Genji -- A Little Bit of This and That.

I'm roughly five hours into Genji, and just into chapter two. I have no idea how many chapters there are but it's clear the game is going to take me a tad longer than four hours to finish. Genji brings a little bit of this and that from a few games. It's predominantly Onimusha 2 with some Shinobi and Shenmue thrown in. First of all, think a simplified Onimusha 2 with the same structure of an overworld map with hotspots. It uses villages as a means of offering up NPCs for information gathering and shops for you to buy and sell items, weapons, and armor. It has map locations where all of the combat takes place just like Onimusha 2. In the combat is where you'll see some differences. First of all, it's a generally simplified combat. The left analog stick as per usual moves the character around on screen. The X button is jump. The square button is attack. The triangle button is special attack. The circle button is talk or investigate or use depending on the situation. The R1 button is block. The D-pad works as a hotkey for whatever items you've assigned to it whether they be offensive or defensive potions or medicine. Holding the R1 button will act as a multiplier for your attacks. Meaning, you'll do a different attack holding R1 and hitting special attack in combination with the analog stick than you would just special attack and the analog stick. It's designed to be a more simple combat system. This is furthered by what the game calls kumai mode. Kumai mode essentially acts as Shinobi's tate system in that if you successfully chain the kills together you're rewarded. L1 is the button for kumai. Activating kumai causes what amounts to slow motion of the enemies and Shenmue's quick timer events. But in keeping with the more simple design, you'll only use the square button. You'll get flashed the square icon under your character when it's time to attack and you have only a set time to hit the button or you'll fail the kumai. It is nowhere near the finger taxing skill needed to pull off a fifty combo tate in Shinobi and it's not trying to be. Shinobi was trying for what amounts to a dance, and Genji is trying for the same effect, albeit a much slower dance. It's a fun pacing that I'm enjoying a lot. The combination of a little of Shinobi and Shenmue thrown into Onimusha 2 seems to have resulted in a fun combat engine. Genji's combat works for me. Next time should cover art design and storytelling.