This game is 100% aesthetic. If you like classic samurai movies, this game is a must play.
However, if the aesthetic fails to grab you then this game might feel very hollow. I beat it in roughly 5-6 hours and I wasn’t too impressed when it comes to gameplay. There are a variety of combos that are made available to you as you progress but they’re not as useful once you realize it’s just pressing an extra button for a spam combo that you were already doing. Gameplay just gets really redundant at a certain point and you’ll be going through the motions in combat about halfway in.
Spoilers below
As for the story, it’s a pretty simple one. Your sensei gets killed, you hunt the ones that killed him, and you find out that your character’s thirst for revenge is the reason your own village gets attacked and your loved one dies bc of it. At that point of the story, your character gets killed(unless you manage to defeat the insanely hard boss that kills you) and this is where I think the story becomes very interesting. You get sent to an afterlife type world called Yomi and fight ghosts and demons. Japanese mythology shines in this part of the game and it kinda made me wish the rest of the game was like this. It made for some cool environments and enemy types. I also liked that you have 4 different options for how your game ends. There’s some replay value from that and the unlocked difficulty once you initially beat the game.
Also, DO NOT use English voice acting. Take it from someone like me who actually prefers to watch anime dubbed in English bc it doesn’t bother me most of the time. But this game’s English voice acting is pretty bad and does not fit well at all. Just keep the Japanese voice acting as it was intended and read the subtitles.
There’s a lot to like about this game but there’s also a lot to not like. I’d say it’s worth your time to play regardless since it’s a 5-6 hour experience and if you like the aesthetic of 2D sidescrolling with a old 50s B&W film filter. Aesthetic alone is why I liked playing it but that’s about it.
However, if the aesthetic fails to grab you then this game might feel very hollow. I beat it in roughly 5-6 hours and I wasn’t too impressed when it comes to gameplay. There are a variety of combos that are made available to you as you progress but they’re not as useful once you realize it’s just pressing an extra button for a spam combo that you were already doing. Gameplay just gets really redundant at a certain point and you’ll be going through the motions in combat about halfway in.
Spoilers below
As for the story, it’s a pretty simple one. Your sensei gets killed, you hunt the ones that killed him, and you find out that your character’s thirst for revenge is the reason your own village gets attacked and your loved one dies bc of it. At that point of the story, your character gets killed(unless you manage to defeat the insanely hard boss that kills you) and this is where I think the story becomes very interesting. You get sent to an afterlife type world called Yomi and fight ghosts and demons. Japanese mythology shines in this part of the game and it kinda made me wish the rest of the game was like this. It made for some cool environments and enemy types. I also liked that you have 4 different options for how your game ends. There’s some replay value from that and the unlocked difficulty once you initially beat the game.
Also, DO NOT use English voice acting. Take it from someone like me who actually prefers to watch anime dubbed in English bc it doesn’t bother me most of the time. But this game’s English voice acting is pretty bad and does not fit well at all. Just keep the Japanese voice acting as it was intended and read the subtitles.
There’s a lot to like about this game but there’s also a lot to not like. I’d say it’s worth your time to play regardless since it’s a 5-6 hour experience and if you like the aesthetic of 2D sidescrolling with a old 50s B&W film filter. Aesthetic alone is why I liked playing it but that’s about it.