Samurai Jack - Summer 2020

https://www.ign.com/articles/samurai-jack-video-game-announced-for-pc-ps4-xbox-and-switch?sf117933296=1

HELL YES!

I was chatting about this with Royta on Twitter.....great to finally see what the Soleil/ex-Team Ninja guys are up to these days! I'm really hoping this is great.

This is absolutely nuts that we're getting an action game, licenced though it may be, by some of the great minds behind Ninja Gaiden II. Here's hoping...

The creator of the show doing the interview knows nothing about the game lol, he said I think there is a bow.
Graveyard Spin at 4:25

Art direction is actually pretty solid. He feels pretty 'floaty' right now, but that might be different while playing. Game looks really good honestly. Also arrow-UTs are back haha. Also happy to not see a lock-on. Keeping it classy.

Everyone says this looks bad but IMO for action games of this tier, I want them as janky as possible.
Those tend to be much more mechanically interesting than super polished triple A "action games".
I think this was just bad gameplay, very limited move set shown, and loot :/
We'll see

New video, that I think comes from one of those private showing so I don't know how long it will stay online.
This looks extremely interesting, we have 2 parry systems, advancing guard, block cancels, aerial combos, weapon swap that let's you continue combos after you swap, grabs that link into combos and a pretty extensive moveset. Great stuff! The only thing is that enemies seems a bit too passive, but we'll see what will happen on higher difficulties.
At this point I think I'll buy it day one, it has the potential to be a little gem and I'm super curious about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vW-O8sOhuU

Very, very interesting moves. You can really notice the emphasis on speed and agression on your part. That said I'm absolutely scared by how much is in here. Grabs? Jup. Weapon stealing? In there. Parry? There's a ton of these. Weapon switching? Oh god, it's also in. Running block, block canceling etc. Jesus.

Here's hoping the game has the challenge to keep it up. This trailer did make me go from "I'll buy it at a discount" to "I'll buy it at a high price".

FUCK YES. Gonna binge the show right before release, this looks to be possibly the best action game in years and years for me. I hope the length and difficulty is there though, that is make or break.
I am tired of having to do no healing etc. runs in modern games just to feel challenged.

I'm gonna do as I usually do, and wait for everyone's impressions on the game itself. Looks fun, though.

God I really am going to buy this game just because Matsui is involved with it aren't I.

100% buying this on release!  To see that Matsui is directing it and now that video of the combat.  I am in!

This will be the perfect follow up as I am just about finishing up Ghost of Tsushima.

EDIT:

Just an observation, all this Soleil press for Samurai Jack seems to confirm that Valhalla Games is basically gone, right? I mean it seems like all the senior guys are there at Soleil now.

This begs the question---where is Itagaki and what is he up to? We know he is working on a new action game---with who I wonder??? Certainly seems doubtful it is with a small outfit like Soleil.... I am starting to believe certain previously unimaginable rumors of what he might be doing and who he is working with again.....

Itagaki left Valhalla a few years ago, and yeah pretty sure Valhalla is now just Soleil. I think they also did this due to the copyright issue going on with the name and the bad reputation it got with Devil's Third.

One thing I really like about this game is how snappy the parries are. It doesn't have any big flash and time stop on a success as if to give the player time to pat themself on the back. Just snap and back to attacking.

Mobile guard. You don't see that often.

No physical version outside of Limited Run?

Nope, just a limited run. Also sad to say there isn't a disc-release for the Xbox version of the game.

Oh well.

Looks good so I'll probably grab it. Has a weird vibe to it.
I never liked the show or designs but that doesn't affect the game for me.

Yeah decided to buy it day 1. Even if it turns out to be bad or unfinished, I want to show my supported to Soleil.

18 minutes of the first mission from IGN:
https://www.ign.com/videos/samurai-jack-battle-through-time-18-minutes-of-mission-1-gameplay

I have to say that it doesn't look that good. The enemies have 0 health and are extremely (and I mean extremely) passive. This is most likely played at the lowest difficulty tho, so hopefully it'll be better on Master of Masters or wathever.

Outside of that the presentation is pretty terrible, there isn't any sense of style or aesthetic, with the lifebar and the pop up message being basic white on red with nothing of interest. Even the dialogue is just white text on the screen without any kind of cool font, speech bubble or frame and it's not even voice acted (which extremely strange considering all of the interview with the show's voice actor etc). I hate to say it, but it kinda looks like a mobile game or a bad EA indie. Animation look pretty mediocre too. Not a big problem if the gameplay is good, but still kinda disappointing.

Idk, I'm still super curious about it and I will probably get it to check out the higher difficulties, but I'm way less hyped than I was yesterday.

>difficulty
It's IGN. These people absolutely suck at games and couldn't handle higher difficulties. They hate mechanics and have no ability to learn.

>looks
I don't know. It looks like the show which has pretty simple colors from what I've seen.

>weapon steal
Instantly reminded me of El Shaddai.

I try to avoid early footage since it leaves a bad taste. Metal Gear Rising also had an early showcase and it tanked my hopes for the game as it was aweful, same with Doom 2016. A good player, playing on the highest difficulty, can make all the difference. We'll see!

That footage just looks like a bad player. Gonna be going dark about this game until I have time to finish the show, it is good but there is a lot of it. I am sure this game will be at the very least a really good time, there is a slim chance it is an NG2 light kind of thing but I guess we'll see.

Excited to see the PC version at 120 fps!

Anyone here play it yet? I'm not going to be at home for two days so I'll probably play it on sunday. Or maybe I'll buy that new Soulslike game instead that looks really sweet.

It's still not on the store. Will get it as soon as I see it.

I get the feeling it's going to be quite brutal on the hardest mode.

It should release at 5PM GMT+2. I'm getting it as soon as it does.

I don’t normally pay attention to reviews at all but this IGN review
I think just sealed the deal for me and I’m definitely getting the game when I get back home in a few days!

https://www.ign.com/articles/samurai-jack-battle-through-time-review

Had to load this up real quick to see how it looks on pc, runs and looks fantastic at 120 fps. Very smooth so far, seems like a solid pc port.

The first level on Hard difficulty, which is 3 of 4 you have to unlock the final one, was brutal. The little green robots were fast and spammed projectiles from everywhere off screen. This was definitely made by the NG2 team.

There is an lock on for people who don't understand NG, but the tracking seems great and I found no need for it. Assuming the length and difficulty keeps up, I think this will be fantastic.

Now to marathon the show

Awesome man! This is exactly what I wanted to hear!

A bit more info for people on the fence.

All of the interesting skills are locked but there is an advancing guard move, multiple parries, a dedicated throw button which I am very excited about. You can also unlock a guard break for when enemies grab you. Possibly a witch time dodge, it just says perfect dodge that opens up the enemy for attacks..

The skill trees are interesting and there are a lot of good options, one tree has increases to item drop rates, if the hardest difficulty really is master ninja level stuff that could be very useful.

Seems to be a lot of item options, machine guns, hand guns, bows, thrown weapons also typical healing items.


There is a DT style move that does big damage, but there are skills that give you decreased damage taken and increased damage dealt when your bar is full, rewarding you for not using it. Very cool.

There is a second wind skill that only works on easy/normal, but is required to be purchased to get other upgrades, bad choice there.

>This was definitely made by the NG2 team.

I got that feeling even from the bad gameplay videos. The way Jack dashes and how most encounters had gunners on the sidelines.

So after, uh, "demoing" it for about 2 missions, I bought it on Steam. Following are just my impressions.

This game truly has the spirit of a low-budget PS2 action game. And it fucking rules.

And it definitely has the spirit of Ninja Gaiden. I tried mission 1 on hard mode, and got stomped about one minute in. Decided to dial it down to normal, and play it on a higher difficulty once I finish it. The decrease in difficulty was pretty drastic. The projectile beetles weren't even there.

Has the signature Ninja Gaiden directional inputs during certain strings. For example, YY does one wide slice, and then these 2 other slashes, but Y>Y does a slash, and then a spinning slash which knocks enemies down.

Enemies die really quickly. They aren't super aggressive yet. They aren't as well-animated as certain other action games, so getting a read on their attacks feels quite odd. Probably will get used to it with time though.

Lock-on's just there. I've only used it when I'm fighting one really large enemy.

Game sometimes goes 2D platformer on us, and doesn't allow us to move left or right when on a path, only forwards and backwards.

And to repeat what @hedfone said, this camera is REALLY good. I haven't had a single problem with it yet. Never got it stuck in a wall, and it soft locks to enemies very reliably.

Oh, and to address that IGN review:

Even if you’re not a Samurai Jack superfan, Battle Through Time may be worth a playthrough just for the refresher course in how action games used to work and how vital that style can still be in 2020.

This guy gets it.

It's $63.95 here.

Look at this delicious crying.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/284712-samurai-jack-battle-through-time/78925905

Bought it on ps4 (wanted to be safe) and I've completed the first 5 missions on Master Samurai. Like Firmament and Hefone said, the camera is amazing and the levels are also pretty fun offering some side path with chests, extra currency etc.
In general,the game isn't bad, difficulty is high, enemies are aggressive, but the combat has some serious issues.

You have a lot of defensive option but they are terrible 'cause of how the combat works. You can't cancel animation once they start and this means that if you are hitting something and another enemy attacks you have no option that to take damage, this is because enemies's animation are way too fast and unclear and a lot of their attacks are either borderline unreactable or just instant.

Later into the skill tree you get a skill that let's you cancel into block on hit (and later even on block) which helps, but there is the problem of unblockables attacks. The game notifies you with a red aura around an attack and with a sound cue, but again they are way too fast to react in time if you are doing anything else beside standing still.
The sound cues in particular are almost a joke, alot of them happen not even a fraction of a second before the attack, so if they come from offscreen or you or,again, you are attacking someone else you won't be able to react.

Blocking is also weird, a lot of attacks, even the basic string from the earlier enemies guard break you, you still block it, but the stagger doesn't let you conunter attack properly. This emphasizes using parries instead, but the unclear and almost instant attack makes it unreliable at best.

Enemies also have way too much hyper armor and/or are way too block happy, you have attacks that guard break, but they are usually the 3rd or 4th hit of the combo, and guard breaking is inconsistent, sometimes they only take one hit after, sometime an entire combos and other times they just block again like nothing happened. So you are just there mashing stuff or just spamming the couple of unblockable moves you have that are not part of a string (like rotate square with the fists) which is really boring.

And finally you can't really get out of combo once they hit you with the first attack, so it's easy to just get stunlocked. Later enemies like the Imakanda and Ninjas are the best example of this as they can just gang up on you and stunlock you into a corner. Still haven't find a reliable way too fight them that it isn't just spamming kiai,advancing guard attacks or ranged stuff.
All this means that you need to play a bit too safe, going in and out with advancing block and hope you don't eat too much damage in the meantime.

Bosses are also pretty terrible, they have an insame amount of hyper armour they offer no feedback once you hit them and they have kinda unconsistent punish windows, they also do way too much damage.

Weapons also feel a bit too samey for now, but I'm waiting to test them more before fully judging them

Idk, the game isn't bad but it has some serious problem imho and it's a pity as it has really get pontetial. Maybe I am missing something or I just lack experience, but the first impression is not the best. It just feels kinda mediocre.

If you guys find any solution to this problems let me know, maybe I just need to change my approach or just git gud.

I'll wait for Firmament and hedfone to comment on this. $63 is way too much to spend just to check if the mechanics are good.

Fantastic so far. That three wave fight in the swamp(?) Took me quite a while to nail. Really plays like a good PS2 game in all the right ways.

Couldn't help myself.

How are you avoiding damage?

I don't have instant guard yet. The dodges aren't very useful.

I'm hoping you can link them from instant guard.

Been playing nonstop since my last post. Finally got all the guard cancel upgrades.

Don't like it at all. You can only cancel when your attack connects. You can go instantly into dodges but it doesn't really help when you have to connect an attack first. I have no use for this.

Unless there's something else I don't see the point of continuing.

There's switch cancel, if you switch to a different weapon you can cancel your recovery frames. I used it against the first boss on Master Samurai. I didn't play much after that so I don't have all the movement or guard options but I think some of those abilities should be available from the start.

Does it let you go straight into a dodge?

I'll give it a try in the morning.

Played a bit more this morning and completed another 3 or so levels. I think I'm done, all of my probelms with the mechanics are becoming worse and worse and I'm getting even more frustrated.
I'm just not having any fun playing. An all around disappointment, it has great potential, but it's all ruined by the terrible mechanics, the combat and the general systems just don't go well together imho.
Maybe I'll give it another try when I have more free time and see if I'm missing something, but for now I don't have the time to waste on stuff I don't find enjoyable.
A real pity.

EDIT: Against my better judgment I played it a bit more as I saw I was near the end. Reached the final level, where is just wave after wave of hordes who stunlock you all day. Officialy done with the game, I have no idea what they were thinking, it's like playing NG2 without having any kind of iframes, terrible all around.

>it's like playing NG2 without having any kind of iframes, terrible all around.

This actually excites me

If you find enjoyable I'm happy for you, for real.
For me it's one the more frustrating and cheap game I played. It's borderline unfair, you have no way to deal with all the stuff the game throws at you.

With this I'm gonna leave the topic for now, I don't want to fill it with negativity or my rants.
If you guys find something I missed that makes the game more bearable let me know.

>i-frames
I don't care if there are i-frames or not. The problem is I can't cancel into anything that let's me move out of the way.

>stunlocking
This is another thing that doesn't bother me. Don't get hit and you won't get stun locked. Problem is I can't find any way to not get hit.

I have the parry and it looks like there's a Bayo dodge, but please tell me this isn't like that horrible One Piece games where you can't do anything safely unless you parry or dodge first.

Aside from this I like everything else. The mobile guard, throwing weapons unusable while jumping and don't stop your momentum, attacking and general movement feels great.

Levels remind me of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Maximo which is awesome. The graveyard was great.

Still haven't tried that weapon switch cancel. Will get on in a few hours.

Birdman wrote:
Problem is I can't find any way to not get hit.

Best way to summarize the game tbh

I look forward to not being able to play this until late this year or next year.

Interesting to hear the mixed views on this one. It might just be me being less informed (I'm not the most knowledgeable of any and all mechanics in games), but I always find polarizing perspectives indicative that a game is worth experimenting with or testing out. I definitely can see the i-frames/hyper armor aspects bothering me based upon the footage and what some of you are saying though. It might be presumptuous to say, but it did just came out and might require some more experimentation to see what works and what doesn't. But consider me intrigued. Thanks for sharing all.

TaiTsurugi wrote:

Birdman wrote:
Problem is I can't find any way to not get hit.

Best way to summarize the game tbh

I agree with you and Birdman. I have less experience in the genre but I've played some of the most important titles on the hardest difficulty and I can't find a consistent way to avoid damage here. I'm trying to experiment with grabs, guard rush, parry and the weapon switch cancel but it seems too random when I avoid damage.

What exactly are you doing with weapon switching?

When I switch it doesn't cancel anything. It just brings out another weapon when the current knee finishes attacking. Still a sitting duck.

Just found something cool.

You know how instant guard works? The second your attack connects you press guard to cancel all recovery.

Just found you can do this with dodging too. I haven't seen this mentioned in-game. It seems to work with any sword attack. I haven't bothered with the other weapons.

Will see how this goes.

at around 1:10.
It was a bit useful against the first boss (sword combo into fists).

Instant dodge isn't really doing it for me either. You're still limited to landing a hit before you can dodge.

Really not sure how the devs want us to approach this game. I can't avoid damage on the easiest mode. How on earth is the hardest survivable?

I didn't have this issue from what I played of NG2 on normal because there were tons of mobility options.

I don't find the throw that great in SJ. I'm not sure if it can be upgraded further but right now it can only affect weak, smaller enemies. Medium sized ones block it unless you weaken them first which is fine, but even when it connects he just rolls them over. I guess it lets you have some free damage but it doesn't seem to collide with other enemies or walls like in NG.

If it's the final hit Jack will do a dash attack that can hit other enemies. That's more useful.

The jumping attack shockwave in that video isn't that great either. I've had enemies just hit me out. Gunners will just shoot you down.