"Genji - Days of the Same Ol' Blade"

Genji Days of the Blade is one of the launch titles available with Playstation 3, and one of the very few PS3 Exclusive titles. It actually serves as an interesting parallel to the PS3 system itself. Its beatiful, it's fast and it does nothing completely new. For some of us this is not an issue (I belong in this group) for others they will not be able to look past the legacy camera system, semi-static environments and absolutely linear path of the game. The fact is, if you enjoyed Onimusha, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, Demon Stone, or the previous Genji Game and the like, you will enjoy this game.

Graphics - This game is absolutely gorgeous, especially at 720P not only are the graphics impressive from a technical standpoint, the art direction is absolutely fantastic. The character costumes, weapons and effects are hands down some of the best I have ever seen. If someone were to give me a code to turn off all of the cutscenes, enemy aggression, and obstacles I would walk slowly through the world this game portrays just to see everything. Its that good.

Sound - The sound of the game is hit and miss. The quality is high and most of the effects are excellent. Some of the music (treasure vault) was so abrasive and reptitious I found myself wanting to turn it off. Other times during the game I wanted to turn the music up.

Controls - The character control is excellent and responsive for the most part. I went into the options and turned on the motion sensing option and it really didn't have a dramatic impact on the game as all it changed was the fact that I could do evasive flips forward, back, left or right by tilting the controller instead of pushing the appropriate direction wth the right thumbstick. Frankly I found using the thumbstick easier and faster.

Storyline - I thought the story was excellent , the one issue I had was that the story is very centered around Yoshitsune and I found myself more interested in some of other characters. The voice acting is well done during the cutscenes as well.

Depth - I think one of the things that has been overlooked with this game is the strong role playing elements and how they affect the game play. I am most comfortable playing as Lady Shizuka for example. I have upgraded her health, weapon , mana pool using the exp points I have earned (mana, orbs, shards) so she is very effective.

Gameplay - This is really what the game boils down to, and while I agree there are times the camera is not your greatest ally, the combat is fun. There are times where you will feel very powerful and will obliterate many enemies on the screen and in those times you may think to yourself this game is incredible. But shortly after you have that realization you will move your character and the camera will get stuck behind a box and you will realize that this game is more like an ......

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/06