Archview #56: Genji: Days of the Blade

 It could... it should've been so much more.

 Genji: Days of the Blade is the sequel to the sleeper hit Genji: Dawn of the Samurai on the PS2. While DotS brought an end to the PS2 era, DotB brought the start to the PS3 era, and it was not a bright new day. I won't be comparing both games, as DotS is the superior game by far, however, it's hard to believe how they could've screwed up what worked so well before.
 DotB picks up a couple of years after the events of DotS, and it's not necesary to have played it before as there is a small recap at the start of the game and there's not much you need to know beforehand. As it turn out, the Heishi clan is still alive and kicking, and now they got their hands on a great new power, the Mashogane, who turns men into rampaging demons. It's up to Yoshitsune, the hero from the previous game, Benkei, his trusty sidekick, Shizuka, the priestess who yet again takes up arms and now a playable character plus Buzon, a god who inhabits the body of a past foe, to stop the Heishi, as all four of them wield the Amahagane, a powerful crystal that grant them superhuman abilities.

 Gameplay is very straightforward, you pummel your enemies, go from point A to point B, rinse and repeat. There's an occasional puzzle every now and then, but nothing too complex. Besides the standard Weak and Strong attacks, characters can use Kamui, when they've charge the Kamui bar, that puts you into a timed-press-the-button minigame, if you don't mess up, you will deal massive damage to bosses and kill most enemies. Also, if you press any attack button right before taking a hit, you will counter with an extremely powerful attack. By pushing the right analog stick in any direction, the character will dodge, gaining a couple of invincibility seconds.
 As previously stated, there are four playable characters, and you can switch to any of them at any time, and while they each have their own life bars and Kamui bars, death for one means loading up your latest savefile. It actually makes sense, since each character has unique enviromental skills that would make finishing a stage impossible if you lost the appropriate character. Each character can also collect different weapons, and they each change their basic Weak attack combo. To be honest, most movesets are really awkward, every character is better off keeping their first weapon, which ends up having the most useful and adaptable basic combo, and using their last weapon as back up, all other weapons feel too awkward. Speaking of awkward, every character plays very differently from each other: Yoshitsune is very basic and easy to play, Shizuka is faster and deals less damage, but has a larger area of effect. Benkei has no combos, but deals knockback and has super armor on his basic moves and Buzon is very weird, but his sidesteps actually modify his basic attacks into more normal combos. Needless to say, you will probably play as Yoshitsune the most, with Benkei when you need more oomph.

 There's two different currencies in the game: Amahagane and Mashogane. Amahagane is hidden throught each level, your character will start emiting a light when close by, and if you hit it's hiding place, you will get a piece of it. Mashogane is dropped by certain enemies. Amahagane is used to increase a characters HP or Kamui gauge, while Mashogane is used to enhance their weapons.
 The worst thing about the game, by far, is it's awful camera. You can't control it at all, but rest assured that it will pick the worst angles possible. Many a times, you will find yourself walking towards the camera, and not just when backtracking! If you want to explore, you will have to guide yourself with the minimap, as the camera is no help. It's so awful, that a lot of times you won't see the enemies unless you reposition yourself and try to force the enemy into the camera. And Genji is a challenging game, the camera is just aggravating. The game also has platforming.... bad camera and plataforming? There's only one way this can end... and it's bad. Not to mention that movement and jumps feel very floaty, it's just an all-around bad combination. There's this chapter in particular that takes place inside a ship. There are many platforming sections, failing one means that you are dropped to a room full of enemies, and you must kill them all in order to open the door, and then you have to go through previous platforming sections. And every time you fall, you have to kill the enemies again and get through the first platforming section, just to get to the latter platforming section  where you fell from. Truly, truly, truly vexing.

 While I'm sure that at launch it was hailed as gorgeous, nowadays it looks average. Mind you, average this generation is pretty beautiful, but it's nothing special. Still, the animations are very lifelike and smooth, they are pretty neat to look at. However, the game as a whole feels pretty slow, many attacks, as cool as they look, also seem to lack oomph behind them, Shizuka's in particular. Stages look beautiful though, but they are a bit boring. Still, a special mention is deserved to the boats level. It's one of the most gorgeous levels I have ever played. You must travel from boat to boat through a golden sea and yellow sky, it's quite the sight.
 The music is fantastic, it's very Japanese and appropriate, while still feeling a bit modern. It sets up the mood pretty nicely, and some tunes are memorable thanks to how haunting they are! Voice acting on the other hand... It's not necessarily bad, but it's not good either. Voice Actors have a very noticeable accent, and while it's sorta fitting, since it's a very Japanese game, it's also a bit jarring. Plus, the English subtitles don't match the English voice acting... and yes, you can switch to Japanese audio, which I highly recommend you do.

 The game lasts around 8 hours, which is pretty respectable for this kind game( And hey, it's prequel was really short), but once you are done, there's nothing else to do, but the game is challenging, so you might actually have to retry some parts until you get them right. The game is very linear too, so no backtracking to previous levels.
 All in all, it's not awful, I've certainly played worse(Xenosaga 2...), but it's not good either. The camera issues are a dealbreaker, they also shoehorned some needless platforming sections, while the game is at it's finest when it's just brawling. Sadly, even to people that enjoyed Genji on the PS2, this game is a tough sell.
 5 out of 10.