Genji: Days of the Blade

"Genji: Not bad, but not perfect either"

This is my first review so don't hate me if it's short or lacks great detail.

Visual: I'd probably give the visuals in this game a 9. This visuals and graphics are top notch for this game. CG movies are absolutely breath taking, with fine detail put into everything from facial expressions into individual hair and grass pieces. In game itself is great as well. Everything looks really smooth and the fire effects you see in the beginning actually look like fire. Imagine that. Only problem I had was that the non-CG cutscenes looked rushed and halfassed. I honestly thought the ingame graphics were better than the cutscenes which seems ironic. But cutscenes are usually short and few in numbers so overall visuals gets a solid 9.

Sound: Maybe an 8. It has some good sound quality, but sometimes it can get annoying. Mainly during the earlier missions does the music get irratating. Once you get past the treasure vault room stage the sounds get better. In large battle levels you can hear the roaring of people fighting and swords clanging together. All the sound effects are well done and fits well with the game.

Gameplay: This is the section where the game takes a dip. I'd rate it a 7 since there are minor, but important factors that the game fails to deliver on. The biggest gripe people have is the camera. The camera is pretty bad I will admit, but they do give you a mini-map to see where an enemy is. Of course that is not good enough seeing as you will get hit from a blind spot every now and then. It's adaptable, but a little annoying. They do somewhat make up for that problem with solid controls and variety. Every character (4 total) has up to 5 weapons. Each weapon also has an individual move set unlike Genji 1. This adds a fresh new experience each time you get a new weapon. Also there are counters for those who liked the counter system Onimusha had. It's much more simple I'd say, and it doesn't instantly kill the enemy, but it helps in taking out strong enemies. It also looks cool since it slows down time and you see your character own the enemy in the face) The platforming in this game was more irratating than fun in my opinion, partly due to the poor camera. They force you to do some generic wall running and platform jumping which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't force you to fight enemies in order to run through a path to get back to where you were, just to find yourself messing up again. Also poor cameras force you to go through some trial and error runs because you'll mess up quite a few times. Saves were a problem as well since there is never enough of them spaced out throughout the game. Get used to running back to a previous save across the map because you will often find that once you find a save, you won't find another save untill maybe an hour or so away depending on where you are in the game. The bosses in this game are pretty well designed, but unfortunately (or fortunately in some cases) aren't too hard. There are two ways on beating a boss: 1) Use weaker people like Yosh!tsune and Buson to kill a boss or 2) Use Benkei and just smash the crap out of the boss. Benkei is by far the most useful and powerful character. Bosses can be hard if you make them that way, but they can be very easy as well. Sometimes you will have to fight bosses in a row without any obvious save in front of you (that doesn't mean you can't go back and save at a previous save in the level)

Story: 7. It's not a story that will win any awards, but it's not awful either. The story starts off really slow, but picks up at the end. I even found myself moved by the story for some weird reason since I'm hardly ever moved by a story. Basically the defeated Heishi clan has come back with demonic soldiers. You need to defeat them with your brother who is the leader of the Genji clan.

Rent or Buy? I'd say definetely a rent maybe a buy. Seeing as there isn't much to play on the PS3 right now you might as well play this game. There isn't a whole lot of replay unless you want to play the game again on hard if you played on normal. There are some downloadable costumes you can use as well. Genji 2 is definetly a solid game, just not something that will win any medals.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/24/07