Way of the Samurai 2, was the game that started it all for me. While I don't really know how I even picked up a copy at the game store I remember my first gaming session wasn't interesting. I felt displeased and left it aside. Few months later when I did eventually give it another whirl, I discovered its underlying beauty. Mind you, the prequels are the saner games and like Japanese games go, they get weird later on. Wots 2 had an endearing storyline set in the period of British-Japanese interaction where Japan opened up to the world. The game world is composed mostly of locals, yakuza, magistrates and a few foreigners. The endearment comes in the form of a deaf-mute girl who happens to give her only lunch to a ronin who has fainted when he entered the town of Amahara. Pat comes a choice and depending on what you choose, an entire story unfolds. Touted as one of those 'choose your own adventure' books, the game features multiple endings which can be real quick or take some time. You get to collect swords, upgrade stats and max them out. You can also choose to do jobs for each faction or play them for their money, buy stuff from shops and choose not to pay and run away. Or you could just kill everyone you see and end the game later. You get to keep your stats and money for later play-through(s) and this is the closest you'll find me to grinding in any RPG. Already had my hands full with a digimon game for the PSX. Took forever and I could only max out one digimon to its Final form. And even that wasn't enough to defeat a group of rogue robotic digimons.
Anyway, back to the story, the best ending is where you teach the girl how to read and write, which lands her in trouble, you save her and she leaves town with you. I haven't played the first game in the series much because after playing the second game, the first seems lacking in terms of everything.
Way of the Samurai 3 is saner than the next game and features a much larger game map and finally the character can move faster than the previous game and gets to hang onto more swords, although he can only carry 3 swords on him at any given time. A lot of different missions and it is set in the Sengoku era. One of the followers usurps the throne and becomes ruler of the land of Amana. The survivors band together to form another clan and wish to overthrow the ruler and get the rule back into their own hands. All the while Oda Nobunaga is making his way to Amana with plans of conquering it. The character, a fallen warrior of a major battle makes his way to the farming village where once he regains his health, has the option of joining this ruler or getting together with the remnants or, helping the villagers and lastly, behave as a mute spectator in all this clash. Like with all games, the best ending is where you get together with everyone and defeat the ruler and restore peace to the land.
Way of the Samurai 4 is the kinky cog that comes courtesy of the Japanese where the devs kinkiness is evident in some of the things that can be done in the game. One such thing is getting arrested. Depending on the crime rate, you can face three kinds of tortures which look like something only a sick and twisted mind would do. They include, a flaming pommel horse, a water wheel and a slab torture where slaves throw slabs of brick I assume, and you need to move away from where they fall, all the while during the torture, the three sisters, each for a torture type will proceed to punish you with what looks like a magic wand X_X and you have to brace yourself.
The other kinky aspect is night-crawling, which is totally optional btw. You romance a girl and enter her house at night like a thief, when you find her, you take her to an inn and after some patting her X_X you....
Anyway, that weirdness apart, the game is set in the time frame of English-Japanese culture clash. Foreigners have showed up on Amihama and have established a consulate, you can help them open up a language school and hospital to save lives. With lots of things to do and better character design than the previous game, this has very few endings but for the best one to appear, certain criterion have to be met. You can carry more swords than the previous game. 3 on character and 10 in a weapon sack. Finally, you can collect dull swords and have them melted for ore at the blacksmith so that they can be used for upgrading the sword stats after they hit a limit and you wish to go over the limit. On one side you have the Magistrates again, no town people this time around but you need to help the English since they come with good intentions and finally Xenophobes who hate the very concept of having to follow some other land's ways even if its helpful because for them Japan is the center of the world, a mighty land created by the heavens themselves.
The evil man in question, Kinugawa Onsen, the chief minister and possibly his three daughters (the torture inc.) are err...well...cannibalistic if one cut-scene is to go by. This man eludes you in most endings and hence the best ending, titled "Light of Hope" is the only way to get to him and kill him in order to restore peace while changing the Xenophobes into becoming more open to change and bring about cultural diversity.
[Typed all this while chatting online and listening to Eurobeats. Grammar, typos, if any, are unintentional.]
Anyway, back to the story, the best ending is where you teach the girl how to read and write, which lands her in trouble, you save her and she leaves town with you. I haven't played the first game in the series much because after playing the second game, the first seems lacking in terms of everything.
Way of the Samurai 3 is saner than the next game and features a much larger game map and finally the character can move faster than the previous game and gets to hang onto more swords, although he can only carry 3 swords on him at any given time. A lot of different missions and it is set in the Sengoku era. One of the followers usurps the throne and becomes ruler of the land of Amana. The survivors band together to form another clan and wish to overthrow the ruler and get the rule back into their own hands. All the while Oda Nobunaga is making his way to Amana with plans of conquering it. The character, a fallen warrior of a major battle makes his way to the farming village where once he regains his health, has the option of joining this ruler or getting together with the remnants or, helping the villagers and lastly, behave as a mute spectator in all this clash. Like with all games, the best ending is where you get together with everyone and defeat the ruler and restore peace to the land.
Way of the Samurai 4 is the kinky cog that comes courtesy of the Japanese where the devs kinkiness is evident in some of the things that can be done in the game. One such thing is getting arrested. Depending on the crime rate, you can face three kinds of tortures which look like something only a sick and twisted mind would do. They include, a flaming pommel horse, a water wheel and a slab torture where slaves throw slabs of brick I assume, and you need to move away from where they fall, all the while during the torture, the three sisters, each for a torture type will proceed to punish you with what looks like a magic wand X_X and you have to brace yourself.
The other kinky aspect is night-crawling, which is totally optional btw. You romance a girl and enter her house at night like a thief, when you find her, you take her to an inn and after some patting her X_X you....
Anyway, that weirdness apart, the game is set in the time frame of English-Japanese culture clash. Foreigners have showed up on Amihama and have established a consulate, you can help them open up a language school and hospital to save lives. With lots of things to do and better character design than the previous game, this has very few endings but for the best one to appear, certain criterion have to be met. You can carry more swords than the previous game. 3 on character and 10 in a weapon sack. Finally, you can collect dull swords and have them melted for ore at the blacksmith so that they can be used for upgrading the sword stats after they hit a limit and you wish to go over the limit. On one side you have the Magistrates again, no town people this time around but you need to help the English since they come with good intentions and finally Xenophobes who hate the very concept of having to follow some other land's ways even if its helpful because for them Japan is the center of the world, a mighty land created by the heavens themselves.
The evil man in question, Kinugawa Onsen, the chief minister and possibly his three daughters (the torture inc.) are err...well...cannibalistic if one cut-scene is to go by. This man eludes you in most endings and hence the best ending, titled "Light of Hope" is the only way to get to him and kill him in order to restore peace while changing the Xenophobes into becoming more open to change and bring about cultural diversity.
[Typed all this while chatting online and listening to Eurobeats. Grammar, typos, if any, are unintentional.]