Koei has announced that Samurai Warriors: Katana for the Wii is coming to North American retailers early next year on January 15.  The game utilizes both the Wii remote and nunchuk controller allowing players to hack and slash their enemies on the battlefield as a lethal warrior.

Click the link to visit the official site.   

Hack-and-slash titles have been successful over the years and one game that has done that right in the past was Samurai Warriors. Samurai Warriors 2 came out recently for the PlayStation 2 and if you’re a big fan of the genre you’ll find plenty to do in this sequel, but if you’re familiar with the game, SW 2 features more of the same repetitive gameplay. 

Certainly the best aspect of Samurai Warriors 2 is how big it is. The game features a lot to do with 26 different characters to play with, each with his own story. There is also a nice variety of other games to keep you busy. 

Aside from that, there are some nice new additions to the role-playing elements of the game. Before each story mode you’ll have the opportunity to check out the conditions, load up equipment for the battle and more. Once you get onto the battlefield, players are then able to save after each set of five stages. During this time, you have the ability to upgrade your character in the shop by purchasing various items. As you get further into the game, you’ll pick up new weapons, buy hoses, guards and upgrade your skills with the money you obtain.

A nice inclusion in the sequel is the survival mode that was found in the first title. In this, players must go through a set of missions to save villagers and kill enemies. Also in SW 2 is a new Monopoly style puzzle game titled Sugoroku which is available for up to four players. The game has you trying to take control of Japan and is slightly interesting, but overall it’s relatively difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on. 

Although there is no multiplayer online or offline, there is a cooperative mode in the game. This one aspect really helps to save what otherwise is a pretty poor experience. The cooperative mode is split-screen and certainly is the most enjoyable aspect to the entire Samurai Warriors 2 experience. 

The big problem with Samurai Warriors 2 is its repetitive style. The button mashing requires little to no thought and combo moves only require you to push the same button over and then follow it up with another strike. Each character in the game has two special moves by holding down a trigger button and then pressing square to attack. This is nice especially considering there are 26 characters in the game, but beyond that there isn’t much that distinguishes the fighting.

To go along with this problem, the levels in story and free mode are essentially the same. You’ll be dropped into the map and have goals to obtain victory, most of which requires you to keep your commander alive while you kill the onslaught of enemies and bosses.

Aside from those issues, the enemy intelligence is poor at best. Most of the enemies on the battlefield stand idly by as you hack-and-slash them to death. The only ones that do put up any sort of defense are commanders, but you’ll quickly realize that combos do the trick. On top of that, your teammates do little to help you destroy the opposition as they may take out one or two soldiers in a given area. 

One other issue with the Samurai Warriors 2 is the graphics. While the CG videos are well done, the in-game graphics including the characters and environments are dull and completely unappealing. Even worse is the fact that there are few trees or other items actually on the battlefield aside from a lot of fighters, which happens to be the one thing the game does right graphically as there is no noticeable slowdown.

The graphics are bad, but the sound and particularly the voice acting are even worse. In the first game, players were given the option to choose Japanese voice work, but that isn’t an option in this game and instead you’re required to listen to uninteresting English dialogue that has no depth. You’ll often hear the same few quotes repeated when you make kills. As for the music, it is equally repetitive and dull.

Samurai Warriors 2 does a few things right including plenty of story modes, unlockable characters, survival mode, cooperative play and lots of upgrades. The problem is the hack-and-slash title is mostly a rehash and the AI is unintelligent at best. Add to that the poor graphics and sound and it’s obvious the Samurai Warriors series really needs to be revamped. Unless you’re a diehard Samurai Warriors fan, I find it hard to recommend this title as we should wait and see how they step it up for the next-generation.

The gameplay is repetitive and requires little thought, making you feel rather uninvolved.

The characters and environments are dull and unappealing.

The voice acting just doesn’t fit the game.

It’s still just Samurai Warriors and doesn’t feature too much new to the series.

Aside from the story mode, there’s plenty more to keep you busy.

]]> Sun, 29 Oct 2006 13:36:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_samurai_champloo_sidetracked_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_samurai_champloo_sidetracked_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_samurai_champloo_sidetracked_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Games based on anime shows haven’t fared well. Most are mediocre titles that use fan loyalty to push strong numbers out the door to then justify making another just as average sequel to feed the masses. Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked looks to buck that trend. Fans of the show already know that it contains an offbeat sense of humor that some may raise an eyebrow at. I mean come on, a hip-hop record store in feudal Japan? Oh that’s right, and thankfully the game not only retains the show’s sense of humor but its style is kept intact too. But what’s more attractive is that Bandai also managed to squeeze in a decent game between all of that.

Samurai Champloo follows the adventures of Jin, Mugen and Fuu and Sidetracked is the perfect name for this title because it’s an original story outside of the show’s plot. The three find themselves in an area in the north known as Ezo. Here, the natives, who are in tune with the nature of the area, have been displaced by arrogant foreigners. The main story revolves around that point, but there are tons of smaller plot points that pop up throughout each of the story missions.

At the onset, both Jin and Mugen are selectable and each has his own storyline. There are times when the storylines crossover, which will in turn create some confusion. An example of this is when playing through Mugen’s first; some cutscenes will just not make any sense whatsoever. However, when you finish his and move on to Jin’s, all of the holes will be filled in quite well. I hated not knowing what was going on at first and all the jumps in the story drove me insane, but after playing through both scenarios, I appreciate it. There’s also a third game-original character that’s unlocked after finishing one of the two stories. That third character’s scenario fleshes out the story even more, which gives players more than enough reason to keep coming back.

Champloo plays like a less open-ended Dynasty Warriors – missions aren’t placed on huge sprawling maps, but in very linear trails; the fighting system however has some similarities with light and heavy attacks and the sheer amount of mindless button-mashing involved. While it does boil down to that mindlessness and theoretically one could beat the game by simply hammering the light and heavy attacks, that’s not the most fun way to do it. In fact it’s downright boring, which is where the flash and style of the other combat elements come into play.

An interesting play mechanic is the fact that combos are based on what music tracks you have equipped. Yes, you read that right. You equip background music, up to two at a time. The combo trees are displayed at the top and using the right stick allows you to switch between the two combo sets and thus two sets of background music. Some of the tracks even give bonuses like extra defense.

Then there’s the tension meter that builds as Jin or Mugen doles out the damage and decreases when they take some. Maxing out the meter allows them to go into “hyper mode”. When the meter is maxed, one of the squares in the combo tree becomes outlined in red. If you can combo to that particular part of the tree and have the hit connect with an enemy, the screen will turn red and Jin/Mugen will move at an extremely fast speed allowing for some longer than usual combos. Hyper mode is very useful when dealing with tougher enemies or when facing multiple ones.

You can also enter hyper mode with a non-filled tension meter by using what’s called a technique counter. Counterattacking involves attacking at the same time as an enemy. At this point, the screen slows down and shows buttons that you can press to initiate a counter. Press incorrectly and you’ll take damage. However, if the circle in the middle of the screen has a red hue, hitting the technique button (circle by default) causes the light attack button to then appear. Hitting that then initiates an instant hyper mode without the need for a filled tension meter. Having a skill like this becomes very useful in the later stages and it just looks damn cool when pulled off.

Tate and trance mode are two other fighting mechanics. When a full tension meter has a star on it and an enemy around you also has a star, hitting him will initiate tate mode. A button prompt will then appear, but it’s random so you’ll have to be prepared. If you hit the right one, you’ll then have the opportunity to mash every face button to get in as many slashes as possible. The more hits you get in, the more health you regain, but the goal in tate mode is to break the 100 slash mark. Doing so moves you into trance mode.

In trance mode, all you’ll see are the silhouettes of your controlled character and enemies against a colored dojo backdrop. Think about the last parts of the Kill Bill fight between Uma Thurman and the Crazy 88s in the teahouse and you’ll have the basic idea. Here, all enemies will be defeated in one hit, but it will end if you are hit three times or get up to 100 slashes. Getting up to 100 slashes will usually unlock new weapons for purchase at the castle town weapon shop.

Jin and Mugen can equip up to two other swords beside their default weapon. Some are stronger while some offer buffs like raised attack or defense. The catch is that each weapon has a durability meter. Once it’s depleted, you’ll have to get it repaired after the mission, which costs coins. Luckily, durability recharges when the weapon is inactive, so if you keep swapping a lot, you won’t have to worry about breaking one.

Sounds like a deep fighting system, no? Well it can be if you want to be stylish, but as I mentioned before, square, square, square will get you just as far.

I was surprised that Champloo wasn’t cel-shaded as the anime to cel-shaded game would be the most logical jump. However, the character designs made the transition into three-dimensions quite well. Everything else is pretty lackluster though. Boring, repetitive and uninspired environments were a surprise considering that this game is all about style.

The sound though is simply fantastic. All of the music in Champloo is original to the game. The track in trance mode is my favorite, which is a good thing since I heard it so much. But, even all the other tracks are great. It really says something about how good the music is when I found myself debating what combos to use based on what music I wanted to hear while fighting.

The worst part of Champloo is by far its repetitiveness. Yes you can be stylish to break up the monotony, but it still boils down to slashing through wave after wave of moronic AI. What doesn’t help is the pacing of the game. There aren’t any save points in the middle of a mission so you have to go into one with the mentality that it’s all or nothing - you’re not stopping until you beat it because you can’t stop until you beat it. And some of these missions last up to more than an hour. Mugen’s last level can take up to four hours alone if you fight and find everything you possibly can. I realize that some out there can do marathon sessions like that without hesitation, but I’m not one of them. I like being able to control how long I play. A checkpoint here or there would have helped immensely.

There’s also an odd balance to the difficulty. The first few levels are easy as pie, and then about halfway through it becomes very difficult. As Mugen, I hadn’t died in the first 4 missions, but within the last few, I’m pretty sure I died no less than 20 times total. And it’s not so much that the AI is smarter (because it’s still stupid), it’s that they become cheaper. They suddenly can hit you at range, can hit you multiple times, or you somehow get caught in a never ending combo from coconut throwing monkeys. It becomes very frustrating because the game goes from sleeper easy to controller tossing cheap in an instant.

Lastly, there’s a two-player deathmatch mode. In all honesty, this could have been left out. There are only three playable characters and you square off against another human controlled opponent, fighting in the same fashion as you would in the main game.

Samurai Champloo is a game that’s definitely more flash than substance, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a shallow game. Despite the button-mashing, the fighting system offers enough different mechanics to keep things interesting. And with three fairly lengthy campaigns to play through, it’ll keep players busy for a time. I mean hey, it’s an anime based game that’s actually pretty fun to play. How often have you heard that about these types of games?

Mindless button mashing, but the different fighting elements keep things fresh. Horrid pacing.

Not all that great, but the characters transition into 3D well.

Soundtrack is top-notch. 90% of the TV dub cast returns for Sidetracked.

Again, despite the mindlessness, the style of the fighting system is a blast to fiddle with.

Three decently long campaigns plus trying to open up all the art and extras will take a while.

]]> Mon, 01 May 2006 13:52:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/koei_announces_two_games http://www.gamebump.com/go/koei_announces_two_games http://www.gamebump.com/go/koei_announces_two_games#

"For video gamers, this year is going to be the most thrilling year ever, and kicking off 2006 with two great games is just the start," said Amos Ip, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for KOEI Corporation. "Around the world, KOEI's development teams are preparing bold new concepts and ideas that will captivate gamers. Today's announcement is just a small, yet exciting sample of what we have in store for this year."

We will have more information on both of these titles in the coming days.

Game Republic, a recently established developer house formed by Yoshiki Okamoto, a former Capcom executive, joins the traditional hack n’ slash foray with the debut of its first project – Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, an amazingly fluid ninja-like fighter that’ll draw players into its mythological Japanese world and then keep them there with its flashy style and fantastical, serene imagery. Unfortunately the adventure is alarmingly short, and so the real question becomes that of quality versus quantity: are you willing to spend $39.99 on a great game you can beat in a day, or more for average fare you can beat in a week?

As an action/adventure game, Genji doesn’t delve too deeply into a storyline, but a functional one is presented that introduces “amahagane”, beautiful jewels that grant their bearers mystical powers. The game, which is set in feudal Japan, opens with the tale of a great battle that took place between two strong forces, the Genji and the Heishi, for ultimate control of the region. By using amahagane the Heishi generals decimate their opponents, and the Genji are left defeated and scattered throughout the countryside. After their victory the Heishi begin an oppressive warrior rule that terrifies and burdens the people, giving rise to two opposing forces that threaten to confront the Heishi for control of Japan, however neither of these is given the chance. Yoshitsune, with an amahagane of his own, steps onto the scene and agrees to bring peace to the land by destroying the Heishi, and en route he teams up with Benkei, a gigantic Genji monk who has sworn never to rest until every Heishi warrior is dead. Together the two embark on a journey to rid the land of evil by collecting all the amahagane they can to perform “yosegane” on them, combining the amahagane to out-match all the smaller pieces in the hands of the Heishi. The plot isn’t incredibly captivating, but it works.

The highlight of Genji is definitely its fast-paced, hack n’ slash gameplay. Gamers are given the option of switching between Benkei and Yoshitsune, which freshens the experience by presenting players with two different styles of play: you can tackle opponents with awe-inspiring strength or out-maneuver them with agile, deadly cuts, respectively. As Benkei you’ll wield enormous clubs or spears, clear the battlefield with a single swipe of your beam, and generally smash opponents with combos and kamui. As Yoshitsune you’ll slice and dice in a quick, intuitive style with the addition of flips, kicks, jumps, cartwheels, fast lunges, and (a lot more) kamui. All attack maneuvers are performed with proper mashing of the square or triangle button, while dodging/spinning around is achieved via the analog sticks and R1 for further blocking or specific cartwheels.

The game’s real art, the mastery of kamui, is evident in your first battle; kamui is the power of the amahagane, and with it the player can perceive impending attacks and launch successful, lethal counter-attacks. What this means in the videogame world is that when a kamui bar is full, tapping L1 activates kamui and slows opponents so that Yoshitsune/Benkei can better prepare for the next attack, i.e. when the square button appears at the bottom of your character’s feet, hit it once for a deadly counter. This system is very repetitive, but it’s also tricky and requires a player to rely on her skills more than her strength/gear. By utilizing kamui gamers can fly through Genji without a single scratch, though it’s not always as easy as it seems.

The proper time for mashing the square button varies according to opponent type, so a demon that rushes you with a spear will have a different timing than the poor Heishi soldier that’s wielding a sword and coming in for a swipe. Some of the more powerful demons, bosses included, have an attack/lunge that is very difficult to time, requiring another kamui bar to slow down everything even further. When kamui is handled appropriately (that is, when Yoshitsune is surrounded by menacing foes), it’s quite a treat to observe your warrior dancing around the arena, gaining one-hit kills with ease and soaking the roadside in blood. Constantly pairing kamui with combos is the secret to fast leveling, because as the monsters go down the combo meter/skill rating goes up, such that a “hero” rating will earn you more experience points from a foe than a “skilled” one.

Another method to level up your skills, other than gaining experience points or performing yosegane, is to collect amahagane essence pieces that are found throughout the land. These pieces are typically invisible, but your character’s amahagane will glow and vibrate furiously whenever you’re near one; attacking the area, eventually hitting the piece, reveals it. When you’ve collected three pieces you can then enter the menu and add them to a particular stat, either health (HP), attack, or defense, which produces the appropriate bonus. The other way to enhance your stats is to purchase/find new armor, accessories, and weaponry. Each character can only have one armor set, accessory, and weapon activated at a time. From this menu you can also assign items to the four directional buttons, to keep from re-entering the menu screen for things like herbs or potions during tough fights.

Two more points warrant mention: boss characters and puzzles. Boss characters, and some of the more difficult regular monsters, actually pose a challenge. Even when you use kamui, which prompts bosses to begin a powerful lunge, you’ll run into trouble; if you mess up the timing you lose a nice chunk of health. Most of the bosses require that you know their timing so you know when to dodge, block, or attack, and all kick into special mode when their health is down to a bar. There’s usually a trick or a move, supported by kamui, to perform that’ll bring a boss to its knees, but even so players will find boss characters not easily disposed of. The second feature is its lack of puzzles. If you’re a fan of the Onimusha series, then you well remember the Resident Evil-like puzzles that had you running throughout the same areas in search of key items/clues for this or that problem. In Genji, the puzzles are gone – merely stumble across a key item and return to its door to proceed. If you favor action over thought, this is certainly a plus.

The intense gameplay is brilliantly supported by beautiful visuals. Characters are detailed well and their cosmetic appearance changes depending upon the gear donned. Hilly slopes are scattered with colorful vegetation; glorious sunsets seem to set the trees surrounding the temple courtyard ablaze; dirt roads are so detailed that one can imagine the dust a traveler kicks up; small water pools reflect Yoshitsune and ripple as he wades through; floorboards at the Oushu base are so pristine that they, too, reflect; lovely lotus blossoms are found near ponds in the Hindu temple; and so on. The level of detail that went into Genji is impressive and clear, from the starry heavens where the god Shukenten challenges the heroes down to the warrior gear that decorates their Hindu foes – visually, Genji is a masterpiece that blends serene environments with action and blood. Lovers of mythology will definitely enjoy the game’s environs and graphical flash.

Genji’s orchestral, Japanese soundtrack is equally as striking. The music is superb, with heavy battle themes and lovely background music during town visits, and supports a full cast of ambient noises, including your standard swipes, lunges, footsteps, cries of the dying, water splashes, fire bursts, door swings, lazy breezes, echoes, and so forth. The high pitch that follows kamui renders the world temporarily deaf, save for Yoshitsune’s steel meeting flesh. Voiceovers are performed in authentic Japanese with an appropriate amount of exaggeration when it’s warranted, which creates a realistic experience as opposed to an anime one. And yes, there are subtitles.

Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a fantastic experience that is simply too short. The game ends immediately following its climax, and leaves the player in a disappointed daze. Players can finish it in normal mode, the game’s default difficulty, in less than a day – roughly five-seven hours. Players that naturally pick up on kamui can run through Genji in three-four hours, significantly less than the average. For the second run, a player has by now mastered kamui and his fighting technique and can fly through the game in literally two-three hours, including completion of the other-dimensional challenges. The only real extra the game offers is a difficult mode, which strips the characters of all items and gear and disables experience points, but once you’ve got that completed, unless you just really like kamui you’ll never return. The sad thing is that if the game had even 15 hours of play, it'd be a masterpiece.

Furthermore, the gameplay is rather shallow; there are no puzzles, no intricacies to attacking, and no threats to keep tabs of or problematic situations to encounter. It’s purely hack n’ slash, though it’s beautiful hack n’ slash. If you gravitate toward games with a lot of meaty substance, Genji should be considered a refreshing breather; if you expect anything more than fast moves and slashing fun, though, you'll be disappointed.

The cutscenes are fantastic and extremely stylistic, but they do interrupt the gameplay flow. When you've got a game that's so good that you're much more interested in playing it than you are in watching the cutscenes, you've found a gem - it's a pity that the developing team wasn't able to extend it.

One final point of contention for those who appreciate wide-open spaces in their adventure games: Genji doesn’t have them. Gamers are restrained and left only short paths to navigate and slaughter through en route to the next boss. Though this isn’t a pivotal issue, it does make the game feel even more linear.

I would have gladly paid $49.99 for 15 hours of Genji, but I hesitate to spend $39.99 on merely five-seven. If it weren’t for the game’s drastically short length, it’d be a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection. As it stands, though, Genji: Dawn of the Samurai – while fast-paced, fun, beautiful, and intense – simply doesn’t warrant its price tag. I can give two suggestions here: either rent the game for a weekend of enjoyable samurai action, or wait for a price-drop. Just don’t let its brevity deter you from experiencing Genji’s shallow, yet strangely satisfying gameplay – even in small doses, it’s that good.

Shallow, but intense. Kamui and flashy combos make this a great experience.

Superb visuals and balanced settings. The townsfolk could use some work. Love the flash.

Not too fantastic, but great nonetheless. Very befitting presentation. Good voicework.

While the game lasted, I enjoyed it immensely.

Couldn’t put the damn thing down. However, its brevity is inexcusable.

]]> Thu, 06 Oct 2005 08:18:00 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_musashi_samurai_legend_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_musashi_samurai_legend_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_musashi_samurai_legend_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

It’s been a long while since we’ve seen or heard anything from our friend Musashi, who originally debuted in Brave Fencer Musashi for the PlayStation so many years ago. That original title played more like a fighter with a storyline than an RPG/adventure game, but the newest exploits of Musashi follow the latter pattern. Musashi: Samurai Legend is poised to be the anime-action/adventure RPG of the year, featuring a heavy emphasis on hack n’ slash gameplay and uniquely presented visuals, but can Musashi compete with the likes of other cartoonish RPGs with strong combat systems?

The plot in Musashi is simple enough. Summoned by a princess, Musashi arrives on the scene charged with rescuing the mystics (magic-users), saving some locals, finding some elemental swords to restore power to the Anthedon (a giant, magical flying whale) and defeating an evil corporation bent on gathering magical sources to eventually dominate the world. Unsurprising, to say the least.

Fortunately for Musashi if the storyline doesn’t motivate a player, the unique graphical presentation might. Musashi features an anime style of graphics strongly reminiscent of Dark Cloud 2’s; everything from the slow twisting of Musashi’s crazy hair down to the death animations of Muashi’s victims is an excellent visual touch. Character designs are lively and vivid, and the game’s environments are entirely in 3D with gentle lighting effects and standard level designs, though the areas are a tad small. One key graphical element concerns the game’s special attack effects; using the elemental swords’ latent abilities, or the learned attacks in general, presents short attack animations, which spruces up the fun.

The bulk of Musashi’s gameplay has players exploring lush landscapes in search of the maidens of the elemental swords. Defeating opponents via the hack n’ slash standard and retrieving the swords helps restore power to the Anthedon and increases Antheum’s (the town on the back of the Anthedon) resistance of the Gandrake Corporation. The controls are smooth and have Musashi performing very simplistic moves, essentially sword-swipes and stabs, to rescue the maidens.

Additionally, Square Enix included a duplication system to freshen the repetitive button-mashing. Every enemy type in Samurai Legend has a unique design and special move for Musashi’s learning; locking-on to an opponent via R1 fills a focus meter on the top-left of the screen, and when the bar is full and an opponent performs the new attack, a "sign" signals the player to hit the square button to bring up the ability’s button combination. Performing the combination grants Musashi the ability. Just incase you happen to forget the combination the start menu holds an ability set with button listings for all combinations learned. Furthermore, Musashi’s elemental swords possess latent abilities that help solve miniscule puzzles and plow through enemies. For example, the first elemental sword players receive is the earth sword, and its special ability is tremor thrust, which when performed gives off a small quake that breaks boulders and pushes buttons.

While en route to the maidens Musashi will run across nearly 30 giant blue capsules with townspeople inside. Rescuing the townspeople returns them to Antheum, where they can be used as plot/gameplay resources for Musashi. An example would be Mugg the blacksmith, who shapes magical alloys to Musashi’s weaponry.

When you’re not saving townspeople, maidens, mystics, or princesses, you’ll be taking on bosses, which requires a tad more strategy than the typical opponents. Each boss is a leading member of Gandrake Corporation and calls for a unique plan of action. For guaranteed victory gamers need to level Musashi up, which occurs after killing so many baddies. The level-up option is in the system menu and let’s players adjust HP, MP (for special attacks), strength, defense, luck, and focus. The system seems tailored to younger RPGers as it allows for an adjustment to be emphasized either manually (selecting a stat on your own) or automatically via choosing a description (i.e. "focus primarily on strength, improve defense", etc).

One mechanic that Musashi utilizes that I’ve never seen before is the carrying ability. Musashi is actually able to pick up a character (typically the damsel) via X and carry the character around, but don’t think that Musashi will be immune to attack just because he’s playing the hero – opponents can attack Musashi while he struggles with his burden, and Musashi can do the same. If presented with a considerable threat Musashi can toss the damsel into the air for enough time to swing at it, but as we know, what goes up comes down, and if the threat persists it’s probably best to just drop the damsel and kick into Rambo mode.

Samurai Legend’s presentation is solid, with lovely visuals (Antheum itself is quite gorgeous), nice attack effects, interesting character design, quirky cutscenes, and good background music, though nothing too noticeable. The standard gameplay sounds – slashes, jabs, stabs, etc., - are to be expected, but the enemy death animation sounds are a nice highlight.

Love it or hate it, Musashi plays like a simpleton's RPG; there's not a lot of substance here. The game feels more like a children's title with flashy graphics, not surprisingly. The hack n' slash gameplay is slightly more innovative thanks to the duplication process, but the system is a little tricky, and even once you've got it down and learned a slew of new moves, it's still not as exciting because it lacks magic, strategy, or even interesting cutscenes for progress motivation.

The storyline itself isn't exactly gripping: rescue the damsels in distress, restore power to the Anthedon, and save the princess of the mystics while simultaneously defeating Gandrake Corporation. Considering that this is Square I'd expect a lot more, but if indeed Musashi is targeted to pre-adolescents, it's not such a drawback. I doubt that the average pre-teens needs more than a basic plot to go on.

The continued swing, swing, and swing again gameplay formula is getting old, fast. Deprived of magic and intelligent enemy AI, the only strategic thing players have to do is correctly duplicate attacks. After that it's the same-ol’ repetitive formula without much motivation.

I also didn't care much for the dialogue style (very over-exaggerated) and voicework (which is just as exaggerated and silly). Then again, if Musashi is really targeted to a younger generation then you can't really complain - kiddies aren't going to care so much about simple, exaggerated dialogue/voiceacting. Everyone post-17, however, will quickly tire of it.

A few other problem areas abound. The 360-degree camera operates smoothly enough, but when backed into a corner the action causes some mild slowdown and is briefly daunting. There’s also some minimal slowdown when several enemies are on-screen at once and being disposed of, probably due to the extensive death animations. I’m also not pleased with the saving option being restricted to Antheum; if you want to save, you’ve got to get back on the Anthedon and hit Musashi’s room for the option. When a chapter contains more than one area and the threat of death looms overhead, you’ve got to stop what you’re doing – progressing to the next location – to visit another area to save. If a save-anywhere system couldn’t have been implemented then surely save spots/crystals should have. Finally, the game is quite easy, but again that’s probably due to the target audience.

Musashi: Samurai Legend isn’t exactly the biggest RPG of the year (or even close to being a contender), but is good for what it is - a simple, anime-styled RPG with a strong combat focus set in a distinctively beautiful world. Unfortunately what it lacks - an intriguing plot, apt save feature, good dialogue/voicework, more difficult gameplay - guarantees that older, more hardcore RPGers aren't going to be interested in Musashi for long.

Repetitive, but innovation in duplication system.

Interesting anime style with lovely 3D environments, plus effects.

Nice music and sound effects, though nothing special.

Probably for the younger crowd.

You can collect people/cards, but once through is enough.

]]> Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:50:00 -0600