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Has anyone played this? It's out for Xbox and it's one of the few great things Sega have published recently. Reminds you a bit of Shinobi and Chakan: The Forever Man at first.
The first one came out around 2002/2003 and the second one followed either a year or two later in 2004. They're quite similar in gameplay but the second one looks quite a bit better (and Otogi wasn't a slouch), has selectable characters and removes the pointless "weapon repair" option in the shop.
Basically in both games you get to play as Raikoh, a proper Samurai of death-dealing who gets summoned from the land of the dead every time demons overrun the world of Japanese myth (Otogi means "fairy tale", so I understand).
Levels are misson-based (usually: kill something or destroy something) and are re-selectable once beaten. Doing well unlocks new magic and weapons, as well as relics which have status effects. The RPGish slant is continued to Raikoh himself, who can upgrade his stats by leveling up or collecting "mercy orbs" to give him more life.
The gameplay mechanic is satisfying and brutal - whack an enemy hard and they shoot off ahead of you, taking chunks out of the level and even deforming the floor if you hit them down (this is why it's on Xbox - these "additions" to the level design are saved to the HD, and you get graded on how much of a level you take out in the process). Hitting the killer blow is probably the most satisfying attack you'll ever land for some time - the game uses sound, a blurring effect and the rumble of the pad to really mark the moment. Otogi 2 refines this to make it even more crunching. More generally, combos last for 4 button strokes (either ending with the "hard" attack or with a magic burst) but can be linked so you can get massive 200+ hit combos on some levels. Your character can double jump, float in the air while attacking and use a dash/teleport to zip around. This takes an awful lot of the fighting to the air, which is OK by me.
Visually it's ultra lush - everything's taken out of Japanese mythology (monsters, landmarks) and has a kind of weird neon sheen to it (the cherry blossoms look amazing). The music is all traditional Japanese string and wood, abeit sometimes played with a vauge industrial influence. It's up there with REZ in terms of intergration of visuals and sound.
It can be a grind at times but Otogi 1+2 are top and you can find them second hand for a tenner a pop these days. God of War might claim to have restarted the action/hack and slash genre but it stole heavily from Otogi - the combos, the way the enemies leave floating souls you can absorb for more life and upgrades and the huge snake bosses.
So, has anyone else played this? You really should.
(No 2-player or Xbox live, sadly) |
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