samurai_jazz Reviews

Y'know what? I kinda dig this game. Y'know what else? This game takes about an hour to complete but somehow finds a way to overstay it's welcome. It starts off pretty strong as the player takes control of a samurai dressed like a 1930's cab driver, the controls are taught initially through wall scrolls hanging on the walls of the samurai's dojo themed apartment, as we venture forth to do battle with the suit and fedora attired enemy swordsmen the remaining tutorials are given to us through graffiti on the walls of the urban jungle. First the basic WASD movement, then instructions on how to block and attack, lastly we get the pseudo platforming that has player Naruto running on rooftops to bypass blocked sidewalks and access new areas. We immediately see the game's major selling point, the fusion of the film noir and martial arts film aesthetic. We unfortunately don't have to wait too long to start seeing the game's flaws. The block mechanic seems mostly pointless, at least on normal difficulty anyway. One on One the enemies don't last long enough to get a shot in, they fair better in groups but only if they come at the player from different angles, a tactic that defeats the block anyway since it's directional. Yeah you might be fooled by first appearances and think this is a pure sidescroller, but you can attack, and be attacked, from up, down, left, or right. Not that it matters much, sword swings seem to have an arc to them allow combat without having to make sure everything's exactly lined up. The game obviously wanted some element of thoughtful combat that it never quite manages. The only enemy that really warranted much tactical ardor were the ones with a ranged fire attack, and even they aren't much to worry about. The mobs of enemies get larger as the game progresses, leading to some moments where the player enters a room and can find themselves immediately under attack, it's the sort of fun moment that happens in Kung fu movies. That fun ends after the seventh or eighth time you walk into a copypasted room to find infinitely respawning enemies trying to find the one switch or item you need to progress. There was supposed to be some kind of story. I think. Mostly I just ran around getting cigarettes for random jerks who won't stop blocking a particular alleyway, and of course the cigarettes have to come from a particular club I can only get in with a pass, and to get that pass I have to get a lighter or find some guy's lost glasses. These feel like the beginner quests meant to get the player familiar with what's going on and how things are done and that things will get more interesting as they unfold. They don't. This is the extent of the storytelling on display, and eventually the game dispenses with all pretense by just locking you in a labyrinth full of enemies and until you hunt down multicolored keys or just hit a switch that activates another switch that opens a door. The game is book-ended by cut scenes, the first is of a samurai committing harakiri, and final one is of the player fighting a ghost or something. I think it might have been some manifestation of his own inner demons? Regardless of what it is it kills the protagonist in a bad ending I was too tired to bother replaying to see if I could alter. I believe the guy who made this game whipped up all these pixel art game assets and used them to crank out a bunch of short simple games priced for a dollar each. You might argue it's a scam, but only in the way the dollar menu at any given burger joint is a scam. That said, I don't think I could really recommend this to most people.