Digital Thoughts Video games’ The Spirit of the Samurai feels prefer it began as a cool concept distinctive from all the things else. A side-scrolling motion title from the attitude of a samurai, however in 2D stop-motion? It sounds cool, and to the developer’s credit score, this unorthodox artwork type could make for some lovely pictures and moments. Further concepts had been then seemingly tossed in to face out from the group. Taking part in as a kitten who has to platform and sneak previous horrifying monsters? Test. Taking part in as a kodama and combating at a smaller scale with a sword? Additionally, examine, for some motive.
As weird as the general combination appears, The Spirit of the Samurai fails to execute the basics of its fight and exploration. Even the premise, which begins out promising, shortly devolves right into a uninteresting journey.
Touted as impressed by Japanese mythology, the story is about Takeshi, a samurai who’s visited in his goals by a mysterious Kitsune. The previous’s village has been prepping for Shuten-doij and his military, however the latter warns they’re on their approach. Earlier than Takeshi units out to warn the villagers, he’s informed that his kitten, Chisai, will even play a component. Blatant foreshadowing apart, issues are seemingly quiet throughout – to the extent that his chief doesn’t even hear about his dream, insisting on coaching first.
“Consistency in a fight system like that is essential, and The Spirit of the Samurai doesn’t supply that. It may well often stream in one-on-one battles, offering glimpses of a greater recreation, however they’re few and much between.”
Nonetheless, lo and behold, the assault happens, and the village shortly falls. Fallen troopers are transformed into the undead by malicious creatures. It’s now on Takeshi to attempt to salvage the state of affairs, whether or not it’s serving to different villagers or rescuing his kitten in order that it might…inexplicably be part of him in fight. To say that The Spirit of the Samurai doesn’t sport essentially the most tout narrative can be an understatement, even when the writing isn’t fully horrible. The plot doesn’t simply devolve into contrived twists – it fails to construct any of its characters or make you empathize with them. Even Chisai, an lovable kitten you need to care about by default, is sort of simply alongside for the journey.
The gameplay ought to ideally choose up the slack, and The Spirit of the Samurai’s fight sounds promising on paper. You’ll be able to unleash totally different assaults by urgent the correct stick in numerous instructions and customise combos accordingly. Some assaults could also be slower however deal extra injury, whereas others are fast but missing the identical oomph. Assaults additionally change relying on for those who’re guarding or operating, with every motion consuming a few of your stamina bar. In fact, you even have a default assault button, which may be custom-made. As you stage up or discover the setting, you be taught new assaults, some particular to sure instructions.
Theoretically, discovering the correct stability of fast and heavy assaults needs to be the play, however it all falls aside shortly. On high of guarding, you possibly can parry, and dodge roll, the latter perfect for getting behind enemies. You’ll be able to’t change sides when blocking, however you possibly can unleash strikes in the wrong way to change. Motion feels awkward, particularly when crouching and standing up, however you slowly start to piece issues collectively. You then face odd timings on the dodge roll, parries popping out regardless of not even urgent the button and making an attempt to fend off foes from a number of instructions, and it’s all for nought.
Key among the many fight points is that hitboxes appear made up, and the factors don’t matter. Unleash a classy twirl right into a heavy slash on an enemy, and even when it appears to be like like they’re out of vary, they’ll out of the blue magnetize into it and die. On different events, hits from you and the enemy will cross proper via with neither taking injury. Consistency in a fight system like that is essential, and The Spirit of the Samurai doesn’t supply that. It may well often stream in one-on-one battles, offering glimpses of a greater recreation, however they’re few and much between.
“The stop-motion visuals could be the one spotlight of the expertise, presenting some vicious-looking horrors all through. Even the consequences and sure sights, like piles of corpses, look spectacular.”
If that weren’t sufficient, the motion feels particularly horrendous when platforming as Takeshi. One part options a number of traps that may insta-kill, together with pits with spikes. Even when it appears to be like such as you made the soar, you’ll nonetheless seemingly fall into the lure and die. The stiff clambering and climbing up and down ladders additionally really feel horrible.
Merchandise assortment is one other annoyance. You even have the shrines and choices, the place offering the latter earns essence for buying therapeutic gadgets and different provides like arrows, lockpicks, and whatnot. Nonetheless, you possibly can construct a tidy assortment because of the quantity of stuff that drops. Simply watch the animation every time and repeat till tedium units in, which is just about instant.
The truth that some gadgets are invisible and require madly tapping the work together button to select them up doesn’t assist. Additionally, as a aspect notice: Interacting with shrines, the place you additionally spend factors to stage up stats, doesn’t save your recreation, however checkpoints do. In case you spend time levelling up and providing issues for essence to buy gadgets, then die, put together to do it once more since you didn’t suppose to hit that shrine.
The sections with Chisai and Kodama supply some selection, although they’re nowhere close to as in depth as Takeshi’s. You’re not switching between all three a lot as taking part in Takeshi for a lot of the story and taking breaks to manage the others. It makes some sense with all of the work that went into the combo system, but feels considerably deceptive. And whereas Chisai is brief in stature, his motion nonetheless feels as unwieldy as Takeshi.
The stop-motion visuals could be the one spotlight of the expertise, presenting some vicious-looking horrors all through. Even the consequences and sure sights, like piles of corpses, look spectacular. The unhappy half is that it seemingly suffers from some movie grain impact that ruins the general picture high quality. In some elements, the lighting additionally comes throughout as super-exposed and appears terrible. Nonetheless, the worst half is the cutscene high quality, seemingly rendered at a decrease decision than all the things else. Since cutscenes are interspersed all through, generally unnecessarily, it’s tremendous jarring.
“Between unresponsive controls, visible points, tedious merchandise gathering, random fight, awkward motion, and an underwhelming narrative, there are only a few redeeming qualities.”
Alongside the odd fight interactions and iffy platforming, I additionally ran right into a baffling glitch which broke Takeshi’s motion. Sprinting wouldn’t transfer him ahead, but when I jumped out of the blue, he would slide whereas standing nonetheless at spectacular speeds. It was weird to witness however issues cleared up after the subsequent cutscene. I didn’t run into efficiency points, fortunately, however others haven’t been so fortunate.
I needed to offer The Spirit of the Samurai a good shake, largely on account of its visuals however as a result of three unlikely allies teaming as much as battle a nigh-unstoppable military appeared interesting. Between unresponsive controls, visible points, tedious merchandise gathering, random fight, awkward motion, and an underwhelming narrative, there are only a few redeeming qualities. In case you’re set on choosing it up, even on a reduction, you may need to watch for patches and quality-of-life enhancements first. Even then, given the quick runtime, it’s nearly unimaginable to suggest.
This recreation was reviewed on PC.