Certainly. Otogi is an action game in the vane of Gunvalkyrie, offering simpler controls but some similar game concepts. Those looking for a game with scintillating samurai style, full-contact swordplay, hours upon hours of action, and a ridiculous load of unlockable weapons and items need look no further. Despite some problems that hold the game down, Otogi is a must for just about any action fan. But, like I said, the game has some problems. Will those problems prove too much for you to enjoy Otogi over the long haul? Read on and decide for yourself.
Features
- Zig, zag, and zip through the air with samurai magic in tow
- 33 weapons to choose from
- 12 spells at your disposal
- Fully destructible environments
- 29 levels to explore and over two-dozen unique enemies to eviscerate
- English and Japanese dubbing available
- 480p support
Anyone looking for a complex, thinking man's game can go elsewhere. Otogi is your classic minimal story/minimal thought game that is packed to the rafters with action and little else. Combat and controls, then, are an essential part of the game. After all, if the controls are difficult or the combat uninspiring, the game becomes another testament to boredom and poor design. Luckily, Otogi nails both essential elements.
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No matter which of the 33 weapons Raikoh chooses, the controls do not change. There are two attack buttons, one for a quick strike, the other for a heavy attack. The A button jumps (and tap again for a double jump) and the B button casts magic (hold for greater effect). The Left Trigger locks onto an enemy and the Right Trigger dashes.
Be dashing
The dash in Otogi is key to combat and movement. It works similar to the controls in Gunvalkyrie, only instead of pressing in on the Thumbstick and moving it to dash backwards, forwards, left, right, or upwards, in Otogi you have an easier time of control. Just squeeze the Right Trigger and push the Thumbstick in a direction for a quick and easy dodge. By using the attack buttons in combination with the dash, you can pull off thundering downward strikes or propel yourself higher, essentially climbing in the air to new areas.
Using the dash, you can remain airborne for an entire level. While there's no running along walls a la Ninja Gaiden, it's still a pretty cool sensation to zip around the skies, busting combos on demonic fools. Combining the dash and the easy-to-use attack combos, Otogi often becomes an aerial ballet. The aggressive aerial dance contrasts the powerful blows from Raikoh's sword, sending enemies crashing into the sides of mountains or barreling through walls. Few combat systems on Xbox have managed to be as cool.
Practical magic
While the dash can be used freely, you do need to have magic in order to perform the effective feat. That's where Otogi's most intriguing twist comes into play. Raikoh's life comes from his magic, but his magic is constantly depleting. The only way to restore the magic meter is by killing enemies or grabbing scarce power-ups. The depleting magic adds an immediacy to each level, but if you merely run through each stage as quickly as possible, you'll never be able to 100% the game.
As part of Raikoh's mission, he must free the souls trapped in objects and structures within each level. Generally there are only five or six souls per level, but finding them requires you to lay waste to just about everything in sight. Good thing 99% of what you see in a level can be destroyed. Fighting off the demon horde as you search for that one last soul, all the while sweating over your quickly depleting magic adds an extra touch of drama. It's that frantic anxiety (and the need to see more things get smashed) that will likely keep gamers coming back to the 29 stages again and again. I certainly did.
To make things even more intense, magic isn't just used to dash about. Raikoh can equip any of 12 spells from four different houses of magic. Each house offers a different effect and some gorgeous visuals. The Dragon spell fires off glowing wisps of serpent-shaped energy, which hunts down demons and the Butterfly spell sends a wave of blue butterflies at enemies (truly terrifying, I know). Using spells, however, depletes your magic faster, making time even more precious.
Arm yourself
As cool as the magic looks, Otogi is really all about the weapons. And there are plenty of those -- 33 in fact. While some weapons can be bought between stages (gold is earned for killing enemies), most must be unlocked by meeting specific, hidden goals in stages. To earn the Holy Staff, for example, you must beat Stage 17 in under 3 minutes. But there's nothing in all of Otogi that tells you that's how to earn the Holy Staff, or that it even exists. But, should you beat Stage 17 in under 3 minutes, you'll unlock the weapon for use.
This makes for some frantic replaying of levels, trying to guess whether its time you need to play for, a maximum combo (one weapon requires a 400-hit combo to unlock!), or if the weapon is hidden somewhere within the level itself.
Weapons not only have different attack and defensive ratings, but are also assigned different weights. The heavier the weapon, the slower Raikoh moves and the less height he gets on his jumps. Weapons also wear down with use and must be repaired between stages or suffer with weaker attack power.
Though many of the weapons (all of which have their own distinct design) look cool, they generally feel the same. Sure there are over a half-dozen different staffs, but none feel all that different from one another, which is a shame. Still, the different weights, attack strengths, and repair needs make for a bit more strategy in equipping weapons.
Accessories can also be purchased (or unlocked) throughout the course of the game. Accessories also add to the weight total, but offer some great benefits, including protection from fire and reduced magic costs for spells.
Strange creations
As if all the weapons and accessories weren't enough, Otogi also features over 40 different enemies. All are grotesque, most are slow and stupid, and only a few are truly challenging. At least they're all fun to kill. Whether it's floating skulls, monstrous rock golems, or devilish Talon Ravens, the enemies never feel stale, flat, or boring.
However, most of the enemies are easy to deal with, their attacks a bit too simple to avoid. In fact, for the most part, Otogi is too easy for its own good. A few levels are truly challenging, but most levels can be beaten with relative ease on the first or (at most) third try. And though From Soft throws out an army of demons, most are pretty mindless, the AI aggressive but not particularly intelligent. Despite being fun, Otogi does eventually become repetitive, especially once you've managed to gain enough power through leveling up to tear just about any enemy a new one. Rather than ramping up, the difficulty tends to remain static from start to finish.
The biggest problem, however, is a very cheap level-design tactic. Halfway through Otogi (and I do mean literally at the halfway point), Raikoh is sucked into a sort of dark dimension where all of the previous levels are repeated but with a minor twist here or there. Now instead of water in one level you have lava... but it's still the exact same level! It's almost as if, having this brilliant inspiration for the game, the designers got halfway and ran out of gas (or development money) and made due with what they had. It's a cheap and disappointing way to extend a game.
While that bit is discouraging, most of Otogi is quite good, especially the boss battles. One battle in particular, against the Crimson Lord, is filled with energetic gameplay. The aggressive and powerful Crimson Lord keeps Raikoh moving, dashing back and forth, looking both to avoid being hit and also hoping for an opening to attack. This battle amongst the bamboo is the highlight of Otogi and it comes in stage 16 (of 29). If only the pacing and intensity of this and the other boss battles could have filtered into the other levels, then my drool would be seeping through your computer screen.
Graphics
Otogi adds another tally to the growing number of visually stunning Xbox titles. It seems even small companies like From Soft are learning to tap into the graphical power of Xbox to bring about some of the most jaw-dropping games among current-generation consoles.
Comprising of 29 stages, none of them particularly large, the first half of Otogi is filled to the brim with unique and creative levels. Decorated with a variety of vegetation, painted dark colors that glow with an ethereal hue, and inhabited by over two-dozen different bizarre creatures, Otogi does not lack in imagination or visual oomf.
Some of the levels are surreal in their richness. One of the earliest (and prettiest) levels, Palace of Gold, fills the screen with the golden glow of the Japanese fifth element. This over-saturation does an excellent job of illustrating the devastation brought upon the level by our hero, Raikoh. The more he smashes, the less gold sparkles on screen and the darker, more desolate the temple becomes, until it is merely another empty hall, clear of demons. But don't worry about losing that golden sparkle, you'll be rewarded as you smash apart the temple with a flurry of particle effects from colorful magic attacks to wood splintering into thousands of pieces. Every level is a stunning example of what Xbox can do.
While the monsters inhabiting the world of Otogi are intriguing, Raikoh himself is a bit of a let-down. With pointy hat, thin stature, and spiked armor, he's hardly the picture of heroism. The 30+ weapons offer some cool visual changes, but it would have been nice to see Raikoh with a change of armor at some point along the way. Still, his animations are smooth and a generally solid framerate. There are moments, however, in the latter half of the game where the framerate can get sluggish, particularly when there are over a dozen enemies onscreen with particles flying everywhere. But it doesn't harm gameplay and likely won't hurt your enjoyment of Otogi.
If there's anything to hold against the visuals (other than the slowdown), it has to be one of the late stages, Lair of Fire. Here, you fight over a pit of lava and the screen is constantly shimmering with heat wave effects. It's just too much. Remember the cool wave effects from Spielberg's Minority Report? Imagine if the entire movie were washed over in the effect. Yeah, just a tad too far. Still, out of 29 stages, making the wrong choice in only one ain't all that bad.
The only consistent visual problem comes with the camera. Often there are offscreen enemies attacking and at times the camera makes the wrong positioning choice. It's not too terrible, but it certainly causes a few problems throughout the stages.
Sound
Sega felt it necessary to add English dubbing to the U.S. release. As you can guess, it's pretty forgettable. Not terrible, but certainly not worth whatever time was spent on it. Fortunately the original Japanese dubbing is available to spare you from the narration (which is oddly reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon Orta).
The sound effects offered aren't too many. Yes, you get some great crunches into mountainsides and the cracking of wood as you slam an enemy through a support post, and yes there are some decent weapon clangs, but overall the effects are few and far between. Enemies with some distinct and even haunting noises could have added greatly to the atmosphere created by the visuals, but they offer nothing of interest in the sound field.
Otogi's saving sound grace is the brilliant score, reminiscent of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Listening to the sad, soulful strings playing in stark contrast to the hectic action onscreen, it's impossible not to be absorbed in the moment. The visuals attempt at the cinematic, but it's the score that makes Otogi come to life. It's almost like Yo Yo Ma is your personal composer, playing the sad song of the samurai. Well, it's not Yo Yo Ma playing, but it certainly is the next best thing. A fantastic soundtrack.
Verdict
Otogi is 100% action. There's very little to explore and no inventive puzzles to solve. Though a few stages feature protection missions, most of Otogi consists of seek and destroy quests. That's not a bad thing when seeking and destroying is this much fun.
Otogi had me for the first half. I was hooked. Then I hit the second half and found that Raikoh was in some sort of "alternate" world where every level was reused as to expand the game without taxing the minds of the level designers. It's a cheap trick and one that weakens the second half of the adventure just a little. The fights, though very hectic, can also get a bit too repetitive. The boss battles are so unique and refreshing, it's a shame that none of the other stages manage to come close to equaling their intensity. If only there were a few more battles like the one against Crimson Lord, Otogi would have people talking for the rest of the year.
That's not to say Otogi is a poor game, far from it. Any action fan looking for a game filled with fast combat, brutal beatings, and tough challenges (to unlock all weapons), has found their game of the summer. Anyone with a love for beauty, fun, or flying samurai owes it to themselves to at least rent the game. The main adventure can be finished in about 10 hours, but unlocking everything takes a good 25 hours... Hours you'll most likely give up gladly in pursuit of perfection.
