Way of the Samurai

"The End of the Tokugawa...the creation of a masterpiece"

First, off.....let me say that NOBODY loves this game more than I do. This game is so under appreciated that it makes me sick, but to the few that have played it, they have experienced what must be one of the most potential filled ideas ever in gaming.

Do you remember those books you read back when you were a kid? (or some of you still read)? Turn to page X if you make this decision, and turn to page Y if you make this decision? Well that's the main basis of this game. You get to choose your own path the the Samurai that you create. You can be the hero, the villain, the guy who unites the families, the traitor, you can do just about whatever you want, and the fun does not stop there. Each game takes about 2 hours to beat, then you can go back and start a new path, but your stats and stuff carries over

Graphically, this game is superb. Character models are so nice, and the animations are great as well. The atmosphere at Rockutsu Pass is very well done. Environments such as mansions, forests, and villages resemble what post-Tokugawa Japan was like (or so I hear) I find the scenery in the game to be simply.....beautiful. I also just love the character models.

The sound in this game is sub-par. The soundtrack can be very entertaining, it's got kind of upbeat ancient Japanese song tunes, soft tunes for the slower parts of the game, heroic music for the final battles, and the combat music is really cool.

However, the games only real downfall is it's lack of voice acting. This game was originally meant to be a PSX game, so naturally (with it's MANY scenes and events) all that voice acting would have been impossible. So they add some grunts and stuff in there (its acutally kind of funny) and have comic book word bubbles. It's a good substitute. Other sound effects are nice though, like bloody screams and sword slashes.

You have to see all six endings to see the hole story, but all I can tell you is that the game takes place in post-Tokugawa Japan in a place not yet controlled by the Meiji called Rokotsu Pass. You control a wandering samurai who stumbles across this place where some people are trying to live peacefully while two Samurai families are constantly at war with each other. You can choose to help one of them or all of them, but it eventually leads into a good conspiracy story.

I explained the main aspect of the game earlier, but there's more to the gameplay than just making decisions over a period of two days in the game. Combat is a must for this game. There are over 40 collectable swords, and over 200 learnable techniques (each which can be learned their own way) You can choose the sword of your choice by slaying an enemy who has the one you want. There are some swords that are one of a kind, and can only be gotten from certain enemies.

Combat is very fluid and smooth. You can only target one enemy at a time, which I think is good because only one of them can target you can you don't get jumped by 5 or 6 other ''samurais'' Sword techniques are easy to execute, and defending is no problem. You can actually learn to deflect some moves without even pressing the defend button if you get really good. You basically become unstoppable once your max out your sword. And once you do that and have some fun with it, you can just start a new sword.

Other than that, the game is just unlocking stuff. There is a two player mode which is pretty fun, and there are many unlockable characters and more bodies and heads you can use to create your samurai.

Pro's
+Great graphics
+AMAZING potential
+Cool soundtrack
+Easy and fun combat

Con's
-lacks good voice acting
-Why the hell is there a samurai with an afro?

The game is severely under appreciated, and you should help spread the word about it. It's a lot better than that lousy Mark of Kri game that way released about the same time, but people tended to follow that more. I recommend this amazing game over it ANY day of the week.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/01/02, Updated 05/05/03