Samurai Western – PS2 – Review

The men standing
in the middle of the dusty streets of the ghost town twitch their trigger
fingers and spread out. Their opponent shows no sign of nervousness and does not
take his steely gaze from the gunslingers that begin to sweat. Suddenly the men
draw their six shooters and, before they can even pull the trigger, the lone man
pulls out a long blade and is on them. Within seconds the man slices into these
men and watches them drop to the ground. The man is a samurai and the men he
killed were hardened gunslingers. Samurai Western on the PS2 brings us two
different worlds but does it manage to be original and fun? Let’s just say it
could have been better.

This
fish-out-of-water tales introduces Gojiro Kiryu, a samurai who heads to the Wild
West in search of a man he plans to cross blades with and eventually kill. The
town he steps into makes it clear that they don’t like foreign strangers and to
make matters worse a man named Goldberg rules the city with an iron fist. The
road to revenge takes Gojiro through a number of dangerous enemies that won’t go
down easy.

While it might
seem laughable that a samurai wielding a sword could take down men with guns,
Gojiro’s skills are extraordinary and abnormally unique. It’s tongue-in-cheek,
indeed, but it is also quite cool especially since Gojiro possesses the ability
to move fast enough to dodge bullets and even deflect them with the right
timing. His combo attacks start weak but the more enemies you defeat in battle
the more experience points you can gain in order to upgrade skills and weapon
mastery at the end of each stage.

Samurai
Western’s action is pure hack-and-slash action with combo attack that changes
depending on what stance you unlock. For example, the Makiwari is a high stance
that sends enemies flying back and even comes complete with its own special
attack. Below Gojiro’s life gauge is a Master Gauge that once filled you go into
Ultimate Master mode. Ultimate Master mode allows you to deliver finishing
strikes without being attacked. This mode comes in handy since you’ll fight a
large number of enemies that tend to pop up each time you turn around.

The bad part is
that while the slashing action feels fun at first, it becomes too repetitive to
the point that even the neat special moves just results in the same animated
deaths. There are different swords and they do change the action a bit but not
by very much. You’ll enter locales that’ll feel very familiar seeing as there is
little variety in environments. Even the enemies begin to look the same so boss
battles become welcomed events just to see different enemies. And while the game
has 16 missions, this gaming experience moves along quickly to the point that
you can finish the game in two to three hours.

Visually Samurai
Western is just a decent-looking game with very little in terms of spectacular
effects or detailed environments. The only time the game really shines is during
cutscenes or when Gojiro goes into Ultimate Master mode. There are
dismemberments and the blood does fly, but it doesn’t get too extremely graphic.
The worse part, though, is the fact that many of the locations you’ll visit
start looking the same and the enemies start looking like clones.

Unfortunately,
the sound does not make up for the game’s lackluster visuals. The voice acting,
for example, is poorly handled and makes the main characters sound like
unintentionally funny stereotypes. Gojiro sounds like a Japanese tourist while
the overuse of the word “varmint” and “dang” makes up the vocabulary of the
majority of the enemies. Even the game’s soundtrack just doesn’t feel very
original.

When all is said
and done, Samurai Western fails to stay fresh and entertaining to the point that
gamers might not want to see this through to the very end. It’s a shame really
since the action – at first, anyway – is fun and the characters (while
stereotypical) are actually amusing. Sadly, its repetitive nature just holds
this game back considerably. If you’re in the mood for a good samurai game I
suggest you try the Onimusha 3 and if you’re in the mood for a western you
should try Red Dead Revolver … either way stay away from this one.

#Review Scoring Details for Samurai Western

Gameplay: 6.2
The
hack-and-slash action has been done better than this even with the combo attacks
and the new stances that come complete with their own special moves. Dodging and
deflecting bullets isn’t easy, but thanks to the character level upgrade it
becomes a lot easier. Too bad the action becomes monotonous the more you play.

Graphics: 7.0
Visually
speaking, the game isn’t gorgeous, but at least it’s not entirely bad either.
Cutscenes look decent enough, but you’ll be up against an army of villains that
all look alike. In fact, even the environments start looking the same.

Sound: 7.0
The soundtrack
is standard western fare only not as beautifully orchestrated as other
western-themed games. Even the voice acting isn’t as good. In fact, the
characters sound like cheesy caricatures … particularly the main character.

Difficulty:
Medium
You’ll often
be overwhelmed by the number of gun-slinging bandits and ruffians, and some boss
battles can be pretty difficult. Luckily Gojiro has a number of cool combo
attacks and special moves to even the odds. Deflecting bullets takes a lot of
practice, though.

Concept: 6.5
There are some
classic western locales but they are recycled throughout the game. There’s even
some collectibles, such as new attire (different hats, among them). There isn’t
a lot to go back to once gamer goes through the 16 levels.

Overall: 6.5
Unfortunately,
Samurai Western wears out its shogun-meets-spaghetti-western appeal all too
quickly and you can blame that on its repetitive hack-and-slash action. There
are instances where the game is genuinely fun, and some of the boss battles are
nicely challenging but its weak spots are too numerous to ignore. You can go
ahead and skip this one.