Forest Dweller
Smoking Dicks
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2008
- Messages
- 12,210
Just recently heard about this series here, is it worth a shot? And are all three equally good, or does one of them stand out?
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Way of the Samurai series
- Thread starter Forest Dweller
- Start date
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Yes, Way of the Samurai have the best C&C in any game by a large margin.
I for one like the third game, since it has a nice Kurosawa-style atmosphere and story to it set in the Sengoku period.
I for one like the third game, since it has a nice Kurosawa-style atmosphere and story to it set in the Sengoku period.
Genma:TheDestroyer
Arcane
All three of them are excellent, though I prefer II.
Longwinded & Pretty
Educated
I just picked up II myself (and found an eng translation available for the PSP release of the first game), and so far I'm enjoying the hell out of it if only because of the Permadeath. Having to actually stop and answer the question 'can I take this guy or not?' adds a heckuva amount of enjoyment, where as my last playthrough of Gothic I was filled with 'Kill monster/Save/Fight next monster/Die/Load...' which made it a little tedious.
.. Yes, I do realize that it is definitely my fault for the tedium, but I have no shame in admitting je sucks at le action gaming. Jeebus on a pogo, I can't tell how many tries it took to survive past the first day of Way of the Samurai...
.. Yes, I do realize that it is definitely my fault for the tedium, but I have no shame in admitting je sucks at le action gaming. Jeebus on a pogo, I can't tell how many tries it took to survive past the first day of Way of the Samurai...
Dr.Faust
Liturgist
The game was great in an obscure sort of way. It has a lot of things that you won't find in AAA-titles so it takes a little time to get in to if you're not already familiar with the series, but once you get the hang of it that shit will become a huge source of entertainment. I've only played the third one, but I've heard the first two are pretty good too.
I don't think any sane person would try to do everything in the game, though. There's like 30 different endings, an incredible amount of unique weapons and weapon parts and boatloads of weapon skills and fighting styles.
I don't think any sane person would try to do everything in the game, though. There's like 30 different endings, an incredible amount of unique weapons and weapon parts and boatloads of weapon skills and fighting styles.
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Well, in the third game it's easy get all the unlockable stuff:
Just start a game on highest difficulty you can, eat five radishes, get killed. Soon enough you've unlocked all the unlockables, so you've got that out of the way and can get on with playing the game.
As far as unique weapons go, there's only one that's totally worth it: Shuzen can drop a special hoe titled My Hoe.
Just start a game on highest difficulty you can, eat five radishes, get killed. Soon enough you've unlocked all the unlockables, so you've got that out of the way and can get on with playing the game.
As far as unique weapons go, there's only one that's totally worth it: Shuzen can drop a special hoe titled My Hoe.
deuxhero
Arcane
Is it ok to start with 2 if I can't find 1, or should I go out of the way to find 1 (I lack a "next gen" console, but have a ps2)?
Longwinded & Pretty
Educated
As far as I'm aware they're not sequential and have fully independent stories. For the second one you just start out as a starving Ronin who wanders into a town where shit's about to hit the fan. So far there haven't been any references to events in the first one (to which I'm basing knowledge off the LP in the playground).
Genma:TheDestroyer
Arcane
The only connections between I and II are...
1. Tesshin Kurou has somehow gone from being the head of a samurai family (I) to running his own dojo (II)
2. During the Fight Club-esque bouts in the fair grounds of II, you occasionally see a miniature version of Tsubohachi from I.
3. There's a Dojiima as a blacksmith in both of them.
1. Tesshin Kurou has somehow gone from being the head of a samurai family (I) to running his own dojo (II)
2. During the Fight Club-esque bouts in the fair grounds of II, you occasionally see a miniature version of Tsubohachi from I.
3. There's a Dojiima as a blacksmith in both of them.
deuxhero
Arcane
OK, will try one of them out next time I need a new game to play.
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
The two blacksmith brothers in 3 are Dojimas as well.
Edward_R_Murrow
Arcane
Personally, my favorite is the first one, followed by the third one. They're all fine games though.
It might be best to start with the first one, as it is missing some convenience features that the later two have, which might make it hard to play for someone new to the series. It also has the most unique moves and swords to find. Nowhere else has weapons like saws, axes, iron balls, and the magic wand (I love the magic wand so much and all the goofy moves/combos it can do). The way it handles learning new moves is also more complex than the other games, as some moves on certain swords can only be learned in very strange ways (e.g. the Dai-Kuronama, Tesshin's sword, can only learn it's ultimate move by doing a perfect guard against Tesshin using the ultimate move...same with Kitcho's sword and it's ultimate move; Hyuga's sword has a cool move that can only be unlocked by fighting at extremely low health and killing loads of dudes).
Though honestly, you can't really go wrong with any game in the series for a little bit of fun. I find the 2nd the weakest entry, but it still is a good game regardless.
It might be best to start with the first one, as it is missing some convenience features that the later two have, which might make it hard to play for someone new to the series. It also has the most unique moves and swords to find. Nowhere else has weapons like saws, axes, iron balls, and the magic wand (I love the magic wand so much and all the goofy moves/combos it can do). The way it handles learning new moves is also more complex than the other games, as some moves on certain swords can only be learned in very strange ways (e.g. the Dai-Kuronama, Tesshin's sword, can only learn it's ultimate move by doing a perfect guard against Tesshin using the ultimate move...same with Kitcho's sword and it's ultimate move; Hyuga's sword has a cool move that can only be unlocked by fighting at extremely low health and killing loads of dudes).
Though honestly, you can't really go wrong with any game in the series for a little bit of fun. I find the 2nd the weakest entry, but it still is a good game regardless.
deuxhero
Arcane
I got both Friday, but WoS1 fails on an early transition every time I tried it (leaving the restruant then coming back to the same area fails to load), it also sounds like murder on my PS2 and causes the whole thing to vibrate violently (internet says "issues" are standard for blue backs. Were there any latter printings of WoS1 that aren't blue?). Will return or exchange this week when I'm in the area for work (bloody gas costs).
Been playing WoS2 a lot this weakend though. Very fun. Just got the title for staying at the brothel 10 times in a cycle using a female character
(got the Shogun collaborator variation of lone samurai for that one, having got the true neutral variation during my last failed attempt). I love that the world actually does react to my choices a lot more than even a lot of western games that claim to. One big advantage of encouraging tons of shortish cycles instead of one or two large playthroughs.
It starts off a little slow, but once I got a half decent sword (My method was to play Normal and get 800 mon, save at late night/early morning, save, go to the shrine and buy a deluxe sword tip, check an FAQ to see if the sword is decent, reload and choose a different dialog option if it isn't, save and try to kill the guy with it.) then forge its stats higher, it becomes a lot better (I love my 100 attack Yaso. Giving it "Ogre" as a title gave it 200 attack total, kills stuff quick though moveset is a little lacking). At that point I was strong enough to get my first real ending (The Magistrate Samurai one. I accidentally triggered the needed things before the festival and got the option during it, figured why not as I was now strong enough to finish the ending. My ranking was "Samurai King", which surprised me, being the highest point based rank short of perfect.)
Now I'm working on getting enough "experience" (not sure what exactly it is, FAQ wasn't clear) to title my Zannkimaru "god" (I just spent a cycle on easy randomly killing everyone, surprisingly fun, though the magistrates sometimes get the GTA cop's power to prevent my character from offering any resistance sometimes. How does that work?) because I find it's playstyle more fun than the Yaso (the need to make use primarily of deadly counter attacks is pretty neat, though I just learned a shoulder attack that stuns foes enough to hit them, still fun though).
Been playing WoS2 a lot this weakend though. Very fun. Just got the title for staying at the brothel 10 times in a cycle using a female character
(got the Shogun collaborator variation of lone samurai for that one, having got the true neutral variation during my last failed attempt). I love that the world actually does react to my choices a lot more than even a lot of western games that claim to. One big advantage of encouraging tons of shortish cycles instead of one or two large playthroughs.
It starts off a little slow, but once I got a half decent sword (My method was to play Normal and get 800 mon, save at late night/early morning, save, go to the shrine and buy a deluxe sword tip, check an FAQ to see if the sword is decent, reload and choose a different dialog option if it isn't, save and try to kill the guy with it.) then forge its stats higher, it becomes a lot better (I love my 100 attack Yaso. Giving it "Ogre" as a title gave it 200 attack total, kills stuff quick though moveset is a little lacking). At that point I was strong enough to get my first real ending (The Magistrate Samurai one. I accidentally triggered the needed things before the festival and got the option during it, figured why not as I was now strong enough to finish the ending. My ranking was "Samurai King", which surprised me, being the highest point based rank short of perfect.)
Now I'm working on getting enough "experience" (not sure what exactly it is, FAQ wasn't clear) to title my Zannkimaru "god" (I just spent a cycle on easy randomly killing everyone, surprisingly fun, though the magistrates sometimes get the GTA cop's power to prevent my character from offering any resistance sometimes. How does that work?) because I find it's playstyle more fun than the Yaso (the need to make use primarily of deadly counter attacks is pretty neat, though I just learned a shoulder attack that stuns foes enough to hit them, still fun though).
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
One of the most fun aspects of WoS3 when it comes to weapons was the extreme variety and the very large weapon creation system (lots of components). You can fight using nothing but a hoe or a random small branch.
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