Afro Samurai has loads of potential--that just isn't fulfilled.
Afro!
Afro Samurai is a game that makes failure pop into my head instantly. I mean, if it wasn't an Anime, just the nam would bring back bad memories of Pirates vs. Ninja's Dodgeball. Luckily this game isn't complete fail, matter of fact it's not fail at all, super matter of fact, it's pretty great in some points but in others, not so much...
One of the great things is the gameplay. Sure, sometimes it gets tedious just running around, hacking and slashing people in the same way but seeing their blood spew out is so damn beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, not just is the blood great the entire art style is great. Just standing there watching Afro's hair wave around in the air quickly reminded me that the cell-shaded art style is by far my favorite art style. The graphics are great but there is some pretty bad frame rate drops at points. Mainly they'd just happen when I'd be fighting a bunch of guys but sometimes it'd just happen when I'd be platforming. Speaking of platforming...
It sucks, hard! Afro Samurai's platforming is possibly--no not possibly, BY FAR the worst platforming (recommend some horrid platforming games that can maybe rival this and I'll play them and possibly change this) I've seen in a game. One amazingly bad example of a bad platforming sequence is in the second-to-last level, at the end of the level you've got three bosses each one is annoying, and before getting to those shitty boss-fights, you've got to go through even shittier platforming sections. And guess what happens when you lose a that boss-fight? You start the fight over? No. You start all the way at the bottom and have to go through the shitty platforming again. I mean when I run right into a pole that I'm supposed to grab and he just falls down... that's not good at all. Great design choice!
Oh, and chances are, you'll lose that boss fight. Why? Because the boss-fights are garbage...except the final 2, those are filled with badassery. There only real boss-fights that are actually good is the first Doppelganger boss-fight and the 2 aforementioned fights. I would mention some bad ones but I don't feel like naming every single other boss-fight in the game. I will call out one though. It's one of the final boss fights in the second-to-last chapter. The guy your fighting is pretty much a damn tank. It takes SO MANY shots just to kill this guy. It's fucking frustrating!
I've heard quite a bit of people moaning and stuff about the story but I really got into it. There was some really deep moments where I was like "oh shit, that's not good." I really love how it pokes fun at itself at the end though.The ending is really deep. I really want to go deeper but if I did I would totally spoil it so, I will end the story part with, I loved it.
The Soundtrack is pretty much the penicle of awesome. Not just the great singing, the beat is pretty amazing. You'll find yourself just sitting there tapping your feet and the real Rap really kicks in during big fights so your constantly just dieing for a boss fight to hear the song again... because of course, nobody wants to pay money for music. You will be hearing the song a lot and after the 5th level you've probably heard all the songs but I never really got tired of them
Afro Samurai really is a fun playthrough. But after you beat it, the only thing that was left was pretty much just the momentos that I personally think was just thrown it to make it seem like more of a platformer. That and adding some more achievements.
Afro Samurai is filled with potential and if it would've done better in taking out the horrid ass platforming, fixing the bad boss-fights, and putting some better checkpoints in it. Until we hopefully get a second one, this game will remain average...
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