Way of the Samurai 2

"Don't go the way of the samurai. It leads to complete boredom."

If being a samurai is as lame as this game then I feel sorry for them. What a damn shame too. This is a action game in which you travel around town and get into the occasional swordfight or two. Let's get into it.

STORY
In Way of the Samurai 2 you play a male samurai who enters a city called Amahara. Why? Who knows, because they never say. For the rest of the game you decide this young Samurai's fate. Is he a hero? A jerk? A psychopathic killer? You be the judge! Basically you just accept missions from random groups and engage in swordfight after swordfight after swordfight.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are quite lame with everyone looking the same, including the first 3 goons you run into who look exactly the same, but each sounds completely different. Nothing amazed me here. No cool CGs, no cool moves, just bland and boring.

SOUND
The audio...is repetitive as hell. Every location in this game has the same song playing and it just drove me nuts after awhile. And the voice acting...wow. Just wow. Really dull, not Japanese sounding at all, and really irritating as well. But graphics and audio don't make the game, so let's turn to the gameplay.

GAMEPLAY
Oh wait, it's even worse. As I said the game is just constant swordfights again and again and again. The whole game takes place in this small town that has the same shop on every block. When you start the game you get the chance to look at all the places in the game, without any real place you're supposed to go to. You're never given an objective in the game, which can be really annoying when you find yourself wandering just looking for something to do. And this game is completely without a tutorial. You're literally supposed to figure out everything on your own. This can be a pain when you're constantly dying because you don't know the rules.

And guess what? When you die, you have to start over from the beginning. I'm not kidding. The game takes place over the course of 10 days. Each day can pass in like 10 minutes. The game is short, and easy if you know what you're doing. But it can also take hours if you're looking to really complete it. Though there is no reason to. You can choose to be good or evil, but really if you're evil then you can't win. Let me explain. If you're killing random villagers, working for the bad Aoto Gang, and anything evil...they won't let you buy stuff at shops. This is just stupid. Don't you think they'd be scared and forced to sell you stuff!? I shouldn't be the one freaking out and running when they call for help, especially when I kill a cop everytime I see them!

Is swordfighting at least fun? Not really. You have to manage your swings so that the sword doesn't actually break. But they won't break because of how easy it is to counter your opponents. They swing, you counter, then they die. Bosses are a real fight...but the grunts? One hit kills everytime. The endings are not amazing in any sense of the word. I won't give anything away, but they seriously they consist of you killing some random big samurai...then the screen turns black and white and they narrate the situation as you already knew it. Wow. How exciting.

IN THE END...
So listen the swordfighting isn't great, the game is boring and it never tells you what you're supposed to do, the story was really lame, the good evil aspect never really comes across, and It's just a frustrating borefest. The Way of the Samurai is a dim one. You're much better off playing samurai with your friends...though I don't encourage hacking up your friends with a samurai sword.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/06