2025 Special - Samurai Deeper Kyo

The search for top-down action-adventure games starring guys with swords has led me in a lot of unexpected directions. Sometimes I discover a hidden gem, revisit a beloved classic, or I get Samurai Deeper Kyo. Based on the anime of the same name, this hack & slasher is known for being the last game ever published for the Game Boy Advance... in the West. In Japan it was released way back in 2002, but whatever, it's not that important. Anyway, this turned out to be a huge mistake. I can't remember the last time I was this bored. A game where you kill 2400+ monsters with a katana should be at least somewhat entertaining and yet something clearly went wrong.

Well, for starters, the playable characters only have one combo. There is a jump button. Pressing it during a combo attack does a finishing move that does slightly more damage. Well, calling it a finishing move sounds kind-of loaded, it's just the same animation except the player-character turns blue for a second. Big whoop. Oddly enough, the game doesn't have platforming or flying enemies. With as much as I've complained about jumping across platforms in past reviews, you'd think that I'd think that no platforming was a good thing. Nah. It doesn't work like that I'm afraid. Turns out, fighting the same enemies with the same moves over and over is mind-meltingly boring. After the third empty hallway packed to the brim with palette swaps, I was open to a vehicle section, some stealth gameplay, and maybe even a bottom-less pit or two. 

The closest that this dour mash-a-thon gets to mercy is the boss battles. They're not good, but at least they're different. Also, they require a strategy beyond "run up and slash them repeatedly", and that's something. These little reminders that my brain is still (barely) functioning are appreciated. Also, as far as concerns the story, all anyone ever seems to talk about is how much they want to kill each other. It was mildly amusing when I mentally replaced every instance of kill with... something else. Like, did you hear about that time Demon Eyes Kyo banged 1,000 men?

Demon Eyes Kyo. Always bragging about his conquests.

Samurai Deeper Kyo boasts other features such as multiple playable characters, hidden weapons, and multiple paths. All I can say in response is No. I doubt my play-through as Demon Eyes Kyo took more than an hour, but the adventure wore out its welcome after five minutes. Everything afterwards was just the epitome of mundanity. Not even the most maniacal manic is going to want to do five play-throughs to experience the full story. 

Again, huge mistake.