PS2 Samurai Western: Katsugeki Samurai-dou

After the Japan-centric locations in the first two Samurai Michi games, developer Acquire treads off the beaten path and heads into the Wild West of America, circa 19th century. Think spaghetti western and you have an idea of the thugs (and the drawls), locales, and the dusty landscape found in the third Samurai slasher from Spike/Acquire. Players take control of a samurai named Kiryu Goujiro who swings a blade with the best of them.    Battles are simplified from those of Samurai Michi 1 and 2 in that one button now handles all attacks and slashes but different stances may be adopted for attacking with different weapons. Cowboy hats, of all things, and accoutrements may also be worn by Kiryu to enhance his defensive and offensive stats. Since most of the enemies in the game are outlaws hefting firearms, it's seemingly an unfair fight when our samurai is armed with only a sword but it's evenly balanced once you get into the groove of the game and learn the way of deflection. When a bandit fires, bullets may be followed visually and then smacked away with a sword as a protective measure as well as a useful countermeasure by pressing R1 while stationary. With the right timing, bullets may be deflected directly back at the shooter to knock him for a loop. Enemies tend to shoot from a distance but it's fairly easy to close in for a killing hack if your bullet-deflection skills are rusty.    There's a meter on the lower left part of the screen called the Expert Power gauge which fills up as more enemies are sliced up. Once the meter is full, Kiryu may enter a berserker mode for one-hit multiple kills when confronted by a posse of scoundrels. Evasive maneuvers are also available to Kiryu where he dodges bullets like Neo in the Matrix. Sort of.    Since the game takes place in the south, the scenery is peppered with saloons, stagecoaches, sparse wooden buildings, Wanted posters, rickety gunslingers, and other trademark old west fodder. There's even a willowy blonde burlesque performer in see-through outfit... The cowboys all speak in English and the intro to the game is in English for some import friendly fun.