I'd be looking at the horizon too, searching for greener pastures and better games.
Everyone likes Chinese Wushu martial arts movies and everyone who hasn't played Crisis Core loves Gackt, so here we have Gackt doing Wushu fighting in an anime world. Twirly jumps and twirly flying? It's here. Fights in which moves get deflected over and over again? It's here. Gackt? He's here too.The story is nonsense. Seriously, it makes no sense so don't try to, just know that you play as Gackt-look alike Lau. By the way, if them having the same face and voice(Not that Lau speaks a full sentence EVER, but still) is not enough, you can actually unlock a costume to play as Gackt. A realistic Gackt, as opposed to anime Lau. Anyways, Lau was betrayed when his friend, Rei, got possessed by a demon, or something, a killed their master, so now Lau is out for revenge. I will give them points for making nonsensical cutscenes, the one before and the one after the Rei fight being the best and most ridiculous, and making a decent parody of the jumping and flying featured in Wushu movies, but the story is just bad and not in a 'so bad it's good' way, which is how most Wushu films are.
Wushu means 'Get ready for a lot of spinning'
The best way to describe this game would be a fusion between Shinobi and Devil May Cry, except that it sucks. It tries to borrow the combat from Devil May Cry, but you've a single combo with square button, a strong attack with triangle and you can sometimes press X mid-combo to use a kick. There're also 9 spells that can be used with circle, albeit I barely used them, except the passive spell that increased your attack power, that one was useful. Now then, the game's main mechanic is deflecting, simply look at an enemy and don't press a button and you'll automatically start deflecting anything that comes your way, provided you've enough charges on the deflecting gauge. Enemies have a deflecting gauge too, and both parties can interrupt a deflection with counter attacks or sidesteps. Honestly, the system is just a gimmick, some enemies you simply have to mash square until their gauge drops to zero and you can actually attack them, some enemies recharge their gauge much faster than you, so mashing will get you killed and instead you must sidestep behind them and pummel them then, etc. It's a very formulaic game, with repetitive combat and little variation. You'll quickly figure out the best ways to take down the very few enemy types. A few bosses are recycled too, but bosses are pretty easy, and most of them simply require you to take a more defensive approach. All in all, combat is alright if... predictable. As with most games of its ilk, defeating enemies rewards you with points which you can then use to strengthen Lau's abilities.If there's something to be praised is that the animations are very smooth and look very cool... even though you'll be seeing the same moves over and over and over and over again. And I understand that that may come out as hypocritical coming from someone who loves beat'em ups, but this is a combo-based game, you are supposed to build combos, ergo, try to juggle enemies, but it's kinda boring when you are cycling through the same attack animations over and over again. It doesn't help that by stage 3, out of 7, you'll have seen every enemy type the game can throw at you. Level design is pretty boring too, mostly consisting out of dull looking corridors and square arenas, at least until you get to level 7...
Enemies look inspired by Shinobi's repertoire.
The game also seems to borrow from Shinobi on the PS2, as enemy design and environments look as if they came straight out of that game. The ruined city landscapes, the ruined floating floor/platform things, the caves... they reminded me of Shinobi a lot. And that comparison is fitting since they tried to add platfoming. Lau can fly/glide through the air, he can wall-run, he can jump from walls and then do the glide.... and you could possibly climb on a straight line through a wall up to the top of the stage if the level design allows it. The thing is... it's very clunky. Lau will stop his wall runs every now and then so you must press X again to continue your acrobatics. The camera is very annoying when the game demands you jumping to the opposite side from a wallrun since it can't keep up with you. And, y'know, most of the time I didn't care about it since platforming was mostly required for collectibles, until you get to level 6 and 7. Level six has an area that has you platforming to escape lava, which isn't too bad, but it's when you'll start getting frustrated with the camera and sloppiness of the platforming... but then comes level seven, which takes place throughout a series of platforms and then you'll hate the game. The platforming doesn't work well, having an entire level based on platforming was a terrible idea that made the game end on a low note.The game is 5 hours long, made up of 7 levels. You don't get new weapons or new combos, and there's a single alternate costume to unlock as well as 9 different spells. And yet... the game occupies 1 megabyte on a memory card. This simple, barebones excuse of a game requires more data on a memory card than 60 hour RPGs like Final Fantasy. How the hell did that happen? And I realize it's just a nitpick, but when I have to endure a game this boring it'd better not take up 1/8th of my memory card.
Like any other PS2 hack-and-slash, there're gates locked by red barriers that demand blood. Or fallen enemies.
I'll be honest, the PS2 is home to hack-and-slash classics like Devil May Cry and God of War, you also have other gems like Onimusha and Genji, and if what you want is platforming with your slashing, there's also Shinobi and Nightshade. There's no shortage of fantastic action games on the PS2, so why settle with Gackt's lackluster venture into the genre?4.5 out of 10
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