The Spirit of the Samurai Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published January 15, 2025 · Updated January 16, 2025

The Spirit of the Samurai Review, Assumes the role of Takeshi, a Japanese samurai who has to protect his village from the onslaught of an Oni attempting to conquer the land with his undead army. Fight against his army of tengu, undead, and the horrifying Jorogumo, all inspired by Japanese mythology, in a unique, brutal stop-motion cinematic adventure.

The Spirit of the Samurai Review Pros:

Amazing graphics.
5.13GB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Graphics settings – resolution, v-sync, and fps counter.
Mouse and keyboard support.
Subtitles can be turned on and off.
Can remap the controls for both the keyboard and the controller.
3 save slots.
Cutscenes are a mix of FMV and in-game interactions.
The game has this cool vignette-style filter.
You can skip the cutscenes.
A full 3D backdrop to a 2.5D game world.
Resistance is your bar that decreases when executing hits or movements and when receiving hits, at zero you lose a life.
You get 3 orbs that represent your lives.
Clear EXP bar on the Hud.
Runes – used to buy statistics and you get three when you level up.
Action adventure gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
Assign consumables to the quick select menu on the d-pad.
Your menu shows your stats like strength, dexterity, etc, your inventory, assigning the quick select shortcuts, and your objectives.
A true visual treat from the locations to the stop-motion style movement.
Interact with the many characters in the world.
Stamina-based system for running and fighting.
Checkpoints are littered around.
Fully voiced characters for both cutscenes and interactions.
Button prompts show with interactive elements.
Fighting tutorial section.
The combat is awesome with attacks with your sword on the right stuck for different attack styles, you can roll through enemies, parry to stun them, and fire arrows.
Earn EXP and earn runes to unlock new attacks and combos.
Cool combo creator mechanic where you can put a line of unlocked attacks to create a combo and not just a basic combo, you can setup down, up, jump, and cover attack combos.
The game does cool segments like at night with the fog laying low and all you see is the silhouette of yourself and your enemies.
Dripping in atmosphere.
Breakable objects covering the whole world may have items.
Collect incense and trade it at altars for new items.
Arrows can be picked back up.
Find items to offer to gain better items.
Throwable weapons to find and use like Kunais.
Many different enemy types.
The game has a mix of traditional lore and supernatural.
Such a cool fun game to play.
Enemy health bars show what difficulty they are.
The game world is done in a way so it stays 2.5D but you can gou up and forward on the screen itself.
You do combos and get pop-ups but it’s not like a traditional combo counter.
The world map shows locations and completion rates.
You get exp for everything including the act of picking something up.
Auto saves regularly.

The Spirit of the Samurai Review Cons:

The cutscenes are so different in appearance and movement from the gameplay that it is somewhat jarring.
The early game is a lot of backtracking and fetch quests.
The foreground art and scenery can get in the way of combat.
Learning the parry takes time not only to pull off but also to remember that a parry pushes the enemy out of melee range.
It’s really hard to see items to pick up and it’s a button press making it a lot more clunky than it needs to be in a game like this.
Takes a while for the game to get going.
Rooms will go dark when you are not in them but enemies can jump and attack you from offscreen technically.
Feedback on the damage you suffer is so minimal that you can die by not paying attention.

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