This article originally ran under a different banner/website in September of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! I, THE VIDEO GAME DOOMSAYER, HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE: I HAVE NEVER WATCHED THE ICONIC EARLY 2000’s CARTOON, SAMURAI JACK. I never got the opportunity to enjoy the show in my early years. Despite being revered for its unique art style and exhilarating fight scenes, the show fell off my radar even as a fifth season came out in 2017. However, with the recent release of Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, my curiosity has certainly been piqued. Ghost of Tsushima was able to get me interested in traveling to Japan, so this Samurai Jack game could possibly convince me to give the show a chance.
Our story begins with Jack on the verge of slaying Aku. I always liked the design of Aku as I recalled images of him from my younger days. Images of demons from Japanese folklore flood my mind when thinking of this villain. The artists behind the show we clearly inspired by this art as they crafted an antagonist who looks like one of those demons coming out of those pages itself. As Jack is about to deal the final blow, Aku pulls his final trick out of his sleeve. He opens a dimensional gate that sends Jack hurdling through time and space. Jack is ping-ponged back and forth through time, landing at various locations through the show. A time travel plot that oddly feels similar to the plot of Avengers: Endgame, but feels more at home in the fantasy world of Samurai Jack.
Along our journey, we interact with famous characters from the Samarui Jack universe. I met allies like Sir Rothchild and the Scotsman. I foiled minions of Aku such as Demongo and Scaramouche. All this time, the game failed to really introduce these characters and I felt as if I was dragged to a party where I knew nobody. I expected the game was going to continue forward assuming I already knew these characters. Just having Jack casually nod to them when he runs into them. However, Jack has an extensive dialog with the Daughters of Aku. He tries to talk them down from being mindless minions of Aku and is able to help Ashi break free from Aku’s grasp. While I enjoyed this interaction, it made me wonder why Jack had no other interactions with other characters. I am not looking for Jack to introduce each character, but some friendly banter would be welcomed by newcomers like me and veterans of the series.
While the story hasn’t sold me on the show, maybe the gameplay could change my mind. The gameplay of Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is one of a third-person hack and slash reminiscent of the PS2 days. Some might think I am gearing up to scream my frustrations into the night sky, but I don’t truly hate the combat system. You naturally have a quick attack and heavy attack, and by mixing them together you can perform various combos of moves. It reminds me of the first Darksiders title, especially when you can purchase some additional moves from the hip hop vendor and through various character upgrades. Along with Jack’s magical sword, you get access to various weapons like spears, hammers, clubs, and various ranged weapons. The variety helps the combat stay fresh as you are hacking and slashing your way through levels.
However, as you can imagine, I have various grievances with the combat that encourage me from getting up onto my soapbox and shouting at anyone not willing to give the game a chance. For starters, some of the fights versus standard grunt minions can be obnoxious on the higher difficulties. I frequently found myself being juggled around by minions when the game decides to spawn eight of them in the arena. While the game’s controls are functional, they aren’t tight enough to allow for precision dodging and parrying required to deal with those numbers of enemies. Rather than wallow in frustration, I turned down the difficulty and still received a challenge.
My other frustration came from all the weapons having weapon degradation. With the exception of your famous magical swords, all of your weapons will break with extended use. Your only way to combat this is to use your limited resources to repair these weapons. A frown would always form on my face when I couldn’t purchase more combat moves due to the fact I had to repair my weapons. I understand developers use weapon degradation to get players to experiment with different weapons, but weapon degradation always feels like a lazy solution. If you want me to use different weapons, reward me for doing so. Don’t punish me for using one weapon. I recall the World of Warcraft developers trying to find a solution to prevent players from playing their game all day. Initially, they thought of decreasing the number of experienced players received from quests as they continued to play the game, but players didn’t enjoy the system. The developers decided they would give players bonus experience if they were offline for a set amount of time. Rewarding behavior they were looking for, rather than punishing players for their bad behavior. I wish developers would apply the same philosophy with weapon degradation. Maybe give me a damage buff for constantly switching weapons, so I feel rewarded for skillfully switching between my arsenal.
MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS, I can see a fan of the show would be able to look past the limited character interactions and the annoying weapon degradation and ultimately enjoy Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. However, I have never seen the show, and my lack of context just makes me feel like the experience was average. The true goal of this experiment was to see if Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time would convince me to watch the show. While I can see the show’s potential through the game, I don’t feel the game highlights enough of what people love about the show. I would be happy to watch if someone put an episode on, but I do not feel the need to navigate the sea of streaming services to find a way to binge-watch the show. Sorry Jack, better luck next time.