Slice And Dice
It’s been the better part of a year since I’ve watched the original Afro Samurai anime, but a lot of the story is still familiar. In a nutshell, a nomadic warrior, Afro Samurai, is on a journey to find Justice, the man who killed his father in a duel. Justice, with the victory over Afro’s father, became the owner of the Number 1 headband. He who possess the Number 1 headband is said to have the powers of a god. Only the warrior who possesses the Number 2 headband can challenge the Number 1, although anyone can challenge the owner of the Number 2 headband. As Afro Samurai, you have the Number 2 headband and you will face many, many challengers on your way to fighting Justice; in fact, my end-game statistics showed 746 enemies defeated.
You will face all of your enemies with your trusty Samurai sword and its sheath. Attacks are done with simple face button combinations that include pressing X for a light attack, Y for a strong attack, B for a kick, and A to jump. Afro can also enter a Focus Mode, which is a very important and pervasive element to game. Focus Mode slows down the speed of the action and the world changes to black and white. In this mode, you can execute special maneuvers that begin with simple slices and slashes, but quickly come to include evasive jumps and rolls, sweeps, and even bullet/projectile reflections. You’ll earn more abilities as you battle through the story, and you will know when you’ve unlocked a new skill by the ‘level up’ image that pops up on screen as you battle. Anyway, Focus Mode allows you to pull off vital attacks that will generally act as a one hit kill against most foes, but if it doesn’t kill them, it does some significant damage. Using Focus Mode isn’t strictly necessary during most combat situations, but you’ll definitely want to use it often; otherwise, battles are much harder, slower paced, and the entire experience just isn’t as fun. Other times, Focus Mode is required, like on several boss fights and a handful of environmental situations (whereby you have to slice a rope, for example).
As you would expect, Focus Mode has a usage meter so that you can’t just stay in it the entire time. Your guide to knowing whether or not you have any Focus to use is a dangling pendant that Afro wears around his waist. As you fight enemies and do combos with your normal attacks, this pendant glows white and can even get to a shiny red if you have a full amount of Focus. When your pendant is red you can press the left bumper to go into a version of Focus that lets you move and attack at normal speed, while everything else is slowed down; Focus Overloading, as I believe the game called it, is really only required at one point in the story and I really didn’t use it but probably five times throughout because normal Focus Mode did the job.
Besides slicing your way through literally hundreds of enemies throughout the story (although usually never more than about ten at a time), there are quite a few platforming sequences too. These aren’t very difficult, which is a good thing as I think if they were it would upset the pace and enjoyment of the experience. Besides allowing for more creativity with the level design, the platforming/jumping sequences give a much needed respite from the constant sword-slashing action. You will lead Afro through wall climbs, wall runs, vertical wall jumps (where you bounce from one side to another in a narrow vertical tunnel), and of course running jumps. Normally, the platforming sequences in this game are all about the jumping and there are few to no enemies, but sometimes a sniper (literally, a guy with a rifle) will make things a little more interesting.
Defeating these snipers can be done by avoiding them, getting in close range to them, and using the bullet reflection Focus technique learned during one of the chapters about halfway through your journey. I had trouble with the two bullet Focus techniques, though. You can view how to do it and a small and short gameplay video of the move being done while pausing the game by pressing Select. Even after reading this, I still found myself struggling to execute the move reliably. You can’t really practice this move when you’re not under fire, so it’s a bit of a pain. The button sequence itself is simple, you just enter Focus Mode and hold X or Y (depending on if you’re doing Slice or Reflect) until your horizontal slice technique is charged, which is just like you normally use it during combat. You will know when your charged attack is ready by watching and listening for the shiny glimmer at the tip of your blade. Once charged, it’s a matter of timing and more importantly, getting Afro to consistently attack the way you want him too. Only with a particular sword slash will Afro reflect the bullet but I had a hard time getting Afro to do that exact slash consistently; about half the time he would instead attack from his right side instead of his left. Fortunately, you only truly need this technique in two particular boss fights, one of which has a checkpoint right at the start of the fight while the other forces you to redo a two or three minute jump sequence and sit through another twenty second cutscene each and every time.
Besides a few spots like the one I just mentioned, the checkpoints are spread out well, and I especially like how developer Surge handled things whenever the player fails to execute a jump sequence and falls to his death. In these moments, you’re instantly set back right before the failed jump to try again, no penalty, no load times, it’s great. Save spots come at good intervals too, but frankly given how short, fun, and relatively easy the game is, you can probably beat this in two sittings so save spots aren’t too much of an issue.
My total playtime according to the game may have been under six hours (5h40m), but that’s not to say that the game doesn’t offer a little more. Throughout each chapter, there are a few, usually five, collectibles you can find if you keep your eyes peeled. These collectibles are all just a flock of black crows sitting in random areas, waiting for you to run up to them. The crows can be hard to see on the default brightness setting, and some require some out-of-the-way platforming to get to, but your reward is more techniques. All told, there are sixty-one techniques, and on my play through, I only unlocked thirty-nine of them. Besides trying to best my time and unlock more techniques, I could also earn more Achievement Points by playing through on the second, harder difficulty. I earned roughly 400 Achievement Points during this go-round.
Additional Gameplay Thoughts, Presentation
Fans of the series or just about anyone that has seen promotional material know that Samuel L. Jackson not only does the voiceovers for Afro Samurai, who speaks rarely, but also of his conscience, Ninja Ninja. Ninja Ninja isn’t explicitly described as Afro’s conscience, but it’s evident he is (especially by the end of the story in both the anime and the game). Ninja Ninja is a constant part of the game experience, acting as the narrative voice of Afro and giving him directional assistance. You can get Ninja Ninja’s help when you’re lost by pressing down on the d-pad, and most times, you’ll hear a loud puff of smoke and then Ninja Ninja yelling something regarding finding your way (get your boney ass over here!, for example). Visually, you can see this cloud of smoke and Ninja Ninja waving his arms, very helpful in getting you going in the right direction. Other times, Ninja Ninja refuses to show you where to go, and just says things like ‘I ain’t your damn GPS,’ or ‘You know damn well where you are!.’ These are pretty funny, and generally, you won’t need his directional help anyway. That said, there were a couple of instances where I needed his help but he didn’t receive it, or, I heard the smoke and his yell, but I couldn’t see either, so he wasn’t any help at all.
You can also engage in a mini-game with Ninja Ninja; at times, as you enter a fight, you’ll see Ninja Ninja crouched somewhere, usually in a corner. If you run up to him, this starts the Body Part Poker mini-game, a timed event where you must slice off particular body parts in hopes of matching the three cards that Ninja Ninja is holding (which you can’t see). I only managed to do this once, and I’m not even sure what reward I got (if any) for doing this, but it was a fun gimmick. Slicing particular body parts is easier said than done, too.
Ninja Ninja is also the source of much of the game’s foul language, and there is a lot of it. Expect to hear several versions of the F word and some obscene sexual references, as well as your standard curse words, too. It didn’t really bother me that they had these, and I would even go as far as to say that the foul language isn’t overused, unlike some games (looking at you, Killzone 2). The language is also true to the anime, so it’s hard to fault Surge for including it given that they were trying to replicate the anime as best as they could.
Surge got the language right, but they also nailed the atmosphere, visuals, and the rest of the sound package too. Afro Samurai has one of the more interesting soundtracks I have heard lately, completef with hip-hop and rap inspired songs, some instrumental and others with full blown lyrics that usually play during a large fight sequence. The soundtrack does a lot for the atmosphere and even the fun factor.
As far as appearances, Afro Samurai has a fluid, cel-shaded look that resembles the anime very well. Frame rates were smooth throughout and while it doesn’t boast the high polygon count and visceral graphics like a Gears of War, I think it achieves what it was trying to do with veritable success. My biggest complaint about the visuals would have to be just the lack of variety in the enemies you face; the general grunts that you’ll kill hundreds of only have a handful of different models, which is part of what makes Afro Samurai feel repetitive.
Repetition is one point about Afro Samurai that does deserve mentioning. Not a great deal changes from the first hour to the final hour, for example: you still only have your sword, and you’re still facing droves of nameless, faceless enemies, many of which are the same except for different clothing. You will also be using, for the most part, the same techniques; the Perfect Slice Focus technique was by far my most used attack in the game, something I used within the first thirty minutes and until the very end against the final boss. None of this is outright bad or unusual for a third person action beat’em up title, but Surge pushes the limits at times when they have you boxed in by mysterious, nearly invisible walls that pop up and disappear before and after most fights. One particular instance during the Empty Seven Chapter was especially annoying in that small waves of enemies just kept dropping in for several minutes. The combat is fun and all, but I felt like the play time was artificially extended by sequences like this.
Another important point about Afro Samurai is the camera system. Players control the camera system with the right analog stick, and you have the option to invert the left and right directions too to fit your preference. Also, pressing R3 resets and centers the camera. The camera system as a whole works well, but there are some ultimately minor issues with it. Several times, especially against Brother 6, the camera would be completely covered up by the hulking boss, and for a second or two, I was essentially blind. This situation didn’t occur often, but it’s worth mentioning. Other times, also infrequently, the camera was too close to Afro, and I had a hard time looking around.
One last point I want to make is about the health system. I like how Surge went with a “no HUD” presentation in that you don’t have any kind of meters or numbers to keep track of. Instead, you’ll know if you have Focus and how your health is doing just by looking at Afro. The amount of Focus, as I mentioned earlier, is monitored by his pendant. To determine Afro’s health, you need only look at how red his body is and listen for a heartbeat sound. Enemies are simliar in that their clothes and skin, parts of it, turn red as they take damage. You can restore health by defeating enemies, some of which release tiny health orbs that fly right into you, or you can find little teddy bears (seriously, it’s part of the anime) lying around that you just have to hit to pick up — just make sure you don’t inadvertently pick one up too soon during a boss fight.
Cut To the Chase
Ultimately, Afro Samurai is a very good game. I enjoy third person games with an emphasis on beat’em up action, although developers have to walk a fine line between awesome and repetitive. For the most part, Surge stays on the awesome and fun side, which is great. Additionally, I wouldn’t say Afro Samurai ‘pushes the genre forward,’ but who cares, right? There is still a ton of room for titles like this.
Bottomline, I think Afro Samurai is a fun and cool game that you should check out, but be aware that it’s short and you could easily beat it in a weekend (I did). Granted, you can check out art, music, and videos from the Menu, try to find all of the Memento collectibles to unlock the rest of the techniques, and try your hand the harder difficulty setting, but that may not be enough to warrant the purchase for many. There is hope for DLC, I think it’s fairly likely really, but only time will tell. Until then, be sure to put this one on your ‘to play’ list.