Samurai Bringer exceeded our expectations. It's a fairly simple roguelike at its core, tasking you with hacking and slashing through procedurally generated stages. But in its skill system, which promotes a near ridiculous level of experimentation, Samurai Bringer can flourish into something that's seriously addictive.
Defeated enemies drop loot in the form of scrolls, which can be equipped to your hero. Each scroll gives you access to a specific technique, and these techniques can be assigned to any of your face buttons. The system is straightforward on its surface, but it's the act of combining scrolls that results in the most potent combat abilities.
The thing is, you can combine scrolls however you like. You can add shockwaves, lightning bolts, or poisonous clouds to your basic attacks. Hell, you can add all three if that's your preference. The potential combinations are almost endless, and this is where Samurai Bringer really shines. The degree of gameplay customisation that's on offer right from the word go is quite staggering, and creating your own arsenal of increasingly absurd attacks is highly entertaining.
That said, it takes a while before you feel like you're teetering on the edge of being overpowered. Being a roguelike, death is an inevitability in Samurai Bringer, and the first hours can be both difficult and overwhelming. Again, the sheer amount of customisation is impressive, but you still have to spend a lot of time experimenting to find the best scroll combos. Some players may not have the patience to see this process through — and it doesn't help that the game's menus can be cumbersome.
But hey, at the low price of £6.49 / $9.99, Samurai Bringer is an addictive and dynamic roguelike that we heartily recommend.
Comments 5
I bought this due to the low price, it's okay but it gets very repetitive pretty quickly and personally the soundtrack just didn't work for me, felt like a gameboy game which doesn't suit the PS1-ish graphics imo.
Usually pixel art and roguelike descriptors put me off, but add samurai and a reasonable price and I will probably check it out.
Any sort of permanent upgrades or something of the sort?
@Realist only spent 10 hours or so with it it.
Your character stats remain. These mainly aim at HP, SP (stamina to perform techniques) and number of techniques You can string together. Your Scrolls remain, which grants you said techniques.
Any armor/Weapon you’ve acquired by defeating generals (elite enemies) are dropped (But unlocked) when you die, meaning You can equip it from the hub you return to upon death.
Money is lost when a run ends. So are the BINDINGS and LAYOUTS of your techniques. This is probably the most annoying thing death brings in this game (which this review mentioned) - But this also promotes (requires) experimenting with new layouts - One of this games strong features.
You are also able to save technique layouts by purchasing a specific item from a vendor.
All in all - death is not that big of an issue in this game (apart from having to start over from level 1).
I would’ve liked an option to zoom out the camera a bit more, as the default level is way to zoomed in for my taste.
I generally dig 8-bitish music, But this soundtrack is not well executed and cuts like [insert any samurai weaponry] at your ears.
@cloudkicker Really appreciate the run down. Thanks
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...