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.