Samurai of Hyuga
By Devon Connell
"I motioned to slide the shoji screen open but Hatch held it shut. I couldn’t help but notice that he had a nosebleed. “H-hold on a second! She may be changing…”
There was no force behind his grip, which really shouldn’t surprise me. I shook my head and shoved the door aside. The room was empty, much to Hatch’s dismay."
Before I ever read Samurai of Hyuga the first time, I saw so many people decry the conversations and some cultural references as childish or not well-researched. I can tell you that this may be one of the most researched stories written ever. The author must have seen every English-translated anime from Ninja Scroll to Samurai Champloo, because this is what this story reads like from front to finish. From the ‘baka’s’ to the nosebleeds, this is a love letter not to a period in Japan, but to the influx of localized animation. If you don’t care about anime, or the pages of Shonen Jump and want historical Japan… this story may not be entirely for you. Seriously, try naming a character after one of your favorite Samurai from manga or anime. You might be surprised by what you find.
By the way… did anyone else’s parents let them rent Ninja Scroll from Blockbuster when they were waaaaaay too young for it? All I’m saying is I came across my fear of snakes from a video store.
General Story:
You are a samurai without a master, a ronin. You’ve agreed to protect a young spellcaster who drags you into an exceptionally lethal episode of 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (Hatch is Scrappy, don’t @ me) at the behest of the Emperor. What follows would fit onto the pages of a book read back-to-front. Chapters are short, snappy, and brutal. There is nothing wasted in the writing that doesn’t lend itself to the story. There are crude jokes, perverted insights, deep thoughts, and a reckoning of your past. That reckoning has a name, Jun(ko).
I’ve noticed during my time with this series that it can jump from comedy to self-introspective drama to psychological horror quickly, and the quick chapters during the first entry really lend to the whiplash. As my character’s namesake once said, “Only hope can give rise to the emotion we call despair. But it is nearly impossible for a man to try to live without hope, so I guess that leaves Man no choice but to walk around with despair as his companion.”
One thing this story does better than most is that you get a very good sense of characters and delineation between them. Some titles will pop up a name, and then I struggle to remember who exactly this person is after a while. This title benefits from a heavy episodic style focus on the introduced characters and almost a commedia dell’arte-esque dependence on anime tropes. You read about Momoko or Hatch, and you immediately recognize who these characters are in your mind based on a multitude of shared archetypes.
Format and Typos:
Format is readable, and I believe the story has been read enough that any typos that would have existed were probably all handled by now. There are some internal snippets that pop up to let you know if you just selected something that altered stats.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Stats are fairly simple in opposed pairs, and actually affect portions of the story where you automatically react to certain instances based on how you’ve previously played the character. If you stay in character for the entire game, you are ‘attuned’ to your spirit and have some additional options during the later portions of the game.
Replayability:
Honestly, most of the replayability comes from which side of the opposed pair of stats you choose. I would expect most players of the title might find themselves with two playthroughs, essentially flipping their choice style during it. Most romance within the story is almost dripfed, and SPOILERS for future titles (at least to the middle of the fourth entry) Most romances feel like they are focused on for one book, and then dropped in favor of the next intended romance during the next. This is not a terrible way to go, but can be off-putting to some people.
Dislikes:
- Yes, you ‘make’ your character, but this is about the most predefined custom character I’ve experienced.
- Some humor skews very juvenile.
- Not a game for someone if they want to experience normal, healthy romances.
Likes:
- A game for someone if they don’t want to experience normal, healthy romances.
- Writing is on point, and I don’t feel like anything is wasted in trying to bring you into the world of Hyuga.
- This game brought me back to a time of Adult Swim, DVD’s selected on hope from Suncoast, and Newtype magazine. Excuse me while I go find a Ramune.
Game Rankings and Completed Reviews
