A different game than I expected going in? I hadn't heard anything about this besides it being a semi-realistic samurai simulator, and...yeah, that's kinda what it is! I would call it a rogue-like sorta thing with how it's story is processed: if ya die, ya die, game over, home boy. No returning to a prior save at all. The save gets deleted then and there, but high enough completion scores let you test out new shit when you replay it. Way of the Samurai starts in a pass between two larger cities where a war between samurai families and government agents is about to go off, and you've got one day to choose where you stand in the conflict.

Now, obviously, the whole thing's very Yojimbo inspired, and even allows you to play both sides and fuck them both over like that movie! It's kinda crazy how much choices actually go somewhere in this game, especially given it's such a clearly low budget project and made at a time when making a big choice based narrative was impossible outside of limited-action and text-based games. Here, this is a full-on brawler, with level-up trees based on how you hold your sword and such. The opening scene of the game is your character crossing a bridge to see a woman get kidnapped, where intervening seems the obvious option, and leads to a plot where you don't fuck with either samurai gang that exists and instead stick to protecting the kidnapping victim's dying town. But, the other choices you get are just as thought out as that option, if not more. Avoiding even talking to the group leads to you walking through the soon-to-be battlefields and happening upon a delapidated buddhist shrine. Offering to join them makes them suspicious and they tie you to the train tracks, forcing you to try and escape. Neither of these less-likely options feels like less effort went into making it, and that goes for most if every choice you can make here.

It's pretty small in scope still, and likely you'll die at some point and have to start over from the beginning, which I imagine can be annoying. The average playthrough should only take two or three hours, though, albeit with around two failed playthroughs preceding it.

The game has a lotta translation issues, though. Bad syntax or weird phrasing abound, but y'know, I don't think it takes from the fun at all. Enjoy the gaming.