In the end, Genji: Days of the Blade is just a bad game with pretty visuals.
The first thing that stands out about Genji's gameplay is how dreadfully slow it is, hindering the overall pacing of the game itself. The characters, even the quickest of them, seem to be trudging through snow or molasses as they run at speeds which would be considered walking speed in other games. The character's lack of agility translates into clumsiness, and even the most nimble looking characters are incredibly gawky in their motions. The platforming aspects of the game were poorly conceived, as the characters lack the precision and delicacy of movement necessary for some of the games more complex obstacles. One room remains particularly vivid in my memory, one with vertical wheels which must be jumped in a timed order. The result missing a jump is often falling into a trap room below and then being forced to start the obstacle all over again. Level design, though visually stunning, is also extremely confining, and often the battlefields which you are fighting on become more like prison cells when engaging in combat. There simply isn't enough room to move around, and it detracts from the overall experience of the game.
But because this is a 'hack-n-slash' game, the most important aspect is, of course, the combat system, which is unfortunately Genji's weakest point. The combat system in Genji is only about as deep as the one used in the Dynasty Warriors series, and if you know anything about the combat system utilized in those games, you know it is incredibly weak, shallow, and simple. Combat in Genji: Days of the Blade is no better, and it only adds to an overall underwhelming experience. Three of the controller's four face buttons are assigned to be attack buttons while the fourth is a jump. The concept sounds like it opens the doors for a rather deep system, but on the contrary, depending on which character you are using and which weapon you have equipped, usually only one of the three attack buttons is capable of stringing together multiple hits into a combo. The other two buttons are either one hitters or absolutely useless (in the case of Benkei's shot raged kick). There are also jump attacks available to the characters, but seeing that most of the games enemies are grounded, they jump attacks will only be useful on rare occasions. Overall, the character's movesets are extremely and disappointingly limited, consisting of four hit combos at the max. The game attempts to make up for this by providing the player with multiple characters and weapons to use, however, as previously stated, the character have an incomprehensively small repertoire of moves and it turns out that only two of the games four characters are capable of performing combos. The game provides each character with multiple weapons which will become available during the course of the game. But instead of providing the characters with entirely different movesets, the additional weapons only provide slight variations on the original basic moveset of the first weapon, thus making them practically no more useful than the first. To make matters worse for Genji, the combat, like the rest of the gameplay, is unreasonably slow, and the cinematic camera angles hinder the combat, as you will often be attacked by enemies off-screen.
While some 'hack-n-slash' titles are about having complex, free, and diverse combat systems with a large arsenal of weapons and attack combinations available to the characters to dispatch of their foes, Genji is about learning to work within the confines of the game's frustrating and limiting combat system and using the restrictions that the game places on you. Those new to the 'hack-n-slash' genre may find the game appealing, but veterans and hardcore fanatics will not get much enjoyment out of its generic, dull, and outrageously slow gameplay. But even then, if you have ever experienced the glory that is Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden (or even God of War-which I dislike), than you will most certainly find Genji to be unimpressive and underwhelming. There are simply much more satisfying titles available in the genre than Genji, and I would suggest investigating those titles before pursing Genji further. Voiceacting is mediocre and ameture in Genji: Days of the Blade. Affect is rarely shown and rather flat. Storyline is generic, dull, and rather unimportant to the overall experience. It attempts to be dramatic, but it simply is not compelling enough to get involved in. Characters are poorly developed and seem to have little to no personality.
In the end, Genji: Days of the Blade is just a bad game with pretty visuals, but sadly they do little to distract from the incredibly tepid and slow paced gameplay.