Way of the Samurai 2 - A Samurai X type game that isn't Samurai X

Way of the Samurai 2 is the second game in the franchise and was also released in October 2003 for the PS2 more than a year after the first game hit shelves way back in February 2002. Now published by Capcom taking the reins from its previous publisher Eidos Interactive.

Sadly with a ton of great games for the ps2 this game went under the radar for a lot of folks but still got enough of a following on its own. Even I admit that it took me a while before I discovered this game was even available for the playstation 2.

Way of the Samurai 2 takes place in a small town of Amahara during the feudal japanese era where samurai's class are slowly become a thing of the past. Here a masterless samurai arrives who's ability and decision will determine the fate of everyone who lives in it. Way of the Samurai 2 takes everything that was great about the first game and greatly improves on it in leaps and bounds.

Storywise Way of the Samurai 2 is far longer than the first game.  Although every game starts out the same with your character entering the town and meeting a mute girl and meeting three thugs the game branch off depending on where you go and who you talk to.

Players can either work for the powerful gang, work as a member of the magistrate which are like the police faction in Amahara or just work for the townspeople as a samurai errand person. Depending on who you choose or where you go and how you interact with people during these few days determine what ending you're going to get. Some endings require you to be at a specific time and place with the right NPC interaction to get. Discovering how is part of the fun of the game.

Unlike the first game there's more things to do with Way of the Samurai 2. Finding lost items, searching for missing persons at some point even some assassination task and stopping a riot depending on which factions you work with just to name some. They even have their own subplot. The game has an economic system that changes depending on who you work for as in more items appear in shop the better you do with these errands.

The characters in Way of the Samurai 2 are all interesting. From the usual corrupt authority, the goofy stooges. They even got an LGBT character. There is even a crazed blood psycho that you will encounter a few times in the story which for me carries one of the best sword in the game. You also unlock character skins and accessories each time you complete a play through and start a new game. Although this game doesn't mention any specific events in the previous game in any way the blacksmith from the first game is back.

The game has 60+ swords you can collect with some being carried by specific characters that you can only encounter on a specific date and time. Players can hunt and experiment on which sword works best for them or just collect them as folks would collect Pokemons. Each sword has their own combo and sword style. I there's even a sword style that is straight up out of the anime Samurai X.

Some rare swords only appear at higher difficulty settings so getting every sword in the game takes a bit of a challenge to do. Be warned though that killing certain story specific characters unless it's part of the story will change the ending you will get. I remember killing off a certain NPC on my fifth play through cause I wanted his double sword only to find out later I ended up with a different game ending.

The game isn't perfect though as graphics have clipping issues and such that players will notice every time the character draws and sheathes his or her sword. The areas are a lot smaller than in the first game which is both good and bad depending on what you want in your game. The errands are repetitious and can be a chore specially after frequent game replays.

Overall Way of the Samurai 2 improves on the first game in a lot of areas. Better story, graphics, music and improved gameplay compared to the first game. If you are a fan of samurai anime or samurai games then you definitely should give this game a swing. A criminally underrated game that should be played by everyone.