It could have gone somewhere, but stopped short.
At the start of the game, you will choose between one of 3 characters. One strong, one fast, and one balanced. No matter who you pick, the game will play out the same. You proceed to pick a Dojo to train at to raise through the ranks and learn swordsmanship, eventually acquring the sword and secret techinque of the school. The sword only makes its presence in tournaments or ambushes. The secret technique is what's important. After acquiring enough chi during battle, you can unleash a secret attack that will probably devastate your opponent and utterly destroy them. After participating in several duels, you will start to see the easiest ways to raise you chi. Eventually you can raise it way too fast and kill your enemy way too fast. If this special technique didn't exist, the fights would be far more fun. Instead of giving you a moveset, you make your own attacks and assign them to the shoulder buttons. By fighting enemies, your character will memorize and learn more attack to string together into one move. Therefore, the farther you get, the more moves you can make. Many different kinds of attacks can be strung together, and it's up to you to figure out which ones to string to cut through the enemy defense and to optimal damage. You also need to consider accuracy, where the enemy is getting hit, and the overall speed and strength of the combo. The face buttons are used for blocking and such while the D-pad sidesteps and walks. The fighting is more about timing and knowing which move will hit and do the most damage rather than memorization and fast intense exchanges.
Their are many forms of training that will make you stronger. They are all mini games, but they are all fun no matter how many times you play them. Unlike most mini games, they are in no ay easy. Doing things like standing in a circle of candles and cutting them all with one stroke or standing under a waterfall will increase your stats. 2 different kinds of training. One will increase the limit of how high a certain stat can be and the other will actually raise the stat. There are several different mini games and they are all enjoyable as well as difficult to master. Actually, you'll do more training than you will actually fighting, so you're edge in combat might dull for better training results or vice versa. Once you complete the first school you went to, you can challenge other schools, eventually challenging the master for his technique and sword. Every now and then you'll get a chance to enter into a tournament with real swords, so bleed damage is a factor. When you defeat all the schools and win a tournament, you will have to kill your original master. After that you will become a master yourself and take on challenges from other schools and continue training. The whole process will take you anywhere from 10 to 20 hours to complete.
The game has no storyline whatsoever, the voicing is all in Japanese with subtitles and music never shows, and the graphics are as realistic as possible. That said, there isn't anything to say AT ALL about the game's features besides the actual gameplay. The gameplay itself is original, but not entirely a blast. This might be because of the absence of music or how easy it is to overpower your foe 10 seconds into the fight with a secret technique. The game was on to something at some point, but it's hard to tell where that something started and ended. 7.7 out of 10.