Review : Genji : Days of the Blade for PS3

Genji : Days Of The Blade is one of the first games for Playstayion 3 by Sony. Picking up where the first part of the Genji left off, Genji : Days Of The Blade continues on with the young warrior Yoshitsune. While sporting some of the best graphics of any other game available today (what do you expect? It's PS3!), Genji : Days Of The Blade is a basic hack and slash game that fails to match up to its graphics in gameplay.

Genji : Days Of The Blade starts with a basic introduction that summarizes the previous episode of the game - Genji: Days of the Samurai. You play the role of Yoshitsune, accompanied by his rather tough friend Benkei and set out to defeat the Genji clan's enemies - The Heishi clan. While the cutscenes are very detailed and well done, they still are the predictable anime type. Genji : Days Of The Blade features two new characters - a priestess and a man who looks very much like a villian from the first episode.

Genji : Days Of The Blade features a story that really exists to make you fight one after another horde of enemies. The story is not entirely hopeless though, with one good twist. As far as the gameplay is concerned, the fighting is solid, although not unique. You can combine different moves to come up with combos that are really cool to watch in the beginning at least. You can also switch the attack direction with each move, which is great because the enemies in Genji : Days Of The Blade will constantly try and surround you. The opponents also get stronger and more challenging as the game continue on and thus is a decent challenge. The best part of the game, at least in my eyes, are the boss battles where the game really shines. The worst part, again in my opinion, are the tedious, and sometimes unnecessarily confusing puzzles that you need to solve in Genji : Days Of The Blade to continue on.

You can use either of the four characters for much of the game, although Yoshitsune is probably the best because of his dual samurai swords and endless stamina. I do find Benkei very useful at the same in destroying hordes of enemies, or laying some major pain upon the bosses. The priestess (Shizuka) and Lord Buson each have different abilities as well - Shizuka with a large range hooked weapon makes up for her small size, and Buson has a neat spear that is a great defensive tool as well. You can switch between the four players, but you have to be careful because even if just one of them dies, the game's over regardless of the other three's health. Each of the weapons can be upgraded, and there are different weapons available for the different characters in different levels as well.

Conclusion - As good as Genji : Days Of The Blade may seem in terms of the graphics, it is essentially one of the basic hack and slash games that you used to play on the arcade game machines. If you're looking for a game to start out your PS3 days with, Genji : Days Of The Blade is not it. At the core, Genji : Days Of The Blade is a little above average at best, even though the graphics are some of the best and coolest I've seen yet on any game.