Samurai II: How Musashi Became Japan's Greatest Warrior

Musashi walks alone from the mountains to the seashore, then to the farm fields, "in search of knowledge and to complete his character as a respectable samurai". It is evening as he stops by a hut and prepares a bandana on his forehead. He tells a young lad to go, but he refuses, saying that he lives there and knows Musashi will duel with Old Baiken nearby. Shisido Baiken arrives with two aides. The two men face off, Musashi with his katana, Baiken with rapidly swinging ball and chain and scythe (kusarigama). After a tense battle Musashi delivers a killing thrust. An old man passing by chastises Musashi, commenting that although he is a skilled fencer, he lacks chivalry and is not mentally relaxed, thus is not a true samurai.

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In a shop Musashi is trying to get his sword sharpened, the smithy calls Musashi a murderer and refuses to polish the weapon. The samurai leaves in anger, then pauses, returns and asks humbly, the smithy now agrees but says only the Master Koetsu Honami can polish the sword. At Honami's shop the master polisher is friendly and shows a recent job, a long sword nicknamed "the Clothes Pole". Musashi is interested in the owner, who is Kojiro Sasaki.

Toji has 200 gold pieces and prepares to leave town with Oko, leaving Akemi behind. As the two run out they bump into Matahachi and scurry off. As Matahachi gets up his mother Osugi arrives. He shows his mother the scroll he took from the dying samurai, it is a diploma from the Chujo School and he claims it as his, and he has changed his name to Kojiro Sasaki.

The player starts as a hungry rōnin who collapsed at the gate of a famous trading island-city called Amahara. Soon afterwards, a little girl shares her riceball with the ronin, giving him (or her, depending on the player's choice of gender) energy. A choice appears, introducing the player to the diverse life of a samurai.

The game works the same as before, but is more complicated and with a faster tempo. The game takes place on a rooftop in a city at night, a modern interpretation contrasting the traditional feel of the previous version. The Wandering Samurai must again defeat red-eyed monsters spawning from a dark portal by slicing them, and occasionally using the whirlwind slice on a group of green-eyed monsters that appear all at once. The red-eyed monsters vary in size, with the first two sizes returning, and a new, much larger variant appearing in this version. The game once again starts with the samurai moving into position, as the words "A Hero's Tale" (or "Samurai Slice" in Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise) set the scene.

During the first wave of monsters, snow starts falling, followed by black feathers. The game then covers the screen to show the story so far, showing a bussinessman carrying home a stuffed bunny for his daughter, which a monster swoops in and steals. The samurai appears before him, and proceeds to chase the monsters to retrieve the bunny. After this, a storm appears as the game nears the end. The very last monster is the one carrying the bunny. After it, the text "The End" appears on screen, which the samurai can slice if he so chooses. In the background, a sign reading "LIVE MUSIC" (or "JAZZ" in Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise) flashes in time with the hits.

The dark past of the Gaijin Salamander is facing him one last time. A group of Crab bandits is hiding in the foggy mountains, attacking the villages nearby. Some frog villagers ask desperately for the mighty gaijin sword-master to help them. In the meantime, the civil war between the last samurais, headed by Swollen-Cheeks, and the emperor army, begins.

The sequel squeezes right into the same mold. You play as Kuma, the vengeance-hungry teddy 'bot who was once Jinno, Afro's bosom buddy until Afro's bloodlust caused the loss of their adoptive family and Jinno's close scrape with death. The pinnacle of feudal-era robot technology, Kuma's combat systems switch between three styles on the fly using the directional pad. You're supposed to swap around mid-battle, staggering a heavily armored samurai with the acrobatic Afro style then flowing into Master style to blow away crowds of ronin cannon fodder with broad sword swipes. But, as you quickly discover, almost every enemy in the game is vulnerable to Master style's area of effect elimination technique. So combat trends towards the path of least resistance: string together a ten-hit combo and push the Circle button to execute everything on screen. Only Ninjas are immune, Kuma can't slay them without his signature Kuma style's "Dharman Rage," a super attack that charges up seemingly at random. Or anyway, there's no meter to tell you whether it's attacking, dodging, or parrying, or anything else that readies your super. So the best solution is to jam buttons against the fleet-footed ninjas, like you would any other enemy, until the game gives you permission to dispatch them.

It's a papier mache game. DJs in sleazy joints, part strip club, part izakaya, shooting electricity from their speakers and summoning samurai from the ceiling, fanatical sects of explosive monks protecting mountaintop temples, the game looks like it has swagger, it seems convinced it's doing something cool. When the story stabs for pathos, you almost want to meet it halfway. Kuma awakes at the bottom of a mountain gorge, badly damaged and hardly able to crawl. A drum machine pumps a line of hip hop rhythm, nothing special, but passable enough to get your foot tapping. The ghost of Kuma's childhood love guides him the bits of his sundered body. "Recover those stolen parts of yourself, take them back, then use them to reclaim what you've lost," it seems to say. Later, the objective prompt orders you to "Confront the pain of knowing Afro killed the only father you ever knew;" but the method by which you achieve that catharsis is killing three guys with samurai swords the same way you killed the last three guys with samurai swords, back when the prompt read "Confront the guilt of knowing they died alone." Kuma's Revenge likes to set the stage, but each time you ask for follow through it stares back at you blank faced. "We gave you the setup, isn't that enough?"

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In Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto we saw Takezo's (Toshirô Mifune) great character arc as he became Musashi Miyamoto not only to save his life literally but spiritually as well. Here Musashi, no longer seeking fame as a swordsman, simply wants to be a true samurai and achieve inner peace.

Shouldn't there be a tad more action in a samurai series? One badass-if-brief duel at the beginning, one man-vs.-army showdown at the end, whole lotta deadly soap-opera in between. Plus it's not even clear to me why Musashi calls out this swordfightin' academy in the first place. Far as I can tell he's just trying to make a name for himself, the way young gunfighters seek out Old West legends; unlike the first film, though, this one doesn't seem to find such behavior juvenile or shameful, which meant I found myself kinda rooting for the ostensible bad guys. Arguably worth enduring for the drop-dead gorgeous Eastmancolor alone.

As the first film worked like an introduction, the first half of this one worked as a build up to some real samurai action. Most needed, because to be honest with you these triangle dramas starts to get a little tiresome. Mayamoto is realizing he still has some work to do when it comes to showing his softer side, his civilized and honorable side. Both when it comes to women and to fighting. And the unpredictability of the first film isn't really here to amuse you.