Way of the Samurai 4 (PC) Review

The overriding feeling with Way of the Samurai 4 is one of frustration at what could have been, as well as some of the decisions made in game design. One of the biggest frustrations regards the tone of the story and the characters that inhabit the world. This has always been a series that has had its eccentricities and quirks in characters; however, past instalments did generally take a darker and more serious tone (Way of the Samurai 3 particularly so).

It is therefore disappointing this time when the player is introduced into a world of excessive sexual innuendo, unhistorical costume design, and cringe-inducing dialogue from a cast of very extravagant characters. The plot revolves around the tensions in a port town with the arrival of British traders and the end of the samurai era. Multiple factions vie for control of society, through murder, war, and plotting. It is a fantastic setting, rife with the potential for an engaging faction-driven branching story where the protagonist chooses their path and what they want to do in the world.

It is a shame that most of the potentially interesting characters are portrayed like something out of an anime. This is most notable in the depiction of the British characters, including the impressively named 'Count Jet Jenkins' and the rather aptly titled 'Melinda Megamelons' (which does not take a stretch of the imagination to understand the reference).

The female characters in particular all seem to originate from the mind of a schoolboy. Of course some might like the more whimsical characters, but the general feeling is that it is all a step too far from what made these experiences so great, forging a realistic samurai life in a sandbox-lite experience with an abundance of choice.

Thankfully, choice is something that still remains here and continues to be the real unique selling point. Granted, there are less available endings here than in previous titles, but they are more diverse and each story path is easier to follow than in previous titles.

Choosing factions, as well as when to betray them, can change the ending from day to day. Rather avoid getting entangled altogether? Fine; work as an unaffiliated Ronin. The main plot may only last five hours, but with ten endings that also take into account being a good samurai this is an experience that requires multiple playthroughs.

On the one hand, the attention to detail here is just delightful. Everyone speaks Japanese, the protagonist is subjected to torture by the authorities when captured, and the world still moves with or without intervention from the player. There are also a variety of fighting styles and combat skill moves to learn and master.

It is in this context that the sloppy execution is so frustrating. The aforementioned good work is let down by the lack of graphical options for users to tweak; this results in the PC version having to run with the handbrake glued down for a title that never looked fantastic from a technical standpoint to begin with. For a game released in 2015 the graphics do not match the standards set by other games.

This could be excused for a limited developer budget and working on the PlayStation 3 hardware three years ago. However, Acquire have absolutely no excuse for not updating this PC release in any way at all and still charging a not insignificant sum of money. The small positive here is that the PC version is very accessible to a large number of even modest systems and runs perfectly well with no technical hitches.

Additionally, newcomers will find the whole experience a bit maddening in terms of getting to grip with combat. The basics of parrying, dodging, and striking are explained in an introductory tutorial. The amount of options and weapons available for use in combat present a lot of choice, but information on to how to unlock new styles or how to upgrade existing ones is lacking.

Even death is not a simple experience, with a lot of unexplained options regarding returning to previously saved games, or alternatively going back to the very start but keeping gained skills and weapons.

That is not even getting into 'samurai points' and the raft of decisions ranging from accidently breaking boxes to killing civilians, both of which will all result in a lower 'samurai rating' at the end of each play through, which in turn prevents unlocking new customisable options.

In one way the above all sounds awful, but on the other hand this is what makes Way of the Samurai as a series so unique: it is not afraid to take risks. Acquire put their trust in their fans to learn the intricacies of their games and they are in turn rewarded by deep and unique experiences that no other developer would take a risk on. They don't need to tone down their ideas, rather simply explain them a little better.