Could some people please share their opinions on Way of the Samurai for the PS2?

Also, comparisons to other games such as Tenchu, the original Busido Blade, etc... would be most helpful.


Thanks!

It's by the makers of Tenchu, but actual gameplay is totally different. What's great about this game is that it obviously draws inspiration from the Kurosawa films Yojimbo and Sanjuro, as well as other movies based on samurai. The story and gameplay flow is as follows: You enter a town and interact with the locals. Then you can decide to interfere or sit back. There is a definite amount of corrupt officials and police in this town. Depending on how you react will determine what kind of samurai you become and how the locals will react to you. I love this idea and how it draws it's themes from those Kurosawa films.

The gameplay and fighting scheme is decent. It's on a steep learning curve that by the 3rd or 4th day you're in the town enemies can kill you in 1 fight if you haven't mastered the deep system by then. I found it a little problematic but some time spent in the tutorial is most welcome. It may be a rental for most as the gameplay does get repetitive after awhile especially if the story doesn't grab right away. For example, you'll find that day after day the town basically is the same and so are the locals daily activities the only differences being certain lines of dialogue and certain actions depending on if you do certain tasks. This is all well and good but you definitely don't feel like the town is a real town. Instead it's almost like everyone is an animetronic robot. It's like half the town is trapped in a time warp and relive the same day over and over while. This can get really boring and frustrating as your days are wuite short. Also you can't have more then 1 save slot and when you do load a save it erases it right away so it forces you to keep going until the time comes up when you can save again. It's also is a tough game for anyone that expects a beat em up.

I'll give it a 6.5 out of a 10 for great idea and tough, but deep fighting system. It loses major points for repetition and the horrible saving system. Rent it first to see if the positives outweigh the negatives.

I played this awhile back, its a pretty neat idea! I'd agree with everything C-Killer Redux said. The interactivity is kinda nice and the game is really open ended, you can do pretty much whatever you want almost, even kill some of the key characters sometimes. There are multiple endings, each game was about 2 to 3 hours long for me(on easy mode because normal was too hard for me), depending on your actions during the game you'll get a different ending. Its like a choose your own adventure game.

Its a lot different from Tenchu and Bushido Blade, but it was fun for a rental. As C-Killer mentioned, the save feature is a little weird, while your playing it deletes your save game so you can't reset if you mess up and try out something else. I also like the samurai aspect of the game . There is a 2 player vs mode in it thats not too bad either but I mostly played the single player. If I had to rate it based of my rent I'd probably give it a 3 out of 5. Its a neat idea and kept me playing but there is some repetition after playing it a bit.