Way of the Samurai

"The Samurai Are Slightly Flawed"

Intro
To start, this is a wonderful game. It has many options, such as changing the look of your character. It is not a full-fledged create-a-character type option. You change the look of your character by choosing one of the pre-made faces and a pre-made body. There are many swords, and many techniques to go with them. The game features story branches that can change the way your game ends.

Gameplay - 8/10
This game is short. Playing the first time through, it's about a 2 hour game. After that, you'll know the basics of fighting (which I will not go into detail on, for there is a tutorial in the game which will teach you), the game lasts about an hour. There are six different endings, and the choices you make in the game can change things either slightly or drastically. Sword fighting is done by pressing L1, which unsheathes and sheathes your sword. The square button is used for weak attacks, and the triangle button is used for strong attacks. Some attacks are done with extra buttons pressed. The reason I gave it an 8 was because of the aforementioned shortness.

Graphics - 7/10
This is no Metal Gear Solid 2 or Final Fantasy X in terms of graphics. They are merely mediocre. Some parts are astounding though, such as the evening sunset at the Shrine (an area in the game). The camera has a few problems, and the characters are nicely detailed. Again, nothing totally amazing.

Sound - 6/10
The background music is fine, nothing wrong with it. I barely noticed the background music at all, except when it would become loud during fights. The clangs of swords hitting each other sounds nice, but what really made the sound have a mediocre score was the 'talking' of the characters. None of them really talk, just give little sounds like 'Ah!' or 'Huh' once in a while. It gets annoying at times.

Replay Value - 10/10
This is where the game shines. You can replay the game over and over and like it for reasons like training your sword to become a killing machine, or to earn all the rankings and endings, or to obtain all the swords available in the game. You earn game points at the end of the game, and for getting a certain amount of points you gain new options, such as new modes or new clothing and new faces for your character.

Overall 8/10
It's a nice game for renting, but the short length and the mediocrity of some areas of the game hinder it from being a must buy. Still a nice game overall, though. :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/02, Updated 07/31/02