1/18/2022
Review of Bujingai
Developed by: Taito, Red Entertainment
2003, PlayStation 2
Bujingai begins with a cold open. When you first start the game, it shows the development studios, then the camera moves to your character and you're able to begin playing through the first level. After a few minutes, the screen fades out and the opening credits start, with a video replay of what you just did during the level cut between scenes. It's one of a few instances where the game tries to make playing it look cool, that and the main character is modeled after Gackt.
The opening turns the actual gameplay into a cinematic, and there are a few other cinematic moments. When you counter-attack an enemy, it locks you into a duel, and as yours and the enemy's swords are interlacing, the camera shifts around the fight at different angles while you go back and forth between attacking and defending. Even though this takes away your control of movement and the camera, you're still controlling the action just by timing when you press the attack button. Also, sometimes when you start a duel both you and the enemy will spin into the air and jump away from each other, landing in a pose that you both keep for a few seconds. I don't know why this happens, but the game making the characters break apart to do a superfluous pose in the middle of a fight feels cinematic.
The movement is the most impressive thing in the game. You can run up walls and fly for a little bit as part of your jump. When you're in an enclosed space you can jump off a wall to flip behind an enemy and it actually looks as cool as it feels. Just running around an empty level was some of the most fun I had in the game, because I don't think the people who made it really knew what to do with the movement in their level design. There's no limit to how long you can run up a wall, and you could probably jump and fly around any level design or enemies they wanted you to engage with, so they made invisible barriers around the levels and mandatory numbers of enemies you have to kill in order to unlock doors so you can keep going. Once you fight an enemy, you usually aren't able to use your movement in an interesting way, so you just attack until they fall down, and wait for them to stand back up like in any beat-them-up game.
Bujingai does have kind of a simplified attack control scheme compared to other 3D action games. You just press the attack button until you decide to start a combo of which there are only three choices, each with its own use. I actually like this more than games where you learn a bunch of button-press combinations to do unique moves. It seems like it puts more emphasis on where you are physically in relation to the enemies around you, so crowd-control and movement become more important. I think it's the same reason why Super Smash Bros. (8.5) appeals to some people who don't care about other 2D fighting games. Bujingai doesn't really live up to that, but if there was a game where you had as much freedom of movement as you do here, and you could use it to pull off situational-based combos depending on where you're located in relation to the enemies physically, as well as having cinematic elements mixed in with every fight, it would probably be my favorite action game.