Genji: Dawn of the Samurai

After hearing some positive comments from Punzi (check out his blog here) regarding Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.'s Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, I got myself a copy of this hack-and-slash RPG to see for myself if it deserved the accolades it has been getting from a lot of gamers. Suffice it to say that despite a number of nitpicks, yes, it does.

Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is Game Republic's first foray in the realm of PlayStation 2 game development, and it's actually pretty good for a first attempt. The gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of Capcom's Onimusha and Devil May Cry series, but that's no surprise considering that Game Republic was formed by Yoshiki Okamoto, a former Capcom executive. There are some who insist that this game is nothing more than an Onimusha clone. If they think that, they're probably just not playing the game the way it was intended to be played.

Set in feudal Japan, the game's storyline revolves around the adventures of a young swordsman named Yoshitsune Minamoto. Our protagonist finds himself in the middle of a campaign waged by the ruling clan of oppressive warriors known as the Heishi to recover a number of rare mystical stones known as Amahagane. These Amahagane are imbued with a magical power known as Kamui. Yoshitsune, with the aid of a seven foot tall warrior-monk named Benkei Musashibo, set out to thwart the efforts of the Henshei to recover the Amahagane and save Kyoto from their tyrannical rule.

It is this Amahagane and Kamui which is responsible for giving Genji: Dawn of the Samurai it's unique brand of gameplay.

At the start of the game Yoshitsune has one Amahagane. When Benkei comes into the picture soon after, he will also be found to be in possession of an Amahagane. This Amahagane enables them to harness the power of Kamui which has the extraordinary property of slowing down time and enabling them to take down opponents with a single well-timed blow. Through their combined efforts they will be finding more Amahagane during the course of the game, thus increasing their ability to use Kamui.

While you start off the game as Yoshitsune, early on you'll be enlisting the services of Benkei, and you can actually choose which character to use for most of the succeeding stages. How you tackle certain obstacles in the game depends largely on which character you choose. Yoshitsune is a relatively small-sized character, but is quick and agile. In comparison, Benkei is a tall and immensely powerful behemoth, but slow to move and quite ungainly. As you may well imagine, these differences also make for distinct fighting styles among the two. Yoshitsune's speed makes for quick and elegant sword attacks, while Benkei is a bruiser, relying on his brute strength to defeat wave after wave of enemies.

In RPG style fashion, you'll be able to enhance the characters attack and defense skills as well as maximum health by collecting "essences of Amahagane". You are also awarded experience points for killing enemies, and your character automatically "levels up" once a specific total is reached. Both characters can be outfitted with a selection of weapons and armor, as well as magical items such as charms, talismans, and gems. Health can be restored through the use of various herbs and preparations, which, like the rest of the other items, can be bought from and/or sold to local merchants, or found in various locations.

Genji: Dawn of the Samurai also happens to be a feast for both the eyes and the ears. The graphics are highly detailed and extremely pleasing aesthetically. It certainly makes the most of the PS2's hardware, and you'll be surprised at the sheer amount of eye candy generated by the game despite running on a platform which is more than five years old. It only goes to show how much graphics power there is in the PS2 platform to begin with, and how much software development for it has matured during the course of its life cycle. The sound is outstanding as well. It supports the Dolby Pro Logic II standard and if you have the requisite decoder and speakers, you'll be rewarded with a highly immersive and stunningly realistic audio environment to accompany all of the aforementioned eye candy.

Now for the nitpicks. It is an extremely short game. It gave me slightly more than eight hours of gameplay, which is quite brief by any standard. Just when I find myself mastering the ability to use Kamui and looking forward to being surrounded by numerous enemies, voila! the game was already over. It was quite a let down considering that I was already getting into it.

I also felt that the relative strengths and weaknesses of Yoshitsune and Benkei were somewhat imbalanced. I found it a tad more difficult to defeat the bosses using Yoshitsune than I did Benkei, and when facing several opponents, Benkei was more likely to get away without using Kamui, while for Yoshitsune, it was virtually a necessity. Yoshitsune should have been given some more devastating attacks and/or combos to at least put the character on par with Benkei as far as lethality is concerned. More so considering that Yoshitsune is the lead character of the game after all.

Camera placement could have been a wee bit better. For some opponents, just waiting for the square button to flash onscreen while using Kamui wasn't good enough. You actually have to watch his actions closely so you can anticipate when he will leave an opening for you to launch your counterattack. Unfortunately, there are instances wherein the camera angles weren't favorable for this kind of close observation.

Lastly, you'll probably be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of text you have to read via the subtitles. Can't be helped, unless you speak Japanese yourself.

There isn't much else not to like about the game. The brevity of the game is indeed its worst feature, and given its lack of interesting extras or other game modes, it doesn't really have a high level of replayability. It is awesome the first time you play through it, but once you do, there isn't anything much to make you want to play it again.

The bottomline is that Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is simply a terrific game. It is just so short that you'll find yourself asking for more. Alas, the game doesn't have much more to offer after you plow right through it the first time. We can only hope the sequel would last longer. Assuming there is one. Should you go for it? If you have money to burn go ahead. If you demand maximum value from the games you purchase through long gameplay times and/or good replayability, you're better off skipping this one.

Postscript:

The story of this game is based on true people and true events. Check out the following Wikipedia entries:

Minamoto no Yoshitsune - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saito Musashibo Benkei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Links:

Heroes in the Heian Era