Genji: Days of the Blade is on of the premiere release titles for the Playstation 3 that throughout its storyline keeps the player entertained and challenged. As is the standard for PS3 games, the graphics sparkle, the controls are in depth with a wide variety of change, and plot stays within a realistic realm (to a point...monsters excluded) and includes nice traditional Japanese music. Genji is a great starter game for the PS3 as it shows off the systems full range of gaming capabilities.
As far as gameplay is concerned, Genji is fantastic. The beginning level of difficulty isn't a breeze and through a variety of challenges the player will be forced to experiment with new combos and control capabilities. The four interchangeable characters include Yoshitsune, Shizuka, Benkei and Lord Buson (the God of War incarnate in the body of Yoshi's oldest foe... what drama!). Yoshitsune is the gymnast of the four allowing him to run up and horizontally along walls. He features the traditional double wall jump where he can jump towards a wall and then launch himself from that surface into another jump. His sword combos are lightning fast and serve well to cut through a crowd of enemies (assuming to juggle enemies and don't concentrate too long on any one). Shizuka features a whip that allows her to hit a wide arch of enemies at the risk of leaving her backside unprotected for a given period of time. The whip also comes in handy as a Mortal Kombat Scorpion-like ‘Get Over Here!' device; she deftly launches it at a pedestal across a gaping maw and pulls herself across. She does the same to enemies, only then it's the enemies who travel. Benkei is the brawler of the group and uses large club weapons to bash huge amounts of enemies. Benkei also affords for his weapon to be charged and then unleash a killer combo that usually results in a large amount of enemies flying off with wounds. Lord Buson wields a staff-like weapon and sadly works as the hardest of the four characters to control well. Once he gets into a combo it's devastating, though hard to break out of. The game even allows (as is the standard for PS3 games) for the player to turn on motion sensitive controlling enabling the mere twitch of a hand to send the character into evasive action.
As the game goes on, you collect little gem fragments that allow you to upgrade the health, weapons, and special attack gauges of each character. Also, the ability to interchange weapons instantaneously is handy though at times ridiculous. Imagine raising a samurai sword above your head to send the finishing blow and right as you bring it down - your sword flashes and is now a huge two-pronged sword of fire. That's how instantaneous the change is. Midswing. Wow. Ridiculous... but useful? Anyways, a special combo is unleashed after the player has slain enough baddies or run around long enough. Once the little gauge in the HUD has charge past the designated line, time stands still and the hero is placed in the middle of a circle of all the enemies present. The player gets the opportunity (through a combination of well-timed button pressing) to destroy all the opponents with limited risk to their own life. It comes off as a very helpful tool when the situation looks to be overwhelming.
The overall screen management has a lot of plusses with a relatively significant detractor. The upside is the HUD and the map are easy and not at all intrusive into the gameplay. The Heads Up Display makes it easy to tell when the health is perilously low, when your special combo meter is charged, and which directional arrow to press to switch to each character. The character switch works just like those of the recent Marvel superhero games. Unlike those games, there's only one character deployed at any given time and it's the one you control.
The graphics on this game are amazingly good. You can see the air shimmer above fires, intricate designs in the kimonos and robes of the players, and even minute changes in facial expressions. These cut scenes are unbelievably well-rendered. At some point, players may get fed up with the length of some cutscenes, but if you're really into the game you won't mind a bit and you'll enjoy every second of their beauty. Genji's sound draws heavily from the traditional Japanese flutes. The sound effects received as much attention as the visual aspects; you can hear sounds that are often overlooked including the sounds of swords being sheathed, the clang of each and every contact between hard surfaces, etc. On top of all of this, we have the motion blurs. At times of extreme action where the player's actions are just too much for the human eye, the motion is blurred giving a neat little visual trick to the game's already flawless décor. These developers have paid special mind to this game and it shows.
With that said, it's time to talk about that detractor we mentioned earlier. The character's presence on the screen takes up a good portion of the space, making them easy to control but hard to determine where enemies are. There were times when I'd charge head-on into a crowd of baddies and fight my way through. Then ten minutes later I'd start getting attacked by the people I'd ignored in my initial charge as they'd patiently waited their turn to get to me. It's not the artificial intelligence that suffers; it's simply the limited camera perspective on the player. Many times you are forced to figure out puzzles from a rather unfortunate camera angle. And while yes, it adds to the challenge; at times it's a horribly frustrating challenge that I'd rather not have distract from the more important aspect of killing demonic samurai. But when it comes to fighting, there's really very little you can do to fix the most common obstacle: a huge never-stopping regeneration of enemies on the battlefield. At times you'll find yourself surrounded by enemies and that's when the character Benkei becomes essential.
Genji: Days of the Blade is an extraordinary debut game that by itself makes it worthwhile to at least try a PS3, if not buy it. Search it out. And while in comparison to the games to come it may be rendered short and simple, for now it's a beautiful gaming achievement, and an equally splendid gaming experience that anyone who's enjoyed the Ninja Gaiden, Prince of Persia, or like-minded games ought to pursue and try. But beware, don't do what I did. I played the game's opening 10 minutes and became frustrated that it wasn't an easy game. I put it away and when I brought it out again was pleasantly surprised that what I'd originally labeled a game that strives to be hard-to-control, was in fact a game that simply demands more thinking from its players.
"Genji: Days of the Blade" is on sale November 13, 2006 and is not rated. Action. Developed by Game Republic. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment.
