Retro Review: Samurai Western

<p>Everywhere&comma; I see people finding old PlayStation 2 games and calling them &&num;8220&semi;hidden gems&&num;8221&semi;&period; So much so that I&&num;8217&semi;m actually tired of that phrase and it makes me queasy when I see or hear it&period; In fact&comma; I threw up just a little bit typing that out for you&period; Instead of using that phrase&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m going to start calling these types of games&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Games my dumbass younger-self missed&period;&&num;8221&semi; I think that gets the point across more poignantly&period; I was twenty or so when I got my PS2&period; I was just looking for survival horror&comma; open world mayhem&comma; and some extreme sports game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t until I grew up a bit and started looking through catalogs and at old reviews that I realized I passed up a lot of amazing games&period; I grew up on westerns&period; John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were like my second and third fathers&comma; so I honestly don&&num;8217&semi;t know how I missed a great and interesting title like <em>Samurai Western<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><strong>The Story<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Just think of this game as an interactive Spaghetti Western in the vein of <em>Red Dead Revolver&period; <&sol;em>Maybe just a little more out there&period; You play as Gojiro Kiryu in the Wild West&comma; hunting for a man named Rando&period; As you look for him&comma; you encounter all sorts of bad men that must taste the end of your blade&period; Instead of giving you information&comma; you slice and dice them all the way to oblivion&period; I enjoy a good revenge tale as much as the next guy&comma; but I disliked them breaking the story up into stages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instead of seamlessly going from level to level&comma; you endure someone reading from a book about how Gojiro has affected them and what they&&num;8217&semi;re going to do about it&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve never liked that during games that rely on some sort of story&period; It takes me out of the moment and I have to be pulled back into it&comma; and by the time I am&comma; the Stage is over&period; Rinse and repeat&period; <em>Metal Gear Solid V<&sol;em> did this to me&comma; and it still upsets me that I have to jump all over the place and never get a nice flowing story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;139768" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-139768" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-139768" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;21004742&sol;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"448" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-139768" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Samurai Western<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Atlus&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3><strong>The Mechanics<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>A game that makes you dodge bullets and fight men with Colt &period;45&&num;8217&semi;s needs tight controls&comma; and they most assuredly are&period; However&comma; the camera can get you killed or caught on the geometry of the level&period; Since you&&num;8217&semi;re only armed with a very sharp melee weapon&comma; you have to be quick on your feet or you&&num;8217&semi;ll be riddled with bullets&period; Square attacks and R1 and Circle dodge and deflect&period; Pressing these buttons almost constantly is the only way you can get through a level&period; Tons of gunfighters&comma; knife throwers&comma; bomb throwers and Gatling Gun enthusiasts stand in your way&period; You can dodge or even deflect bullets&comma; but you have to button mash quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thankfully&comma; the developers put a tell into the game that lets you know when someone is about to shoot&period; When you see smoke come from anyone&comma; press R1 immediately to stay alive&period; You can pick things up to throw at enemies and you do this with X&period; You can also jump with triangle&comma; but these moves are not as important as the first two&period; To finish a stage&comma; all you have to do is kill everyone&comma; but some difficulty spikes make it very frustrating&comma; so be ready to woo-sah every now and then&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><strong>The Look<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The game&&num;8217&semi;s look is phenomenal&period; They captured the old spaghetti western look and feel with the graphics&comma; dialogue&comma; and voice-overs&period; The developers gave the cut scenes a light flicker so that it looks like you are watching an old Clint Eastwood movie on the big screen&period; The campiness of the dialogue and the premise of the story itself are great&period; Just the fact that a samurai is attempting to take out gunslingers with a blade makes this a must play&period; The lead characters all have a nice unique design&comma; but the grunts that you kill by the thousands don&&num;8217&semi;t really differ too much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After awhile&comma; you get a bit tired of killing the same clone over and over and over&period; However&comma; once you clear the level or get to the boss&comma; those bodies turn out to be worth it&period; One interesting thing to me was the fact that you can unlock certain hats to wear&period; These hats affect your stats for the level so when you&&num;8217&semi;re picking your hat and weapon&comma; keep an eye out for your defense&comma; power&comma; and the like&period; A few points either way can make or break you in these fast paced levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;139875" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-139875" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-139875" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;24002640&sol;SAMwestern&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"448" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-139875" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Samurai Western<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Atlus&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3><strong>The Verdict<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>This really is a great title&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m thrilled that I tracked it down and added it to my collection before the prices skyrocketed&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s so unique that it surprises me it didn&&num;8217&semi;t take off like other &&num;8220&semi;different&&num;8221&semi; titles during the era&period;<em>Destroy All Humans<&sol;em> comes to mind&period; Playing as a little alien that sounds like Jack Nicholson is about as &&num;8220&semi;different&&num;8221&semi; as a cowboy hat-wearing samurai beating gunslingers in the Wild West&period; I wish the game had a little more replay value&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not big on beating my own high score over and over&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once you beat it&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re done with it&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;ll wonder why more games aren&&num;8217&semi;t as &&num;8220&semi;out there&&num;8221&semi; anymore&period; Maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s because it obviously didn&&num;8217&semi;t sell well&comma; even though it is a truly fun game&period; Hopefully with the success of <em>Detroit Become Human<&sol;em>&comma; off the wall and unique games will start making a come back&period; I know I&&num;8217&semi;ll support them&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m sure many more gamers will as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;