While the system has quite a number of more simplistic side-scrolling action titles in the general visual style of Samurai Kento, I can’t think of too many that experiment with various elements quite as much. While not really a Metroidvania, there’s an aspect of exploration and discovery to the title that’s simply different, and at least a bit refreshing. It does lead to a fair amount of backtracking at times, which can be somewhat annoying, but the open-endedness of the route you take is at least novel.

That doesn’t fully compensate for what feels like your very limited prowess with your sword, whose range feels like it’s practically all of an inch in front of your face. Thankfully, for the most part, your enemies aren’t terribly lethal, and the penalty for dying is generally quite mild, but it does feel like an odd choice that creates more dumb frustrations than should be necessary. Another annoyance I had was with my elemental powers I acquired, and trying to use them to do things like clear obstacles. Even with the proper power enabled, the results felt inconsistent at best, which was annoying given you have limited spell points and it just felt like another irritant holding the game back.

While I wouldn’t consider Samurai Kento a great game by any means in the first place, it did feel like an experience chipped away at by small but seemingly preventable issues and annoyances. Make no mistake, among its budget peers it does show some signs of effort in its overall presentation, variety, and stage design, it just also gets sloppy and rough around the edges enough that it’s hard to ignore. In a pinch and on a budget it isn’t a bad option, it just isn’t a great one either.