上古卷轴 5：天际 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim p.458

我们的前一部游戏把背景设定在 1500 年前后的战国时代。一直以来，我们追求的是一种硬汉风格，而这一作我们想要一些炫目夸张的视觉元素，因此我们决定将背景设定在文化交融的黎明时代……万一游戏会在海外发行的话，我们确实也认为在某种程度上这个时代可能会更吸引人。

The last game was set during the Warring States period in the 1500s, so we had been aiming for a rough, cool feel, but for this one we wanted flashy, ostentatious visuals and therefore decided to set it at the dawn of intercultural exchange. [...] we did consider to some degree that this era might be appealing in the event that the game was released overseas.

Tetsushi Saito
《侍道 4》首席设计师

Tetsushi Saito,
WotS 4's lead designer

游戏也有很强的 meta 游戏的一面。每次通关之后玩家会获得点数来解锁更多功能，包括可用的女性角色、更高的难度设定、新的定制选项以及更多的战斗选择，比如双持武器或者使用枪支。

说到战斗，《侍道 4》中剑斗是重头戏。尽管你可能会面对大量敌人，但战斗永远是一对一进行的。操作按键包括了重攻击键和快速攻击键，再加上一个格挡键。你的攻击会随输入方向的变化而变化，根据战斗风格和角色掌握程度的不同，你可以使出从突刺到上段攻击等多种多样的招式。

游戏开始时你只有一把普通武士刀和基本的剑术风格，不过当你打倒敌人之后就能获取到更多的武器和战斗风格。游戏中有超过 70 种可解锁的风格，包括多种剑术架势、双持武器、长矛架势、忍术以及空手搏斗。

敌人被击败时一定会掉落他们使用的武器，你可以装备上这些武器，也可以分解掉它们，然后用部件来锻造带有特殊性质的新刀。要记得经常修理武器，因为它们很快就会损坏。游戏中有超过一百种武器，很多独特的刀剑和战斗风格都藏得很深，其中一些只在特定的难度设置下才会出现，这也让收集独特的刀剑和战斗风格成为了一个游戏目标。

There's a strong meta-aspect to the game, as each time you finish it you'll gain points to unlock more features, like playable female characters, harder difficulty settings, new customisation options, and more combat choices, such as dual-wielding or using guns.

Speaking of combat, Way of the Samurai 4 makes great use of sword fighting. While you may fight large numbers, battles are always one at a time. There's a strong and a fast attack button, plus a block, and your attacks change with your directional input, from lunges to overhead attacks, depending on your choice of fighting style and your character's mastery of it.

The trick is that you begin with a plain katana and a basic sword fighting style, but you'll collect more weapons and fighting styles as you defeat your enemies. There are over 70 styles to unlock, including various sword stances, dual-wielding, spears, shinobi style and hand-to-hand combat.

Enemies will always drop the weapons they use, and you can equip or disassemble them and use the parts to forge a new blade with special properties. Just remember to repair them often, as they quickly break. There are over a hundred weapons in the game, and collecting exotic swords and styles can become a goal on its own, as some are well-hidden and others are only available on specific difficulty settings.

《侍道 4》的音乐十分优秀，朝仓纪行（Noriyuki Asakura）负责作曲，他同时还为背景设定在同一时期的《浪客剑心（Rurouni Kenshin）》编写了配乐。

WotS 4's excellent soundtrack was composed by Noriyuki Asakura, who also worked on the popular Rurouni Kenshin (aka Samurai X) anime, set in the same period.

尽管一次通关的流程很短，但游戏中有大量可探索的支线内容，不仅有前面提过的武器和战斗风格收集，还包括更多的通关后升级内容、大量的支线任务以及“杀死 XX 人”这种挑战内容。你甚至能经营道场，招收徒弟并创造自己的战斗风格。尽管大部分任务很有趣而且很自然，但解锁全部内容仍然是一项非常重复的工作。

这款游戏有些做过头的另一个地方是整个游戏的风格。这一系列的前几作一直都喜欢加一些日式冷笑话和夸张的角色，不过这一作的稀奇古怪程度还是达到了巅峰：洛丽塔风的大使，名叫“大西瓜”（Megamelons）的骑士，施虐狂三姐妹，甚至还有个名叫“夜袭”（night encounter）的小游戏——你需要在夜晚潜行，最终钻到情人的床上。

无论如何，《侍道 4》是一款异想天开的游戏，其中有着乐趣十足且充满挑战的战斗，一大批令人印象深刻的角色以及对于游戏设计的崭新诠释。重玩性和自由度是《侍道 4》的核心，其中最大的乐趣就是逐步了解游戏中的角色、区域和事件，等到你对这些了如指掌的时候，就可以去做一些干扰内部运转的事情——帮助、救援或者杀掉某些角色，然后看看游戏会做出什么样的反应，以及编制出什么样的新故事。

While a regular playthrough is very short, there's a large amount of side-content to explore, from the aforementioned weapon and style collecting and post-game unlockables to various side-quests and “kill X number of people” challenges. You can even manage a dojo, recruit students and create your own fighting style. While most of these are tasks are fun and will happen naturally, fully unlocking all the game has to offer can be a rather repetitive task.

What can also be a bit too much is the tone of the game. The series always had some silly Japanese humour and over-the-top characters, but here it reaches extreme levels of wackiness, with a Lolita-like ambassador, a knight named Megamelons, a trio of sadistic sisters who love torture and a “night crawling” mini-game where you must sneak into your lover's bed at night. Yakuza fans will be right at home.

Regardless, Way of the Samurai 4 is a fantastic game that offers a fun and challenging combat, a cast of memorable characters and an incredibly fresh take on game design. Replayability and player freedom are the keys here, and it's a joy to slowly get to know the game's characters, areas and events like the palm of your hand, then disrupt its inner workings – helping, rescuing and killing different characters, just to see how the game adapts and weaves new stories.