Genji: Dawn of the Samurai

"Genji = Onimusha....no, not really at all actually"

Intro
Sure, many of the same people worked on Genji and Onimusha, but that doesn't mean they are the same style, let alone the same game. (And even though Xplay showed some kind of similarity between the opening movies, if you actually watch the comparison they show, Onimusha and Genji's beginning fmv's share similar ideas of a large battle but nothing else.)

Gameplay
The first and the greatest departure from Onimusha, gameplay. Genji, has the usual fair of a few basic combos; which can be created using various methods, which includes a (gasps!) jump ability (which onimusha lacked.) And though you *can* fight off enemies with those combos, the developers gave the gamer a better tool, the power of Kamui.

The Power of Kamui derives from a small jewel, Amahagane, that gives the user enhanced physical abilities as well "special" skills. Now you could think that there's a similarity to Onimusha's elemental weapons; but not at all. There is only one function of the Amahagane, and that's to slow time, up to three times, then being able to effectively counter every attack thrown at you. It is extremely fun learning how use this system properly.

Though, if you're not in the mood at the immediate moment to use this style of combat's quirk, you can just slash your way through everything. Granted, it will take alot longer for the bosses, and in the case of some, the end two for sure...?, are impossible to beat without Kamui. And besides, with as stylistic as using it is, why wouldn't you want to use it? Even then however, there is something else for those of you who think you're too good for the game telling you when to slash and kill your opponents almost always instantly, yeah some might take a few Kamui's. And that's the counter system that exists and it functions just like Kamui. You'll actually see it uses the same timing you would counter during Kamui. All it takes is you facing the enemy and attacking at just the right moment, with no prompt and no usage of a Kamui bar (Yes that rings true to Onimusha's combat system as well.)

There are also upgrades that can be divided up amongst your stats, Strength, Defense and Health. New weapons can be purchased or ordered, through acquiring special resources that are dropped by enemies when you use a successful Kamui against them (yet another reason to use Kamui.) The same can also be said for armor. Weapons will actually grant, depending on which weapon it is, special attributes such as siphoning health from the enemy for your own healing or your physical strength increasing as you progressively attack a foe.

Music
Something I've found to be even more important now that I'm a matured gamer, the music. I had actually found the soundtrack before the game had been released stateside, having already been anticipating its release, and if there's one thing you cannot discount from Genji it's the artist flair of the game; the music alone. The sound track has some 30 tracks and each is very well done. There is no rock, or techno to heard from here, all of it is very period styled music, which is excellent. In game sadly, it tends to be tough to hear exactly what you're listening to, that is if you're like me and you're focusing to not miss any button presses within Kamui. Thusly, the soundtrack, if anything, is worth looking in to. Though I suppose you'd be fine if you were the kind of person to juice the music and lower the sound effects while playing.

Visuals
Right, above I mentioned how artistic this game looks: very picturesque, colorful, lush environments. The environments in this game are brilliant. If you want something with eye candy in it, then Genji delivers. My specific favorite is a duel that occurs while the sun is setting in the background. All of it just sets the mood and tone of the game perfectly.

Replay
Ehhh, yeah. I love action games that have unlockable characters, or alternate characters to replay the game with, ala Megaman X4. However, Genji tends to take you by the hand and forces you to play as Yoshitsune *and* Benkei. Which isn't a complete problem, but I prefer to play solely as one character, *then* as the other. Fortunately, the game rarely forces you, in my case, to play Benkei. There are of course the usual additional difficulties. But there are also "event," areas that are only accessible after the game has been beaten atleast once (such an area would be to defeat 100 enemies in succession, and not breaking your combo, which is very fun for those of you that enjoy the idea of 1 versus 8 plus enemies (they come in squads) at a time.) Also in the difficulties there's the added edge of not being allowed to level up or purchase new weapons, this makes the game a bit trickier and is something different than the average ramping of enemy strength.

Conclusion
An excellent game. If you did enjoy Onimusha you will most likely enjoy this game as well. If you didn't enjoy Onimusha, well you probably played the third one didn't you? But with all seriousness this game isn't for everyone, but then that's the truth for any game. Considering how Best Buy carries or carried the game for 20 new, it won't hurt the pocket book too much at all. If you're still unsure give it a rent, figure out what you really want, but if you were just going to do that then you wouldn't be reading this then would you?

Extra
No puzzles like Onimusha

Extremely short, "seriously," only a matter of hours long

Based off of an old old story, supposedly the first novel written?

A sequel is in the works already for the PS3

The US version has more death animations for the enemies than the Japanese version! W00ts for us!

A Japanese master swordsman was brought in for all of Yoshitsune's movement animations, not sure to what extent nor if this applies to Benkei.

The movie Gojoe entails the story of how Yoshitsune and Benkei met!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/06