Developer
Digital Mind Games
Publisher
Kwalee
Format
PC
Release
Out now
The most eye-catching title cited by The Spirit Of The Samurai’s developers as an influence (in an array encompassing arcade classics such as Shinobi and contemporary indies including Trek To Yomi) is an obscure 1986 martial-arts sidescroller. Maligned in its time, in hindsight Fist II feels a bit more noteworthy, emphasising mood over action and arriving at the first principles of Metroidvania-style design alongside Metroid itself. Certainly, it was a deeply unconventional beat-’em-up and a decidedly strange game.
The Spirit Of The Samurai
is strange too, but in a less momentous way.
Fist II
felt like one of a kind: an amalgamation of images, verbs and mechanics that drew no clear parallels to the games that preceded it.
The Spirit Of The Samurai,
on the other hand, wears familiar trappings in unfamiliar ways, generating a response akin to the uncanny valley effect. On the surface it appears to align with fashionable labels such as ‘Metroidvania’ and ‘Soulslike’, but on closer inspection, a haphazard allegiance to often contrasting design philosophies means it never quite attains a coherent identity.
You play as Takeshi, a young samurai living in a small rural community. He’s blissfully unaware of his true heritage and the plans fate has for him until tragedy strikes. Shuten-Doji, a centuries-old demon with the power to command the dead, is stirring again. Setting the stage for their master’s return, his minions put Takeshi’s village to the flame, killing his commander and prompting his loved ones to flee. Accompanied by his loyal kitten, Chisai, and guided by a spirit-fox mentor, our protagonist thus sets out to stem the evil tide.
As the first
couple of levels sketch out this rather generic backstory and acclimatise you to basic combat and exploration mechanics, impressions are already jarring, although not in an entirely negative manner. The deliberately stilted movement – an homage to animator Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion technique, which also ranks highly on Digital Mind’s list of inspirations – is pleasing to the eye. Yet overall the game’s visual styles feel at odds with each other; in Takeshi’s early dream sequence, for example, the jerky effect clashes with the flat, black surfaces of duelling shadow-play figures.