
This game took me about 8 hours to finish. and I hated almost every minute of it...

So the main adventure is sort of like a normal rpg. You come to town get some information, get some weapons, some armor, kill some people, better weapons, find hidden places, get a new party member, travel around, raid mansions, make battle plans with your allies, kill some people and level up, save game once in awhile. kill some more people get the strategy to kill that final boss on Gamefaqs, and if, the big "and if", you want to, restart the game. But in the course of all this something is missing, oh thats right (lightbulb) there are no quests, nothing to do with all this armor, weaponry and bracelets and such crap. all gone to waste after a 2 minute battle with the final boss.

This game could compensate the fact that there are no quests, by adding some magic spells that Yoshisune can cast. like the other guys. Or perhaps allow you to co-op with another player by controlling both Yoshisune and Benkei- oh man, just thinking about it I would imediatly give this game a ten out of ten, trust me if you finish this game you'd agree. Maybe could add some towns some bosses an ultimate boss like Sephiroth (from kh1 and kh2). They speak in Japenese which kind of annoys me, althogh it's being authentic, there should be an option for english voices, like DBZ Tenkaichi, I usually like to have a snack during cutscenes(I know I'm spoiled) but I have "to pay attention to the unreadable skinny text a the bottom, geuss they wanted to save some extra bucks if they're selling in Japan. Anyway, onto the ratings.

Story:7/10
The story follows a Japenese legend, except for the two scenes of magic, they did a good job, which isn't a good thing considering the horrible Lord of the Rings games for the PS2. The thing I do like is that every new event eventually leads into another event which isn't the companies doing but the writer's.

Graphics: 8/10
The FMV graphics can't compare to Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts graphics but considering all the light greens and pinks and other vibrant colors it fit like the perfect puzzle. the camera did a close up of tree one time and i compared it to Kingdom hearts trees, suprisingly it was better. All in All graphics were good most of the time, it was smooth and fluid like. The graphics are better at night though.

Characters: 5/10
At least in Genji they defined the characters with a minimum of two characteristics (unlike a lot of other games) for example:
Yoshisune-brave, cunning
Evil Guy#1- greedy, fat, stubborn
Evil Guy#2- follows the motto "Some People Just Don't Learn, and I'm One of Them", murderous

Rent or Buy?
Obviously rent, that is if you even want to play this game, rent if you want some cheap fun, some decent graphics and two tough guys beating the crap out of hundreds and hundreds of people.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/06