A better cover would've had the Seven Samurai reflect on each blade...
Y'know Seven Samurai, it's a bit of a classic but, for whatever reason, it never got a game... till Seven Samurai 20XX came around. This hack-and-slash game was received to a rather lukewarm criticism and now goes by forgotten by everyone. Except me.
The story is very, VERY loose retelling of the movie by the same name, so much so that I think the word 'inspired' fits better. Set in a post-apocalyptic future Japan, you play as Natoe(Although everyone pronounces it differently, some call him 'Naoto', some call him 'Nato' and a few called him 'Noto') a youth trained in the way of the samurai who gets himself embroiled alongside six... actually, alongside five other samurai in order to protect a nearby town. Protect them from Humanoids, cyborg like beings that have recently began their assault. The story has ups and downs, but it's mostly an interesting tale. But the real winner here is the art-direction, everything looks amazing, characters are very unique and appealing while the environments are mysterious and enthralling... it's quite a treat for the eyes.
Villains and heroes look nothing short of cool in this game.
The game is divided into 10 chapters, and every single chapter(Save 3) is a very linear affair, go from point A to point B while smashing robots(I refuse to call them humanoids) over and over again. I can't stress enough just how repetitive it is and just how many enemies you have to defeat. There's no exploration to be had, except for chapter 3, although the game does have six optional bosses, five of them hiding in the game's only open city in chapter 3, and a sixth one hiding in chapter 7. Regardless, there're no puzzles, there's no platforming: There's only fighting.
So how does Natoe battle? Simple, Square is your attack button, X is your dodge-step and Triangle is your guard. Attacks can be chained infinitely, but you can also pull off 'Just Attacks' which I never really understood how they went off, something about holding a direction an enemy is in and pressing attack at the same time? Doesn't matter since they are simply critical hits. Your dodge step can be used to dodge, duh, but timing it just as you get attacked produces a 'Just dodge' that instantly puts you behind your enemy and restores some of your Nitoh-ryu gauge(More on this later).
See that red-square button? You'll be pressing that button a lot.
Guarding works in an interesting way, by pressing triangle you'll slowly consume a bit of gauge from your blue bar beneath your health bar, and if you're attacked while this tiny bit is consumed you'll automatically block an attack. Just Guarding is done by, you guessed it, pressing triangle just as you're getting attacked, which parries the attack and completely refills your Nitoh-ryu gauge. Nito-ryu is dual-wielding, by pressing both R1 and L1 at the same time Natoe will grab his other sword and become extra deadly for a short while... but if you time your parries you'll be in this mode forever.
In a bizarre twist of fate, making Natoe stronger is a matter of sucking. While most games would reward the player for doing well, in SS20XX your Strength, Guard an Nito-ryu gauges are extended by... getting hit a lot, uselessly expending your block gauge and not refilling your Nitoryu gauge with blocks. The worse you do, the more power-up points you'll get after clearing a stage. Idiotic. Throughout the game, fulfilling certain goals will unlock different-looking swords but... you can only equip them after finishing the game. Why? There're also a Survival and Boss Rush modes waiting to be unlocked.
A very brief respite from mashing that square button.
The game is rather fun to play at times, but it's very basic. There's no hidden depth here, what you do in chapter 1 is what you'll be doing all the way till the end of this 5 hour ride. There're no new moves to be earned, no unlockable characters, no different weapon styles, nothing, everything you have in chapter 0 is everything you'll have in chapter 10.
Still, the game's biggest flaw is its squandered potential. You have this seven fantastic-looking different characters and... you only play as Natoe. These other Samurai barely get any screen-time doing cool stuff either, its mostly talking or spitting excuses as to why they can't go with you. You've also got this fighting system that works well as a base, but the devs didn't go out of their way to do unique or interesting stuff with it, instead, they just called it a day.
I can understand why critics where so harsh back in the day, it was 2004-release, Devil May Cry was a thing, standards had been set... and while the game doesn't do anything particularly bad there're so many other games that do what this game does even better. There's also the fact that even Dynasty Warriors manages to be less repetitive thanks to an engine that lets the player create combos with juggles and what not. Seven Samurai 20XX is a decent time waster, but nothing more.
6.5 out of 10
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