First Samurai

STORY / GAMEPLAY
First Samurai takes place in a fictional feudal Japan world where an evil entity called The Demon King has taken over the world and unleashed hordes of powerful creatures aiming to destroy humanity. The great Master of the Samurai clan has tried to stop him but defenseless as he was towards Demon King's magic powers, he finally lost his life in battle. Before leaving this world, the Master summoned a Wizard Mage in order to train a faithful and skillful samurai warrior. You, as the samurai, fight your way through the game's levels using your sword and martial arts skills. But the quest is hard, since you are called to fight alone against numerous monster-like enemies of the underworld, from simple bats to gigantic beasts, until you ultimately find and kill the Demon King. Along the way, you will find food and drink Japan's national "Sake" to increase your energy while you must always hit the magic pots with your sword to trigger a checkpoint (very useful). If your energy drops enough, you will end up losing your sword and you will have to fight the beasts with your bare hands, so the sword must be re-gained ASAP by killing enemies and get the magic pot they release when they die! To finish each level, you must confront a boss character. The gameplay is quite tough after a while, since the game hides a lot of traps. Fortunately the difficulty level is not frustrating.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Though the SNES version follows the original Amiga and though the SNES hardware is a bit more powerful compared to the OCS machines, it doesn't actually differ too much from the OCS. The color palette is quite identical to the Amiga, with awesome backgrounds and sprites. The in-game music sounds as if it was taken directly from the ancient Japanese culture and the sampled sound effects that accompany our hero's actions are done nicely. Surely the SNES owners enjoyed (and will enjoy) a decent First Samurai version but, to be honest, I personally prefer the original version that kept me going for hours and hours! Hallelujah!