When it works, Way of the Samurai 4 is a clever little parody of open world games. This game, just like an eager overachieving student, tries to juggle many things at once. Instead what I got was practically non-existent character development and laughable dialogue.

Way of the Samurai 4 has a relatively mature and complex story that covers extreme ends of the spectrum, like fetishism and xenophobia to honour and loyalty, so from start to finish I was just hanging for it to start making some serious arguments around these themes and give me pause to think about what's going. Games like this are designed to be unpredictable, so it's perfectly understandable when you find yourself going from searching for Zombrex to pushing a wayward granny on a wheelchair in a zombie-infested shopping mall.

In any other deliciously weird Japanese game - for example, Deadly Premonition - I really wouldn't have been bothered by this nonchalant transition from one bizarre, unexpected situation to the other. It was here I quit the game and proceeded on with my real-life chores for the day. The screen went to black and the next thing I knew I was in a torture chamber surrounded by triplets and semi-naked slaves. only to be instantly arrested on the spot by the very same constable who had not just forty seconds ago congratulated me on my heroic service. This is where the game teaches you that taking a photograph means saving your progress.Ī little while later I learned that that game allows pickpocketing of downed enemies, so I went ahead and started doing just that. When this was over, an anachronistic photographer offered to take my photograph, so I struck a pose (which in this game means standing perfectly still with an awkward look on your face) and I was sent to the save game screen. Because I was very new to the game's mechanics and controls, I was unable to unsheathe my sword - so I defeated the dozen warriors with nothing but my bare hands. Not wanting to miss out on the action, he accompanies me and in a fashion similar to Zack Fair from Crisis Core, becomes jubilant and excited at the sight of the antagonists. After scoring with a local geisha by complimenting the weather and suggesting she looks rather elegant in her clothes, I went to the magistrate's office where a Pagan Min look-alike British delegate ordered me to take out a dozen of rogue warriors who take their swords to random passersby to test out their efficiency.

Game samurai 4