It's a novel notion to be able to have your choices affect a path in a videogame. But in Way Of The Samurai 2, the paths just aren't worth the play. The disappointing sequel keeps the open ended play of the original, but the menial chores and lacking play mechanics could make any samurai give up on their career path.

WofS2 focuses on the town of Amahara in the Edo period. There's a three-way conflict between the townspeople, magistrates, and the Aoto Gang. The townspeople want more business, the magistrates want to serve the law of the land, and the Aoto Gang wants to conquer the town. That's where a lone samurai (played by you), washes up into town to decide which path to take.

Time is separated into five sections indicated by flower pedals. At each point in time players need to choice which of the ten areas he/she wants to head to. There is a dojo area, a blacksmith area, home area, the Aoto Gang HQ, Magistrates office, and other areas where jobs must be completed. Each game lasts ten days, and player actions will determine the ending.

Your destiny is shaped depending on who you want to work for and what conversational choices you make. Players can choose to side with the townspeople, who can help with the best items and sword upgrades, the Aoto Gang to make you a menacing threat around town, or the magistrates to uphold the law. Choices in conversation can immediately shape your alliances, but the poor translation and ambiguous meanings in each choice can inadvertently lead you in an unintended path. Also, if you accidentally run into a thug, you can be considered a threat, thus changing your path.

To build up your cred with the varying factions, players need to run errands. They can be as simple as demanding payment, or as harsh as assassination. The menial jobs aren't that much fun and involve players running to one area, talking to a character, then running back. There's hardly an instant turn of acceptance by a faction to get the ball rolling, and things remain uninteresting until you complete a mass of 'fetch' jobs.

No matter what alliance you make, you have to learn how to fight with a sword. Head to the dojo and the master does a poor job in teaching any techniques. A quick run through the manual and on-screen move guide will help get a grip on sword techniques. There are over 60 swords to use in the game, each with a unique set of moves. The actual fighting is pretty sluggish, though technique driven. Players use horizontal and vertical slashes to take on opponents. Slashes aren't too abrupt, which makes it difficult to react to enemy hits. A right or left analog press in a guard stance can be used to counter enemies and knock them off balance, followed by an instant kill slash. Enemies are either really fast or really slow. If there are a group of enemies, the fight system never tells you which one you're currently focusing on and haphazardly switches from one enemy to the next. It never feels like you have great control over the character to handle the situation.

The camera ranges from adequate to awful. It's set a constant, angled top-down view to concentrate on the character, making it hard to see what's in front of you. Indoor areas are a bigger mess, because of tight hallways and doors that don't let you know if their passable or not. Visuals are average for the PS2. The characters and towns have adequate detail, but are mostly bland. Animations are decent with sword techniques and reactions that look authentic. Voice acting doesn't quite match up with the Japanese-centered game. What's stranger is that they speak English in cinemas but speak in Japanese in gameplay areas. The music is the best part of the package. A combination of soothing strings and drums really set the mood for Japan in the Edo period.

Way Of The Samurai 2 is a novel concept not programmed correctly. The game has ingenuity in its ability to shape a very different path in each play session, but the slow fighting system, boring tasks, and weird translation doesn't make this sword worth sharpening.