Way of the Samurai

The Good
I played Way of the Samurai 2 first. Ironically this game takes place in a much later setting, and it has some wicked takes on Meiji Era Japan.

LET'S TALK GAME-PLAY

• Interesting approach to swordsmanship, heavy use of directional buttons as opposed to 'face' buttons.
• Simple sword techniques are realistic, true-to life representations of budo. The 'hero' swords on the other hand allow for physics defying mayhem.
• New sword techniques are learned through 'experience' with a sword, you need to fight well with a sword and you will eventually 'unlock' new moves. Sometimes a new 'move' will replace an old one and drastically change how to fight with the blade.
• Movement mechanics are generally good.
• Replay value is strong because of the short nature of the game (a matter of days, broken down into scenes). It plays like a typical Japanese adventure game in this way.
• The game features a 2 player 'fighting' game where you can use unlocked in-game characters and the swords you've collected to fight friends! If you know me you know I love any mini-game they give you.

LET'S TALK GRAPHICS:

• Not mind-blowing for the era, but obviously a labour of love.
• The costume designs are just so wondrously strange. Yeah, the main character and the 'old samurai family' are straight Edo period kimono - but the denizens of the mansion are wearing clothes with tags that say Tetsuya Nomura on them! Leather and feathers and skin oh my! Didn't know Gothic Lolita was running in the 19th century.
• The area's are very reminiscent of the period. The iron foundry, the gulley with the steam train, the 'station' area clustered around the train tracks has the air of desperation that age of change brought. If you're not a student of history (or Japanese) this will likely be lost on you entirely.

LET'S TALK SOUND:

• As touched on by the other reviewers, the dialogue is non existent - a brief sound intoning mood is given prior to each speech bubble. This is done to allow for more dialogue in game and not to strain the limited game engine when it comes to cut scenes. The death screams are entertaining.
• The sound effects are alright, nothing in particular is bad. It's about the level of quality I'd expect from a non-famous developer.
• The music is going to push the grade up a bit on my rating. It's surprisingly good. Not "make a soundtrack, I want to buy this" good, but "I am actually distracted by the goodness" good. It has hesitant Asian themes for walking about - the feel of an uncertain morning (and what was the Meiji Era if not an uncertain morning?). The battle music switches from traditional to rock/techno/synth without a hitch.

LET'S TALK STORY:

• The story is one of those that the Japanese do so well: the Yojimbo / Mononoke style moral ambiguity where neither side is really 'wrong' but they are in opposition. The character you play can either be a catalyst to this situation or just a casual observer. You are rated at the end based on the actions you take and the role you play.
• The setting once again is the savior here, there's a hell of a lot of romanticism in Meiji era Japan - read James Clavell's "Gaijin" if you don't believe me - damn good book and an unbiased view of Japanese martial philosophy from a western viewpoint.

The Bad
Simple 1500 series kind of aftertaste a little. This game isn't an RPG, it doesn't want to be.

LET'S TALK GAME-PLAY:

• The sword collection method is very limited and requires your patience be saint-like. You can only 'keep' one sword on completion, and you can 'mail' yourself one or two swords during a play-through. In this way you can eventually build an inventory of swords you can start the scenario with. Just don't break them or die with them though - they're gone again.
• Furthermore, the 'hero' swords carried by the 'face characters' in the game are the only ones truly worth collecting because they are so unbalanced. I would have liked to see the standard swords more accessible and the 'hero' swords harder to learn the moves for.

LET'S TALK GRAPHICS:

• The only thing I can complain about is the mediocrity here. It's okay. The FMV's were splendid and artistic, I would have liked to see more of those? Oh wait, the cannons at the end were poorly done.

LET'S TALK SOUND:

• Again, mediocrity is the only compliant. Except the music is above par.

LET'S TALK STORY:

• Dona-Dona? The inclusion of an African samurai is a strange choice for the Era. They would have been wiser to do this in the second game - as there actually was a black samurai in that time. He's a moderately important character - maybe it's just the timing with the boondocks and 'Afro-Samurai' but it feels a little clichéd to me.
• You really have to like this game to devote the amount of time it wants to collect all the swords and unlock all the characters / outfits. And there's not that much material to re-trudge through - it's the same short show over and over.

The Bottom Line
WHAT IT ALL COMES DOWN TO:

I really wish I would have played this one first and the second afterward - you'd see a review of the second asking where the 'Tetsuya Nomura' brand clothing had gone. As it is - I give this one props for capturing the flavour of the Era so perfectly, but it lacks the polish the second has. Yes, believe it or not, the sequel was superior in almost every way.

The story here was the story of the age - The samurai were no longer the government, ideals were changing, the new order vs. the old, and the same Tokugawa string-pullers were still mainly in charge.

Worth owning if you love Samurai, Japanese history, or moral ambiguity.

The Good
This game has a fun and easy to use fighting system! The "choose your own adventure" approach of the story is an excellent idea and adds a great deal to replay value. Unlocking character clothes, head models, and the versus mode is also another winning point.

The Bad
Well, despite the game's multitude of weapons and styles, and even with the extremely flexible story lines, Way of the Samurai feels more like a demo than an actual game. Any of the game's multitude of endings can be easily reached within an hour. It seems like the creators ran out of time and had to throw a quick story together after spending too long on the fighting system. Also, you can't skip any of the story blabber, which becomes quite annoying after you've already played through it a few times. On top of all this, every time you load your game it deletes the game file. This is ok as long as you finish and save again; this is terrible, though, if you want to take a break or if the game gets reset or the power goes out. Good bye saved file. What a ridiculous thing for a game to do!

The Bottom Line
Rent this game if you're interested. Chances are you'll get tired of it before the rental time is up. This game has so much potential that it makes it that much more tragic that it fails to deliver more than a few hours of fun gameplay.

The Good
1. Decent Graphics (bloodsprays, sword types, etc...)

1. There are several different endings (you can choose different sides or none at all and just kill everyone)

2. Lots of people to kill

3. Three fun weapon types (several swords, a large blacksmith's hammer (my favorite), and you can shoot but not move cannons at the end)
   
   The Bad
   1. The characters are a little square looking

4. The only vocals are grunts by the characters

5. Only 1 map with only 8 areas where you can actually fight.
   
   The Bottom Line
   It is a fun game with as I said several sword types and great bloodsprays. There are even little characters that you will hate that are thrown in there that you will have the privilege of killing.