Alright, so what's better than a hack and slash videogame based on a pretty awesome anime staring a crazy samurai? How about the fact that said swordsman sports an afro, and is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. That's right; Afro Samurai, the popular anime series that aired on Spike TV last year has made its videogame debut. Does it deserve fanfare and praise, or should it be cast aside with the rest of videogames based on insert medium here?
First off, for those of you not in the know about Afro Samurai...I can't really fault you, since I had never actually seen an episode until last weekend. Playing the game, however, prompted me to download and watch the series, a painfully short five episodes. The story follows a swordsman, literally named Afro, on his quest to avenge the death of his father, who was killed before his eyes when he was a child by a gunman named Justice. Afro's father was one of many killed for the Number One Headband; a relic that signifies the owner as being the best swordsman in the world, and some legends even tell that the owner will become a god. The bearer of the Number One Headband can only be challenged by the person wielding the Number Two Headband. Afro, of course, is the current owner of the Number Two Headband, and the target of every assassin looking for power and fame.
I was actually pleasantly surprised that the videogame followed the story pretty much to the T. Sure, there were a few minor differences here and there, but this was the closest videogame adaptation I have seen in recent memory. The other thing I noticed right off the bat: The art style is beautiful. Using cel-shaded graphics with pencil cross-hatching in certain areas was a nice touch, and really draws players into the game. With no Heads Up Display and everything delivered via cross-scenes in real time, rather than breaking up the action with text, players can really get into it, and at times feel like they are actually playing the anime, rather than a videogame.
Alright, once I got through admiring the graphics and environments, it was onto actually playing. The action began right in the first level, where a single line of text appeared across the bottom of the screen as the first battle was about to begin. That was it; the action didn't stop for the rest of the game. Again, much like the anime it is based on, there was no break or pause in the fighting; only the occasional quip from Afro's imaginary sidekick, Ninja Ninja, to break some of the tension and give you a laugh.
The game plays like your basic hack and slash; X is for light attacks, Y for heavy attacks. You can string these two buttons in tandem to create combos, and there is actually a combo menu for you to look at, but it is useless for the most part. Aside from no combo being that difficult, bringing up this menu would pause the flow of combat and do more harm than good. There is a "Bullet-time" (Sword-Time?) of sorts, referred to as Focus mode, where everything becomes black and white, and a speck of light shimmers down Afro's sword when you hold an attack button. If let go when this light reaches the tip of his sword, a devastating damage bonus will accompany your attack, and more often than not lob a limb or two off in the process. There is nothing more satisfying than trying to catch a quick ninja, only to slow down time as they jump up to avoid you, and you end up cleaving their body in half.
Unfortunately, that is pretty much the entire game in a nutshell. The Focus aspect is the only feature that really makes it stand out from any other hack and slash, and while you may think that cleaving enemies in half can never get boring, after seven levels of it....no, it doesn't really get boring, but just a tad bit repetitive. One thing that really annoyed me was that during boss fights and larger fights, invisible walls would come up blocking you off from your objective until the fight was finished. Alright, I understand that: What made me angry was the fact that the enemies more often than not cheated; if I was caught against the invisible wall in a corner, a lot of times they would use the same attack over and over, knocking me into the wall and down, and just as I was about to get up, before I had a chance to do anything, they would hit me with it again, and again. More than half of my health would be gone in a few frustrating seconds of not being able to move.
Health was another interesting thing; as I said earlier, there is no Heads Up Display of any kind. I didn't quite understand at first, but health seems to be measured by how red Afro's clothing becomes. When it starts to become a deep red, the screen starts to become hazy as you are on the brink of death. There is also an experience system that is never fully explained; I have seen a message flashing across the screen saying I gained a rank, but no where does it say what rank I am, how much experience I have, or what these ranks actually do.
Another frustrating quirk; the difficulty is noticeably up and down. While the majority of the game is not too difficult, boss battles become strikingly hard for no reason. Nothing is helped by the fact that the game doesn't really give you any pointers on how to combat your foe; you're pretty much left to figure that out on your own. I mean, I'm always up for a challenge, but when you're coasting along hacking up baddies without getting struck, and then you get beat down by a boss fight five times in a row, it gets a little aggravating.
Speaking of aggravating, lets have a look at jumping in the game. Now, I am no fan of jumping in videogames; I don't mind a little fancy wall running and such if it is kept simple, but too many bad experiences with Tomb Raider and the likes on PSOne turned me off to the whole jumping thing. There are quite a few jumping maneuvers that players need to pull off in this game, but the way Afro jumps is...well, kind of clunky, for lack of a better term. For a game of this type, you would expect the jumping to be smooth and similar to say, Ninja Gaiden, for example. What we get is the opposite; I have to pull off the same moves as other games, such as wall running, wall jumping, pole-vaulting, etc. However, unless conditions are perfect, Afro can only jump about two or three inches off of the ground. I guess he is a samurai, not a ninja...
Of course, nothing is helped in the game by the camera. Now, some of you may have heard about how atrocious the camera is; it isn't as bad as I have heard some people describe it, but it isn't an action-friendly camera, and if your game focuses on action above all else, that's not a good thing. First off, unlike almost every other action game, the camera is inverted; this means up is down and down up, left is right and right left. Unlike every game I have played that I can remember, there is no way to change this to normal. So you are stuck having to adjust to the inverted camera. I never fully adjusted, and many times found myself moving it in the opposite direction I wanted it to. To me, that was a poor design choice; make the default inverted if you are that set on it, but at least give players the option to change it to something more comfortable. Another camera defect was the fact that I found it sat too close to Afro, and more often than not I was getting hit by enemies I couldn't see. If you can adjust, it might not be as bad for you, but in a game of this type, the camera couldn't so much use a little re-working, as it could a complete over-haul.
Sound in this game? Fucking amazing. I'm sorry, but colorful language was the only thing I could use to describe it. The voice acting was spot on; Ninja Ninja, who I mentioned earlier, and who is also voiced by Jackson, was a big motivator to keep me playing. His lines were great, and for such a serious action-packed game, I was literally laughing out loud at some of his comments. All of the voice actors are the ones from the anime series, including Jackson as Afro and Ninja Ninja, Kelly Hu as Kokiku, and Ron Perlman as Justice. Aside from the superb voice-acting, I loved the music. It would go from Feudal Japan style sounds, to an all out hip-hop jam during big battles. The music in the game, as well as the anime, is inspired, and largely produced by The RZA. I don't know, it just pulls it all together: A heavy-metal type mix ala Devil May Cry just wouldn't work, but RZA's tracks, all custom recorded for Afro Samurai, fit perfect. Plus, I'm a Wu-Tang fan from back in the 90s; 36 Chambers is one of the best albums ever recorded. But I digress...
I know all of you wafflers out there are saying 'Alright Hektic, we don't care about your shitty taste in music. What about the achievements?!' Well, I managed to beat the game in about two days; if you do your homework ahead of time and grab yourself a list of the five collectibles in each level, you can get around five to six hundred points in one play through. The achievements are a good balance of completing chapters, performing special decapitations and amputations, to collecting particular items. Kidd Cartel has an achievement guide viewable here that will help you on your way to 1000 points. If you really want to 1K this game, be prepared from some frustration; a whopping 200 points can be had for beating the game on both difficulties (normal, and then hard), but hard mode is quite difficult. There are also a fair number of achievements that involve playing Ninja Ninja's minigame "Body Part Poker", in which you have to lob off the limbs and heads of a particular set of enemies, which can become really difficult depending on the type of enemy, and may cause some frustration to some.
Afro Samurai has everything going for it; a good brand name, some big hitting voice actors, a great soundtrack and beautiful visual style. It is a shame that it is plagued by minor annoyances, glaring and frustrating difficulty changes, and some poor game mechanics. If you are a fan of action-type games, definitely check this one out. If you are a waffler looking for a couple hundred gamerscore, want a really enjoyable experience, and have a weekend or so to devote to it, I would give it a rental. If you're a completionist looking for a 1K, you may get frustrated and loose a controller or two in the process. I give Afro Samurai a 6 out of 10: Namco Bandai gave us a good game, but with some more testing, more attention to gameplay details, and a new camera, it could have been amazing.
First off, for those of you not in the know about Afro Samurai...I can't really fault you, since I had never actually seen an episode until last weekend. Playing the game, however, prompted me to download and watch the series, a painfully short five episodes. The story follows a swordsman, literally named Afro, on his quest to avenge the death of his father, who was killed before his eyes when he was a child by a gunman named Justice. Afro's father was one of many killed for the Number One Headband; a relic that signifies the owner as being the best swordsman in the world, and some legends even tell that the owner will become a god. The bearer of the Number One Headband can only be challenged by the person wielding the Number Two Headband. Afro, of course, is the current owner of the Number Two Headband, and the target of every assassin looking for power and fame.
I was actually pleasantly surprised that the videogame followed the story pretty much to the T. Sure, there were a few minor differences here and there, but this was the closest videogame adaptation I have seen in recent memory. The other thing I noticed right off the bat: The art style is beautiful. Using cel-shaded graphics with pencil cross-hatching in certain areas was a nice touch, and really draws players into the game. With no Heads Up Display and everything delivered via cross-scenes in real time, rather than breaking up the action with text, players can really get into it, and at times feel like they are actually playing the anime, rather than a videogame.
Alright, once I got through admiring the graphics and environments, it was onto actually playing. The action began right in the first level, where a single line of text appeared across the bottom of the screen as the first battle was about to begin. That was it; the action didn't stop for the rest of the game. Again, much like the anime it is based on, there was no break or pause in the fighting; only the occasional quip from Afro's imaginary sidekick, Ninja Ninja, to break some of the tension and give you a laugh.
The game plays like your basic hack and slash; X is for light attacks, Y for heavy attacks. You can string these two buttons in tandem to create combos, and there is actually a combo menu for you to look at, but it is useless for the most part. Aside from no combo being that difficult, bringing up this menu would pause the flow of combat and do more harm than good. There is a "Bullet-time" (Sword-Time?) of sorts, referred to as Focus mode, where everything becomes black and white, and a speck of light shimmers down Afro's sword when you hold an attack button. If let go when this light reaches the tip of his sword, a devastating damage bonus will accompany your attack, and more often than not lob a limb or two off in the process. There is nothing more satisfying than trying to catch a quick ninja, only to slow down time as they jump up to avoid you, and you end up cleaving their body in half.
Unfortunately, that is pretty much the entire game in a nutshell. The Focus aspect is the only feature that really makes it stand out from any other hack and slash, and while you may think that cleaving enemies in half can never get boring, after seven levels of it....no, it doesn't really get boring, but just a tad bit repetitive. One thing that really annoyed me was that during boss fights and larger fights, invisible walls would come up blocking you off from your objective until the fight was finished. Alright, I understand that: What made me angry was the fact that the enemies more often than not cheated; if I was caught against the invisible wall in a corner, a lot of times they would use the same attack over and over, knocking me into the wall and down, and just as I was about to get up, before I had a chance to do anything, they would hit me with it again, and again. More than half of my health would be gone in a few frustrating seconds of not being able to move.
Health was another interesting thing; as I said earlier, there is no Heads Up Display of any kind. I didn't quite understand at first, but health seems to be measured by how red Afro's clothing becomes. When it starts to become a deep red, the screen starts to become hazy as you are on the brink of death. There is also an experience system that is never fully explained; I have seen a message flashing across the screen saying I gained a rank, but no where does it say what rank I am, how much experience I have, or what these ranks actually do.
Another frustrating quirk; the difficulty is noticeably up and down. While the majority of the game is not too difficult, boss battles become strikingly hard for no reason. Nothing is helped by the fact that the game doesn't really give you any pointers on how to combat your foe; you're pretty much left to figure that out on your own. I mean, I'm always up for a challenge, but when you're coasting along hacking up baddies without getting struck, and then you get beat down by a boss fight five times in a row, it gets a little aggravating.
Speaking of aggravating, lets have a look at jumping in the game. Now, I am no fan of jumping in videogames; I don't mind a little fancy wall running and such if it is kept simple, but too many bad experiences with Tomb Raider and the likes on PSOne turned me off to the whole jumping thing. There are quite a few jumping maneuvers that players need to pull off in this game, but the way Afro jumps is...well, kind of clunky, for lack of a better term. For a game of this type, you would expect the jumping to be smooth and similar to say, Ninja Gaiden, for example. What we get is the opposite; I have to pull off the same moves as other games, such as wall running, wall jumping, pole-vaulting, etc. However, unless conditions are perfect, Afro can only jump about two or three inches off of the ground. I guess he is a samurai, not a ninja...
Of course, nothing is helped in the game by the camera. Now, some of you may have heard about how atrocious the camera is; it isn't as bad as I have heard some people describe it, but it isn't an action-friendly camera, and if your game focuses on action above all else, that's not a good thing. First off, unlike almost every other action game, the camera is inverted; this means up is down and down up, left is right and right left. Unlike every game I have played that I can remember, there is no way to change this to normal. So you are stuck having to adjust to the inverted camera. I never fully adjusted, and many times found myself moving it in the opposite direction I wanted it to. To me, that was a poor design choice; make the default inverted if you are that set on it, but at least give players the option to change it to something more comfortable. Another camera defect was the fact that I found it sat too close to Afro, and more often than not I was getting hit by enemies I couldn't see. If you can adjust, it might not be as bad for you, but in a game of this type, the camera couldn't so much use a little re-working, as it could a complete over-haul.
Sound in this game? Fucking amazing. I'm sorry, but colorful language was the only thing I could use to describe it. The voice acting was spot on; Ninja Ninja, who I mentioned earlier, and who is also voiced by Jackson, was a big motivator to keep me playing. His lines were great, and for such a serious action-packed game, I was literally laughing out loud at some of his comments. All of the voice actors are the ones from the anime series, including Jackson as Afro and Ninja Ninja, Kelly Hu as Kokiku, and Ron Perlman as Justice. Aside from the superb voice-acting, I loved the music. It would go from Feudal Japan style sounds, to an all out hip-hop jam during big battles. The music in the game, as well as the anime, is inspired, and largely produced by The RZA. I don't know, it just pulls it all together: A heavy-metal type mix ala Devil May Cry just wouldn't work, but RZA's tracks, all custom recorded for Afro Samurai, fit perfect. Plus, I'm a Wu-Tang fan from back in the 90s; 36 Chambers is one of the best albums ever recorded. But I digress...
I know all of you wafflers out there are saying 'Alright Hektic, we don't care about your shitty taste in music. What about the achievements?!' Well, I managed to beat the game in about two days; if you do your homework ahead of time and grab yourself a list of the five collectibles in each level, you can get around five to six hundred points in one play through. The achievements are a good balance of completing chapters, performing special decapitations and amputations, to collecting particular items. Kidd Cartel has an achievement guide viewable here that will help you on your way to 1000 points. If you really want to 1K this game, be prepared from some frustration; a whopping 200 points can be had for beating the game on both difficulties (normal, and then hard), but hard mode is quite difficult. There are also a fair number of achievements that involve playing Ninja Ninja's minigame "Body Part Poker", in which you have to lob off the limbs and heads of a particular set of enemies, which can become really difficult depending on the type of enemy, and may cause some frustration to some.
Afro Samurai has everything going for it; a good brand name, some big hitting voice actors, a great soundtrack and beautiful visual style. It is a shame that it is plagued by minor annoyances, glaring and frustrating difficulty changes, and some poor game mechanics. If you are a fan of action-type games, definitely check this one out. If you are a waffler looking for a couple hundred gamerscore, want a really enjoyable experience, and have a weekend or so to devote to it, I would give it a rental. If you're a completionist looking for a 1K, you may get frustrated and loose a controller or two in the process. I give Afro Samurai a 6 out of 10: Namco Bandai gave us a good game, but with some more testing, more attention to gameplay details, and a new camera, it could have been amazing.
