The Spirit of the Samurai

It is obvious that it is put much effort into the game but the frustrating moments shadow all experience.

With frustrating combat and linear yet opaque progression, this samurai fails his mission.

The Spirit of the Samurai is a gorgeous game to look at, and while it can be enjoyable to play, some of the movement and combat is stiff.

The Spirit of the Samurai has a great art style, but the story itself needs fleshing out. I had a few major issues with input lag throughout the game, which led to many pointless deaths. The combat is okay, but I found the combo system useless and the same for leveling up. I didn’t really use the bow either, as most of the time it felt like I had to be near the enemy. I really hated the checkpoints in this game and more so in the end-game area. If you die, you go all the way back, which was annoying. Especially when you have to fight across a bridge before fighting a boss. Some areas go on for too long, especially with waves of enemies. Chisai’s segments are cute but felt like they could be removed from the game and it wouldn’t change anything. The biggest thing to really tick me off was the final boss fight. I had horrendous drops in the frame rate when against him. The boss himself wasn’t hard, but frames would screw me over when attacking. The game seems a lot more on the artsy side for me compared to the actual gameplay. I find it deserves the Thumb Culture Silver Award, maybe after a couple of updates to fix the frames and controls it could be bumped to a gold.

The Spirit of the Samurai takes a bold approach; therefore, Digital Mind Games deserves praise for that alone. Flawed as it is, the game is enjoyable enough for people who play experimental games. A flawed, memorable ride awaits within the game, which testifies to the creative energy of the game industry that has yet to end. If you can put up with the flaws, it gives just that.

We approached Digital Mind Games’ work with high expectations, but unfortunately, they weren’t fully met. While the potential for a great action game was there, issues with the combat system, gameplay, and a predictable story hold it back, leaving the title just shy of excellence.

Spirit of the Samurai brought a fresh and engaging theme to the gaming world by employing a stop-motion art style and a combo customization system. However, the lack of polish in some of the game's mechanics made the experience somewhat annoying and its high potential was largely lost.

The Spirit of the Samurai has a great and evocative imagery and a delightful stop-motion style. The merits end there, because the game developed by Digital Mind Games has problematic hitboxes and lacks of precision in attacks and jumps, ending up frustrating the players.

The Spirit of the Samurai is an ambitious game that opts for a different artistic style and a risky combat system for this type of game. With this combination, the guys at Digital Mind could have backfired, but in the end they have created a game that not only fulfills everything it promised in its trailer, but also shows exquisite taste and know-how for being the first game from this Murcian studio.

Even if The Spirit of the Samurai does little to endear you to its story, the animation provides a decent jumping on point. Unfortunately, it's squandered by the terrible quality of everything else.