Way of the Samurai

"Bushido Blade 3"

From the makers of Tenchu comes Way of the Samurai. Not really like an action, adventure, or RPG, Way of the Samurai is simply a samurai game. It's rather hard to describe, but it is very reminiscent of Bushido Blade. After being blown away by the amazing opening, the game may not be some people's cup of tea, but for those that enjoy it's unique type of gameplay, it's truly a great game.

The first thing you'll notice are it's graphics. By any standards these are not too hot. Polygon counts on everything are not too high, and textures aren't that high. On some of these I understand why, however. The polygon counts are not high on characters because there are times when there are large amounts of characters on-screen at once. So, to keep the game at a constant 60 frames per second, the body counts need to be lowered. Also, some areas allow you to travel across large spans of land. So, the textures also suffered. However, what I cannot forgive is the fact that despite this, there is still alot of popup. And, it is really irritating. Sometimes I'll be wondering where to go and suddenly a hill pops up in front of my face.

But if the graphics shine in any area, then it would have to be character faces. Despite somewhat blocky characters, the facial features on them are amazing. Features have crisp textures and are very detailed. The cinematics in the game are decent, although after watching the opening they are rather disappointing (much like Suikoden 3).

The gameplay can be critiqued in two sections: Combat-wise and story-wise.

Story-wise, the game is an open book. The large innovation of the game comes from this. Every part of the game is determined by the decisions you make. You start off as a no-name Samurai simply wandering around. Soon you encounter a gang of thugs kidnapping a girl. Depending on what you do, the game changes. You can choose to help her, and she might invite you to her restaurant for lunch. You can choose to join the thugs, and continue with the poor girl's kidnapping. Or, you can be a homicidal maniac and simply kill everyone. The whole game pretty much works this way. You run across 3 main ''sides'' of the game. There are the two rival clans, and the townspeople. The decisions all revolve around these three, and almost all of the decisions will usually fall into those 3 styles of play. You can be loyal to one side, double-cross and go to another side, or remain neutral and kill everything. The game is totally free for you to go about as you please, and if you don't feel like even ending it you can quit it at any time, since the game only takes place over two days.

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage to the game. On the upside, it allows for a nonlinear game with total freedom. But on the downside, all of the choices mean that neither side can really become developed at all. Everything always remains rather vague, since like in an Akira Kurosawa film, the samurai simply jumps into a situation and takes it from there. The characters, while likeable enough, often come across as stereotypical or even racist (I say racist due to the black character in the game with an afro and a break-dancing sword style).

The gameplay part can simply be described as Bushido Blade if it was a beat'em'up. The game mechanics and basics are almost identical to Bushido Blade, down to moving in circular motions when approaching an enemy, and pressing a shoulder button to run away from it. But, whereas Bushido Blade had extremely deep actual combat, Way of the Samurai's is dumbed down a bit, so more enemies can be fought. Instead, the real depth lies within the swords. You start off with one sword, and then after killing some enemies, you pick up the swords off their bodies and keep them for yourself. There is a blacksmith to help modify them, but he is rarely used.

At first, it seems irritating that you can only carry three swords, because after killing a certain enemy they'll drop a rare sword which you want to pick up. But after you play it enough, you'll realize why this is. The swords in the game are essentially your buddies. The more you fight with a sword, the better you become. As you fight, the sword learns new moves and combos, and even improves older ones. Really the whole point of the game is developing the swords. You fight through hoards of enemies and tons of soldiers learning new moves. Using different techniques and different strategies the swords will actually grow differently. If that wasn't enough, they are already incredibly deep to start with. Almost all of them fall into a group with a certain style of combat, and some have unique ones. So, the game is made short so you can build your swords up, and then use them again.

The RPG elements involved with this are what make the game great. You become attached to your weapon, and have tons of fun going through and slaughtering everyone with your new combos, or your sword with super buffed up stats. What's even more fun is how some swords actually make your character agile, and some swords will have him flipping up and over doing tons of acrobatics while fighting. However, the game is plagued with somewhat irritating control and an awful camera. While it is controllable in select places, most of the game takes place in claustrophobic areas with pre-rendered backgrounds, making it impossible to fight effectively at points.

The music, while amazing for the songs it has, has very few. Most of the time it just plays a long flute/piano tune while you're on the main world. While this is nice and I like it alot, some more variety would have been nice. But it does establish the Meji Japan mood quite well. Sound consists of the realistic sounds of sword clashing, some munching, a few physical contact noises, and some grunting from the characters. The grunting, while hilarious, is irritating to US and Europe fans since in the Japanese version it was actual voice acting.

While the game doesn't seem to have alot of replay value due to the unpolished look to it, it really has quite a large bit. The game has multiple endings, extra costumes to unlock, and even a battle mode for you to fight in, along with unlockable fighters. Then there's the many times you will play through the game to get the endings or to get all of the swords. Then there's the many times you will play through the game building up your sword until you have a sword with all moves and secret combos learned with pumped up stats and 100% moves avoided (meaning you will automatically block all moves).

At heart, this is an amazing game. Combining the fun sword fighting of Bushido Blade with a nonlinear story, this could've been a 5 star game. However, a lack of polish due to being a low budget game hurt it very much. Had the makers put serious funds into it, it would've been one of the best games this generation. Still, it has a nice charm to it, and I know I'll be playing it for a long time.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/20/03