Way of the Samurai 4

Way of the Samurai 4 is most fun when you stop treating a run as a sacred, one-shot campaign. The first hour gives you a fairly limited character, then quickly asks what kind of troublemaker you intend to be: a ruthless fighter, a more sociable local, or someone veering between both. Your decisions change the course of the story, and even a brisk ending is only one piece of a larger set of routes.

That replay-first structure is its strongest argument and its biggest hurdle. You need to enjoy experimenting, seeing consequences play out, and returning with richer customization options rather than expecting one definitive journey. With roughly ten endings, side quests, explorable areas, recruitable townspeople, and plenty of room to make bad decisions on purpose, it earns repeat visits—but its 6.7/10 reputation fits a game whose messy freedom will not land for everyone.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first thing Way of the Samurai 4 asks of you is not whether you can win a fight, but what sort of person you want to be once the fighting starts. You can cut a violent path through the people around you or take a more cooperative approach, and the game ties consequences to that behavior rather than treating it as harmless role-play. That makes even casual choices feel like a commitment.

Its best trick is making a completed run feel less like a finish line than a new starting point. Choices made in earlier playthroughs can affect later encounters, while character customization expands as you replay. Some endings arrive quickly, others demand more time, so you are encouraged to test routes instead of trying to force every possibility into one careful save.

That structure can frustrate you if you want a long, tightly authored action RPG that reveals everything on the first pass. Way of the Samurai 4 is built around revisiting decisions and accepting that you will miss outcomes. But if you enjoy a game that lets a reckless experiment become part of your personal version of the story, its freedom has real bite.

There is more to do than chase endings. Side quests and open areas give you reasons to wander, and recruiting townspeople lets you bring help along on your errands. The fighting and direct control keep the action immediate, but the larger pleasure comes from seeing how far your behavior can bend the world around your character.

Graphics

The third-person view keeps your customized samurai at the center of the action as you move through town and take on fights. Since your options for character customization grow across repeated runs, the character you see on later attempts can feel more personally shaped than the one you begin with.

Story

This is a story built to be interrupted, redirected, and replayed. Your conduct affects the overall narrative experience, so a violent run and a more community-minded run do not merely change your moral label; they can lead you toward different encounters and outcomes.

About ten endings give the story its staying power. A short route can be satisfying as a sharp consequence of one decision, while longer routes give you a reason to return and make different calls. The result is less about finding one canon-perfect conclusion and more about discovering how many conclusions you are willing to create.

That means the narrative payoff depends heavily on your curiosity. If you dislike retracing ground, the branching structure may feel fragmented. If you like stories where a bad impulse, a helpful gesture, or a change of allegiance can send the next run in a new direction, Way of the Samurai 4 has the right kind of unpredictability.

Overall Experience

Way of the Samurai 4 is easy to recommend to a particular kind of gamer: someone who would rather poke at consequences than be guided cleanly from mission to mission. Its freedom is not a decorative extra. Killing indiscriminately, helping people, pursuing side work, and building a group all sit inside a game designed to remember that you made choices.

The trade-off is that the game asks you to meet it halfway. The initial customization is limited, and a single ending cannot represent everything it has to offer. Give it several runs, though, and the expanding options and changed encounters turn repetition into the point rather than a chore.

For context on where its unusual structure began, the earlier Way of the Samurai is worth knowing; this entry leans hard into the series’ replay-driven choices. You can also find broader Way of the Samurai 4 history and release details if you are deciding between versions.

At 6.7/10, it is a flawed but worthwhile recommendation, not a universal one. Come for the chance to make each run yours, accept that the full picture is spread across multiple attempts, and you may find its rougher edges easier to forgive. Skip it if you need one polished, all-encompassing story playthrough to feel satisfied.