Sword of Asumi

Reading has always been a favorite pass-time for many, especially me.  I have spent long summer days and long winter nights reading.  I love comics, books, and video games, so I thought that this was going to be a good experience as it was a mix of the three.  Within the first few minutes, I realized that I was very wrong with my expectations.

After playing through the game the only thing about this game that sticks with me is how juvenile it is.  This game is boring and forgettable.  The storyline feels forced, with bland characters and a cliche plot.  I feel that I missed most of the story as I was clicking through, and I still was able to guess the ending without error.  This game is one that is best forgot, unless you are looking for a waste of time and money that leaves you confused and bored afterward.

The premise of the game is that you are a young girl named Asumi, an assassin that is assigned to stop the a mysterious character named 'Raven'.  In order to do this, you must enroll in a samurai training school in order to investigate and stop your target.  You are given one week to find this character and stop them.  And, of course, the week that you have is the week of 'induction', where prospective students try their hands at different topics.  During the course of the week you will have a choice of which classes to attend, what to do in them, and which students to associate with.  How you do in the class can effect relationships with other characters, depending on the class and character.

A few of the decisions you make, from what to say, which activity to attend, who to spend time with, or whether to kill someone or not, will have an effect on the ending.  Most of the other text is filler and has no effect on anything.  I found that I could skip large portions of text and it didn't hinder gameplay or storyline comprehension at all.  Depending on who you spend time with and which activities you attend you can get different endings.  You even have the chance to develop romantic relationships with different characters.  The characters, though, are bland and stereotypical, with the bookworm that spends all her time studying and reading, the popular jock who works out all the time, the beautiful, blond, and voluptuous female student body president who is always busy, and the loner guy that has the tragic backstory that can't tell you anything or they'll be in trouble, just to name a few.  The only character development is the forced progression that happens when plot demands it.  Most of the interactions left me disinterested and hoping the next part would be more interesting.  When the ending came I found myself glad it was over, even though I happened to get one of the 'bad' endings.  And to be honest, I didn't care, I was just happy the bumbling storyline was finally finished.

As you complete different parts of the game you get pictures added to the gallery to show different decisions you made.  The first time I played I was merciful to different characters in the opening, while in the second I chose to kill instead of disable.  The only difference there was between sparing and killing was the picture that was added to the gallery and the achievement that was added to my Steam account.  There isn't a way to get all of the pictures in the gallery in one play through, as they require you to get different endings and make different choices.  After getting halfway through a speed-run the second time I played I gave up, not caring to get a good ending even though I had a walkthrough to tell me which decision to make.  This story is so shallow you could catch the idea of what is happening if the text boxes had been removed entirely.

One thing that I noticed is that some of the images are of the different characters in different outfits.  I can see that one purpose of the gallery is to keep a log of the more revealing images that unnecessarily happen from time to time in the game.  I mean honestly, who needs to see the main character or the other students in underwear as she changes outfits or in revealing swim suits?  No one, that's who.  Parts of the game, such as the gallery and certain interactions, seem to have been added to pander to those who would buy this game, but not because of the storyline.

The game provides a codex, or a place to find different information on each of the characters you meet and places mentioned in the game.  My only question is to why such a shallow game, with forced interactions and plot progression, would need lore.  It's painfully obvious that most that would buy and play this game aren't doing it for the story, and those that do don't stay for long.  I played it as I was genuinely interested to see how it would turn out as I have never read a graphic novel.  After reading this I am regretting the decision to do so.

In summery I would have to say that this game is not worth the cost.  Even if this game were free it wouldn't be worth the time to play it.  I look back on the 2 hours playing it as wasted time I will never recover, so hopefully this warning will help others realize what an obtuse waste this game is.  If you're looking for a good read or a fun comic, please go find a good book or comic.  This is not the reading material you are looking for.