Nice thread. Second Samurai is my favorite.
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Nice thread. Second Samurai is my favorite.
Took you long enough. :pQuote:
Originally posted by Captain Vegetable
Since you and Nick have been up Way of the Samurai's butt for so long, I think you've convinced me to pick it up. I'll do so tomorrow. :D
Yes, everyone should buy Way of the Samurai. one of the best games of 2002.
I remember sometime last year it was announced that some Japanese publisher bought the rights to Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. For those not in the know, its easily the most popular Japanese film of all time, and with good reason. I can't remember which publisher it was though. I wanna say Sammy, but I'm not sure.
Its an interesting choice for a game, mainly because outside of the finale, there is little action in the film. would the game focus on finding samurai to join you? I'd imagine that the game wouldn't follow the plot so much, and would focus on controlling the 7 samurai as they defend the village. could be fun.
another excellent thread, Neo.
Think of Samurai as knights in shining armour, while ninjas are more like Robin Hood. Samurai was an official military title, and they're usually visually defined by the two swords they wear and serious armour, which outlaw ninjas generally avoid in most depictions. Samurai also don't wear masks, unless they're of the built-into-the-helmet type Sodom from Final Fight/SF wears. And generally anything involving flipping around, disappearing and throwing stars/knives is ninja activity. Legend of Kage, for example, is definitely a ninja game (Kage means "shadow", a ninja name if ever there was one). I'd be tempted to say Sasuke vs. Commander was as well, although I've never played it.Quote:
Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Now, I'm no expert on Japanese culture so I don't always know what exactly defines a samurai. There are instances where I'm not sure if a character is a samurai, a ninja or something else. For example, the character in Ninja Spirit looks like a samurai to me but the name of the game seems to suggest otherwise. Therefore, I have left out any game with the word ninja in the title. Feel free to correct me on any games that should or should not be included.
But you're right, the line in videogames and cartoons between ninja and samurai is often blurred. And more often than not for whatever reason game designers decide that their generic martial artist is one or the other.
The mother of all samurai games imo is either Nobunaga's ambition or Kessen, for their quasi-realistic depiction of samurai antics, and inclusion of real life samurai. Onimusha is way cornier, but I also found it to be really enjoyable. Another one worth mentioning is Shingen the Ruler, an NES strategy affair based on the exploits of Takeda Shingen, the 16th century samurai warlord.
A Seven Samurai game would be interesting as hell, to say the least (anyone ever seen the 7 hour version of that film?).
I still haven't played any of the Genpei Toumaden games.
And as a historian, Shogun makes my head hurt. Sorry, it just does.
Anyway, cool thread.
SHogun was a good game. It was split between realtime and turn-based. The turn-based modes were kind of like Risk, and the realtime was badass huge thousands of people fighting battles. Good title, heard Medieval's even better.Quote:
Originally posted by MechDeus
Also within recent years was Shogun: Total War for the PC. Not a pure samurai game, they did have many in use for the large-scale battles. It's been a long time since I played the demo, so I can't remember if it's turn-based strategy or real-time. It had a lot of promise but I don't think it ended up playing very well, or I just didn't spend enough time with it.
Thanks for the info Strider. I was skeptical of Legend of Kage and Sasuke for the reasons you mentioned. In Sasuke, you are under orders to protect your master, the shogun. Would this be a samurai thing to do?
And I can't picture Seven Samurai translating into game form very well.
I guess so, but I've seen several instances in comics & games where the Shogun or whoever has ninja bodyguards, so it doesn't guarantee anything. Knife throwing wasn't a part of the real-life samurai itinerary (bow & arrow was more their thing), so I'd still lean towards ninja.Quote:
Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Thanks for the info Strider. I was skeptical of Legend of Kage and Sasuke for the reasons you mentioned. In Sasuke, you are under orders to protect your master, the shogun. Would this be a samurai thing to do?
Why not? Toss in some brief random dungeony parts and you've got Xenosaga with samurai.Quote:
And I can't picture Seven Samurai translating into game form very well.
Slightly OT: I recently picked up a novel called "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt. It's about a boy who is obsessed with The Seven Samurai.. and well, the movie is a sort of backdrop to the novel.
I only read a little bit of it so far and it was pretty good. I decided to shelf it until I have time to rent the Seven Samurai again, so I can have it fresh in my mind as I read.
Anyway, I just thought that someone reading this thead may find it interesting.
:)