Kengo: Masters of Bushido Hands-On

Light Weight, the development house responsible for the first two Bushido Blade games, has just finished its first PS2 game - Kengo: Masters of Bushido. The development team is no longer affiliated with Square, and Kengo isn't an official entry in the Bushido Blade series. And, while there are certain similarities between Light Weight's latest offering and its previous games, it's obvious that Kengo: Masters of Bushido was not meant to continue the Bushido Blade series.

Kengo has three gameplay modes. The single-player mode has you pick a lowly dojo apprentice and make him into a famous swordsman. The tournament mode has you pick one of the game's 20 characters and fight a seemingly endless string of warriors until you either defeat them all or drop. The versus mode allows two players to battle it out on the field of your choice.

The single-player mode is the meat of the game. First you choose one of three budding warriors and one of eight dojos, and then you train your character in the ways of the sword through training minigames and practice lessons with the dojo master. As you complete the practice lessons and training minigames, more will be opened up to you. Your fighter has six pertinent stats: attack power, attack speed, agility, insight, spirit, and fame. These stats represent how well you can fight, and they have a significant impact on the development of your character. Each stat has two numbers - the actual value and the value limit. Training raises your value limit, while actually fighting in your dojo raises your actual value. Additionally, fighting in your dojo allows you to learn new sword techniques. These moves can be strung together to form three-move combination attacks. You'll be able to edit your sword combos between matches, and you can store up to 16 different combinations. These techniques take the place of the stances in the Bushido Blade series, and they are activated by pressing different combinations of the shoulder buttons. After you've learned a few lessons, you'll have to challenge all ten of your dojo's students in order, after which you'll face the dojo master himself. After you've defeated everyone in the dojo, the dojo master will award you with an actual sword. The swords are important in the game because they carry your special attack - a furious combo attack that can be activated once your ki meter has peaked. Once you've earned your sword, you'll be able to travel to the seven other dojos and challenge their masters. But before the other masters will fight you, they'll make you fight five of their students. After you beat each dojo master, you'll be awarded with his sword and you will learn some of that dojo's sword techniques. This sequence repeats itself until you've defeated all of the dojos in the game. Once you've defeated all the dojos, you'll be invited to an imperial tournament, which is the first time you'll use an actual sword in the game. After the tournament, you'll be able to go back to the game's various dojos and fight an endless string of lookalike students until you've touched up your technique. Unfortunately, there seems to be no actual quest mode in the game - your samurai never leaves home to search for worthy opponents, and he's never given any motivation to fight beyond merely improving his skills. And while the game's intro sequence shows a weathered swordsman sleeping under the moonlight and fighting ghost warriors, this doesn't appear to actually be a part of the game.