Rating
The Spirit of the Samurai
A village in peril. A samurai reanimated. An Oni advancing. Fight an army of undead warriors and Japanese monsters as a human, a Kodama, and a cat in this 2D stop-motion action adventure.
Details
- Released
- December 11, 2024
- Developer
- Digital Mind Games
- Genres
- Action · Hack and slash/Beat 'em up · Adventure · Indie
- Publisher
- Kwalee
- Platforms
- PC
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The Spirit of the Samurai Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
The Spirit of the Samurai brings some excellent ideas that simply cannot surface properly. In theory, this game is a perfect 2D action with the mix of Soulslike and Metriodvania elements, while in theory, it is a technical mess.
Awe-inspiring stop-motion visuals and extremely atmospheric vibe make all the senses take hold, making it a unique experience. That said while trying to balance its creative and useful aspects, the game still requires you to put up with annoyances.
The Spirit of the Samurai has the look, but does it have the moves?
The Spirit of the Samurai is a samurai action game developed by Digital Mind Games which nails its particularly eye-catching animation style while not being all that fun as a game. Designed to emulate jerky practical stop-motion animation used in many classic films such as Jason and the Argonauts, Robocop and The Nightmare Before Christmas, it achieves it quite spectacularly, while also demonstrating how such a style becomes something of a hindrance when you are trying to actually control a c...
The Spirit of the Samurai has more flaws than I could possibly list here and frustrated me for large parts of my time with it, but damn, does it have a vibe.
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.