Revenge Wears A Teddy Bear Head – Afro Samurai 2: Revenge Of Kuma Volume 1 Review

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m just going to start off and let you dear readers know that I have never seen <em>Afro Samurai<&sol;em>&comma; nor have I played the first game in the series &&num;8212&semi; This does have me at somewhat of a disadvantage when playing the sequel to the first <em>Afro Samurai&comma; <&sol;em><em>Afro Samurai 2&colon; Revenge Of Kuma<&sol;em>&period; That didn&&num;8217&semi;t stop me from enjoying this very quirky game&comma; however&comma; and it also got me interested in the animated series&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s a bonus on both accounts for me &&num;8212&semi; Something new to watch and an excuse to the put the first game in my Xbox 360&period; The game was good enough to make me want to delve deeper into the <em>Afro Samurai<&sol;em> lore&comma; yet it didn&&num;8217&semi;t alienate me because I knew nothing&period; Enough story was provided as I moved through the game to make me want to continue on and want the next volume when it releases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;92608" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-92608" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04131303&sol;Afro-Samurai&lowbar;2&lowbar;Revenge&lowbar;of&lowbar;Kuma-2-1024x560&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-92608 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04131303&sol;Afro-Samurai&lowbar;2&lowbar;Revenge&lowbar;of&lowbar;Kuma-2-1024x560&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Afro" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"350" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-92608" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Afro Samurai 2&colon; Revenge Of Kuma&comma; Versus Evil&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story&comma; while hard to understand at first&comma; gets fleshed out enough so that anyone can know what is going on&period; Let me lay a little bit of groundwork down for you&semi; basically&comma; there are numbered headbands in this world&comma; and to win one you must defeat and kill the person wearing it&period; The story is somewhat like <em>No More Heroes<&sol;em>&comma; except instead of becoming the number one assassin&comma; you are trying to become the number one Samurai and effectively&comma; God&period; This story takes place in the midst of Afro Samurai acquiring the Number One headband&semi; He has just gotten the Number Two headband and now Kuma is out for revenge&period; The story tells of the struggle that Kuma has gone through to remember what has happened&comma; and to finally take revenge on Afro Samurai&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are pretty simple in this game&comma; seeing as it is just a hack and slash title with some quick time events thrown in&period; Square is attack&comma; triangle is block when prompted&comma; circle is finisher when prompted&comma; and R1 activates the special skill for the three styles you learn&period; When you successfully perform enough combos&comma; the game prompts you to use those special skills as well&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s especially useful during one fight late in the game when hoards of enemies keep getting thrown at you&period; At the beginning of the game you are given Kuma Style&comma; which allows you to do an execution style finisher when you reach the proper combo level&period; The second style you learn is Master Style&comma; and this one is useful for longer range combat because the sword seems to be longer&semi; the finisher here is also the most useful because it takes out pretty much every enemy onscreen&period; Finally&comma; you get Afro Style&period; This style allows you to jump over enemies while holding the R2 Trigger and hitting jump&period; I used this one the least&semi; Basically&comma; only when the game told me to&period; You can swap these styles on the fly with the D-Pad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;92609" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-92609" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04131254&sol;AfroSamurai2-3&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-92609 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04131254&sol;AfroSamurai2-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Afro" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"357" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-92609" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Afro Samurai 2&colon; Revenge Of Kuma&comma; Versus Evil&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The graphics look really good on my PlayStation 4&semi; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know if they match the look of the cartoon or the previous game&comma; but I did enjoy them&period; They looked somewhat like an anime combined with that graphic novel look&comma; which made certain scenes really pop out at you&period; The black and white flashback scenes had very little color&comma; but what color you did see really emphasized what was going on and Kuma&&num;8217&semi;s feelings and intentions&period; The audio&comma; however&comma; was messed up&period; When characters would speak&comma; it was insanely loud and sounded very hollow&period; I checked my television just to be sure&comma; but it was the game that was causing this&period; When you aren&&num;8217&semi;t fighting the sudden yelling&comma; the actors did do a great job with the material they were given&period; You do hear a lot of the same things over and over from Kuma&comma; but man are they emotional&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Afro Samurai 2&colon; Revenge Of Kuma<&sol;em> is a pretty solid game&period; I enjoyed my time with it&comma; but unfortunately it was a very short time&period; I beat the game in almost one sitting&comma; so that is kind of worrisome&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t very much replay value in the game either&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s a one time wham bam thank you ma&&num;8217&semi;am type of game and I don&&num;8217&semi;t see myself going back to it&comma; unless it&&num;8217&semi;s to import my save to the second episode&period; The game is very pretty and very well put together &&num;8212&semi; I just wish there were a few more levels for me to slash ninjas and such to death&period; If you are die hard <em>Afro Samurai<&sol;em> fan&comma; you need to get this game&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking to get into the series and its world&comma; this may be a good starting point as well&comma; since it won&&num;8217&semi;t take away too much of your time should you dislike it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 code for Afro Samurai 2&colon; Revenge Of Kuma was provided by Versus Evil for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;