Sadame peaked my interest when a code for it came across my desk a few weeks back. I don’t get a lot of time in on my 3DS –I’m still using the 1st generation of the device– but I do enjoy the bigger releases that have come out on the console. This is my first experience with an eShop title that isn’t a first-party release, so I was excited about what smaller developers are doing on the platform.
Sadame pulls a lot of influence from anime films and television shows with its stunning intro and does a wonderful job of grabbing your attention. The visual style really works well, especially with this Japanese game taking place during the “Warring Period” of the country’s history. Now I’m not of Japanese decent, so I’m guessing the developers took some liberties as I have a feeling Nobunaga wasn’t some Godzilla like monster creature. Or maybe he was, I can’t say either way.
Sadame bills itself as an action RPG, something that also drew me in, and while this is technically the case, this is a eShop title so things are pretty basic from beginning to end on that front. There are four classes in the game that fill the standard roles in RPG games with a warrior, ninja, monk, and rogue to round things out. The good thing is that each of these classes all play much differently, so you can’t go in as a warrior –as I did– and then turn around on your next playthrough and play the same way with a monk class.
The problem is that while each class feels very different, the game itself is extremely repetitive in nature. After playing Sadame for a few levels you are going to have seen all the game has to over. You’ll enter a new area and wait as a bunch of enemies ‘BAMF’ into the area until you defeat them. This is followed by more enemies poofing in until to kill all those enemies. This happens every single screen until you reach a huge boss character, that while impressive looking, requires you to mash the X button until you win.
That’s another problem that Sadame falls into. The combat is weak and unsatisfying. With these sort of games (think Dynasty Warriors Advance) the longevity comes from your attacks, magic, combos, and silly story. Unfortunately for Sadame, these never really get fleshed out. PLaying as the warrior class will see you getting to use two weapons, but you’ll find that using the button that uses both at once is the proverbial ‘beat a game button’ in 90% of the situations presented to you. The same things go for the other classes as they each have one move that works best. While there are enemies that can do some real damage, but as long as you keep yourself in motion odds are you won’t have a real problem.
The story is interesting enough, mostly because Japanese culture is new to me, but it won’t last you that long. You can expect to invest around four-hours, which is pretty good for a small eShop game, but with the repetitive gameplay it all gets old fairly quickly. Sadame isn’t a bad game, it just doesn’t do anything special with regards to the genre it sits in. Sure, you can essentially replay the game three additional times with the other characters, but most people won’t really feel the need to.
But the game does something pretty interesting if you do plan on playing the game again. Once you beat the game you can go back within another class while keeping all the loot you picked up along the way. So while the first time around you’ll wonder what the point is of keeping all these weapons, armor, etc that you can’t use, it is nice that you can move these over to another class on your next playthrough. Another nice thing is that you can use past characters as assist characters when you play again. Yes, this is pretty sweet, but it makes subsequent playthroughs even more of a breeze.
Sadame is a nice game with a lot of pretty visuals and unique looking bosses and enemies. The problem is that with all that, and a few neat gameplay bits, it just ends up being a boring action RPG. Sadame is a pretty face with little personality to back it up.
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