The Way of the Samurai is forged in battle!
Play as a ronin during Japan's Meiji Restoration in the volatile Rokkotsu Pass. The swordsmith Dojima falls into debt and his beautiful daughter is taken as collateral. Help repay the debt by crafting swords by day and exploring the mysterious, twisting dungeons of the Ipponmatsu Cave for valuable materials at night.
Despite decent music and my love for samurai games, I cannot recommend Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story. There is little pay-off to finishing the game, aside from a cut scene and a new post-game dungeon. The bugs and clunky menus encountered along the way make the journey an absolute slog. There are better roguelites, loot-driven RPGs, and samurai...
Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story is likely going to still be a cult classic like its predecessors. This experiment has proven to be a huge success. Even gamers who are turned off by the words 'procedurally-generated' and 'roguelike,' might actually enjoy this new take on ronin simulation. It is mostly elevated thanks to the combat, and the attention...
Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story will most likely not satisfy fans looking for the next Way of the Samurai, due to the smaller scale and its genre.
Basically, this is a PS2 game running on the PS4 with a veneer of next-gen graphics. In 2020, that's unacceptable even as a throwback to a different era. To come full circle, the idea for Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story is solid. The execution is not.
Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story manages to balance, in a very competent way, a simple, dense and efficient gameplay with a differentiated system of resource and objective management. It brings a very direct story that has its greatest asset in the setting. Menus, canvas elements and even the artistic style bring good ideas, but they also present...
