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it says a lot to me that the least interesting thing about bujingai is that it has gackt in it, despite him being front and centre on the box and being the main thing people talk about when this game is brought up, gackt isn't actually super prominant in the game though, sure he lends his likeness, there's an interview with him in there and has an unlockable costume that's just him in what he wore to the studio that day, but he has maybe 2 voice lines total, it's a bit of a waste, but gackt still looks really cool and his name does make for a really good selling point and he is clearly passionate about games from his interview, but i'm not super sure how much input he really had here other than the mocap, the likeness and some voice lines and promo material, i'm not even sure he did any original music for the game like he did dirge of cerberus, it's a strange crossover but it's still a cool one i think, i know it's what sold me on it, gackt is hot and that's kind of the only reason i needed to buy a copy.

now the game itself is something really special, within even just one playthrough bujingai became not just one of my favourite action games but one of my favourite games ever, it's got style, it's fun, it has a killer OST and it's short and doesn't waste your time, it's a nearly perfect game and it feels like the DMC2 sequel i always wanted. it has a very specific vibe to it, that mid gen ps2 edgy grungy cityscape cutemans sword man vibe, very dmc2 or chaos legion and if those comparisons sell you at all then you should, sight unseen, go and buy this game *now*, it reminds me the most of DMC2 i think with its quiet and attractive protaganist, it's demon filled city levels (but this time with kowloon instead of spain), its combat more focused on coolness and fun rather than depth and the levels have a very specific high detail but low res look to them that dmc2 also had, much like DMC2 it also has a fantastic ost, one of the best on the system and it was done by taitos "zuntata" team who for this game was composed of Katsuhisa Ishikawa (of darius gaiden, psychic force, densha de go, lost magic and more recent games like dariusburst and alice gear aegis), Hideki Takahagi ( of cleopatras fortune, densha de go, psychic force and the exit series) and Tamayo Kawamoto (of bionic commando, forgotton worlds, raystorm, magic pengle and maximo!) and almost every track is a classic for the console, even the tutorial music is so good i've had it on almost non stop for days, expect to hear a lot of it on the site in the future, this is one of the all timer OSTs and it can rival the best in the genre, it's all so catchy and it gives every level a real sense of atmosphere, the cave level feels spooky with some almost silent hill-y music, the chill hub music that lets you feel rested inbetween levels or the tutorial music gets you hype to get into the game, at least give some of these songs a listen to even if you don't play it, the tutorial and stage 1 are my personal favourites.

the gameplay is excellent too, it's primarily a character action style game like the games i compared it to but it doesn't quite have the depth of combos those do, making up for it more with style and its swordplay system, the swordplay system works with a gage in the UI that will deplete as you deflect hits (which it does automatically if you face the enemy and don't attack) or get caught up in sword clashes, leading to a gage match of deflects and dodges where you have to keep an eye on yours but also deplite the enemies so you can get in a full combo on them, you can even do this with magic which will refill your gage and let you do a big magic attack if your meter is full when you do this, it can be super intense with the bosses and on later difficulties these can really drag on in a good way, it feels like a real fight from a wuxia movie and it's some of the most fun combat on the system especially with its fluid and long combo strings that are amazingly well animated and one of the coolest strong attacks in an action game (it's a cool sword twirl that looks amazing and feels great to do), you even have a launcher with its own string of air combos and a bicycle kick attack that can one shot most smaller enemies and a pose you can strike by holding square, not sure if it does anything but it looks cool, it's also super fun to use, add to this a magic system with things like fireballs, earthquakes, stat boosts, summoned swords that rain from the sky and even things to extend your combos like daggers that can autoblock and do extra damage on attacks and a rush magic attack that can be used to extend a combo and launch an enemy and you have a lot to do, again it's not as deep as a DMC and it is far more focused on style, but you can do some really cool stuff here and it has the variety to last it's fairly short runtime, it's even still fun on a NG+ as you'll keep unlocking things using the games XP systemlike a bigger defence gage or higher level spells (which can be found in levels but you will need a high enough stat to use them). you do this leveling up in the lil hub area and it's a good hub! it has a good atmosphere and you can do some training with the platforming mechanics and there's even a dummy you can hit around, there's even a cool boss fight here later on that's one of the highlights. the bosses are hit and miss though, some of the ones focused on the clash system are great and the final boss is one of the most fun i've done in years, but others like the tiger and the dragon, the former of which is repeated, are just not super fun and more like puzzles than anything, but both felt really difficult and unfair at times, it's not a hard game beyond the final level which i think does go a little too dar with the difficulty with some unfairly tough platforming and the dragon which took me dozens of tries, but at least you have unlimited continues so it's not all bad, it's a beatable game for sure but one with a spike near the end. the platforming is also really cool, you got air dashes, wall runs, pole swinging and climing and even aircombos that can get you across whole gaps in areas that's used to amazing effect in the final level, it gives the levels a more dynamic feel and its fun exploring them for magic and collectables, but some of the platforming can be a little finnicky and difficult at times.

the art direction is stellar though, they got in toshihiro kawamoto (of cowboy bebop, golden boy, gundam, ouran and escaflowne) to do much of it and it looks amazing, gackts character looks really cool and the rest of it fits the wuxia vibe perfectly, some of the enemies too look really good and you can take a closer look in the model viewer if you unlock them by finding the collectables scattered around, it's also worth noting that they did get in another anime creator with yosuke kuroda (of tenchi universe, trigun, gungrave and valkyrie drive) in here to do the screenwriting for things like the cutscenes, the story here isn't amazing and it doesn't really make much sense but it's also a dumb ps2 action game so i'm not bothered by that at all, all that matters is that cool things happen and cool things do happen here like a dragon fight in an etherial tower or a final boss fight taking place in space with a guy that can surf on his sword, that's really all you need for this kind of thing. the direction is super solid though, things like animations that look like they're using wire-fu and the (maybe intentionally) bad dub really add to the atmosphere, like you're watching a dumb, badly dubbed martial arts movie at 2am. the environments look amazing here too, they're varied as hell, with caves, the kowloon inspired city, a snowy mountain which can drain your health and rushes you to get to the end (it even has a cool temple at the end), there's even a bamboo forrest and an indoor area which both have lots of destructable objects, it's even used mechanically here with the destroyable doors and bamboo you need to cut in order to get points to open a door and there's also a cool desert temple too, the final level also shows off a very impressive sense of scale, with huge areas you need to platform across, they're bigger than most from this time period and levels can last up to an hour, though there aren't a ton and the game only lasts for 7 stages and about 5 hours, maybe more if you have trouble with it, but it's plenty replayable with 3 difficulties and some cool costumes.

the game was worked on by two main studios, taito and red entertainment, you should probably know taito well enough from things like their shmups, bubble bobble, densha de go, chaos break and space invaders) but red entertainment is much less well known bar an appearance in the hyperdimension neptunia series as a long re-occuring side character dating back to the first game but they've been around for a long time, making things like the bonk series, tengai makyo, the agarest series and personal favourites sakura wars so long my love and gungrave,they even did another ps2 action classic with the adaptation of dorororo, blood will tell. the game was directed by Hiroshi Aoki who has worked on tons of games from psychic force, space invaders extreme, darisburst and exit and most recently worked on rune factory 4 and 5. it wouldn't have much of a legacy though, sure red are still making games like birushana and gungrave gore, taito still publish smaller games here and there alongside compilations and gackt did some more games like crisis core and dirge of cerberus but this game was just a forgotton one off, it's a shame because this is one of my new favourite games, it's an all time great and some of the most fun i have ever had in a game, its a must play and i ask anyone who likes how it sounds to please give it a try, it's cheap and short and abslolutely worth it.