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What game do you get when you combine African and Japanese? Afro Samurai. I downloaded the demo for Afro Samurai for the PlayStation 3 last night and I must say this demo is one of the shortest demo I have ever played. The demo allows you to slice about 20 or so enemies and just when you are about to meet the boss of the level, the demo ends there (bad teaser!). Since the demo is short, my demo review will reflect on that as well.

Let me talk about the positive things about about Afro Samurai first. I love that artsy cell shaded graphics and the fact Afro Samurai is voiced by one of my favorite actor Samuel L Jackson makes this Afro even more live and real. Aside from the cell shaded graphics, it was also real fun to see your enemies (samurai’s and ninjas) get decapitated and body parts fly out as a result.

The controls are pretty straight forward, typical first/third person shooter style. You get a few basic attacks initially and you will be chaining your attacks similar to Heavenly Sword. You get a light, heavy and a kick attack as well as two focus moves which I personally think makes the game much less challenging, at least in normal mode. As you progress you will unlock more moves.

Although too powerful in my opinion, these focus moves are pretty fun, again during the short game play. You have to hold and press either L1 or L2 to execute each of them and will be able to refill them by doing normal attacks so its pretty easy to execute them. The L1 focus move, when held down, you will also have to hold down one of the attack buttons (light, heavy and the kick) and release the attack button when the sparkle is at the tip of the sword to execute. The focus + light attack combo will execute an area attack (in circle actually) that slices everyone in the area and pretty much all your enemies in range will be in half. While the L2 combo will perform a strong vertical slice from top to bottom so this will split your enemies in half vertically. Finally the second Focus, again while holding down L2, will have Afro moving around and chopping up enemies while the Focus lasts.

Now to the negative things, the characters use the F word a lot, even in this short demo, the F word was used more than a handful of times. While I found this funny at first, it started to lose the humor after the first 2-3 times. I can’t imagine how many times it will be referenced through the full game. My control related complain is the 360 degree camera using the right analog stick. Its inverted which means if you press right the camera will look to the left and vice versa. And finally while the slicing of body parts was fun, I have a feeling that I will get bored of this repetitive game play pretty soon.

This game might be for the Afro fans and/or anyone that doesn’t mind repetitive hack and slash games. But even with its pretty cell shaded graphics, Ef-fing humor and the body chopping, I’m not sure if this game is worth $59.99+ tax but rather a rental. I also don’t see any reason to replay this unless you want to challenge yourself to a harder level. Then again to each his own. But I do suggest renting this game, try it out before you actually buy it.

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If you have heard of or played Dynasty Warrior, Samurai Warriors or the more recent Warriors Orochi for the PlayStation 2 and PSP, Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (Warriors Orochi 2) is the newest edition to the Dynasty Warriors cross Samurai Warriors series. Developed by Koei, you are again going to cut your way through literally hundreds of enemies that just seem to stand there like the previous series. The Japanese / Europe version has been released, but no words for American release yet but I’m sure it will get here sooner than you think.

Gameplay
One major difference for Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin though is the fact that you are now in control of a team of three, chosen from a wide selection of familiar characters like Cao Cao and Lu Bei as well as some characters from the Samurai Warriors series.

  

I found this particular team with Dong Zhuo, a sexy looking lady (not sure her English name) and what looks like Lu Bu but with a longer name which also has a Lu in it, I could be wrong though. Even if that’s not really him, let me tell ya this dude is just as powerful as Lu Bu! I switched Dong Zhuo out and replaced with some cool demon looking character (probably from Samurai Warriors? I didn’t play that series unfortunately) after I unlocked him from progress through the story.

I stopped playing the series until now so I am not sure if the options to forge weapons and combining them have been in the previous series or not. You can basically create a stronger weapon by combining multiple weapons (2 at a time) or create from scratch using items and ingredients. Each weapon can also have special attributes like water, fire, lightning elements and many other ones. The number of special attributes that a weapon can hold can be modified as well. Weapon manipulations are done with the use of special items, ingredients and exp that you will find and earn during battle. You can also equip up to 7 special equipments that will boost your attributes such as more exp or more powerful special attacks.

  

Leveling is a breeze, just hack and slash your way through countless number of enemies. You can gain levels while in battle as well as before or after each mission where you can distribute your exp earned from previous missions to different characters. I like this feature because this allows you to level grind one character and still be able to level up your other characters. You can also choose a different team before each mission so you are not always stuck with the same one until you finish the game. Different team also has different characters for substitutions, there are TONS of characters to choose from!

Gameplay is basically the same old hack’n slash and countless number of hours of level grinding, but I think the leveling part is much easier consider, as mentioned before, you can gain exp during battle as well as distributing exp points to your characters before/after each mission. You also have the option to pick from four difficulties for each mission – Easy, Normal, Hard and EXTREMELY Hard.

Aside from Story Mode, there is the familiar Free Mode where you pick a map that you have finished from Story Mode and play through it, nothing new there. Dramatic Mode where you choose a map, again need to unlock through Story Mode, play through it and instead of picking your own team, you will have to play using the preset team and without the option to save. There is also Survival Mode, basically you pick a team of three and fight other team, Soul Calibur style, not exactly the same but you get my idea. Each member on your team has a life bar, you will have to alternative among them because as soon as any one of their life bar runs out you lose, doesn’t matter if the other two members have full life bars. Overall its pretty easy to pass the earlier stages until you get knocked out of the arena and you lose immediately in the higher levels!

  

Graphics and Audio
Graphics are slightly better than the previous series, if not the same. You can’t really expect too much from a PSP game to be honest. Graphics alone don’t determine if the game is good or bad anyway. I love the drawings of each character when you are on the character selection screen though. The CG cut scenes are also amazing and once unlocked you can view them again in the Gallery.

I apologize again for not being able to provide more during-battle images. But you can find them on IGN.

And as for audio, nothing new really.

  

Final Verdict
So is it worth buying this game? Yes and no I would say. Hardcore fans should not and will probably not miss this one. People that haven’t played the series for a while, like me, should give this a try. For those not into level grinding this might not be for you because this game is pretty much about that as well as obtaining all the special items, ingredients for weapons and skills and unlocking characters. As for me, I can foresee that sooner or later, the hack’n slash will be boring, but I shall enjoy it while it lasts.

7.5/10

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