Genji: Dawn of the Samurai
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is an action adventure role playing game that was released for the Sony Playstation 2 in late 2005. The game has beautiful character and terrain visuals but lacks in terms of combat options.
|
Developer: Game Republic Publisher: SCEA Release Date: September 20, 2005 Platforms: PS2 JustRPG Score: 73% Pros: +Great terrain effects. +Easy to learn combat system. +Fun hack and slash game play. Cons: -Repetitive. -Characters don’t learn new abilities. -Only two attack buttons. |
Overview
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Overview
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai for the Sony Playstation 2 is an action adventure role playing game set in feudal Japan. The main character collects energy throughout the game to help improve their characters. The player also gains levels which increase the health damage and defense of their hero. The game has lovely visuals and even the random enemies you encounter obviously had a lot of time put into their character models. Where the game suffers is in the combat department. There are only two attack buttons and your character never learns any other moves. Overall the game is pretty entertaining and worth playing if you are looking for an absent minded afternoon.
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Screenshots
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Featured Video
Full Review
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Review
By, John Ferguson
Backdrop
.hack Part 1 Infection (Dot Hack) begins with a bang. Something disastrous happens to your character‘s real world friend, while innocently playing a 20 million-subscriber base, wildly popular online RPG game (MMORPG), The World. To unravel the mystery of your friend’s misfortune, you become an online, ingame rogue hacker, exploring every corner of The World, even some virus-infected ones.
The hero is armed with the special skills of Data Drain and Gate Hack, and some colorful, talented fellow adventurers to fill the two other available party slots. Different adventurers must accompany you depending on the plot‘s development. You have some control over the others in your party, including upgrading them through trades or gifts. You can play only a single class, Twin Blade. Other characters are from different classes, with varied strengths and weaknesses, from a mage type (Wavemaster) to a bully (Heavy Axeman).
Gameplay
Gameplay takes place in three principal areas – towns, fields, and dungeons. Towns house The World’s servers. There, the player can save the game, buy magic scrolls and useful and unique items, store items, buy equipment, and talk and trade with lots of other players in character online. One town has an unusual ranch to check out, a patent homage to an enduring feature of just about every Final Fantasy.
The town’s Chaos Gate provides instant teleportation to a particular wide-open Field, containing monster encounter hotspots, a mystical spring, treasure, and lots of mysterious food. You enter three distinct keywords, some known at the game‘s onset, and others learned through play. Whatever keywords are entered, the difficulty level of the destination is helpfully revealed. This prevents a low-level party from being massacred. Once the keywords are entered, you travel through the Chaos Gate. (You can enter specific keywords learned to continue the plot, do side quests, or do unlimited exploring. Or, you can instruct the Gate to enter random keywords, and take your chances. There‘s also an option to enter any keywords you wish from a word list.) Every Field houses a single Dungeon. The dungeons, where you spend much of the game fighting for your life, are not overly large in size, and always range between three and five average levels.
Many have compared Dot Hack to Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (PSO) on the Gamecube. Let us gently discredit this. We feel Dot Hack has far better graphics than PSO. The Fields and Dungeons contain many colorful, over stylized backdrops and settings, including weather effects. Dot Hack’s monsters resemble the beautifully-drawn monsters of the later Final Fantasy’s. Dot Hack’s world is gigantic with a seeming infinite number of locations to explore. PSO’s world is relatively small, and plot is threadbare, with meaningless, though fun, side quests, which instill no enthusiasm in the player. Dot Hack’s plot is deep and complex, with each subplot advancing the story just a little bit further. (Remember though, the end of this game in no way comes close to wrapping up the story, to be completed in the three games to be released later this year.) One visual treat, however, was lifted directly from PSO – the cascading rings that accompany the teleportation of characters to and from different areas.
Combat
Dot Hack’s combat engine can best be described as modified real-time. Much like the action-RPG, Kingdom Hearts, button mashing can be effective to beat monsters. Monster combat icons appear as large yellow twirling landmarks. As you approach, the landmark dissolves, monsters come at you big-time, and, undoubtedly, players will feel a healthy adrenaline rush. Some of Dot Hack’s many monsters do not stand around waiting to be pummeled, rather some you need to catch. Dot Hack lets you turn combat almost into a turn-based affair. The player needs only to hit Triangle in the middle of battle to pause the game instantly. From there the player can give orders to the others in the party, anything from healing someone, reviving another, casting a spell, designating a target monster. Without jeopardizing your party from the hailstorm of monster blows, combat becomes a calmer, more strategic, experience. This will help the many action-challenged. Camera angles play a big role in successful combat. You must be facing a monster to do any damage. As in many games, manipulating opposing environmental elements, like fire vs. water, is a key to successful monster combat.
Dot Hack’s cyberspace setting provides a wealth of Wow-inducing outbursts. The Data Drain option in combat is a great example. When a monster’s approaches zero, the player can Data Drain to reduce a horrendous, gigantic steel robot, for example, into a sniveling, puny monster, easily defeated with a single blow. Data Drain always results in a nifty, rare item or essential Virus Cores so you can Gate Hack areas of The World now closed, but needing investigation. One bad side effect – if you defeat, a Data Drained monster, but a single experience point is earned. One REALLY bad side effect – if you Data Drain too often without giving the skill a rest, you may overload and explode. Game Over. In the case of Boss monsters, Data Drain works the same, but what remains is no sniveling puny monster, but a full-blooded slightly less tough monster. All of this makes for interesting and captivating combat, a large part of the game.
Fresh Features
Dot Hack is replete with new and interesting features that kept us riveted.
To start, the entire background and story of a real world gamer becoming a rascal hacker, penetrating deep into a virus-infected online game, is quite novel. Combine this with Dot Hack’s emulating the look and feel of an online game universe. (Message traffic on the web shows many gamers mistakenly believe Dot Hack is a real online MMORPG, along with monthly fees! No real Internet connection is required.)
Just like in the real word, Dot Hack replicates your excitement level when “New” appears before a popular forum or on your email screen. Some of the game involves receiving emails as the plot develops, as well as new, crucial information surfacing on The World’s Board. (Look out for emails challenging you to a strange game of Tag.) The online game world looks very familiar with a bunch of characters wandering around the game’s towns, with the ubiquitous balloon icons talking typical “trash” to each other, even criticizing “newbies“.
Combat grippingly called for surprisingly strategic decision-making to succeed, not related to the usual attack or defend choices. Do you go for experience and upgrade your character or try for some special equipment or a Virus Core, vital to Gate Hacking? The innovative control of other party members became second nature to us after some practice. The game rewards a player taking chances, like entering a Field or Dungeon rated 5 levels above the player’s current level. On the other hand, the game scoffed at players entering areas much lower rated the their current level, by awarding negligible experience points for victory.
Dot Hack takes progress reports to a new level, by slowly unlocking books that contain much in the way of statistics and information. There’s even a monster compendium with tips for defeating them.
Some might complain about the minimal “Save Game” ability, but we thrived on it. You explore a very hostile cyberspace environment without the facility to save. Only in a server-hosting town is saving possible at the local Recorder. We may be a solitary voice in the Wilderness, but we like this throwback to the good old RPG days. Those of you old enough to remember the Wizardry series, may recall those fingernail-biting multi-combat treks back to the Castle just to save the game. In case you’re really stuck deep in a dungeon, a common item will teleport you to the outdoor field, from where you can simply gate back to town from the command menu.
Many pieces of equipment come with distinctive powerful attack, healing, and status skills, essential to combat dominance. The player must tradeoff whether to equip something that will raise defense or offense or something less vigorous that lets you use a powerful skill. Trading is the most successful way to upgrade equipment.
In a first, Dot Hack comes with a 45 minute anime video. This gives some great background on what’s going on in The World, as well as provide clues for completing the game. In a nice twist, voiceovers for game speech can be set for Japanese or English presentation. Listening to the authentic Japanese voices really keeps you glued to the game.
Though some may scoff at what follows as meaningless, we liked the game’s unlocking of some nifty new “toys” to like, some only available when the game is cleared. You can unlock many different background music play lists. Tired of creepy tunes, just switch to something more upbeat, or futuristic. Just like real world gamers, who constantly change their desktop wallpaper, new and different wallpapers are unlocked along the way. Some are concept art of characters, while others are full blown anime renditions of the characters. This makes for great fun, and seems to pump additional energy into the game. As you progress over a dozen special cut scenes or movies will become viewable after defeating the game.
Though Dot Hack’s extras and new wrinkles enhance the RPG game experience, much of the gameplay will ring true to those who enjoy RPG‘s. Expect plenty of exploration in a huge 3D world, frequent monster combat, tons of treasure to earn and discover, upgrading your character’s weapons and armor, and needing to level before tackling pivotal story dungeons. The status screens for the characters and all equipment are well laid out and easy to grasp.
Time for Completion
Game length in hours always concerns many purchasers. A short RPG normally takes a lot of flack, and many online are asking about Dot Hack‘s time for completion. (Some have questioned whether Bandai should have released a single 80 hour game for $50, rather than four 20-hour games for $200 for a single story. This matter is beyond the scope of this review, but our high opinion of this game as a standalone is obvious.) Our experience, playing the plot without doing side quests or extra exploration, is in the 12 to 15-hour range. Players side-questing and extensively exploring, aside from the main plot, can expect to spend 25 hours to complete the game. You can even continue to advance your character, after game completion, to get a jump start on Part 2 due in May. In the next game, your character can be imported from Part 1.
Furthermore, imagine trying to explore every nook and cranny of the fields and dungeons accessible by a large number of 3-word combinations. Doing that would put the game in the 50-hour range, if not more. However, at a certain point, new items dry up, and a single experience point is earned for any defeated monster, no matter how tough.
Shortcomings
While, as is evident above, there is much to recommend in Dot Hack, certain concerns to varying degrees deserve mention.
From the “Why oh why did they leave this out?“ File. Pregame game board traffic and information about the Japanese version released months ago had many salivating for replaying the game in “parody” mode. This mode apparently converted all Dot Hack’s game world characters into satirical comedians. Sorry to say, this highly-anticipated feature is missing from the version released here.
The game requires massive amounts of button pressing. Every item or treasure uncovered from combat victories or exploration (opening chests, searching expired adventure remains, collecting food for Grunty’s, as examples) must be confirmed with a button press. When there could be 50-100 such occurrences in a single dungeon or field, over the course of the game, finger cramps seem inevitable. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance also required lots of bashing for buried treasure and chests, but the items literally flew into your inventory, a much better way to handle this.
The manual is woefully terse and lacking in some crucial information and guidance. While the ingame tutorials fill in many of the gaps, one extremely important gameplay feature is missing from both the manual and tutorials – instructions on control your characters directly during combat.
Final Word
We got a kick out of Dot Hack. The feeling of “just one more dungeon” dominated our lives for the 3 days to completion. The engaging environment held our attention without much effort. The strategic nature of combat, plus the convoluted plot kept us going for hours on end. The constant unlocking of both frivolous and important gameplay features created a “what’s next” anticipation. Now, if I could only read Japanese better, Dot Hack Part 2 is already out in Japan!
Final Grade: B
| In September 2005, Sony Computer Entertainment America released Genji: Dawn of the Samurai on the PlayStation 2 console. To be honest, the game reminds me of the Chinese action film, Hero, starring Jet Li, with its beautiful scenery and fast-paced heavy action. So how does this game compare to other great action titles? Read on to find out. |
 |
The game’s back-story begins with a war taking place between the Heishi clan and the army of Minamoto Yoritomo. There is no real reason given for this war other than the fact that the Heishi want supreme rule over all other groups. While the Minamoto put up a fight, they stood no chance against the larger Heishi forces and their power of the Amahagane. With these Amahagane, the bearer is said to receive godlike powers known as Kamui. Even after the war, the Heishi continue their search for even more Amahagane in an attempt to gain even more power and supreme rule forever. |
| Throughout the game you will be taking on the role of Yoshitsune Minamoto, the son of the late leader of the Minamoto army, and Benkei Musashibo, in a battle against the Heishi. For the most part, your main objective will be to travel around and obtain many of the Heishi’s most powerful Amahagnes. Aside from finding Essences of Amahagne randomly located throughout levels, many of the most powerful will be obtained by defeating some of the game’s bosses. Once you acquire three Essences of Amahagne, you will be able to use these to increase your character’s health, defense, or attack. |
| The two playable characters in Genji: Dawn of the Samurai each have their own strengths and weaknesses. While you might have to switch characters to fully complete portions of the game, I’d recommend sticking with Yoshitsune. Not only is Yoshitsune the game’s main character, but he is also faster, easier to chain attacks with, and more fun to control. The only problem is that Yoshitsune’s attacks are somewhat weak, which is the area where Benkei excels. Benkei is pretty much the exact opposite of Yoshitsune: he is slower, stronger, and can literally launch enemies across the screen using his clubs. |
|
As far as the actual combat is concerned, Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a fun and fast-paced action game. There are two real attack buttons, one of which is the normal attack that can be chained together to pull off more attacks; the other is a special attack, which is a single but more devastating attack. The combat is pretty basic and can be a little repetitive, and it would have been nice to see more abilities learned in combat, and maybe an option of locking onto certain targets, but, for the most part, the fighting is entertaining. |
 |
| Aside from increasing your stats, this power enables your character to avoid most incoming attacks. By pressing the L1 button, your character will use the power of Kamui and gain a sort of premonition of the incoming attacks. By pressing the square button at the correct time, you will then be able to dodge that attack and deliver your own deadly attack. This ability doesn’t necessarily work on everybody, and it might be more difficult to use against certain enemies, but it’s pretty interesting. |
| Each time one of your characters defeats an enemy, they will gain a number of experience. Once that character has reached a certain amount of experience, that character will increase in level. When a character levels up, they will gain stat increases to their health, defense, and their attack. Luckily, whenever the character you are using levels up, so do the other playable character. So if you go through the entire game using only one of those characters, the other one will be the same level. However, chances are most of your Amahagne will be thrown on the character you most often use, which could lead to the other character being quite a bit weaker. |
 |
Graphically, Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a very impressive game. Not only are the game’s main characters detailed and good looking, but so are most of the random enemies throughout your journey. There are also frequent cinemas that are very well done, too. Still, my favorite thing about the game’s graphics would have to be the actual look of many of the levels. Some of the scenery throughout the game is very colorful and looks absolutely gorgeous, and, once again, reminded me of some of the scenery designs in the movie Hero. |
| Similar to the graphics, the overall sound in the game is also done very well. The soundtrack inGenji: Dawn of the Samurai fits the game perfectly, and reminds me of something that would come straight from the film Hero, starring Jet Li. Aside from that, the game also features some great dialogue, all of which comes in the form of Japanese. The addition of Japanese dialogue just makes the overall feel of the game seem even more realistic. |
| While I didn’t have too many problems with this, I thought that I should add that the game does occasionally suffer from some problems with camera angles. The game really doesn’t feature any control over the camera, making it sometimes difficult to see what’s happening on the screen. And since your range of vision isn’t very large, it is also a little difficult to see what could be coming towards you on the next screen. There were also some boss battles and so on that had some odd-looking camera angles, adding unfair difficulty to the game. |
|
Even though Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a fun game, it isn’t a game that’s going to hold your interest for very long. And it’s not because the game isn’t any good… it’s because the game is very short and can probably be finished in under 7 hours or so. Sadly, there also really isn’t any replay value after beating the game once. It is possible to play through some of the missions as the other playable character, but aside from that there really isn’t much of a reason to go back through the game. |
 |
| Overall, Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a fun action game featuring some great graphics and sound. If you’re a fan of action-adventure titles then you will more than likely enjoy the game. However, due to some minor flaws here and there, and the fact that game is too short, it’s difficult to recommend it for anything other than a rental. |
| Final Grade: 73% |
Screenshots
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Screenshots
Videos
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Videos
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Trailer