By Glenn Song - August 1, 2005

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Blood, Guts, Rinse, Repeat

Samurai Western, a hack and slash game recently released by Atlus, is the third in a series of “Way of the Samurai” games, which weren’t widely popular so comparisons to older games in the series aren’t very fair or representative. Although the previous two titles were set in feudal Japan, in Samurai Western a generic samurai finds his way to the fictional American west where he’s searching for a character named Rondo. In this version of the west the land is ruled by a man named Goldberg and his French right-hand man Jean, who sports a huge gatling gun to make up for a lack of other natural assets.  And thus the story of Samurai Western begins.

The story of Samurai Western is mostly told through some terribly acted cut scenes and narrated text, and honestly it’s not worth mentioning as it only serves to get you from one massive fight to the next.  So, if you’re looking for pure action, then the watered down storyline is actually a good thing. Apparently no matter what twist or turn the story takes the only key objective is to beat the ever-living crap out of everything that moves. You fight guards, or a sheriff and his deputies, or a bunch of cowboys; it really doesn’t matter who they are because they’re all the same set of enemies from level to level. You’ll meet clone after clone of the same six or seven enemy types. There’s the generic cowboy and his twin siblings looking to run you out of town. There is also the Mexican cowboy with a Tommy gun, an anachronism that will raise a few eyebrows. Then there’s lumpy ole grandma and her bag of dynamite. “I’m gonna blow you up!” she cries before hurling a stick of TNT at you.  Quite charming, really.

The AI of Samurai Western isn’t much to speak of either. Enemies aim at you and hurl everything they have. This unfortunately puts whatever awesome moves the designers had in store for you into a state of obsolesce. Why bother going out of your way to stylishly beat your enemies when all you have to do is button-mash the ‘O’ button to dodge bullets coming your way and then frantically mash the attack button to run the streets red. There’s a tutorial that explains all of the moves, but it’s all really unnecessary.  Had the stylish defensive moves been necessary, perhaps the game would have been a bit more entertaining. Some of the controls also feel sluggish – mainly the jumping. The camera has problems as well. Players will find themselves swinging the camera around to try and get a good angle on the action. Despite the poor camera controls and sluggish interface, dodging and slashing though weren’t that bad - although it’s not very challenging.

An RPG element also exists in this slasher game.  As you lay the beat down on the virtual baddies and earn high scores you’ll also earn experience points which you can apply by adding a couple of points to your health, defense, or the power of your attacks. There are also “magic points” that players can get for the slaughter. Once the magic meter charges up you can unleash the beast within and really show them why the way of the warrior is truly superior. This involves plenty of one-hit attacks that chop your foes in half and spray enough blood to overflow a ten-gallon hat. There are also accessory and new weapons to earn. There’s no need to buy them, since as you gain experience and rack up the high scores you’re simply given these things. It’s nice; players don’t have to go through the formality of stepping into a virtual shop and buying each article.  This aspect of the game takes the monotony out of typical RPG elements.  Plus, who can deny that the excessive blood and gore of the game are entertaining.  It isn’t uncommon to throw an enemy across the screen using your katana, or to use an enemy as a human bullet-shield.  These things are entertaining, even if only in a overdone bloody “Kill Bill” sort of way.

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