Way of the Samurai 2 Does Nothing that Hasn't Been Done Better Elsewhere

Way of the Samurai 2 is a 'choose your own adventure' game that puts you in the shoes - or sandals, rather - of a traveling ronin, a samurai without a lord to serve. Created by Acquire and published by Campcom, its the sequel to the widely popular Way of the Samurai. You get to create your ronin from a series of heads and bodies(male and female), as well as chose their name, so your character is truly your own creation.

With nothing more then your sword and the clothes on your back, your character steps into the fictional island of Amahara, at the time of the tail end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Japan has begun falling to foreign influence, and the Shogun's control of the land is faltering. Amahara is feeling the effects of this, and three factions seize the opportunity to gain control of the territory. There is the local Aoto Gang, a Yakuza like gang of hoodlums. There are the magistrates, the corrupt government forces in control of the town. Then, there are the local townsfolk, who just want to be able to lead normal lives. Your ronin will be the deciding factor in the struggle for power, ultimately allowing one(or none) of the sides to gain control of Amahara.

As a huge fan of the original Way of the Samurai, I was ecstatic when I first heard of the plans to release a sequel. However, when it was released, it got mediocre reviews, so I wasn't in a rush to pick it up. I recently found a copy of it in the bargain bins at a local gaming store, so I decided to finally picked it up. I can confidently say that WotS2 is a decent game. Its improved many aspects of the original, and added alot more of the same. However, by doing this, it also compromised many aspects in the first.

The graphics in WotS2 are average, maybe a hair better. The character models are pretty detailed and the animation is fluid as well. It also uses a pretty wide color palette, so it looks pretty lively. The backgrounds are a bit on the boring side, usually just a brown dirt road with some stereotypical wooden shops on the side. Also, at first, the different areas of the city all look like each other, which can definitely be confusing until you learn to differentiate the areas. Its also a bit of a disappointment, considering that the original WotS had such a large variety of landscapes, from railroad stations, to rivers, to wide open fields with grass swaying in the wind. The environments in WotS2 pail in comparison.

The sound is also a mixed bag. The background music is traditional Japanese music and sets the mood well. Sound effects are good. One new thing that WotS2 has over the original is voice acting. The original just had a little sound effect that played whenever the character spoke, now each main character has a voice. However, the voice acting is absolutely horrendous. One of the worst dub overs I've seen in recent video game history. It sounded like they just got the staff to voice it instead of hiring real voice actors. Every line is cheesy, overly dramatic, and every voice is stereotypical to the character. Its just horrible. I wish there was an option to just turn it off, or, even better, to allow the Japanese dub.

Now we come to the key aspect of WotS2, the gameplay. WotS2 is a "choose your own adventure" type game, meaning each action you do will determine your ending. You can be a ruthless samurai who serves the Aoto Gang, picks on the weak, extorts small businesses, and carries out assassinations, or you could be the noble samurai, who protects the weak and strives to right the ever present wrongs overwhelming Amahara. With over 10 endings, you will be playing a while and you will have several different paths to explore.

The sword fighting in WotS is also great! There are 70 swords you can collect, each with its own distinct fighting style. Each fighting style has several moves and combos, including moves to break your opponents weapons, trip them, throw them, etc. Also, the newest addition to the combat system is the inclusion of the parry and instant kill. Now, whenever you parry an enemy's attack, it leaves them open. Take advantage of this opening and strike, and you will deal a death blow to your opponent. Of course, this doesn't work on boss characters. Then new parrying system has its ups and downs. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to dispatch regular peons with ease. This gives you the feeling of being a true master samurai, one that you would see in the movies, gracefully avoiding attacks and slicing down enemies as they come at him. However, the downside to this is that the parry - instant kill quickly become the only attack you use. There are 70+ swords and fighting styles, however, for the majority of the game, you will only be using the one instant kill attack. The only time you will really need to use the advanced combos and techniques are when you fight the bosses, which takes alot of the fun and uniqueness away.

My other gripe is the way the new story unfolds. The game takes place over about 8 days. The day is divided into 5 parts(early morning, morning, afternoon, night, and late night). Each time of day will have a new event occur in one of the several sections of the city, depending on which plot path you are following. In between these events, you are free to shop for items and stat boosting accessories, upgrade weapons, and take on jobs to earn money. It all sounds good on paper, but doesn't run nearly as well in action. You aren't given any directions on where to go and at what time to continue the plot. If you miss a plot event, you could wind up just spending the rest of the game time running around doing various jobs. My first play through ended up like that, I missed an event and ended up just taking on random odd jobs for the rest of the week. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that each faction only has about 3 jobs for you to do, so doing jobs gets repetitious VERY quickly. Even when you do follow the plot events strictly, there is still a fair amount of dead time between events, making you wonder if you missed an event and also breaks up the story. The dead time essentially just serves as a way to increase playing time, and they could have worked this out much better. The average run through will last maybe 4 hours(not quite short enough to do in one sitting like in original).

Another minor complaint of mine was the fact that, in order to travel to the different areas of the cities, you have to first go to a world map and then select where you want to go. You can't just run there. It just seems like a rushed design.

This being said, WotS2 did improve and expand many features from the original. There are more swords, more areas, more endings, more costumes, more replay in general. If you want to get everything, you will be spending quite a bit of time on this game. Also of note is that they adopted a saving system. In the original, if you died, then you were dead, and you lose all the swords you were carrying. There were save points in the game, but once you loaded a save point, it would delete the data. This was a MAJOR frustration, especially when you lose a sword you've been constantly upgrading over multiple play throughs. All that is gone now, unless you save infrequently.

Overall, WotS2 is an enjoyable game. It does expand on much of the features of the original and is fairly fun for a bit and offers a lot of replayability(if you want to replay it, that is). However, it is extremely repetitious and the game really does not offer any direction on how to advance the plot. Its a fun game for a bit, just be prepared for a disappointment if you really enjoyed the first one. WotS2 is just merely average in comparision. If you've never played the original, you may find this one more fun, although I would recommend the original over this one.