Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

I don't think I've ever played a game that had this much potential, everything about this game screams "This game is gonna rawk!" but even those screams are muffled by some rather fatal flaws. First, this game looks pretty good. Some of the areas you pass are pretty richly detailed, the characters are alright. Pretty much everything in the sound score is forgettable. There's some pretty random and unfitting music in some of the area's, there's some kind of squishing sound whenever you hit an enemy, the voice work is not the best that I've heard. And do yourself a favor, if you get this game, before you even play it for the first time turn the language to Japanese and have English subtitles. All of the cutscenes were sync'd with Japanese as the language so if you play it on English be prepared for the worst lip-syncing ever.
The story is pretty simple, rescue the princess and kill the demons. That is pretty much it, no story twists, a bunch of characters that you don't get to fight, and some of the simplest dialogue I've ever heard. If you love anime then you'll like it cause it's just as cheesy and simple as some anime shows, but without the comedy.
As for the gameplay, there really is nothing good to say. This is where the game almost fatally falters. It is playable, but not by much. It has some of the worst fighting mechanics I've seen, Samanoske is very slow, so you can't move around alot in battle. Making defense your best option. Nothing wrong with that, it's just hard when sometimes enemies' can hit you even when you're blocking (I'm talking a cheap shot not a gaurd-breaker) you can't sidestep or anything while blocking, that's a different button. You also can't cancel enemy attacks, if they start an attack you better hope you're blocking since you can't interrupt it. And I have no clue why you can't use the analog stick to move, that would have eliminated alot of the flaws. But you have to use the directional buttons.
Everything about this game could have been awesome, but with some bad gameplay choices it falls short. Also it is an extremely short game, it can be completed in 3 hours. But with a battle system like this I'm kind of glad it was short. It's a good game to broaden your gaming horizons and since I got it for 4 bucks it wasn't a bad investment. But don't come expecting an incredible gaming experience, it almost delivers but almost doesn't cut it.