Finally, after a set amount of years of being in limbo after the fall of the Nintendo Forums, I'm back, and this time, no system is safe! Well, let's get cracking.

Chances are, you probably haven't heard of Way of the Samurai when it first came out on the Playstation 2, which is understandable because the first installment was lacking so much. I'm surprised I turned into a fan, but let's step back for a second and look at the marketing methods of the last generation of consoles in order to keep things in perspective.

Being the initial owner of a Gamecube during this time, the notion of a bad game never truly struck me except for a few mess ups that bound to happen such as Ultimate Muscle, Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut, or Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom. Sidenote: If you recognize two out of those three games you know exactly what I'm talking about. To those who didn't, you're better off. Even though the Gamecube was the underdog of the Console Trinity, it had some underappreciated values. Values such as discs that could be more scratched up than a record used by a DJ with cerebral palsy and yet still play like they were new, and the fact that even if you got frustrated with a game on the Gamecube and tossed it out the window, it would probably still be in one piece and playable.

The Xbox, meanwhile, was expressed in almost all media that it was the new direction for consoles, then again this was around the age of PC gaming juggernauts and the Xbox was, if anything else, a gaming PC that wired into your television. It had great graphic capability and implanted ideas for new directions in certain genres of gaming, most prominent example being Halo. Problems with the system were most notably two. First, the Xbox catalog of games were hardly that well established. The system had a hard time trying to determine what kind of demographic they were trying to appeal to. Kids, teens, adolescents? In the indecision of focus, the game releases became a mixed bag of hits and misses, most notable one coming to my mind being Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Secondly, the system was as reliable as an ex-con working as a nightguard in the Louvre. Don't take my word for it, just look up all the weird news pieces and reports of Xboxes catching fire and whatnot.

The Playstation 2, is probably the antithesis of the Gamecube in many different ways. The PS2 tried hard to be the Swiss Army Knife of the three systems. A game system/DVD Player/CD Player/Server for Online gameplay etc. However, reliability, though more reliable than the Xbox when you weren't afraid of it spewing green bile and dying, was one of its faults. One time, a friend and I were enjoying a new fighting game on his PS2 when someone had the bad judgment to spill a small amount of milk on the system. Needless to say, the system kept trying to play the game as the sound and steady framerate started to vanish, ending in the infamous frozen screen. After some working and not having to call technical support while getting a fire extinguisher, we managed to get the system working again. The reliability was adequate, the graphic capability was right in the middle, so what about the games for the Playstation 2?

That brings me to my point, thank you for staying this long with me to get here. The folly of the Playstation 2's marketing strategy for games was as tried and true as the old fashioned strategy for becoming rich through lottery tickets: try, try, and try again and if that doesn't work...try some more! The aftermath of which can still be seen in game stores around the world. Go into any Gamestop and you'll see big shelves and storage bins comprising mostly of PS2 games, some going as low as two dollars American. The PS2 games that are above nine dollars American are considered cult classics or adequate, examples being Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, the Dragonball Z Budokai series,etc. Everything else below that number though, comes across as ideas that didn't work as games and are now deadweight in the eyes of people with higher expectations.

Way of the Samurai was one of those games below the nine dollar "you have to be this good to not go into obscurity" line that I took an interest in. I bought it for about five dollars and was getting ready for two hours I was never going get back before I took it back for some store credit. The game opens up like an rpg, in that you start off at a customize screen which is just pick one of a set amount of outfits and hairstyles, then you write a name for your samurai, you get a katana and the game begins.

The game opens with you as a wondering Samurai entering a village that houses essentially two gangs fighting eachother, a peaceful community stuck in the middle, and the overhanging threat of military intervention leading to everyone going down. There's a little more to it than that but remember this was a five dollar game. The combat was interesting, it allowed you to block, kick, slash your opponent, shatter his sword blade, or if you timed it right, parry him off balance and deliver an instant killing stroke. Problem is that the game has the weapon degradation problem. Not the problem where your sword shatters in two swings but a combat hindrance degradation problem. In addition to your health, there is a second bar that displays your weapon's durability which is done in a way not unlike a cool-down timer. The harder you attack your opponent or the harder your opponent hits your blade, the red or "overheat" bar goes up, and if you keep banging away at your opponent and the bar hits full, an entire chunk of the bar vanishes and the process continues until the blade is fully shattered. Once that happens you get to eat a crap roll because you're screwed. It's not a bad design however, it helps you gauge your opponent's movements in order to figure out how to beat them in a way that isn't just button mashing or memorizing long combos; the old wait and react method.

Set up in RPG fashion, you choose your side in the conflict, which was actually a little more freegoing than most moral choice games. You could join a group then stab them in the back, join a group then just attack the other group without them knowing, don't join any group and kill them both, or just kill some innocents, take their swords and get the hell out.

Which brings me to another one of the games interesting points. You could only carry upto three swords on you at the same time, one being your starting one and the other two being ones you took from your slain foes. Some of the weapons do get a bit weird as things go on. I came across some bandits in one part of the game and one of them was using a giant spiked ball. I wish I was kidding. No chain, just a giant spiked ball that looked like it swallowed his fist and was so disproportionate to the guy using it that I thought the circus was in town. Of course, why would you wanna take a bunch of swords and use them for only a small amount of time? The answer is when you finish the game, the swords you have get put into a "Sword Vault" so you can choose those weapons again on your next playthrough, which brings up a problem with the game.

Each playthrough of the game usually amounts to the same encounters over and over again with the sides switched, spawning of characters who have boss level health and who have unfair advantages such as cannons or armor, and scenarios where if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, you die. Speaking of dying, despite having a difficulty setting mode, even Easy mode is unforgiving, and Hard mode is where every character is Samurai Jack with a lightsaber and you got a twig. Furthermore, each scenario you choose usually amounts to maybe an hour of gameplay. Also, the game doesn't give you a map or a list of objectives to where to go to next, so trial and error are your amoral friends in this world full of killer samurai and dudes with cannons. The lack of a map is compensated however by the world being fairly easy to navigate because it's made up of just eight or so giant areas with key buildings.

One of the major gripes I had with the game was the lack of an inventory system or lack of means to get money. The currency in the game is so hard to come by it's insane. Also, in order to heal, you have to break off the battle, run to a field where some radishes are or whatever and eat them right there and hope your opponent doesn't impale you. The only shop is the Blacksmith who helps improve your weapons' power, durability, and such but asks for the in-game money equivalent of a diamond for the service. It's enough to pull one's teeth out, until you realize you can kill the Blacksmith without paying him which makes the upgrade system broken beyond all belief.

Despite all the game's flaws, I enjoyed Way of the Samurai's attempt to do something different, even when it forgot certain key elements of a game like adequate length or proper distribution of resourceful items.

Moving on now to Way of the Samurai 2 for the PS2. After a few small hours of playing Way of the Samurai 1, I returned the game to Gamestop and continued for a few months with nothing else of note, until I saw in a bargain bin the sequel for twenty dollars. Way of the Samurai 2, is labeled on the back as "the possible sleeper hit of 2004" and it deserved the praise. Way of the Samurai 2 was the exact same concept as the prequel, which, ironically, is the chronological prequel to the first Way of the Samurai. You are a rogue samurai who wanders into a town occupied by warriors on different fronts of an inevitable conflict. The controls are basically the same as the first Way of the Samurai with some upgrades. Way of the Samurai 2 introduces more shops which include healing items and other things that temporarily boost one of your sword's stats, all of which are now stored in your inventory that stack along with your swords through each playthrough. Also, you can do jobs for whatever side you pick in order to obtain money which break down to scavenger hunts or going to a certain place and killing a certain person.

With an inventory screen and a job system to help things along, Way of the Samurai 2 is really starting to outshine its prequel, but what else helped make this game worthy of note? The answer, more weapons or to be more specific, more exotic weapons. Way of the Samurai 1 basically had identical katanas and outrageous unrealistic weapons like the spiked ball as mentioned earlier. Way of the Samurai 2, on the other hand, had swords to dual-wield, fighting claws, juttes, sais, ninja swords, clubs, two-handed broadswords, and so on. In addition to the new weapons in the game came a "training" mechanic where the longer you used a certain weapon, the more moves you could perform with it. This system helps encourage use of new weapons but the trick is trying to adapt to the different battle styles, which can only be figured out through trial and error.

As for the map issues in Way of the Samurai 1, the sequel delivers help. Not only is there a map in the game, but it also gives you the option to hop to any area by highlighting it. Objectives are now displayed but they're very vague so there is still the trouble of finding where you need to go. I like a riddle as much as the next guy but not when it breaks the game's flow. As for the overall flow of the game, it breaks things up into different times of day and night along with a calendar with certain events that happen on certain days.

The rpg element is still as limited in the last game. You get a set amount of costumes and faces for your samurai. Only change is after you play the game for a while, you can choose your samurai to be male or female. Not exactly an innovation but it helps it stay politically correct, whatever that means. The music in Way of the Samurai 1 wasn't necessarily memorable but it set the mood, same thing applies to Way of the Samurai 2. Sound effects are a bit chintzy but overall, swords cleaving through human muscle and bone sound like they should.

The game's prequel was fascinating because there was no voice-acting, just message boxes. Way of the Samurai 2 in an attempt to outdo 1, got voice actors. Problem is...they suck. The voice acting is completely phoned in and uninspired and makes things fall flat. In spite of these flaws though, I do recommend Way of the Samurai 2. It's fun, it's visceral, guilty pleasure is all over the place, and in a cynical way, hilarious to laugh at the bad voice acting. The combat is still the same from the last game and everything else I didn't mention is the same. Funny, how this fandom began because I gave a cheap dollar store game a chance. Now to move this from a retrospective review, to a recent review: Way of the Samurai 3 for the Playstation 3!

After finding out that a next gen version of Way of the Samurai was coming to America, I couldn't wait to see what would be added to the series with more processing ability. After picking up the PS3 version of the game and sitting down to play, I realized that my favorite franchise had fallen victim to the same dangerous transition that some old games from the last generation of consoles go through. Examples include Dragonball Z Burst Limit, Silent Hill Homecoming and Super Paper Mario. The hurtful transition usually includes destroying an old tried and true method in an attempt to make things more accessible to new players, focusing and polishing up unnecessary areas, and crippling the series so badly that it gets a bad rap for the rest of its existance. See Sonic and Tomb Raider for examples.

The blocking and instant kill mechanic has been reduced to simplified quick-time events in which if you don't hit the block button at just the right moment, you get cut, breaking the flow and killing the feeling of being a bad-ass samurai, making you realize at all times that you're just a nerd playing a video game. The voice acting is a little bit improved but still beyond help. The dialogue options you used to have have taken a backseat to a "Reaction" system in which the only thing you can while someone is talking is either take out your sword and attack, or apologize and leave, killing any sort of characteristic you could develop beyond psychotic violent outbreaks or bumbling receptiveness. The graphics are still PS2 quality which is a small disappointment, not that everything needs to look creepily life-like to be fun, but there's no compensating factors to show for it so I'm marking it down as a problem. The objectives are now gone and replaced with "Encounter Markers" to show where a character is but no indicator as to who or the context. I could go on but I think the point's been made.

Here's my recap. WotS 1: Great experimental spirit, flawed, five dollar game that's easily forgettable. Don't buy it. WotS 2: Great, almost perfect samurai game with small objective problems and bad voice acting. Buy it! WotS 3: Textbook victim of "Next Gen Revamp Syndrome." If you're new to the series, Rent it or borrow it. If you're an old fan of the series, feel free to buy it but I don't blame you if you hate it.

Thank you for reading and feel free to comment.

Sorry, but learn to leave spaces between paragraphs.

thanks for the constructive feedback on grammar and the reader's eyestrain. Now about the actual review.... Cute pic by the way.

This is the correct place to post such a long review, but if I may, I don't think it was necessary in this case. I like a thorough, detailed review as much as the next guy/commenter on the Escapist, but in this case, it felt like you just didn't use the space well. There's so much information that has little to nothing to do with Way of the Samurai, you are correct in congratulating your readers on making it to the actual, y'know, review:

You spend so much time introducing Way of the Samurai that the review, when you get to it, seems not-so-detailed. It's as if the actual game takes a back seat to your personal relationship it.

Also, you're essentially reviewing three games with three separate breaks indicating "here's where the review of THIS one begins!" -- this is, perhaps, not the most elegant way to show the three games the way you want too. In reality, this is three sort-of detailed reviews spliced into one epic, and that may come off as more than a bit daunting to readers.

The writing itself is pretty good. Most of my problems here come from the way you formatted this, and that can be all but totally excused seeing as this is your first review. And, as a first review, this is head and shoulders above what you're "competing" against. There are little bits and pieces I would change within the reviews, and I could definitely PM them to you if you're into that sort of thing.

I will say that, as someone who liked Way of the Samurai 3 and hasn't played either of the first two, I'm not sure I understand the criticism. The voice acting is awful and the graphics aren't too hot (though "PS2 quality" is taking it a bit too far), but I liked the story and the majority of the gameplay a lot. I feel like you are speaking as a bitter fan of the 2nd game, and didn't really give the 3rd one a fair chance. I think you've convinced me to try it (so congrats on that!), so maybe I'll agree when I get it. Still, the tone you took wasn't very professional and didn't convince me of your opinion. Which is the goal of a review, I think.

I know it seems like I didn't like the review, but really, there's a lot to like about it. Obviously I wouldn't have posted this if I felt like you were an incompetent writer -- I think you're aware that this is more than your average game review. It's not quite a great review, but it certainly could have been one with some changes. Good luck with future stuff, and I'll definitely look out for your next review.