In Way of the Samurai you play (what else?) a samurai who gets drawn into a war between two different clans.
The story, while interesting, unfolds rather slowly and I found myself not knowing what to do next a few times along the way. Despite that the game is still painfully short and they tried to remedy this by adding a decent amount of replay value through branching story lines and the customization of your character and swords.
The characters are well animated and the main characters all have their own distinct styles. The most unique character being a tall African American samurai with an Afro. I point this out because this adds a lot to the game and was one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed paying close attention to what was going on around me. The graphics, while not superb, get the job done.
Fighting is not as simple as hack and slash and the simple tutorial will leave you learning the ropes on your own. It takes several battles, but once you get it down you will be creating and unleashing wicked combinations left and right. They also added an interesting twist to the fights by taking in to account the stress that can be put on your sword during battle. It has its own health gauge, so to speak, and when that gauge gets full your sword will break. So no button mashing! Imagine trying to block an attacker with no sword. Exactly... it's not happening.
The only other problem with the game, aside from its length, is the lack of character voiceovers. Some of the dialogue could have benefited greatly from it.
All in all Way of the Samurai is a welcome diversion from other games like Kengo, and introduces some interesting game play elements that I am sure will be mimicked in the future. The overall package is worth your time. If you play through it a few times and take full advantage of all that it has to offer, you will not be disappointed.
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