Disco Samurai is a brutally difficult and brilliant Sekiro-like rhythm slasher
Disco stu-dent of the blade
Image credit: Pixel Fiber
Disco Samurai is a game thatâs so difficult Iâd have given up playing sooner if it didnât contain so many of my absolute favourite action game things. Tense, decisive duels. Violence thatâs both brutal and a little silly. Scalpel-sharp parry n’ strike back-and-forths. Short stages that dole out chunky progression hits of dopamine, as quickly as they wrest those hits away from you with another humbling beatdown. Perhaps most importantly, it aims to do one thing – rhythm combat – and does it brilliantly. It’s got teeth, but it’s also got groove.
In the time it takes you to read this, you could grab the Steam demo, and become about 4% better at the game. Youâll need that 4%.
Unlike other rhythm combat games Iâve played, slashing off-beat doesnât reduce your score here. Instead, you just wonât attack. The music itself is crunchy 4/4 techno, so nothing too hard to wrap your head around. (Why not disco? you ask. It takes place in a town called Disco, I respond, just as perplexed.) Parrying works the same way. Only on-beat deflections are successful, though youâll know when one is coming due to an indicator. Each foe has a stamina meter, and theyâll enter a cartoony star-headed stun state once you whittle it down with parries, slashes, and some other moves Iâll get to in a sec.
Disco Samurai – Official Gameplay Trailer | Guerrilla Collective 2024
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If you donât want to dent your lovely katana though, you can just dash. Again, only on the beat. We chop off left feet âround these parts. Iâm not entirely sure why you would dodge, since it doesnât affect your foeâs stamina meter, but maybe it comes into play more later. As you perform hits, dodges, and parries, youâll gradually build up a flow meter. What happens when you build enough? A gun. A gun happens. You get about four shots per full meter with the default pistol, so this is less of a super move and more something you can weave in to your repertoire. If you want to spend a bigger chunk of flow, you can kick. Vases and other environmental objects make lovely smashing sounds, and also do big damage. Love a good ‘big sound, big damage’ combo, me.
Youâll die very quickly if you start making mistakes, especially as whiffing moves seems to embolden the besuited bastards trying to kill you into attacking harder. But you will get your health back after each short, single-room stage. Much of the time, those deaths will come from overhead attacks. These are entirely unfair (read: Iâm bad at them) slashes that youâll have to hold the parry for exactly one beat to block. Itâs the weaving of these attacks into regular attack patterns that keeps your foes both deadly and satisfying to overcome. After all, you only ever feel as super a sword bastard as the sword bastards youâre making look foolish, as my favourite bible verse goes.
Iâve had issues with feeling overly restricted with rhythm combat in the past. I bounced off Metal: Hellsinger for this reason, but Iâm not getting that with Disco Samurai. A better critic than me once observed that a great joy of games is the feeling of performing a role well – acting out stealth so good it befits Solid Snake, or ripping and tearing without hesitation, just as the real Doom Guy would after he gets off his shift at Argos. Thatâs the deal here, I think. You donât have much leeway for self-expression, but the rhythm and danger coaxes you into some deeply engaging choreography. Sometimes, life is too much samurai, not enough disco, but I reckon this one has the balance down pat.
