Otogi: Myth of Demons

"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye... or an arm, head or ribcage..."

Some games are incredibly deep and involving. Over time, they become another part of you as you become gradually more engrossed in them. Soon, being away from this game saps your will to live. You dream about it. Every other minute is spent thinking what you're going to do next.

On the other hand, some games just grab you by the balls and dump you up to your eyes in an orgy of demon slaughter. On that note, let me introduce you to Otogi. Otogi's wafer-thin plot focuses around Raikoh, a generic samurai who has been given the task of ridding the world of demons- by killing them. There's no magical sword to collect, no three pieces of the Triforce to re-assemble, but there certainly are a hell (groan) of a lot of demons to kill. With a game so focused on mindless bloodshed and carnage, can Otogi rekindle the fun of the old Mega Drive Shinobi games, or does it fall flat on its face like the PS2 Shinobi?

My biggest concern with Otogi- that it would be a nightmare to control- was addressed as soon as Raikoh charged across the screen and tore through a demon with his sword for the first time. Thankfully, Otogi's combat system is one of the best I've ever encountered in a game of this nature. Which is just as well, because Otogi is 100% pure action right from the outset. As I said before, Otogi positions the player above a sea of violence and dunks you under it from the word Go. There's no real tutorial to the game, leaving you to rifle through the old instruction manual just like in days of yore. Unlike other games I could mention, Otogi's control system is nigh-on perfect. Raikoh is easily controlled with the analogue stick, leaving the face buttons to slash at enemies. There is no block button in Otogi- having one would only slow down the action. Instead, Otogi uses a clever system whereby players defend themselves by attacking. Are you sensing a pattern here?

Using a combination of both light and heavy attacks, players will soon learn to chain massive combos. As well as combos on the ground beating your adversaries into monster mash, in the air Otogi becomes a totally different ball... err, fighting game. Raikoh's movements in the air are even more graceful than on land- using a combination of double jumps, dashes and slashes the game plays a bit like the old Saturn game Burning Rangers with swords. This is certainly no bad thing- in fact, it's quite possible to play your way through Otogi without touching the ground at all.

Throughout the course of the main game, Raikoh will travel to all sorts of environs. All these keep in with the game's main theme of ''Feudal Japan gone horribly wrong.'' As Raikoh travels through the haunted forests, progressing to ancient palaces and lakes of fire, it becomes apparent that the real battle in Otogi isn't between Raikoh and the demon hordes- it's between the player and their sense of reality. Otogi is a wonderful looking game, making full use of the (wait for it) powers of the Xbox (TM.) Reviewing clichés aside, Otogi really does look the part- the levels look spectacular, the lighting effects are so good you could eat them (if they weren't white hot blasts of photon energy, that is) and some of the monsters, particularly the bosses, are the kind of thing you got all hot and bothered about in FMV sequences five years ago. One of the levels, Tower of Water, is so great looking I'd recommend duck-taping your mouth shut before playing it. This will avoid drooling and having to pick your jaw up from the floor. Compared to everything else, Raikoh himself looks a little disappointing- although animated flawlessly, he's lacking in the detail that has been applied so intimately to the rest of the game.

Whenever I'm writing a review about a game, I tend to avoid the usage of certain words. However, some times there's no other way to describe things. For example, Otogi features fully-destructible environments. If you can see it, then it can probably be smashed into dust with your sword. Let me put this into perspective- you see a house ahead, with the faint glow of a power up shining through the window. In any other game, you'd have to come up with some kind of ingenious solution to this problem. In Otogi, you blow up the house, kill its monster inhabitants and then collect your reward from in-between their smouldering carcasses. If you're thinking what I'm thinking right now, you'd be right- most of the time, Otogi is pretty ****ing cool.

I do say most of the time, because Otogi's greatest strength proves to be a double-edged sword. (Ha Ha.) Since Otogi is so heavily-focused on combat, you find yourself getting a little sick of the mindless fighting. Just like other combat-heavy games in the past, such as Doom and Final Fight, there's only so much wanton destruction you can take before it leaves an unpleasant taste in your mouth. That, my friends, is the taste of repetition. Don't get me wrong- Otogi is a lot of fun, but whenever you're doing essentially the same thing you did ten stages ago again, you start to wonder when exactly From Software started to run out of ideas. To make matters worse, the game starts repeating levels after a while (Halo, anyone?). Considering some of the superb set pieces in the game, such as the showdown with the Red Samurai or the battle with the Giant Worm, it's disappointing that not every part of the game can reach this level of brilliance. Quite frankly, if every part of Otogi was as good as these sections, I'd suggest that From Software change their name to Climax- because that's what I'd be doing while playing this game.

To break up the action into less monotonous parts, Otogi features a few RPG-style elements. As you kill enemies, Raikoh gains experience and gold, which can be used to purchase bigger weapons. These include gigantic swords that could squash the Soul Edge in two, double edged blades that make Darth Maul hang his head in shame and magic wands that look pretty, but are as effective at attacking enemies as a slap to the face with a wet piece of tissue paper. You can even try out new weapons on stages you've already cleared to improve your times and scores. Extra weapons can be unlocked by fulfilling conditions in certain stages- but these remain a mystery until you've completed them. This can turn Otogi into a frantic race to the finish or a ridiculous combo contest to try and unlock everything. Some people might like this idea, but personally I like to know what I'm supposed to be doing before I try to do it.

As well as new weapons, Raikoh can buy magic powers and items to give him an advantage against the enemies. The problem is that Raikoh doesn't need much of an advantage against the creatures in Otogi, because they're all thicker than a lead bucket full of lard. More often than not, Otogi's monsters will walk straight into Raikoh's blade and get torn to pieces- although this is a lot of fun and sometimes hilarious, it doesn't do much for Otogi's difficulty. That is, of course, until you encounter Otogi's bosses- which are the video game equivalent of a battering ram to the testicles. (Female readers might want to ask a man about that.) Some of these are so hard that you'll want to fling your controller out the window, but the key thing is that you won't persevere until the boss has eaten your blade and defecated the hilt. Although Otogi is frustrating to say the least at times, it never feels like the goal ahead is impossible. If you can't complete the level, quite simply you are crap and need to practise more.

Otogi's stupid storyline is like a running joke throughout the game- the word ''Otogi'' may mean fairytale, but even Cinderella had more in the way of narrative and plot twists to it than the story in this. For a game so focused on action as Otogi, it's not necessary- but it would give Raikoh a reason to be decimating the demon populations of ancient Japan. On the plus side, the developers could have just removed any inkling of a story. Now that would have been a shame.

The real shame about Otogi is that it's destined to remain on the periphery of gaming forever. No matter what I say about Otogi, it still won't sell well. It's a crying shame and says a lot for the state of today's games industry. I only ask one thing- before you buy that brand new copy of Madden 2029, spare a thought for that poor pre-owned copy of Otogi in the corner of the store. You never know, you might just be pleasantly surprised. And what if I'm wrong? Well, you can just start saving for Madden 2030 instead.

Overall

Hacking and slashing has never been so much fun- that's a good thing, then, because that's pretty much all you do in Otogi. As well as having some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a game, it's got a fantastic combat system and plenty of unlockable secrets to keep you from being bored. A lack of enemy and stage variation detracts slightly from the fun, though. I wish ''Otogily'' were a real word, because then I could say this is Otogily great.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/15/03