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IGN Review of Genji: Days of the Blade
Next-generation consoles exist to deliver game experiences the previous generation could never deliver. That's their sole purpose in this life. So when a game comes along offering a strange mix of cutting-edge visuals but also tired gameplay, one can't help but feel a little cheated. Such is the case with Genji: Days of the Blade, the first PS3 entry in the series that started on the PS2 in 2005.
The PS2 iteration, titled Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, married top-notch visuals with decent action. It had some problems, mostly with the camera and control. Turns out combat, and just gameplay in general, stuck too closely to what gamers saw in Onimusha: Warlords, another PS2 action game set in ancient Japan. While visually impressive, Warlords and Dawn of the Samurai limited a player's freedom by using a static camera. They also had small (albeit beautiful) environments, so it offered very limited freedom when it came to exploration. And there's almost nothing worse in a videogame than gorgeous locales boxed in by invisible walls. Sure, all games have them, but sometimes the box is just too small.
The latter being the more important of the two. Having said that, Days of the Blade does improve on its predecessor in a number of ways. The biggest addition lies in the number of characters available. Players can choose from among four now, and thankfully they all offer something different. The main character, Yoshitsune, can dual-wield swords and attacks quickly. The second character, a tank named Benkei, swings a massive ornate club and attacks slowly. Shizuka, a lithe female warrior, twirls around her enemies and slices at them with tethered blades. The last character, the one kept secret by Sony until very recently, is Buson, the last boss from Dawn of the Samurai. That's a nice roster of fighters, especially considering their individual strengths.
As any PS3 fan surely knows, it's possible to switch between all four characters in the heat of battle. Just press the appropriate direction on the D-Pad and the new character will swap with the one already on-screen. The whole affair is simple, intuitive and fast. Good thing, too, since developers structured the game to use each character's unique abilities constantly. Certain individual enemies, particularly bosses, go down much faster when using the correct character/ weapon combination. The same thing goes for obstacles and environmental hazards - only certain characters can push objects, hit switches or run along walls, for instance. It's a very good thing the character-switch mechanic works well, but sometimes a player is left wondering which character or weapon to use on a boss, only to find the right combo too late in the fight, ending in premature death. Not fun.
Speaking of which, combat forms the heart and soul of Days of the Blade. As much as the back of the box may lead players to believe it's an action/ adventure title, there's very little adventure here. When not butchering dozens of armed soldiers, players will be running to a new location to - that's right - butcher dozens of armed soldiers. Sure, certain locales will have the odd puzzle, maybe even a timed sequence, but for the most part it's all slicing and dicing. Which would be fine if it were a little more compelling. But after cutting through wave after wave of the same dim-witted enemies, things get pretty darn repetetive and dull.
Players can use a variety of moves and combos, including counters, though it's not as in-depth as it could be. Recovering from attacks and throws by using well-timed counters helps make fighting exciting, but the meat-and-potatoes of every encounter hasn't changed since the days of the original Onimusha. It's all hack-and-slash, even if it looks downright gorgeous at times. Here's another problem: just like the first Genji, Days of the Blade strings a collection of close-quarter engagements and tries to make it feel epic through dynamic visuals and backgrounds. It works to a degree, though it's hard to shake the feeling that every fight is contained in an invisible corridor. This also makes it hard to navigate some of the game's environments since every place looks open to exploration. It's easy to consult the map, which clearly points out that yes, the expansive-looking locations are just narrow corridors, but that destroys the illusion even further.
Most enemies in the game aren't too bright, but that's expected since the game expects players to cut through thousands of them. Still, the game provides a decent variety. And the differences go beyond aesthetics, as certain enemies require specific tactics to defeat. Days of the Blade presents airborne foes, for instance, as well as a mess of foot troops. Some of the harder enemies go through several phases, so it's necessary to "peel" layers of armor or other defenses to attack the core. Players also face numerous General-class adversaries, too. These guys go down hard and usually show up with an entourage of equally pissed off cronies. There's a problem, though. It's a golden oldie that most any game veteran hates: archers. Why oh why do developers force players to fight crowds of enemies in the foreground while archers fire arrows from the background? This sucks every time it happens in videogames, and it sucks here, too.
©2006-11-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The PS2 iteration, titled Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, married top-notch visuals with decent action. It had some problems, mostly with the camera and control. Turns out combat, and just gameplay in general, stuck too closely to what gamers saw in Onimusha: Warlords, another PS2 action game set in ancient Japan. While visually impressive, Warlords and Dawn of the Samurai limited a player's freedom by using a static camera. They also had small (albeit beautiful) environments, so it offered very limited freedom when it came to exploration. And there's almost nothing worse in a videogame than gorgeous locales boxed in by invisible walls. Sure, all games have them, but sometimes the box is just too small.
The latter being the more important of the two. Having said that, Days of the Blade does improve on its predecessor in a number of ways. The biggest addition lies in the number of characters available. Players can choose from among four now, and thankfully they all offer something different. The main character, Yoshitsune, can dual-wield swords and attacks quickly. The second character, a tank named Benkei, swings a massive ornate club and attacks slowly. Shizuka, a lithe female warrior, twirls around her enemies and slices at them with tethered blades. The last character, the one kept secret by Sony until very recently, is Buson, the last boss from Dawn of the Samurai. That's a nice roster of fighters, especially considering their individual strengths.
As any PS3 fan surely knows, it's possible to switch between all four characters in the heat of battle. Just press the appropriate direction on the D-Pad and the new character will swap with the one already on-screen. The whole affair is simple, intuitive and fast. Good thing, too, since developers structured the game to use each character's unique abilities constantly. Certain individual enemies, particularly bosses, go down much faster when using the correct character/ weapon combination. The same thing goes for obstacles and environmental hazards - only certain characters can push objects, hit switches or run along walls, for instance. It's a very good thing the character-switch mechanic works well, but sometimes a player is left wondering which character or weapon to use on a boss, only to find the right combo too late in the fight, ending in premature death. Not fun.
Speaking of which, combat forms the heart and soul of Days of the Blade. As much as the back of the box may lead players to believe it's an action/ adventure title, there's very little adventure here. When not butchering dozens of armed soldiers, players will be running to a new location to - that's right - butcher dozens of armed soldiers. Sure, certain locales will have the odd puzzle, maybe even a timed sequence, but for the most part it's all slicing and dicing. Which would be fine if it were a little more compelling. But after cutting through wave after wave of the same dim-witted enemies, things get pretty darn repetetive and dull.
Players can use a variety of moves and combos, including counters, though it's not as in-depth as it could be. Recovering from attacks and throws by using well-timed counters helps make fighting exciting, but the meat-and-potatoes of every encounter hasn't changed since the days of the original Onimusha. It's all hack-and-slash, even if it looks downright gorgeous at times. Here's another problem: just like the first Genji, Days of the Blade strings a collection of close-quarter engagements and tries to make it feel epic through dynamic visuals and backgrounds. It works to a degree, though it's hard to shake the feeling that every fight is contained in an invisible corridor. This also makes it hard to navigate some of the game's environments since every place looks open to exploration. It's easy to consult the map, which clearly points out that yes, the expansive-looking locations are just narrow corridors, but that destroys the illusion even further.
Most enemies in the game aren't too bright, but that's expected since the game expects players to cut through thousands of them. Still, the game provides a decent variety. And the differences go beyond aesthetics, as certain enemies require specific tactics to defeat. Days of the Blade presents airborne foes, for instance, as well as a mess of foot troops. Some of the harder enemies go through several phases, so it's necessary to "peel" layers of armor or other defenses to attack the core. Players also face numerous General-class adversaries, too. These guys go down hard and usually show up with an entourage of equally pissed off cronies. There's a problem, though. It's a golden oldie that most any game veteran hates: archers. Why oh why do developers force players to fight crowds of enemies in the foreground while archers fire arrows from the background? This sucks every time it happens in videogames, and it sucks here, too.
©2006-11-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved