2-Jun-2004 Japanese movie masterpiece gets the PS2 treatment, now with added robots!
Quick history fix: in 1954, Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa released Shichinin No Samurai, an epic tale of honour and courage where a ragtag group of warriors protect a small village from invaders.
When released in the West it quickly became one of the most successful Japanese films ever and inspired Hollywood rip-offs like western The Magnificent Seven. With such a strong filmic heritage, the PS2 developers had all they needed to make a thrilling action adventure. Sadly, they opted for a shallow hack 'n' slash snoozeathon set in a garish futuristic world instead. Ho hum...
Future Imperfect While Kurosawa fans hate that Sammy has shifted the story from Feudal Japan to a space-age landscape, the game offers a stylish spin on its source material. The plot is essentially the same, with the film's shabby bandits replaced by endless hordes of bloodthirsty robots and beefed-up bosses.
The slick graphics do a fine job of recreating Kurosawa's black and white movie as a manga-style adventure, and the game's cocky young hero and a doe-eyed heroine will be familiar to devotees of Japanese animation.
But despite Sammy's best efforts, the clichéd story is a waste of time as the game is a simple, button-bashing hack-fest. The plot elements only disrupt the fast pace and most players will just opt to skip them anyway. But if the plot elements are annoying, it's nothing compared to the game's cheesy combat.
Seven Samurai features a neat combo system where you use two swords to slice up multiple enemies. However, filling the power bar to unleash the second blade requires little more than dodging and blocking attacks - a system that allows you to use double swords throughout most of the game and reach the final boss in a single sitting.
Even worse, the hero's special attacks are accompanied by flashy special effects that add to some spectacular slowdown, often making it impossible to follow the juddering action in large group battles. Overall, Seven Samurai 20XX squanders one of the best licences in gaming history and will probably have Kurosawa spinning in his grave.
To attack enemies, all you have to do is push the stick in their direction and pound away at the attack button. As soon as you draw the hero's second sword a meter begins counting down, and if it runs out you'll have to use a single blade again. But you can replenish the meter by using timing-based 'Just' moves, where you block or dodge attacks.
When you have two swords drawn the meter counts down, but it’s easy to fill as you battle
You can use just one sword to attack your enemies, but this is useless against many of the faster foes
By dodging and blocking you fill a meter, increasing the amount of time you can use two swords at once
Battles begin when you walk into a location and green walls appear, stopping you from running away
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