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The Lowdown
Pros: Easy to jump into, simple to learn, decent special effects
Cons: Button mashing, merely hack and slash gameplay, doesn't live up to
its "name"
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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Sammy took up a highly ambitious task trying to recreate the legendary
Seven Samurai movie into a video game. Many people consider the epic
struggle of the Kambei and his ronin to be the hallmark of Japanese
cinema. Some dare to say that the Seven Samurai is the founder of modern
action movies. When Sammy took on the project, fans of the movie were
eager to see the angle that they were going to take on the game. With so
much anticipation and such an ambitious game, could Sammy ever please
fans of the movies and gamers alike?While the original Seven Samurai
story took place in feudal Japan, Seven Samurai 20XX takes place far in
the future. You play Natoe a lone warrior who is fighting to defend his
village from an onslaught of mutant humans who are trying to destroy it.
Eventually the source of evil is revealed and Natoe must not just save
his village, but his world. Of course this sounds familiar, plots like
these have been around since the days of Asteroids. While the game
attempts to show some epic struggle of good and evil, it falls flat and
fast. When you jump right in you don't really get an explanation of why
the village is being attacked, it just is. Simple questions arise in the
first few minutes of gameplay and make what was intended to be epic,
campy.
To add to the campy feel of the game is the shallow voice acting. The
actors who did the voice acting read like they were reading the script
from the House of the Dead. If you're going to make an epic tale you
need emotional voices, not flat dialogue. If you are an importer one
thing good to know is that all the voices are done in English with
Japanese subtitles.
Games don't need to have a great story to be fun, even though a great
story helps a lot. The Seven Samurai 20XX would still be a decent game
if had some good gameplay. The gameplay can be summed up in two words
"hit square". The bulk of the game has you hacking and slashing your way
though one faceless enemy to the next. Hitting the square button
unleashes a strike from your sword. You can do special moves by doing "hadoken"
type movements or by holding a direction while you press square. Some of
the special moves are mildly entertaining such as doing a light speed
dash towards the nearest enemy or going into slow motion for a matrix
effect. Since most of the moves will come out just by button mashing,
most people will opt to do so. Even when you're trying to execute
specific moves the controls don't seem responsive enough. The problem
gets worse when you're surrounded by a group of enemies who aren't going
to wait for you to perform you're cool looking attack. Button mashing is
further promoted in the special musou attack mode. You can activate this
anytime by pressing L1 and R1 together. This gives Natoe extra power for
about a minute. During this time you'll want to mash the attack button
all you can to get as many hits out as possible. While attacking you'll
do extra flashy sword slices and a little more damage. Natoe also has
the ability to block by pressing triangle. When you successfully time
your button press you will not take any damage, but lose a little bit of
energy from your blue block meter. If you miss the block you'll still
lose energy from your block meter. Your block meter will fill up over
time, but this mechanic exists so you can't defend forever. After you
fight your way to the end of a level you are treated to an increase in
your statistics i.e. life, attack and so forth. Instead of having a true
mechanic for how to develop your character it happens pretty much out of
your control. You don't have options to pick from or hidden secrets to
find. Instead the computer decides what attributes to alter and leaves
the player out of the loop.
With so many excellent action games out there the Seven Samurai's
system seems a bit dull. Special attacks happen almost haphazardly and
the combos are as innovative as Dynasty Warriors. After many action
gamers have been exposed to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or the
recent Bujingai the Seven Samurai's "action" feels like a kids game. The
Seven Samurai's problems increase with its slow moving camera. In an
action game, especially a fast paced one you need a camera that can
follow a character around. You'll find that when you're doing special
moves like the dash attack the camera pans away from Natoe while it is
trying to catch up. This can be problematic when running into a group of
enemies or at a sharp angle. The camera needs to take a few seconds to
catch up with Natoe and you may be left with a less than adequate view
of what is going on screen. Why the Seven Samurai opted for a slow
moving camera is anyone's guess, but the camera system doesn't benefit
the game at all.
The textures and background graphics aren't good enough to warrant a
slow camera. The backgrounds are mostly drab colored ad boring textures.
You'll see your variety of multi colored walls and more multi colored
walls. None of the enemies are particularly impressive either. The faceless
ninjas that attack the village look like the wood monsters from ninja
scroll and there is even a boss that has a striking resemblance to Big
O. If the Seven Samurai is trying to mimic other characters it is doing
a poor job of it. None of the figures seem detailed and there isn't
enough graphical variety to allow such poor textures. There still is
some neat visual effects when you use special attacks, these are nothing
great, but they show that the game isn't all bad.
"It isn't all bad" is one way to look at the Seven Samurai 20XX. For
what its worth the Seven Samurai 20XX plays a lot like Dynasty Warriors
and other 3D brawlers. If this is your style of gameplay the Seven
Samurai 20XX will appeal to you. However, the Seven Samurai 20XX is
based after a movie that redefined action movies. Many gamers expect
that the Seven Samurai 20XX would at least invent or add something to
the action game genre. Some fans of the movie may have even expected an
epic story. Instead the Seven Samurai 20XX delivers neither and
disappoints on many levels.
Import Friendly?
The voice acting is in English with Japanese subtitles, which allows
you to hear the campy acting. The menus are also in English, making this
game high on the import friendly scale.
US Bound?
Sammy is bring this game to the states at the end of March.
Overall
If you loved Dynasty Warriors you'll like the Seven Samurai. If you're
looking for an epic action game, pass this one up.
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