Way of the Samurai was an obscure PS2 game released in 2002. It told the story of a young Ronin who arrives in a town and finds warring factions battling for dominance. Its main hook was the level of choice involved: Who to fight, who to talk to, what to say, and where to go. Although it was set in a relatively-small world, the plot would branch and change depending on your actions. It wasn’t a huge success, but obviously sold enough to warrant three sequels.
Way of the Samurai 4 is an obscure PS3 game released in 2012. It tells the story of a young Ronin who arrives in a town and finds warring factions battling for dominance. Its main hook is the level of choice involved: Who to fight, who to talk to, what to say, and where to go. If this all sounds a little familiar, that’s because it is; not much has changed in the structure of the series. However, there are plenty of other changes that have made their way into the game, and they’re not all for the best.
The original Way of the Samurai was unique in its simplicity: Sword fighting contained few moves, and could only be mastered by using the correct attacks at the correct times. Rather than simply slash away, you had to watch the opponent and try to knock him off balance to deliver the killing blow. By Way of the Samurai 4, things have gotten much more button-mashy, and constantly slashing at your foe seems to work just fine, most of the time.
Another aspect that has changed is the save system. In the original, you had to restart every time you died, which may sound terrible, but added a real incentive to stay alive. Also, because things played out differently every time, it never felt like you were doing the exact same sections over and over again. This time around, you can save as much as you like, so death just requires a quick reload and you’re back in the action. Since this title is the longest game in the series, I suppose this is the right way to do things, but it does take away an aspect that set the original apart.
This game, as with the others, takes part in a small town with a handful of different sections to wander between. The three factions that are in conflict are the pro-government forces, the anti-government rebels, and the British Navy. It’s never explicitly stated who the good guys and bad guys are, but that doesn’t really matter since you can side with whomever you please. If you wish to be a good samurai who helps those in need, that’s fine. If you simply want to massacre all who stand in your way, that’s fine too. In fact, killing as many people as possible will earn you some great weaponry, as you can pick up and use any swords and spears dropped by vanquished foes.
As well as choice in the story, you also have choice in your character: What you look like, how you dress, and your fighting style. Unfortunately, it’s fairly limited, so you won’t be creating an accurate representation of yourself, unless you just happen to resemble one of the three facial types available to select from. This is a shame, as we’ve seen much more robust character creation in games made years ago.
Presentation-wise, Way of the Samurai 4 is fairly dreadful. The graphics look like an upscaled PS2 game, and can’t seem to decide if they’re meant to be crisp or smooth, so they sometimes change from one to the other. There is awful tearing on the screen whenever the camera moves, and terrible clipping all over the place. Your character jumps like a weirdo, and whenever you upward slash an enemy, they go tumbling through the air in a most unrealistic manner. In fact, I once hit an enemy over a railing, leaving him unreachable on the other side. He couldn’t climb back over, so I was forced to reload my game and start the mission again. It’s quite clear that this game was made on a very tight budget.
On the plus side, there are some very amusing bits of dialog that crop up throughout the game. For instance, when attempting to woo a woman (which, in turn, can lead to an evening of “night crawling”), one of your pick-up lines is simply to tell her she has a nice, firm ass. You’d think that any self-respecting woman would slap you at this point, but this line actually works from time to time. I’ll have to remember that in real life. Slightly inappropriate phrases appear often in the game, usually directed at women, and they made me laugh every time.
That’s about it, really. You wander around talking, fighting, and accepting side missions if you wish to earn a little money. You can buy goods from the street vendors and visit the blacksmith to fix or alter your weapons, then it’s back to talking and fighting some more. It’s not terrible, but neither is it particularly exciting. The fun comes in restarting after you’ve finished it and doing things differently, seeing the alternate story paths and winding up with another of the various ending. To make things even better, choices you make in one play through can alter the world for the next.
Overall, I enjoyed Way of the Samurai 4, but certainly wasn’t thrilled with it. The visuals are awful, the combat is fairly weak, and there really isn’t much variety to the gameplay. However, the branching story paths and level of choice kept me playing, and provide good incentive to replay multiple times. It’s questionable whether anyone will enjoy it enough to see all 10 of the conclusions, but I’d at least like to see what happens when I align myself with each of the three factions. I’d also like to tell a few more women how firm their asses are.
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