Sandbox Samurai: Way of the Samurai 4 Ported To PC
With a Souls-y twist
"Okay it's really wonky and you might hate it at first BUT...!" is how Cara described Deadly Premonition to me and gosh, well that turned out to be one of my favourite games. So I'm interested by seeing people say "Okay it's really wonky and you might hate it at first BUT...!" about Way of the Samurai 4. Publishers Ghostlight yesterday announced they're porting Japanese developer Acquire's sandbox samurai 'em up to PC from PS3, aiming for a Steam release "later this year". People are muttering things about, say, finding yourself duelling a fish-wielding ronin dressed as a cat, the asynchronous echo of another player's character from their own game. Tell me more!
Way of the Samurai 4's set in Japan shortly after the end of its isolationist years. Your ronin can aid the British forces, side with the shogunate, try to kick the limeys out, or just lark about doing your own thing. Start a dojo or simply fish, perhaps. The game goes down across four days, with different missions and sandbox activities as time passes. It's single-player, but AI-controlled versions of other players' characters games might appear to duel you in a Dark Souls-ish sort of way. Ace.
The game has a Groundhog Day sort of thing going on, in that the game's quite short but certain unlocks and decisions are persistent so you're expected to play it a few times to try different things.
It also, grumble grumble, has a creepy but consensual (that's its PS3 producer) dating and sex minigame. 'Night crawling', or yobai, was a real thing. It's optional in Way of the Samurai 4, though.
PS3 reviews grumbled about its graphics and combat but hey, that's what they said about Deadly Premonition too, and isn't that one of the finest damn games you've ever played? I'm quietly hopeful. The port's being done by Laughing Jackal. Here, have a trailer from that console release: