Genji: Days of the Blade (PS3) > Reviews > Killing in the name of unpronounceable names

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	Excellent - very playable game
Originality	Not bad - some good ideas
Graphics	Excellent
Sound	Good - relevant music & effects
Difficulty & Complexity	Quite a simple game not too complicated

Advantages:	Looks fantastic, easy gameplay .
Disadvantages:	Silly camera angles, learning curve is a little off .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Am I the only one who finds all these Japanese titled kill-em-ups confusing? Every character seems to have names that would score at least 500 in Scrabble, and you can bet there will be ghosts, zombies, Cure fans, or some other undead lifeform. Nonetheless, I downloaded the demo from the PS3 website and crikey. I was impressed. So, after seeing a copy in Gamestation rather dubiously reduced to £19.99, I thought I'd give it a go.

So, you play one of 4 characters. It is the same formula that extends right back to Golden Axe on the Sega Master System. You have your all rounder with dual swords and boyish good looks. Then you have your scantily clad female, who can attack with more speed and range, but with less strength. Then we have the huge brick wall of a character, who carries what appears to be a telephone pole, who moves slower than a glacial shift, but can kill pretty much everything in one hit. Oh, and your fourth character is the dead body of an old mortal enemy, inhabited by an underword god, who spins his staff around in a twirly, killy fashion. Which is nice. I'm not going to bother with names, as after about 4 paragraphs you won't have a clue who anyone is. I shall refer to them as sword man, lady, big man and dead man. Much easier.

So, the basic plot is that two countries of arbitrary origin are at war, one of them makes a deal with the underworld. Cue millions and jillions of strange glowing monsters who want nothing more than to kill you dead. You complete various levels, most of which have a boss at the end. To be honest, this isn't a Final Fantasy game. This is a game you buy for the gameplay, rather than being told an amazing story. If engaging plotlines are your thing, I really would recommend Final Fantasy XIII if you still want good graphics, or Final Fantasy VII if you want the greatest game ever made.

So, onto the playing experience. To a novice like myself, I found it immensley enjoyable. I'm not normally one for 3D adventure games, and so I often get a little confused by over complicated controls. With this game, just mashing the square button will have you twirling weapons like a pro and leaving the children of your enemies as orphans. If you so please, you can combine your attacks with triangle and circle to further jazz it all up. The circle buttons trigger a special skill for lady and big man. The lady will throw her blade-on-a-rope into the nearest delinquent, and haul them a bit closer. Also, this method will slingshot her across gaps assuming there is something to anchor herself onto. This adds strategy to the game. You switch characters with the D pad, and there are bits that can only be conquered with lady's skill. Big man will kick things with the circle button, which can be used for moving heavy objects across the ground.

The key to winning your battles is the old freeze time and kill everything in slow motion method. By killing enemies you build up your meter, and then a tappety tap of L1 will make the screen al swirly and colourful, your enemies frozen, and you able to kill them by pressing the correct buttons as they pop up on the screen. This is a godsend as you can sometimes be surrounded by up to 15 enemies at a time and this would be the only way to kill them. All the characters can swing off ledges and climb reasonable heights. Sword man can run across vertical surfaces and pinball himself off of two walls to gain further height.

So the gameplay is nice and simple. It is probably too simple for some, but if you like pick up and go gameplay that flatters you, this hits the bullseye.

Onto sounds. Tricky one this. I do like the music, as it is very of it's time - Japanese war chants start whenever you encounter the enemy, and it does add tot he atmosphere. The sound effects are unremarkable, but not bad by any means. my biggest moan is the lack of variation in background music. It does grate on you after a while.

Graphics. This is the party piece of Genji. Everything is fantastically drawn, and the posessed monsters glow with an eerie pink light which really looks good in some of the darker areas of the game. Some of the bosses are absolutely huge, and you can be greeted with huge, sprawling battlefields with hundreds of people fighting each other. Most of the scenery is destructable, sometimes even throwing up bonuses and power ups if you feel like smashing up some stray pots.

Now, onto my gripes. Firstly, the enemies. There isn't an awful lot of variation in them to be honest. In the first 2 hours play, if you exclude bosses, you'll be lucky to spot 4 different types of enemy. It can make gameplay a bit dull after a while when you just appear to be killing the same faceless minion over and over again. Secondly, camera angles. This is the big one, thus me logically putting it in the middle. You can't change the camera view, meaning that half the time you can't see whats going on, and you will often find yourself being face to face with an enemy before knowing it is there. Although this is a true 3D game, the fixed camera angles do make this freedom of romaing seem a bit limited. There are some areas you can't go to, solely because you can't see what is going on. Next complaint is the learning curve. You can go a long, long time between save points, which can result in an awful lot of backtracking. Just when you think you should be owed a save point, you are greeted with another 20 baddies who need unsuccessful surgery. My final complaint is about the multi character aspect of the game. You have 4 characters you can switch between at any time, yet when one dies, it's game over. This is really frustrating. Why not just make the dead character unavailable until a save point and keep the other 3 alive?

So, in closing, this game is riddled with flaws. It is by no means a shining example of what the Playstation 3 is capable of. The camera angles are ridiculous, and it can be frustrating at times. However, as a good looking mindless slash-em-up with simple as you like gameplay, it is very, very good. A bimbo game if you like.