Review: Way of the Samurai 2 - PS2

So I was watching grass grow while re-arranging my sock drawer. Then I thought, "Holy crap! I am missing the hot dog eating championship on ESPN Regional!"

Thursday, July 8, 2004

The Playstation 2 has had its share of Samurai everything lately. Apparently there's a demographic there that gobbles this stuff up. Well, Capcom comes through with yet another Japanese sword-slashing title. Does it stand apart from the crowd?

Way of the Samurai 2 attempts to differentiate itself by being open ended. In other words, it wants you to decide what you do and how you do it. Your choices affect the ending. Consequently there are over twelve different outcomes based on the way you play. This sort of tree-branch mentality hasn't been attempted to the extent that Way of the Samurai wants to go. As a matter of fact, to pull this idea off with any sort of success would take close to a miracle.

Bluntly, developer Acquire is not equipped with any miracle workers. In fact, they don't seem to be equipped with helpful Japanese-to-English translators or conceptual designers, either. It's as if Acquire wholeheartedly believed Way of the Samurai 2 could survive and sell based on the concept alone.

Sure, your fighting mechanics are rather tuned and fun for a few minutes and there are several swords and items to collect. But two things are devastating: every enemy reacts the same way, hardly putting up a challenge and you can hold your block button forever, not taking any damage. This takes both the fun and difficulty out of the entire experience.

The level design might instill claustrophobia in all of us, not just because of the square inch-age, but also because of the few things there are to do. Sure, the idea of going back through the very short experience over and over to see the different endings is enticing, but not when getting there doesn't prove to be any fun.

Also, the dialogue makes little sense. Is it due to the translation or poor storytelling? I'm not sure, but I know reading through the game is painful and confusing. The voice acting is equally poor, not giving even a small hint of what the emotion of the character should be.

The graphics are fine for a first generation PS2 game, but not acceptable in 2004. The character models are decent and not to bad on the eyes, but the foregrounds and textures seem a bit too muted and unrefined.

I suppose the game's saving grace is that it's not entirely dysfunctional. It does operate and boot up upon the insertion of the disc and doesn't crash. The buttons do respond according to what the manual says. However, only the extremely bored and determined will get through the game the intended twelve times. But I am here to tell you that Way of the Samurai 2 can't even dethrone plain old boredom.

Graphics: D+

Sound: D-

First Play: C

Last Play: F

Gameplay: D-

Overall: 60% D-

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