The following is a guest review written by Rutilcaper.

What does he care? It's not HIS house.

It's cruel fate that would decide to start up a school year just as no less than half a dozen good games are coming out. The end result for people like yours truly? Well, I barely have a single dime to spend on computerized entertainment, let alone $300. So Soul Calibur II comes out the very same day as From Software's new action/platform/whatever the hell else game, Otogi : Myth of Demons. It hardly seems fair, but with a little deductive reasoning I figured everyone and their mother (Well probably not their mothers...just them) would be picking up Soul Calibur and I needed some Sega juice in my veins. Judging by reports in the field, that wasn't a bad decision. It was hard enough finding a copy on a launch day, let alone a week later. Every store had 30+ copies of each version of Soul Calibur behind their racks. How many Otogi? Three to four TOTAL seemed to be the general estimate. From what I've heard it boils down to "If you didn't get it already, don't even bother". Which is a shame, because you're all really missing out.

Like some sort of demented drink recipe (Try five seconds gin, two midori, two orange vodka, capped with pineapple juice. The "Roy Special") I'd imagine a game like Otogi could have only been dreamed up on some crumpled napkin in a seedy Tokyo bar while drunk on the fine beverage that is Sapporo. I can see it in my very mind's eye. Two parts seminal action shooter (Gunvalkyrie), one part high speed old school carnage (Shinobi) and one part Pong (Yeah, you heard right). Shake liberally, serve over ice.

I think I'm one of five people who actually liked Gun Valkyrie but you'll notice I used the word 'seminal' for a reason (a reason besides me actually knowing what it means now). Though it may not be the case, Sega's former product seems to have had at least a little influence on From Software's newest release Stateside. The game puts you in the part of Raikoh, recently resurrected spirit warrior. He's from that lovable clan of guys whose job it is to act as some sort of Japanese Grim Reaper, basically they kill people when it's their time to die. I don't know about you guys, but that sounds a lot less like a job to me and more like a bunch of RITUAL KILLERS. I don't know maybe I just didn't take the two month seminar on Japanese history required to understand this game. Regardless, Raikoh's one hell of a stand up guy, but when the day came for him to give the axe to his father he just couldn't do it. I don't know if this made someone mad, or he took a nap and never woke up...but the end result is Raikoh is one dead Japanese Grim Reaper.

Only he's not, because this mysterious princess brought him back from the dead and told him he had to atone for his sins by stopping a real jerk of a sorcerror and a whole bunch of other demons from breaking some seal that keeps their country safe from everything lurking outside. Again, maybe I'm just not as bulked up on my Japanese history as From Software might like me to be, but I don't remember any of these things happening during Japan's past. I think From Software did this on purpose, as the story is pretty much incomprehensible. I know there's some bad guys and I'm a good guy. The creators do love to throw in that "grey morals" thing. Why should I care about whether or not the giant orange lion is evil when it's trying to gnaw my face off?

That's not important though, what IS important is that the princess hooked Raikoh up with some pretty sweet abilities to do it with. And while you're not quite the aerial battler you could be in Gun Valkyrie, Raikoh certainly has some tricks up his sleeve. Jump, double jump, air dash, all very common things but the way our beloved undead warrior strings them together can often be seen as a thing of beauty, and the fact that you can keep yourself in the air pretty much indefinetely through clever use of dashing and air combos is something I wish was included in every game from this day forward (And I do men EVERY game. Who here hasn't thought Pokemon could benefit from a juggle or two?). So you're not surprised I'll tell you, hitting the skies becomes less of a suggestion and more of a prerequisite as you progress further. This is done mostly through the use of damaging ground such as lava and, get this, water. If you thought NINJAS hated water you're in a for a whole new world here.

I spent way too much time at Hollywood Tans and now the world must PAY!

Now Raikoh's a pretty tough guy, tough enough that some of his health will regenerate over time, so the damage from this deadly aquean element is done through an alternate source, the magic that keeps him alive. Fans of Shinobi will recognize this as very similar to Hotsuma's Akujiki gauge. While Raikoh's slow magic dissapation doesn't provide nearly the frenetic pace that Shinobi did, it's still a constant reminder that you shouldn't dick around too much lest you find yourself a bubbling pile of Raikoh goo (Though we don't actually see anything of the sort. Maybe in Otogi 2?). Also there's nothing that says you can't run around a level without magic, as you don't die immediately...but you lose out on a few of the fun moves and you're gonna keel over eventually.

This is a problem, as Otogi allows...nay, ENCOURAGES you to smash up basically everything in sight and that takes a lot of time. In level one I was slightly amused when I discovered I could cut down trees, in level three I found out that sometimes the stuff you bash up has power-ups in them, but the TRUE joy was sending a birdman's feathery ass flying through three walls of an abandoned mansion and just watching the combo counter tick up. Not only that, but if you manage to break the right objects you'll free "souls" hidden around the level. Also, those sly foxes are smart enough to taunt you with a ranking based on how much damage you've caused to the surrounding area. Free all the souls and you've just garnered yourself one badass sword. I don't know about you, but when I see a letter grade that's like a challenge and in Otogi the challenge is often an unfair one. The game fully expects you to break everything, be it the bridges you're using to keep out of the dangerous water or the...sunken ships sticking out of more dangerous water. Basically, those Japanese really like their deadly water. Like I said, it's sometimes the lava...but it's really mostly water. Sometimes the water is red though...if that counts.

Aside from water, Raikoh's got his fair share of enemies to deal with and combat can certainly get a bit hectic. Otogi is generally not a game where you can always rush in and expect good results. You'll want to think about every move you make. It's kind of like chess, but without the pieces, or being on a board, or being boring. Enemy-wise it's standard demon badguy fare for the most part, skeletons and floating skulls and skeleton wizards, except everything has WINGS. I'm pretty sure I brought that up before. If they don't have wings they're flying anyway and the one or two guys they don't fly can either jump all the way across the screen, or ARE all the screen. Either way, the point is pretty moot.

It does make for some very cinematic battles though, and much like air juggling, they're all things that a game could use more of. Giant boss levels, chase levels, and the ever popular levels where giant bosses chase you. There's one that has you running down a hallway that is very reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon Orta...if you don't recognize it when you see it, that means you don't own Panzer Dragoon...and that hurts, that really hurts guys. Panzer Dragoon or not, there's definetely some theatrical flair going on over here. And it's my favorite kind of flair, the kind where you kill a boss by leaving five boss-sized craters in level. That's alright with me.

The only issue I have with the game is that it often feels like everything's moving in slow motion. I have a feeling this was yet a stylistic thing, as the almost non-existant subdued music adds a bit too much for that to be considered an accident. Think of it this way, other games are more of a tango while Otogi's a nice little waltz. It'll still get you where you're trying to go, and it'll get you there with a hell of a lot more panache when it's done. Well, there's one other thing people might consider a problem. About half way through they recycle a few of the levels. Normally this is really a killer (Steel Battallion's recycling was a capital offense in my opinion. They were the SAME missions) but Otogi manages to do it with the same style as the rest of the game. At one point undead Raikoh is somehow made even MORE dead and must wander a realm composed mostly of his memories . As such, the levels are very distorted and it'll take you awhile to realize that they're even being repeated. All in all, I think this is the only case of level repetition I'm actually at ease with. This may be in part to the levels being pretty inventive. While they almost all boil down to "kill these guys" or "break this stuff" the methods you go about doing so are usually, for lack of a better term, awesome. The only level I hated was the one where you have to protect a little spirit and I soon rectified myself with it after realizing *I* was the one killing it half the time.

Nothing says sexy like a triple digit combo. Eat your heart out Killer Instinct.

So in the end Raikoh never really gains the means to combat the deadly, life sucking water and since this isn't a Squaresoft game he never manages to grow wings. It's all good though, he does have a few other tricks up his sleeve. Scattered around basically every level is some sort of talisman, or weapon, or magic spell. You certainly don't need all of these. I went through the whole game using about four weapons total and ONE spell...but they're sure as hell fun to collect since getting most of them involves bashing stuff up (and it added about six or seven hours to my play time without feeling like I was doing the same mindless dribble over and over). Tell the truth, you know your heart sings with joy when you get that hundredth little trinket to round out your inventory. Mine certainly does, and Otogi manages to appease the collector in me without forcing me to dig up six hundred little "packages" or some other equally inane task. While the weapons and items aren't so unique as say, the ultraspecialized weapons of Devil May Cry, many of them do manage to have their own charm. The staff that makes you jump higher is a personal favorite of mine and who can aruge with an undead warrior wielding two scimitars at a time?

Not me, certainly.