The Spirit of the Samurai Reviews
And that’s the crux of The Spirit of the Samurai: it is a gorgeous game, with an excellent sense of atmosphere, and decidedly troubled gameplay.
The Spirit of the Samurai is a gorgeous game to look at, and while it can be enjoyable to play, some of the movement and combat is stiff.
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.
I want it to be known that I really wanted to like The Spirit of the Samurai. I am a massive fan of stop-motion animation, and any piece of media that utilises or seeks to evoke or pay homage to that style has earned my respect. That said, as well put-together as the cutscenes are, The Spirit of the Samurai is just not very fun as a game. From the clunky and unresponsive controls to the linear and murky levels filled with oddly placed traps and pitfalls, it can often feel like a slog to actually play. If you are a fan of stop-motion animation, then you may get something from the experience, but it is unlikely to be too satisfying for just about anyone else.
The Spirit of the Samurai has a great and evocative imagery and a delightful stop-motion style. The merits end there, because the game developed by Digital Mind Games has problematic hitboxes and lacks of precision in attacks and jumps, ending up frustrating the players.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It is obvious that it is put much effort into the game but the frustrating moments shadow all experience.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The peculiar trio in historical Japan has an impressive appearance, but sometimes unbalanced gameplay.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Despite the frustrating hitboxes, the voices that break the immersion in the game's atmosphere or the flaws in the story's narration, The Spirit of the Samurai offers a reasonable experience in a well-detailed 2D world with an interesting combat system and stop-motion animations that synergize well with each other.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Spirit of the Samurai brought a fresh and engaging theme to the gaming world by employing a stop-motion art style and a combo customization system. However, the lack of polish in some of the game's mechanics made the experience somewhat annoying and its high potential was largely lost.
Review in Persian | Read full review
With frustrating combat and linear yet opaque progression, this samurai fails his mission.
Inspired by stop-motion animation, The Spirit of the Samurai leans too heavily on its inspirations, failing to stand out with anything particularly unique, aside from its issues and poorly tuned mechanics.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Spirit of the Samurai takes a bold approach; therefore, Digital Mind Games deserves praise for that alone. Flawed as it is, the game is enjoyable enough for people who play experimental games. A flawed, memorable ride awaits within the game, which testifies to the creative energy of the game industry that has yet to end. If you can put up with the flaws, it gives just that.
We approached Digital Mind Games’ work with high expectations, but unfortunately, they weren’t fully met. While the potential for a great action game was there, issues with the combat system, gameplay, and a predictable story hold it back, leaving the title just shy of excellence.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Spirit of the Samurai has a great art style, but the story itself needs fleshing out. I had a few major issues with input lag throughout the game, which led to many pointless deaths. The combat is okay, but I found the combo system useless and the same for leveling up. I didn’t really use the bow either, as most of the time it felt like I had to be near the enemy. I really hated the checkpoints in this game and more so in the end-game area. If you die, you go all the way back, which was annoying. Especially when you have to fight across a bridge before fighting a boss. Some areas go on for too long, especially with waves of enemies. Chisai’s segments are cute but felt like they could be removed from the game and it wouldn’t change anything. The biggest thing to really tick me off was the final boss fight. I had horrendous drops in the frame rate when against him. The boss himself wasn’t hard, but frames would screw me over when attacking. The game seems a lot more on the artsy side for me compared to the actual gameplay. I find it deserves the Thumb Culture Silver Award, maybe after a couple of updates to fix the frames and controls it could be bumped to a gold.
The Spirit of the Samurai is an ambitious game that opts for a different artistic style and a risky combat system for this type of game. With this combination, the guys at Digital Mind could have backfired, but in the end they have created a game that not only fulfills everything it promised in its trailer, but also shows exquisite taste and know-how for being the first game from this Murcian studio.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
“Spirit of the Samurai” feels unfinished. A lot of gameplay elements feel half-baked – especially the annoying platformer passages. The story didn't grab me either, although the dark setting in feudal Japan would actually be right up my street. In the end, the stop-motion look is by far the best aspect of the game. And that alone is not enough for me to recommend it.
Review in German | Read full review
The Spirit of the Samurai’s steep difficulty curve, clunky controls, and sparse, underwhelming puzzles may frustrate newcomers. While optimization is solid, the UI and limited customization options need improvement. Despite these shortcomings, the game’s visuals, atmosphere, and rewarding combat mechanics make it a promising title with room for polish.
As fresh as it is dark, and as fun as it is challenging. The Spirit of the Samurai transports the player to a feudal Japan full of mythological creatures from Japanese folklore, with a haunting and immersive atmosphere. The stop-motion animation makes this metroidvania with touches of soulslike a unique experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Spirit of the Samurai is a visually stunning game that blends Soulslike combat with Metroidvania exploration, featuring impressive stop-motion visuals and moments of gameplay brilliance, but its limited field of view, occasionally frustrating combat, and technical issues may deter those seeking a flawless, easy experience, while fans of stylish action-platformers willing to embrace some challenges will find it worthwhile.
Review in Dutch | Read full review