Way of the Samurai 2

"I was a samurai, walking into a town...."

I had played Way of The Samurai, and loved it's open-endedness. But it was short, like the sakura petals in summer. So when Way of The Samurai 2 was announced, I knew I was ready to kick samurai butt!

Way of the Samurai 2 is much longer than the first game. It spans around ten days, with each day divided into 4 times. The good part is you can now save during the game, a feature sorely missed from the first. The town now is also bigger, there's more characters to interact with, and jobs to carry out. All in all, it's about the same as the first game, only on a much grander scale.

Way of the Samurai is open-ended. I mean really open-ended. You can do almost anything you want in the game. Wanna buy a ginseng but don't have the money? Run away when they ask for payment! Don't like the way that young lady across the street is looking at you? Introduce her to mister katana and let her taste blood. You can do anything in this town. It's like putty in your hands......

And I was a ronin...

Way of the Samurai has a storyline, mind you. You are a wondering samurai who finds his way to Amahara, a small town that is being fought over by two factions. The Aoto Gang, a bunch of Yakuza's, and the Magisterates, the policemen of the place. Every action you do will affect the outcome of the game. Help the Aota's and the Magisterates will fall. Help the Magisterates and Aota will be no more. Kill everyone, and....err..... Well, let's just say everyone will die. You can play any type of person. I've been trying to be a true samurai(good guy) while my brother was the mass-murderer. And he's having more fun than me..... Darn.

.....walking underneath the stars ......

The graphics for Way of the Samurai 2 are okay. They aren't breathtaking, but manage to capture the essence of semi-medivel Japan. Voice-acting is mediocre. The English voice actors don't really convey much feeling at all. However, this is only true for the cut-scenes. There aren't much in game voices, and most of them are simple Japanese words or grunts. Thankfully, the soundtrack for this game is okay. No J-pop or heavy metal or rock. Just normal, slow background sound like crickets and all.

.... swinging my katana ....

There are fights in the game, depending on how you play. Of course, my mass murdering brother has racked up 80+ kills in a single game compared to my puny 20 kills. Fights are pretty simple, with two types of slashes, combo moves and parries. However, parries will save your life in this game. If you can correctly guess the type of slash the enemy will do, you can parry and instant kill the enemy in a cool looking pose. This really is good and helps alot, especially when you're taking down almost 10 enemies with only one attack per person, ala a real samurai.

....... until i am no more.

Overall, Way of the Samurai 2 is a great game to play. It's open-endedness will leave you with hours of gameplay as you try to get all 12 endings. And since you can do almost anything, you can just kill, kill, kill without caring. It is a great game with a good story and cool fighting system. You should seriously try this game at least once. However, if you don't really like open-ended games, or fighting games, the pass this one.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04