Genji

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: SCEA
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I'm playing Genji and my wife calls to me from the other room asking, "Is that a movie?" Based on the sound effects, a subtle score, Japanese dialogue and the ring of samurai swordplay, she assumed I was watching another chambara. The night before we'd watched Lady Snowblood, the Kazuo Koike penned revenge picture, so her assumption based on the audio was apt. But she wasn't seeing what I was seeing.

Visually, the differences between Genji and a classic samurai flick are striking. That's because the characters dress so outlandishly. It's a symptom that many games suffer from, particularly those developed in Japan. Seeing a character like Genji's lead Yoshitsune Minamoto decked out in an impossible and peacock-like amalgamation of hockey gear and battle armor immediately makes me yearn for simpler samurai tales -- stories without mythical beasts and magical crystals.

What's worse is that Genji's settings are rendered with such detail. The grassy hills and valleys of feudal Japan are painted in a glowing pastoral digital. I can just picture Ogami Itto of Lone Wolf and Cub, dressed only in a drab, dirtied robe, pushing his baby cart through the same woods on the way to the next rural village and his next morally ambiguous adventure.

But Genji is a different game than that. Its pure fantasy, casting the samurai as cosplayer. The game almost redeems itself with Kamui, a slow motion effect that can be executed in the midst of battle. A properly timed button press during Kamui results in a one-stroke, Musashi Miyamoto-style kill. Until they make a low-key Yojimbo game, that will have to do.