Samurai of Hyuga
released on Sep 16, 2016
Samurai of Hyuga is a brutal, heart-pounding interactive tale. Prepare to enter the land of silk and steel, where fantasy clashes against grim reality, and where the good guys don't always win in the end. It's a harsh world with tough choices at every turn. Good thing you're the toughest ronin around.
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TL;DR: I'd recommend this to people who like reading and Japanese-inspired settings. If you like stories, then you might check it out because it is a good and interactive one, but don't expect a lot of difference between playthroughs. If you hate reading, then you will have a bad time; there isn't anything beyond reading and what imagination you bring with you: no sound, music, or pictures.
Samurai of Hyuga was a smooth reading experience. While I enjoyed the story that was presented to me and would like to heavily praise it, there are some things that I must address to prospective buyers beforehand so that there aren't any misunderstandings about the product: I hesitate to call it a video game and would say that it is best labeled as an interactive story. There are no sounds, music, or pictures, just words and some choices for you to select from. The choices that you choose do not change how the story plays out, but does change how your character reacts and may even add or take away a few pages, so they are more of interactions (I went through the game twice and did two completely opposite playthroughs and largely had the same experience minus some differences in dialogue).
Samurai of Hyuga has an interesting mechanic where for the first half of the game your responses define your character and sets your character's 'attunement' (if you make a lot of perverted responses or protective response within the first half of the game, then your character ends up being defined as such and any contradictory responses go against your character's attunement, although I noted no consequences of going against your attunement). It's a bit of a weird mechanic, but I didn't see it as something negative or annoying. A consequence of choosing a lot of the same type of response (responses have types, though they aren't laid out for you until after you have selected and chosen it) is that later in the story, if it is part of your attunement, some portions of the game has your character make dialogue responses automatically which are suited to their attunement; so if you choose charming responses a lot, then the game is going to make a lot of charming responses for your character because it is in character for your character to respond that way. The auto-responses don't get in the way of choice, there are still choices/interactions to be made in the later half of the game. By the way, you can name your character from a list of names or make your own as well as choose their gender and sexual preference. In addition to this, you can import your character and his/her choices to the sequel.
One thing that might really frustrate players is the fact that there is no way to do two playthroughs at the same time. You are locked into what you are playing until you hit the restart button, so if you make a wrong choice or misinterpret something you have to deal with (kinda cool, makes it much more life-like in my opinion, however some will not like that sort of thing). There is no way to go back to previous pages -bar restarting the entire story - however, it is set up to where you have a button on the bottom of the page that you must click to move on to the next one so there is barely a risk of accidentally skipping a page (I never did and most pages seem to have interactions you must make which further reduces that risk).
With the explanations and potential turn-offs out of the way, I can now focus on praising/discussing what I like about Samurai of Hyuga. The writing itself was very descriptive and interesting; this is something I have trouble tearing myself away from once I start reading. The characters felt real, captivating, and were very well done. The dialogue never made me cringe or feel shame, it was very natural. I was always able to keep up with what was going on and able to picture it in vivid detail thanks to how skillfully the words were delivered. I'd also like to offer that from a price standpoint it is cheaper than a lot of novels, especially the hardback ones and is a bit longer in length than your average novel (over 500 pages long). I realize the positives I list off may seem quite short in comparison to the explanation I gave, but there isn't much I can say without giving examples and spoiling some of the experience. I really only have the mixed feeling about there not being a way to go back to the previous pages without restarting.
Samurai of Hyuga is a resounding “yes!” to avid readers that enjoy swordplay and/or Japanese-esque settings, however, please be aware that the story as a whole is a few sequels away from being finished.
Samurai of Hyuga was a smooth reading experience. While I enjoyed the story that was presented to me and would like to heavily praise it, there are some things that I must address to prospective buyers beforehand so that there aren't any misunderstandings about the product: I hesitate to call it a video game and would say that it is best labeled as an interactive story. There are no sounds, music, or pictures, just words and some choices for you to select from. The choices that you choose do not change how the story plays out, but does change how your character reacts and may even add or take away a few pages, so they are more of interactions (I went through the game twice and did two completely opposite playthroughs and largely had the same experience minus some differences in dialogue).
Samurai of Hyuga has an interesting mechanic where for the first half of the game your responses define your character and sets your character's 'attunement' (if you make a lot of perverted responses or protective response within the first half of the game, then your character ends up being defined as such and any contradictory responses go against your character's attunement, although I noted no consequences of going against your attunement). It's a bit of a weird mechanic, but I didn't see it as something negative or annoying. A consequence of choosing a lot of the same type of response (responses have types, though they aren't laid out for you until after you have selected and chosen it) is that later in the story, if it is part of your attunement, some portions of the game has your character make dialogue responses automatically which are suited to their attunement; so if you choose charming responses a lot, then the game is going to make a lot of charming responses for your character because it is in character for your character to respond that way. The auto-responses don't get in the way of choice, there are still choices/interactions to be made in the later half of the game. By the way, you can name your character from a list of names or make your own as well as choose their gender and sexual preference. In addition to this, you can import your character and his/her choices to the sequel.
One thing that might really frustrate players is the fact that there is no way to do two playthroughs at the same time. You are locked into what you are playing until you hit the restart button, so if you make a wrong choice or misinterpret something you have to deal with (kinda cool, makes it much more life-like in my opinion, however some will not like that sort of thing). There is no way to go back to previous pages -bar restarting the entire story - however, it is set up to where you have a button on the bottom of the page that you must click to move on to the next one so there is barely a risk of accidentally skipping a page (I never did and most pages seem to have interactions you must make which further reduces that risk).
With the explanations and potential turn-offs out of the way, I can now focus on praising/discussing what I like about Samurai of Hyuga. The writing itself was very descriptive and interesting; this is something I have trouble tearing myself away from once I start reading. The characters felt real, captivating, and were very well done. The dialogue never made me cringe or feel shame, it was very natural. I was always able to keep up with what was going on and able to picture it in vivid detail thanks to how skillfully the words were delivered. I'd also like to offer that from a price standpoint it is cheaper than a lot of novels, especially the hardback ones and is a bit longer in length than your average novel (over 500 pages long). I realize the positives I list off may seem quite short in comparison to the explanation I gave, but there isn't much I can say without giving examples and spoiling some of the experience. I really only have the mixed feeling about there not being a way to go back to the previous pages without restarting.
Samurai of Hyuga is a resounding “yes!” to avid readers that enjoy swordplay and/or Japanese-esque settings, however, please be aware that the story as a whole is a few sequels away from being finished.