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Game Republic’s first effort is quality entertainment. The development studio is led by former Capcom heavyweight Yoshiki Okamoto who worked on the Onimusha which clearly influenced Genji. The game is excellent throughout, though a more involving story and more play time would have definitely benefited it.
In Genji, which takes place in 13th century Japan, you play as the young warrior Yoshitsune. Your character is tasked with retrieving all of the Amahagane, magical stones that increase the power of the person who has them in their possession by calling on the power of Kamui. In the game, Japan is controlled by a group of people called the Heishi who were able to get their hands on the Amahagane and consequently decided to control Japan with tyranny. By collecting the Amahagane, you’ll be able to stop the Heishi. You’ll soon find Benkei who also wants to bring the Heishi down, and the game will let you switch between the two characters. Benkei is better at strength-oriented tasks, while Yoshitune is much more agile and suited for these types of activities.
The game doesn’t to too far from the typical action game formula. You’ll spent most of your time collecting stuff, killing the random enemies and facing the extravagant bosses. The combat us pretty simple but effective, allowing you to easily string together combos. As I said above, you can switch between the two characters with ease. Combat is made better by the inclusion of Kamui power which is generated when you defeat enemies by the Amahagane stone. A full energy bar will unleash the Kamui power, which allows you to counter the moves of the enemies and reply with a deadly move of your own. It’s difficult to get the timing down at first, but it is truly rewarding when you finally do. Most enemies go down with one of these moves, but it’ll take many of them to take down a boss.
Combat isn’t all mindless fun though. The game gives the characters experience points as they fight, though it splits it up giving the points to the character that actually played. You’re awarded experience points for taking down enemies, and additional points for doing so in a combo. The points are used to increase the health, attack or defense stats of the characters. Aside from the self-improvement, you’ll find a number of different types of armor, many weapons and a multitude of items in the game.
The game’s presentation is top-notch. Many games have an excellent art direction and others are very technically proficient but few games have both. Genji is one of those games. The character models are decidedly Japanese, featuring a lot of detail from the armor to their overall design and animation. The environments are also excellent, some even being beautiful. You’ll travel to forests, ponds, and waterfalls and each looks great. The backdrops are not always interactive but look great nonetheless. Unfortunately, the game employs a static camera system that doesn’t allow you to take all of the visuals in. At times, it proves to be too much for the PlayStation 2 to handle, and you’ll notice some frame rate drops.
The game’s audio is amazing. The authenticity alone helps tons since the game’s dialogue is spoken in Japanese with English subtitles under it. The soundtrack is compromised of powerful orchestrated music that fits the game wonderfully. The sound effects are less impressive but always adequate.
Genji is a very good rookie effort from Game Republic. The team has definitely nailed the presentation aspects of game making, and coupled it with very solid gameplay. The gameplay isn’t exemplary though, the story could be more intricate, and the game could be longer. As is, Genji is a very good though perhaps too similar game. With a more nuanced, longer story the game could reach triple-A status. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 22, 2005
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