Choppy Chop-Chop
Although the strategy element is welcome, it's quite basic, and only forms a small percentage of your gaming. The vast majority is spent on the battlefield, making the acquaintance of some colourful individuals. Movement is standard 3rd-person fare, either with the analogue or D-pad. The shoulder buttons activate an 'evade' and 'block' action. Whilst the four buttons enable you to jump and perform three attacks: Normal, Charge and Masou.
Tapping Normal will perform a series of slashes and thrusts, whilst Charge will cause you to rush at enemies - particularly useful when approaching a cluster of enemies. Normal and Charge can also be used in combination to perform special moves. To begin with your skill roster is limited, but with each successful campaign you'll acquire new skills to practice. Masou is the most powerful attack, and can be unleashed when your Masou gauge is full - you'll stun the surrounding enemies, and your weapon becomes glowing an über-phallus until the gauge gradually empties.
"You're what the French call Les Incompetent."
You don't enter the fray alone. Help comes in the form of Officers and a handful of troops, but, to be honest, you'll not really need them - they're rather lacklustre. This can also be said for the enemy troops. They spend more time trying to look light on their feet with their weapon than actually using it. Your Evade move can occasionally come in handy when the odd oaf decides to charge you, but Block might as well have been left out.
Whilst flailing your weapon about… sorry, performing multi-combo moves, the enemy generally doesn't have a chance to attack. You'd think their attack-allergy would encourage them to at least block, but no; they're the world's first fatalistic, pacifist soldier. Most of the principal 'Boss' characters have the sense to at least attempt it, but they'll eventually get bored and attempt to give some back - bad move. Truthfully, you can forgive the grunts for being blade-fodder. There's a certain hypnotic flow to cutting the swathes down, and the need to get higher and higher combos is certainly compelling enough. You'll even have encouraging words of encouragement from your co-Officers, engaged at certain kill-count milestones.
There are three main gripes with SW:SOW. The first one is with the boss commanders and generals; facing them doesn't offer a significant distraction from that of their troops. There's no consequence to swiping and missing, there's no counter-attacking, and, ultimately, no strategy other than: mash buttons until Masou gauge is full, engage Masou attack - repeat. And whilst that's fun when dispatching the troops, you're hoping the bosses would have a little more to offer.
The second gripe is with the ridiculously short draw-distance - it's literally about 20 feet. With the power offered by the PSP, and with games like GTA:LCS showing what's possible, this bizarre inadequacy feels like a first-generation PSOne experience. The third and finally low-point in the game is your fellow commanders AI on the battle map. They frequently make bad decisions, and an option to position them yourself would've been welcome. One final point to make is that it's also fairly easy. Only the hardest difficulty level offers something approaching a challenge.
SPOnG Score: C+
[i]For all of Samurai Warrior's faults, it still offers good, honest gaming. With a little work on the NPC AI, the game would have a more balanced feel to it, which would elevate it beyond above average. Overall, though, a fine example of a Hack 'n Slasher.
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