Genji is one of those games that are striking from the outset. The introductory movie, complete with action, death, war, a beautiful soundtrack and an interesting plot, sets out the game’s stall, and whilst in-game, the quality of the presentation stays at the same high level.
Your task is to take control of Yoshitsune and Benkei, who are tasked with clearing ancient Japan of the evil Heishi clan, who have recently taken control of the nation, leading with an violent and brutal iron fist. Two men can’t beat an army alone, so rather than team up with a million-strong rising, you must use your Amahagane. Amahagane are mystical stones that grant the owner special powers. They can be combined and upgraded as per a normal weapon, and you start out with one by default. More are collected along the way, until you have the power to overthrow the Heishi.
Genji is essentially a bunch of combat sections broken up with a few very sparse exploration jaunts and a few cutscenes. Battles don’t flow into one another with any great fluidity, rather once you’ve cleared away four enemies, another four appear from the dust and start attacking. None of the drone enemies provide any real challenge to your skill, with streams of brutal moves available to you just by repeatedly pressing your attack buttons. Should you somehow become overwhelmed (more than likely when facing a boss character) ‘ you can press your R1 button and use ‘Kamui’. This slows down the action and forces your foes to attack you in certain ways. As they’re about to attack, pressing your square button as the square icon appears beneath your feet will cause Yoshitsune to dodge and counter attack with deadly force, usually killing the opponent dead with one shot. Should you do anything other than press the square button, you’ve wasted your Kamui, and you’re propelled back to normal action.
As far as looks go, Genji provides densely atmospheric landscapes and some incredibly smooth animation for the most part. In Kamui mode, you’ll see frames of animation being dropped right, left and centre, and this detracts somewhat from the overall beauty of the game as a whole. The soundtrack is something to savour, though, with Samurai beats and feudal Japanese rhythms being the order of the day ‘ and it fits the game perfectly.
The main problem with Genji is the lack of longevity and challenge. The entire game can be completed within six or seven hours, and during those hours the boss fights are the only part that’ll tax you with any great force. Even when seven enemies threaten your life, you can clear them down by either activating Kamui and taking them out with seven presses of the square button, or just by hammering the attack buttons until they are dead and gone. As I said, the boss fights provide more of a challenge, but even they aren’t as difficult to beat as they should be. They’re huge in comparison to your controllable characters, but yet the old ‘avoid attack, swing sword’ combination works a little too well. The first boss is not even worthy of being called a boss as far as challenge goes. You can jump behind him whilst he dances about to intimidate you, and just whack him over and over until he gives in. Not good.
