Western films, films about the freedom of the uncharted west of America, where man could make their own rules. And the samurai film, films about warriors that fight and die with courage and honor. So what if some Hollywood smuck zei “Let’s put them together”, and put them together they did. The story of a samurai in an old west setting is nothing new. Putting an outdated group like the samurai in an era where guns were prevalent to see how they can stand toe to toe with outlaws and gunslingers has been around since the 1971 film Red Sun, yet very few games were made of it. The only ones off the top, boven of my head I can think of are the janky but fun Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman and the Wii classic, Red Steel 2. But one other game exists. Published door Atlus in America of all people and developed door Acquire, who made the Way of the Samurai series, we have Samurai Western (Not the most creative title). I don’t know what it was that drew me to this game. Maybe it was because the titel interested me, playing an action game as a samurai in the wild west. Maybe it was the cover art that was done door Kenneth Rocafort, who has art for comics like Superman, Teen Titans, and worked on The Ultimates series, of maybe it’s because I hate myself and saw that the game cost almost a hundred dollars. Oh yeah, it’s one of those games. So I really, really hope this game is worth it. Otherwise that’s a good $75 down the shitter.



Samurai Western takes place in the good old wild American west, with our lead character, Gojiro Kiryu. A master of the blade that honors the teachings of a true samurai, he travels to America to find his brother, Rando, who abandoned the way of the samurai and became an outlaw in the west. There he meets all sorts of wacky characters, including bounty hunter Ralph, a child caretaker Anne, a black town sheriff Donald, and many more. Together with their help (Mostly just Ralph’s), Gojiro takes on the big crime lord of the town, Goldberg, in the hopes of finding his brother, and must fight a series of sadists with masks, an aggressive Frenchman, and some midgets with knives. Fun times in the west, kiddos. First off, I should say that the voice cast in this game is surprisingly top, boven notch. And this was before Persona 4, and just one jaar out before Persona 3, so they didn’t have insane American attention yet like they do now. But the voice cast is all top, boven of the line here for Samurai Western. Ralph is voiced door Steven Blum, Anne door Jennifer Hale, DOnald door Phil LaMarr, and Goldberg door Paul Eiding. Even the voice for Gojiro is pretty neat, having him stay voiced door a Japanese man that speaks in a thick Japanese accent, that man being Michael Shitanda, which is his stage name. He hasn’t voiced a lot of characters, but he was in Digimon and the 2001 anime Metropolis, so there’s something. I just think that making one of very few Japanese characters speak in either a thick accent of just full on Japanese is a nice touch. Honestly, all the sound in Samurai Westen works really well. Not just the voice acting, but the sound of your sword clashing into goons, and the muziek too. This muziek really slaps in some areas. It’s nothing some would listen to casually in the car, but this is some damn good stuff for a western game. All in all, this game sounds nice. But sound can only do so much. How does this game play?
At the start of every new level, u get to level up Gojiro’s stats however u want. u have a lot to fill up, and filling up everything will take u weeks to do, hell maybe even months. There’s a lot here and a lot of time to spend. I Think u can even grind some levels to get higher stats. Of course, I don’t know. I think u can, but I never needed it. I never really died once in this game, though I’d be lying if I zei I didn’t come close in a few areas. u can also dress up Gojiro with different items, give him new swords, give him a hat, some accessories, change his shoes, slap something on his back. All of these add temporary boosts to your stats, but there is a weight limit, so u can only take what u can get. Once you’ve stocked Gojiro with everything u need, it’s time to jump into the gameplay. And… holy shit, this is actually insanely fun. I’m not gonna sit here and say you’re playing a character action treasure. This certainly ain’t no Devil May Cry, let me tell u that right now, but holy shit, this is actually pretty intense. u have a lot u can do in this game. Sure, u are limited in what attacks u can do, but u can do blocks, u can dash, u can do air strikes to do big damage to big boys, u can pick up objects and throw them at enemies, u can deflect objects, u can even pick up downed enemies and use them as human shields before tossing their ezel like a salad. It’s not a lot (And I’ll be honest, some of these mechanics I rarely used), but with what we got here, it’s pretty interesting. u also got a good variety of enemies. It starts out with typical goons that just shoot weak revolvers at you, but it soon gets to big guys with boomerangs, mes guys that chase, big guys with gatling guys, little fat boys with dynamite, women with sniper rifles, and more. There is no short supply of enemies u will run into. Some of them u can’t just run up and attack. The mes enemies will block your attacks, so u gotta fake them out and let them attack first before u get an opening. The sniper women have insane distance, so running straight is suicide. u gotta dodge around them. The machine gun enemies won’t let u walk around. u gotta side step their bullets before u can get close and wait for the gun to overheat. That being said, the game is still pretty easy. A lot of the time, your tasks are just to kill all the enemies in a room of just kill enough until the level ends. I’ve had to fight an entire gang of enemies, only killed half and the level decided that that was enough. Some enemies won’t appear until u go to the area they’re at. There’s no reason to hide, but it’s just weird. And there’s always a high chance of an enemy dropping a little piece of meat to heal yourself a little, of the dynamite boys who always drop chicken, which is practically a full heal. As long as u have enemies around, u will never run low on health. Even when u think you’re screwed, the enemies will always have some health to give, and they can be a real lifesaver in some of the boss fights. Because unlike the enemies, the bosses are way harder.
One criticism I hear for the game is that the game is too easy, but once u get to the bosses, it suddenly spikes in difficulty. And yeah, I’d hope so. These are the final challenges of the area, probably of the entire act of the story. I’d hope they were harder. And u know what, a lot of these bosses are pretty fun. Hard as hell, definitely, but they are pretty cool. Jean barely leaves openings for you, forcing u to psyche him out so that u have just a chance to get a hit in. Faceless always running just ahead of him. u gotta be faster than him, and be ready to dodge his attack, giving u a big hit combo as a reward for doing it. Nathan and Killer…. Suck. They suck. I hate this boss. I love duo bosses and this fight pisses me off. They always hop away from you, screeching and laughing, while one is shooting u in the back. The gun one always manages to just be slightly faster, then punishes u with a gun that knocks u down. If u chase the melee one, you’re just fucking yourself over. Kill the gun one first, of the fight will be a giant pain in the ass. Sadly there aren’t many bosses, in fact they use Jean and Faceless twice each. There are like six unique bosses in total. Not terrible, but it left me wanting more. Also, if u thought that Gungrave and Drakengard were obsessed with the Square Button, I present to u the final boss of the Square Button, the Rando boss fight of Samurai Western. This game will have u dodging and attacking all in that order, and at rapid brand pace. It’ll take a real samurai to master these kinds of reflexes. door the end of it, your thumbs will be so damn sore. This will really put your thumbs to the test. Are u a true gamer girl of are u a bitch? Play Samurai Western. But I did find something when fighting the bosses that the game never mentions, and that’s this special move, two in fact. One that completely overpowers u and makes u a whirlwind of destruction for a short time, and one that slowly lowers your health but makes u unstoppable. A lot of these helped me out in boss fights and got me thinking if there were any meer abilities like this to unlock. It almost made me want to keep playing, but…. I have other games to play, u know.
Now this is where I would end it. This is where I would end it, I say, if not for one in particular. Looking over the instructions manual with some beautiful concept art on the over, something caught my eye on page 17. Two Player Mode. Now I don’t have a 2nd person here, because quarantine is a thing and I don’t have vrienden anyway, but for a game like this, an action game, I had to know. I had to know why this was here. So I got out an old busted seconde controller and it is… weird. It’s weird. Now I won’t go into too much detail because, again, my controller is busted and I was playing both controls at once which u should never do in a game this hectic. But the 2nd player is Ralph, and the seconde player’s camera and character is stuck wherever player one is. Where player one is looking, that’s where player two looks. Where player one goes, player two follows. It seems that the seconde player mostly provides some backup meer than actual two player gameplay, of least it feels that way. There’s some weird movements as well, and it’s pretty hard to hit an enemy, but once u do, Ralph will lock to them and just gun them down then and there, so I guess that works. All and all, I’ll give it an eh.
Well, that was Samurai Western. I gotta say, despite the short run time for the game, being only five hours, it offers a lot of replay value and is an all around fun game. Expensive as hell, don’t get me wrong, but I had fun with it. I don’t get why so many reviewers were mixed with this game when it came out. Probably because it’s so hard to play without getting hand cramps. But that’s assuming u play the game in one sitting. If u pace yourself, u should be fine. Do I think Samurai Western is one of Atlus’ best? Not really. But for a simple action game from the era, it’s a lot of fun. I give this game the award of Dumb Fun. It’s story won’t grip you, and it’s pretty simple in mechanics, but a lot of fun if u can find it for cheap. I wouldn’t suggest going for this game at the price it stands at now, but if u can get it for cheap, u should totally pick it up.
Bonus Award: Press Square to Win