Review: Genji: Days Of The Blade (PlayStation 3. Game Republic, Sony.)

Onimusha was a fantastic series of games. An ambitious, epic narrative, grand scale, high production values, it was a joy to play. Dynasty Warriors was not so great. A repetitive hack and slash chore, it was enjoyable only in short bursts. KOEI milked this cash cow for all it was worth until they were churning out the same game for countless instalments. Really not good. Combine the two and you get Genji, a great looking but ultimately shallow swords and samurai game set in feudal Japan (isn’t it always?) You’d think the love-child of Capcom’s epic demon slaying samurai epic and KOEI’s slicer and dicer would be something to shout about and initially Genji does impress. However, it only impresses in the same way a stereotypical supermodel might. Stunning to look at to begin with, but delve a little deeper and you’ll eventually discover a hollow, vacuous void. This sums up Genji perfectly. It’s a dull, hackneyed slog savaging endless waves of identikit masked demons, stopping only to find a certain key for a corresponding door in order to progress. Game Republic have vainly attempted to inject a little variety into the turgid combat with the bullet time (yawn), button matching (yawn, again), mini-game Kamui system which can be employed upon filling a bar to dispatch multiple enemies. Again, it’s another visually accomplished touch, but it takes place in a swooshy, multi-coloured environment detached from the rest of the game. In other words, it’s a poorly implemented feature that adds very little to the overall experience.

Being able to switch between different characters – fat, slow strong one, quick, lithe lady assassin, nimble, young hero etc. – is a nice touch, but you’ll quickly find your favourite, which means you’ll probably only ever use the others as extra lives. Each character has a host of different weapons to wield, but when all you’re using them for is cleaving through unrelenting hordes of monsters then it’s all gravy.
Genji is a pretty unsatisfying game and is one that provides early promise with stunning graphics, rich design and lush detail, but ultimately it fails to deliver. Movement is slow and shoddy, combat is stilted and repetitive, puzzles boil down to simple find-key-to open-door fare and the use of Sixaxis is both badly executed and pointless.
So, all in all, Genji is not the best game to feed into you PS3 disc slot if you’re looking for a positive next-gen encounter and just doesn’t sit well among the other stronger launch titles currently available. If however you’re a big enough fan of the genre, you may be able to look past Genji’s numerous gaping flaws and you may even find something to like here if you’re willing to spend the time looking hard enough. But you’ll have to look very long and hard. We tried it finding that it’s just simply too boring to love and there are better games out there. Fancy a slash? No thanks, Genji.
Edge: 5/10