Way of the Samurai

"The first game where you can just walk around all cool and kill things with swords. Cuz you're a samurai. And you have swords. Many swords."

Whooooo, doggy! Everyone loves the samurai dudes! And ninjas, too. I mean, just look at the samurai of the past. Rourouni Kenshin had a whole bunch of samurai, and in America it was even called Samurai X! Samurai were even in Final Fantasy! In Tactics, it was a job class, man! One of the best job classes! Don't forget Yojimbo from FFX, who had a dog to kill things for him when he was too busy bein' all cool. And Auron... Oooh boy, Auron's the BEST samurai in a video game ever! Well... Actually, he's a ronin, so I guess he'd be the best RONIN in a video game ever.

So now, YOU are the samurai. Pick his name [My samurai's name is John. John the samurai. In respects to John Belushi of Samurai General Practitioner fame.], pick his head [up to 7!], pick his outfit [up to 7 again!], and pick his sword. Of course, you only get three heads and sets of clothes at first, as well as only one sword [which isn't a BAD sword], but of course, this quickly changes.

First, let's get to the eye candy before we dig into this game. The graphics are great. The terrain is realistic, the view is spectacular, and even the rickety old houses look awesome. The character models are well-done, never blocky enough to be noticeable, yet not realistic enough to make you think these are real people and you control them with your sadistic remote control of evil. The hands are a little awkward, but it's such a minor detail that... Well, quite frankly, I just don't care.

Controls are a good thing in games. The controls in this game are good. There are a few frik-ups, though. You can accidently draw your sword out a lot, which will lower your Samurai ranking [explained later]. Oh well, no biggy. Doors, however, are a HUGE problem, despite the fact that there is only one real place where you use doors. You push a button to open a door. Sometimes, this is a problem. You have to be facing the door DIRECTLY, then push the button. Okay, you've got that down... Now walk through. ''Oh great Buddha on a cookie binge, we're in over our heads here!!'' Yeah, it's kind of hard. HOWEVER... [raise finger in a there-is-a-point-to-thisly manner]... The fighting engine saves it entirely. The entire game is based around being a samurai, right? This means, that with the sword, you can KILL things. Hard. In the head. The engine is great. You can block, parry, push people away, trip 'em, use weak and strong slashes, kick things at people, stab 'em... And it's very easy to do! The analog stick makes it annoying on some of the moves, where you have to input a certain direction and a slash button. Unfortunately, you have to have good timing, which is understandable. To sum up on this long paragraph, the controls are -great-, despite doors.

The gameplay and story will coincide, because I say so. Here's the story: You are a lone samurai in the late 19th century, walking the path of the samurai, bein' all cool... 'cause, you know, you're a frikkin' samurai. Well, you know, while you're bein' all peaceful, you then encounter Rokkotsu Pass, a quaint little area with conflicts up the wazoo. You can help out or kill anyone you want. You can go with the rich guys, aka the Kurou family, go with the rebels who look real cool, aka the Akadama gang, or go with the restaurant who houses a kind of annoying chick and an afro-weilding samurai. That place is the Amaguri. Anyway, another main part of the story is that the government is corrupt and people pick on the lesser people. The Meiji government is the main bad guy group that pisses people off, but everyone is pissed off at everyone, right? So you got to side with people. Decisions that you make in one place may directly change events in another. Or they don't and you die. Depending on your actions, you could get certain endings. Since there are up to six endings, you've got some playin' to do. Main portion of the game only takes an hour to beat, since it spans only two days. There is a pointless save option, but as I said, it's... pointless. Yeah. That part of the game is meant to be played and completed before turning off your PS2. This is pretty good, since there are soooo many frikkin' branches in the game that you could take. There are also over 60 swords [see: one more sword than sixty], each with a list of moves that you can learn as you fight with the swords. There are over 200 moves [see: indefinite. Too damn many moves!] to learn [see: kill with] and use [see: kill with more]. This means you'll play this game A LOT. Oh yeah, you can also go to a blacksmith who will strengthen your sword if you give him a small amount of money. You can make a super-cool kill-things sword with enough cash and the right sword. However, watch the durability of your sword. If it breaks, it's gone for good.

There's also the results in ranking. Depending on how honorable you were, 'cause you're a samurai, and samurais are honorable, you'll get a certain title. The highest is Ultimate Samurai. Different factors bring you to these ranks. One, how many times you draw your sword. The fewer, the better. A samurai checks all other options before causing bloodshed. Oh yeah, and they aren't arrogant. They shouldn't piss people off unless the only other decision is to be... not... honorable and stuff. Also, there's a ranking for how many you kill. Again, the fewer, the better. If you do certain things, you'll get some points. Points give you stuff when you play the game again. You can earn more outfits and heads to customize your character with. Swords, however, you have to complete the game with a few swords in your inventory in order to use them in your next game. You only carry three swords at a time, so you'll have some time on your hands trying to get them all. You can also get extra characters and locales in VS. mode in which you can kill more things in. VS. mode is great for building up your abilities, because depending on who you fight, your battles could be very easy, or simply a fight for your life.

Wah... That was a lot of typing. I swear I've got worker's comp or something... Well, here's to sum up.

Good points:
+ You're a samurai.
+ There's a great fighting engine.
+ Pretty.
+ A versus mode to kill things in.
+ Lots of swords.
+ Branching storyline.
+ Did I mention swords?
+ Be the good guy or the bad guy.
+ I swore I coulda mentioned swords...

Bad points:
- Doors.
- Hands look blocky.
- Those infernal doors.
- Some cases of glitching on saved games.
- Those doors that are PURE EVIL!!!

$50 for this game. Not a bad deal, since this is the pride and joy of Mother Replay-Value.

WARNING: Yeah, yeah, I gotta say this. Due to some bad debugging and bad scanning for glitches and bugs in the game, it DOES lock up every now and then. It seems that it's usually because of the save system. If you got a problem with the game, get a different copy. Not all games have glitches in the same area.

So I've said my crap. To sum up, there are a few types of people who will like this game: Those who like samurais, those who like swords, those who like samurais and swords, those who like killing things, those who are honorable, those who REALLY like swords, and those who don't know what they're doing so they'll walk around and do whatever they feel like. Since that covers just about EVERYONE... I'll have to say that everyone will love this game, so everyone should buy it. This game will be a horrible plague that rots us away into nothingness, staring at the screen, silently contemplating, then uttering these words... ''Dona Dona, you darn chicken, grow some balls and kill things.''

... Or it could just be a really cool game that a lot of people will like. Pray for a sequel, people! It deserves it! That's all I got to say [finally], so so long, farewell, and ''Moshi-moshi!'' ... Whatever the hell that means...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/02, Updated 06/12/02