ans of the immensely popular Devil May Cry series will instantly recognize elements of it in Bujingai: The Forsaken City. In both cases, players control a warrior fighting in a haunted city far in the future. In a similar manner, the main character of Bujingai, named Lau Wong, kicks over crates and urns, jumps up on top of slanted roofs, swings from low-hanging poles and collects glowing orbs to add to his stash.
Lau fights with both a regular sword attack and a special attack, while saving up enough magic to unleash everything from a fireball (gouenken attack) to a shockwave (dankuuken). In his travels, he also collects coins and other semi-hidden items while enemies rise up to challenge him. Evil classes include quick-on-their feet "hellbeasts," sturdy undead warriors and—in later levels—the Mistress of Cruelty and the White Demodragon.
At the outset, players can select a difficulty level; easy is so simple, enemies don't seem to notice Lau, much less attack him. Medium is not much tougher. Most experienced players will want to start on the hardest level at the outset.
Bujingai requires steadfastness: Lau must kill all of his enemies and explore every secret nook and cranny for special items. Unless all the bad guys are defeated, the demonic barriers stay locked. The blue orbs Lau collects throughout the game (both in crates and from killing his enemies) can be used for weapon upgrades.
At the start, players can elect to watch the various tutorials, delivered in a Shogun-style voice-over by a martial-arts master. After each tutorial plays, Lau can linger outside the temple to practice the lesson. The game's aesthetic is half-goth and half-anime, with kitschy plot points, such as Lau's Final Fantasy-esque girlfriend (ex-girlfriend?) Yohfa, who leads the way through various Portals to new levels.
A less-than-compelling superhero
It's difficult to say why a game like Bujingai doesn't merit a higher rating. The game has cool jumps and combos, the chance to pilot a warrior as he floats in with a special attack, the various gloomy maps ready to be explored. In theory, all the elements are there, ready to make this an "A" game for fans of wire-fu fighters.
Perhaps the problem starts with the character of Lau himself. With his punky hair and pretty-boy face, he resembles a mid-1980s Boy George look-alike. (In actuality, he's based on a Japanese glam-rocker.) It's tough to take him seriously as a fighter, when you sense he'd rather be text-messaging and shopping for distressed jeans at Diesel. On top of that, he says very little throughout the game, keeping players from feeling invested in whether Lau lives or dies.
While Bujingai can be a fun game, particularly for fans of Japanese action titles, there's really nothing new about it. The maps are linear (one way in, one way out). Somewhere in the bamboo forest, wandering back over the same misty ground while trying to find the last werewolf-beast to kill, it struck me: There's just nothing particularly memorable about Bujingai. That doesn't make it a terrible game by any means, but it does make it a second-tier title.
The game's best moments are when one of the bosses executes a successful riposte during combat. Lau and his foe enter a counter-strike mode, and the camera zooms in to catch a flurry of attack moves. For most players, this mode isn't enough to make Bujingai a must-have pick. But for action fans (or anyone patiently waiting for the next Devil May Cry to be released) it's enough to keep players busy—at least for a long weekend.
I started off liking this game, but couldn't help but find it tedious after a few hours. Too bad.
— Jennifer
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