Way of the Samurai

It is the year 1878, and the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate has brought an end to the golden era of the Samurai. People no longer need or want to see a samurai walking down the street. The gamer is put in the shoes of a nameless samurai traveling through Rokkotsu Pass, where two major Clans are fighting for control of it, and you can be the deciding factor in this war. Questions arise to which fraction you will give your obedience to, or if you decided to remain neutral. One fact is certain that whatever choices are made you will have a definite effect upon how the entire game is played out.

Acquire did an outstanding job with the storyline of this game. No matter what choices gamers make, little or big, they will effect how the game will be played and the ending they receive. Here is an example: in the beginning of the game players see a girl being kidnapped. Will you be heroic and rescue the damsel in distress, ask to join in the kidnapping, or ignore what is going on completely? The choices you make here is just one of the many tough choices the player will make throughout the game. Also your indirect actions will have an immediate effect as well. If you come into a town with your sword drawn, NPCs (non playable characters) will assume that you are an enemy about to kill them, so they take the opportunity to strike first. With the amount of choices available, it is very difficult to get the exact same ending two times in a row.

The controls for the game are very simplistic; gamers will have the option of using the digital or analog stick to move the character. The triangle button is used for strong attack, square for weak attack/pick up an item, X is used for jumping, and O is used to display a conversation window. The R1 button is for blocking, R1 plus square is for kicking, R2 for running, L1 for sheathing or drawing your sword, select is to look at the map, and start shows what swords you currently have in your inventory.

The games combat system is also well developed. At times the players will be surrounded by a group of six furious samurai, but you can only fight them one at a time. The enemy that you are engaged in combat with has a blue aura surrounding them. You can change opponents by looking at a different character and hitting the R2 button. Players will be able to run from a fight if you are getting low on health by holding the R2 button and moving the control stick in the opposite direction.

While some people may say the best defense is a heavy offense, those words do not apply to Way of the Samurai. If gamers want to survive and see a proper ending of the game, they will have to learn how to block moves, parry, and push their opponents. Once players master the art of blocking they will be able to learn a move that will truly make them a samurai legend. This move is called the "Awase", and here is how to perform it: if an enemy is about to attack, tap the R1 button, this will block the next strike and halfway stun your adversary. The opponent is than stunned for about half a second or so, it is then when you unleash a deadly attack before they can recover. Players can perform this move while in the air or on the ground, and it is a very effective and necessary tool to learn.

Way of the Samurai is rated M (Mature) for blood and violence, and requires 128kb of memory.

Gameplay: 8.3
Gamers that have played Bushido Blade should be familiar with the controls of the game. The controls are really easy to learn and have great depths. Fighting with different swords provides a whole new arsenal of moves to be done, and really helps prevent any repetition. This provides a little strategy, because you can only carry three swords at a time, so you will have to keep the best swords for the toughest opponents. Anything the enemy drops you will be able to pick up and use, if it is money, swords, or food (replenishes your health).

The one major area for complaint is the camera angles. Numerous times enemies surrounded me and I was backed up against an object. The camera swings around to get behind the character view and I am left staring at a wall. This can cause the players to lose time and valuable health.

Graphics: 8.0
The graphics are not entirely bad, but it is nothing like Metal Gear Solid 2 standards. Character models are accurately portrayed, and there are decent environments. The character animations are the best thing in the graphics department. Each sword handles differently, if the sword is light or heavy the character will portray that in the way he walks, his fighting stance, and the way the character fights. Even though the characters look nice, the entire game is plagued with aliasing and occasional pop-up, but it is easily forgivable..

Sound: 7.8
The sound is one of the biggest downfalls of the game. What happened to voice acting? At times the characters will grunt or moan while talking but they have no real voices. This would have been astounding if Bam! put Japanese voices in there because it would have given players the sense that they are in a movie, and would have given the game a better tone.

The sound effects such as swords clashing against one another and swords going through enemies flesh are all realistic enough. Some of the musical scores can get annoying quick. In some parts of the game it is nice and tranquil, and other parts of the game players will find themselves reaching for the remote to mute the television!

Difficulty:  Medium
Acquire included a training mode for players to understand the basics of becoming a samurai. The first lesson the player can get to when they start the game can get really annoying because of the music used, but it is truly worth it to stick through it to understand how to play, since you will need to know how to defend oncoming attackers. While starting a new game, Acquire put in different difficulty options to give seasoned samurai's a better challenge.

Concept: 8.3 
It has been a long time since any system has seen a ninja/samurai game released and it is nice change of pace. The fact that any choice that the player makes in the game effects the rest of the game is a really good idea, and boosts the replayability factor through the roof.

Multiplayer: 7.2
To access the multiplayer characters you will have to acquire enough points in the main game to unlock this mode. Once unlocked players will find that multiplayer is just a stripped down fighting game. Players will have several characters to choose from and fight in different arenas. Before the fight begins each character chooses their sword and than the two go at it to see who is the best samurai in the land.

Overall: 8.5
Even though the Way of the Samurai has a few faults, I highly recommend anyone to purchase it. It will be several months before the next Tenchu, Ninja Gaiden, and other samurai/ninja games will be released and this will help fill the void. Way of the Samurai will keep gamers enticed with the multiple branching stories, unlockable swords, clothes, and myriads of other extras. Go to the nearest store that sell the game and purchase a copy, you won't regret it!