Soul of the Samurai
Score: 78% ESRB: Mature Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ Adventure/ RPG
Graphics & Sound:       Brightly colored painted canvas setting stage for polygonal warriors graphic animated violence Nightingales and wild swordplay harmonizing with a strange music 'Japanese restaurant' Techno Soul of the Samurai uses a graphical style similar to the Resident Evil series; polygonal characters 'interacting' with static, pre-rendered backgrounds. The backgrounds in Soul of the Samurai are nowhere near the almost photographic realism of Resident Evil, but are very pretty, nevertheless. The models leave something to be desired, being somewhat blocky. While Soul of the Samurai won't win any awards for its graphics, the sound is very nice. Swords sound like swords. Vanquished opponents sound like they hurt. And the music... the music is very cool, but strange. Imagine stereotypical Japanese sounding music (think Japanese restaurant) with a beat. It's kinda funky, but it works for the game, and actually sounds pretty cool.
Gameplay:       Killing all in sight focus or lose direction very much like plot Basically, you have to kill everyone you can. Well, there are a couple of people you have to talk to in order to 'advance the plotline,' but even they end up getting in your way later on, so talk to anyone that seems talkative, then kill everyone you meet. There is a plot, of course, but trying to figure it out (or even understand it as it unfolds) will only distract you. As you progress, you will collect items that will replenish your health, as well as better weaponry. Careful maintenance of your health is necessary to keep you from suffering an untimely death. As you get further into the game, you will also gain new attacks. These attacks are special attacks, requiring their own type of 'power' to use them. This power bar is found beneath your health bar, and is replenished as you kill enemies. Unfortunately, these attacks are not easily activated, and hence, are difficult to use precisely. Simple combos and proficiency at blocking will suffice to handle most situations, however.
Difficulty:       Easy then too hard health so very soon is lost Success? Elusive. Soul of the Samurai is one of those games that doesn't have a very consistent difficulty curve. It starts off easy, then gets really hard, then easy, then really hard... as you learn new skills and techniques and figure out your objectives, things get easier. Then you'll advance to a new area and meet an enemy that is ridiculously hard to beat. To make matters worse, when you die, you have to go back to the original title screen before you can reload your game. This makes starting over a chore, and makes it harder to keep trying once you get to a 'sticky' spot. There are places to save your game, but these save locations are scattered with quite some distance between them (usually) and don't allow you to reload a saved game - only to save your current progress. Being in a genre by itself (and not allowing saved games to be loaded from inside the game) may make the difficulty of this game more than some gamers would care to try.
Game Mechanics:       'Resident Evil' meets 'Ninja' juggling health - items - weapons - attacks... simple combos suffice Soul of the Samurai uses a similar type of graphics as the Resident Evil series. The background is merely an artistic backdrop, and the characters interact with the background by interacting with an invisible 3D model of the shape of the environment. This method allows more realistically detailed backgrounds and some interaction, while requiring a constrained camera angle. One noticeable difference in the way that Soul of the Samurai uses this technique is that some of the areas are actually bigger than the screen. In these cases, the background graphic is scrolled left or right as you move around, while maintaining a stationary camera angle (but not position). The inventory system is nice, though the controls are not very intuitive. Possibly the worst aspect (functionally) of Soul of the Samurai is it’s 'save game' feature. There is a cool 'haiku' shown when a game is saved, changing as you progress, but you are not allowed to reload a saved game unless you are at the title screen. With the difficulty as high as it is, this adds unnecessary wait for gamers who make a mistake and know they need to start over to have enough health to progress.
-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins
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