The Spirit of the Samurai

I grew up in an era where lo-fi was truly a thing. Lo-fi graphics and music from old video games, lo-fi special effects in films, and lo-fi aesthetics from simpler technology. And one such lo-fi concept that I saw in many films from my childhood was stop motion. From the beasts in the Sinbad movies to the creatures from 1980s horror films, my biggest childhood trauma was that of Ed-209 in Robocop. There’s something truly unsettling and beautiful about stop motion, which always gets my attention, and today’s game for review, Spirit of the Samurai, did just that! It piqued my interest, grabbed my attention, and by the end left me with a mix of feelings.


What is The Spirit of the Samurai?

We play as Takeshi, a highly skilled samurai who can communicate with a tree spirit known as Kodama. In one of his dreams, Takeshi is warned by the Kodama of an approaching darkness upon the land, which will consume his peaceful village. Soon enough, upon awakening from his terrifying dream, his village is under attack from the onslaught of a powerful Oni attempting to conquer the land with his undead army.

Takeshi will team up with two allies in the form of Kodama, the tiny but fearless tree spirit, and Chisai, a warrior cat, to fend off and defeat the tengu army. Players will fight the undead and horrifying creatures inspired by Japanese mythology. All featuring a beautiful blend of cinematic storytelling and stop motion visuals in a grand adventure. It’s a simple, yet gripping narrative due to many quirky and emotional beats, from a humble, yet admirable leading character, to the weird and wonderful supporting cast, featuring said cat, and tree spirit, down to the horrific creature mythology on screen.

It’s a very typical, good vs evil story which touches on themes such as purpose, and fighting for what is right in the world, and while not overly complex, or emotionally rich, the narrative does a solid job at framing the adventure through the underworld, and at times those emotional strings are pulled. It could’ve been done with a dose or two of charisma for the main lead, or biting edge for the core of the story, but it gets the job done well enough.


Wake the f*** up, Samurai!

I can’t help but hype up just how visually striking The Spirit of the Samurai truly is, with its highly polished age-old animation style. The stop-motion notion of the characters and world adds an uncanny and twisted vibe that is truly captivating, but the sheer intensity and detail of the world design and art style are utterly breathtaking.

Character designs look fantastic, but more impressive are the creature designs, ranging from creepy and unsettling to downright masters of terror, coming forth from the deepest recesses of my childhood nightmares. Honestly, the stop motion vibe is so good, it took me back 30 years to when I saw Ed-209 or the giant creature from the 1987 film “The Gate”. There’s something truly remarkable about the power of stop motion, how it feels so organic and otherworldly, and this game nails that vibe down to the T.

It was just wonderful to see such a variety of monsters, the level of creepiness, and sheer brutality of these foes in such a unique blend of lo-fi and modern presentation. There are a couple of spots where the dank, bleak tones of the world make everything feel a little too dark and visually impaired, making it hard to register the environment, and many of the places we go to are places we’ve seen plenty of times before. I had the same issue with Sekiro, but The Spirit of the Samurai does bring about some truly excellent otherworldly environments, both in terms of aesthetics and vibes, that stand out and will truly stick with me long after finishing the game.

Yet I can’t help but comment on the level design, which, for the most part, plays as a straight linear adventure, with little detours or variation in gameplay. Now, there is nothing wrong with a linear design; I’m totally fine with this approach. Yet, the lack of meaningful exploration, grand set-pieces, or even multiple paths limits replay value, feeling a tad bit repetitive for the most part. I mean, The Callisto Protocol had some additional paths/discoveries and set pieces to spice things up, and the little exploration and additional finds you can go out for aren’t the most interesting. Boiling down to finding a room off to the side and gathering a few more resources. No special weapons, armours, or compelling story/lore items.

Still, The Spirit of the Samurai is a visual treat, with fantastic other-worldly environments and creatures, which were a pure joy, and unnerving to marvel at.


A Samurai, a cat, and a tree spirit walk into a bar …

Combat is make or break for sure here, with it being very solid, and enjoyable, but tough as nails and requiring a fair bit of flawless execution in the more dire situations. This 2D side scroller does not mess around, presenting you with plenty of tactics and strengths to utilise, but also giving you many dangerous obstacles that will cut you down if you’re not careful.

That’s not to say this is a relentless, gruelling, chore of a game, far from it. There was a game I reviewed many years ago (for the life of me, I can’t recall the name), which had tight, brutal combat that was so unforgiving and unbalanced that it left me very sour. The saving graces and flexibility of Spirit of the Samurai are Takeshi’s springiness and quick response time, the varied tools to help you overcome difficult spots from your bow and throwing knives, and the response and handling of the controls.

It’s a weird mix of frantic and very methodical combat, where you will dodge like a loon at points, but also be precise, and require tactical thinking and timing to overcome a single powerful enemy. It’s both tense and utterly rewarding/enjoyable for the most part. The 2D nature does limit you vastly, and compared to other Souls games, where you have much more freedom of movement, you are bound to dodge left or right, and even then, that might not be enough. You can counter and use gear, and normally, fights don’t overwhelm.

When there were more than two enemies, it became a little trickier and even a bit unbalanced at times. But for the most part, the game felt fair, tight, and fun to play. And yes, this is a Souls game, with checkpoints, and vast punishments for mistakes. Which is fine, but there were a few moments where checkpoints were way too far apart, along with plenty of uses of single-hit death traps, which did become very annoying towards the end of the game. And playing as the two supporting characters in key moments didn’t provide much excitement, but rather a bit more frustration, since combat is not the focus for these guys, and the stealth was just lacking and tedious.

Bosses are another hit-or-miss thing here. They look amazing, as mentioned with the glowing rant on the presentation before. Striking fear and awe when they come into frame. But they’re either too simple to defeat, or crushing over the top, to the point that when I came across a new boss, I sighed and wondered if this would be a bottleneck, or a breeze through the park moment. The thing I admire about other Souls clones is that the world opens up, and you can take on other bosses to get stronger before taking on a mainline boss, such as Wuchang Fallen Feathers did. But as this is very linear and limited in exploration and loot, it tends to be more of a grind than an enjoyable feat of accomplishment.

There are still moments of pure exhilaration with particular bosses, and moments where you’re ambushed by a handful of bizarre creatures, or making your way through a maze filled with death traps. There are some great moments indeed. But there is definitely a lack of expanded ideas; most bosses feel a wee bit unbalanced, never hitting that right note, and towards the end, the rehashing of ideas and cheap tricks for instant deaths did get on my nerves.


Overall?

There’s a great deal of admiration I have for The Spirit of the Samurai, and it’s a cracking game when you look past the rough edges. There are a few places that leave a lot to be desired, such as a more engaging sense of exploration and reward, and the balancing or spikes of artificial difficulty can be seen from a mile away. But the atmosphere, stop motion style animation, the tight combat when it hits that sweet spot, and creativity in monster designs and environments do make this worth checking out.

While not perfect, The Spirit of the Samurai has a lot going for it and deserves a look.


+++ Beautiful animation, art style, and nightmarish folklore designs
++ Rich atmosphere and vibes
+ Tight and brutal combat, which can be very fun

-- The difficulty in balancing can misstep massively at times
- Level design and exploration are limited and a little tedious
- The story could’ve been more interesting



A PC review code was provided by the publisher