7 Blades

"Hardcore action in medieval Japan, with a touch of cinematic magic"

I was doing a search on the Internet to see if I could find a copy of Hayashi Kaizou's ''Zipang'' on DVD when I happened across a preview for a game called ''7 Blades'' by Konami for the Playstation 2. Based on characters from Hayashi's film along with a healthy dose of fantasy and pseudo high-tech mixed in, the genre has been faithfully reproduced with the welcome return of the film's two main protagonists, Jigoku Gokurakumaru and Teppou Oyuri. Jigoku is a tough, hard talking sword wielder who works his magic with the 7 blades of the game's title, while Oyuri favours the pistol she used in ''Zipang'' along with an array of other weapons featuring a shotgun, machinegun, and grenade launcher. Also making a welcome return is Togizou serving as Jigoku's sword caddy, and ninja leader Hanzou, as brutally efficient and interfering as ever.

''7 Blades'' is a story-driven action game, having a lot more in common with the scrolling beat-'em-up games popular during the eighties and early nineties than the RPG and one-on-one fighting games which rule the console game roost nowadays. But that's what makes it fun. Lots of mindless violence with a great story mixed in. Sure, it has it's cliche dramatic moments, but these are offset by some nice comedy and a desire to learn more about the mysterious and bizarre events unfolding around the characters.

Graphically, the game looks very nice, suffering from occasional slowdown when things get intense or characters crowd close to the camera. It's not dreadful and never slows the game to an utter crawl, but it would be nicer if it was absent. The chief gripe most people will have with the game is camera control. Characters lock onto enemies in an N64 Zelda style, but they lock onto onscreen enemies they are facing, meaning if the character is facing out of the screen (toward the viewer) and being pursued you aren't going to auto-lock onto the bad guys to dish out a healthy serving of feudal-Japanese justice. Fortunately, the camera can be rotated through 360 degrees with the L1 and R1 buttons so if you enforce control on it (which you'll quickly learn to) you'll never find yourself in a tricky spot. Character modelling is very nice with a fairly high polygon count on the characters. The animation is good too, watching Oyuri feeling mellow-mellow after eating some peaches, or Jigoku catch a bottle of wine flung by Togizo to restore his health, it really adds character. And the full motion video cut scenes look lovely, definitely adding to the feel of the game and drawing in the player. If you are a fan of Zipang you won't be disappointed here. And to respond to another reviewers complaint that the bullets in the game are little dots, the weaponry used in the game (with the exception of the grenade launchers) shoot ball bearings. The bullets are little round dots, because they're meant to be.

Sound is also excellent, the voice acting catching the feel of the characters along with some well written diaglogue which convey the characters' personalities and motivations. The only down side is some sound effects (such as gun blasts and so on) get cut out on occasion when characters are speaking during battle, which does detract from the feeling of being there.

And now what most people consider to be the sticky point of the game: gameplay. As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, this is a story-driven action game. This means apart from running around killing things (lots and lots of things), and solving the occasional puzzle you aren't going to find much variety. Certain bosses do require some thought and variation on the theme to defeat them (which goes beyond the painful Doom tradition of circle-strafe and blast away) but at the end of the day, the game is just about killing things and being a part of a film. If you don't like action or have no interest in a fantasy version of Japanese history don't bother with this game. You won't like it. But with the sheer scale of the battles with the screen literally full of enemies all looking for your blood, action fans cannot help but enjoy it. And it's the neat touches like hiding in some scarecrows to escape attacking birds that lend this action game a cinematic touch of class.

Control is relatively simple. Oyuri runs around locking onto foes to plug them full of lead (but watch the ammo, only her pistols are unlimited). She can also climb onto buildings and snipe from a first person perspective, and she has a roll to evade attacks while getting to point blank range. Jigoku uses a kicks and charges, short sword combos, and a special sword strike whenever his charge bar has raised high enough. These special strikes can really lay waste to a roomful of enemies with ease, especially with the game's penultimate sword. Starting with only two blades Jigoku acquires more swords as he progresses each with remarkably unique attributes, and you really will be switching between swords in different situations as they all have their strengths and weaknesses. This is immense fun, but be warned, Jigoku's wider arsenal also has him in much tougher situations than Oyuri, especially since he must close with foes to dispatch them - quite a problem when facing a line of eight snipers.

Replayability, like most action games is so-so. I found nothing to unlock and after you've played through the two different scenarios with Oyuri and Jigoku you may not have much to come back to. That said, I work and am time-poor so the 5-10 hours I spent playing this was more than enough to justify the purchase, and I'll definitely go through at least one more time because the story was so enjoyable. This is more than I can say for battle padded RPGs like Final Fantasy X which is still sitting on my shelf unfinished.

For fans of uniquely Japanese games, good solid action, or just something quick to plug in occasionally I would definitely suggest a look. Poor students might want to give it a rent first though.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/01, Updated 07/17/02