Like many of Acquire's games (Tenchu, Way of The Samurai, Akiba's Trip), the world of Kamiwaza is set in a very specific background that permeates the game's atmosphere in a way that is strange and charming. It is like a historical fan-fiction, written by someone who has a very specific and romanticized vision of that time and that place, and they are going to make sure you come away with the same love for that (however inaccurate) portrayal as they do.

The game opens with a bleak description of the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which brought about economic instability, and with it, organized thievary. The game's main character, Ebizou, belongs to a notorious thieving clan, and the clever intro/tutorial throws you into his shoes as he undertakes his first heist. The job goes awry when his fellow clan members begin slaughtering the residents of the estate they are robbing. Ebizou's mentor entrusts him with a now-orphaned child they found on the premises, whom he escapes with.



Ebizou continues his life as a craftsman, raising the child, Suzuna, as his own in an impoverished but honest manner. Unfortunately, one day the girl becomes afflicted with consumption, causing Ebizou to return to the life of crime to raise money for the expensive medicine to keep her alive. Thus begins the main "gameplay loop" - pay a seedy broker to get tips on potential heists, complete the jobs for cash, and buy medicine to keep Suzuna alive a day longer.

The premise is simple, elegant, and the designer's had absolutely no intention of leaving it that way. As was the style at the time, they threw every wild idea and design principle they could at the thing. The number of unique and vaguely explained systems hiding in every nook and cranny of this game are so numerous that I had to replay the game just to remember how rich it was. To fully explain the game would require so many, "oh but also there's this...", "...and if you do that then..."'s that you'd come off like a outrageous nerd with no regard for the waning attention span of whoever got stuck listening to you.



For example, completing a job (which entails swiping pre-placed objects from a variety of locations without getting caught), isn't just a matter of turning the stolen-goods into a requester. You're given the choice of exchanging your haul to the theives guild for cash, or donating it to the downtrodden locals, lending a second "Robin Hood"-style (or "Ishikawa Goemon"-style, if you will) dimension to the gameplay. Increase your favor with the locals, and they will turn a blind-eye to your theivary - even to the point of cheering you on when they see you in the streets. However, you have to balance this with the fact that there's a girl on the edge of death living in your home, who you really should be buying medicine for (and yes, there is more than one type of medicine, and yes, only the most expensive medicine is actually effective in a meaningful way).



The actual theiving gameplay is no less brilliant (or convoluted, depending on your temperament); Ebizou can simply snatch any unfixed object "raw" in the game's multiple environments (and there are a LOT of unfixed items) by hitting an all-purpose steal button, but skilled players will instead take advantage of the "just stealth" and "splendid stealing" systems. When a character spots Ebizou, the screen will turn red and stutter momentarily, prompting the player to press the acrobatic move-triggering "dodge" button. Timed at just the right frame of animation (hence "just stealth"), Ebizou will perform a hilariously flamboyant spinning move, evading all detection momentarily, and opening the stage for a "splendid steal" move. Stealing any item in this brief time will trigger a score multiplier and extend the time you have to perform additional splendid maneuvers. The more daring you get, the higher the rewards - your stolen items become more valuable, and you earn "splendid score" points, which can be used to purchase additional skills and equipment.



The game's environment itself, while limited compared to the more popular stealth games that would follow it (Asssassin's Creed, for example, whose first entry released the next year), is dynamic in a manner similar to the Way of the Samurai series. Though the narrative is not as complex as the "Samurai" titles, it does benefit from the same, "be in this place at the right time to see a custcene", gameplay that makes the world seem a little more alive. The game has a real-time system with a full day/night cycle, causing missions and pilferables to rotate as time proceeds. So too does Suzuna's worsening condition proceed, should you not regularly feed her medicine.



After a certain cutscene, the game will reach a turning point, leading to multiple story branches depending on Suzuna's condition when this cutscene occurs (a feature that can be tracked by a description in the pause menu). Each branch leads to a different ending and bonus rewards which carry over to your next playthrough, lending the game a fair amount of replayability. In fact, you can exploit this system, stockpiling medicine and letting Suzuna die, but making your next playthrough a breeze when you start with a full cabinet of the good stuff.



This just scratches the surface of what the game has to offer - whether you end up realizing it or not. I haven't mentioned the 'notoriety' system tied to how well you cover your face (there are multiple cloths and ways to tie it), how you can use your bundle of stolen goods as a weapon or distraction (it gets comically large the more you steal, drawing unwanted attention), the trophy-style achievement system that grants unique game bonuses for completing certain tasks (ie; finish 5 missions without being caught), and on and on, but at this rate I'd never get to describing everything surrounding this wild free-for-all the designers wrought. The story is everything you would imagine from an Acquire game, filled with campy characters, schlocky drama, and delightful historical inaccuracies. Triggered through pre-determined cutscenes (the pause screen always gives you a hint as to how and where to proceed the story), you'll learn the truth behind the game's murderous opening, encounter your mysterious mentor, and witness the relationship of the unjust but waning government powers and their oppressed underclass.



The graphics are, well... there is an awful turn of phrase as of the writing of this review, "Looks like a PS2 game". PS2 games didn't look particularly bad, and in fact, some of them (Gran Turismo 4, Metal Gear Solid 3, Okami, to name a few) still look brilliant today. Kamiwaza probably epitomizes this cringey, "looks like a PS2 game" notion - rough textures, dated (compared to contemperaneous AAA titles) character models, and a stylish, but-not-quite timeless on-screen display and interface. It's not ugly, but I'd be lying if I didn't say my glasses are rose-tinted (full disclosure - I didn't actually play it until well into the PS3's lifecycle, so there's that).



What is a problem, however, is that the game suffers from the main persistant flaw of every Acquire game (Katana Kami excluded - that one is quite nice), and that is rapidly fluctuating framerates at just the point when you want them the least. While completely understandable - the developer has always seemed to struggle with having multiple individual polygonal models on the screen at the same time. This is compounded by the fact that there are not only several characters (from normal townspeople to bodyguards and police) in any given environment, but that every stealable item (again, there are a LOT of these) is its own model as well. This fact simply does not play well in a PS2-era stealth game; You can't navigate a complex sneaking system based on specific animation frame triggers with an erratic framerate and janky camera. The game's largest and most populous area, home to city's wealthy class, also happens to be where the most valuable heists are. At this point, the risk and reward is not just based on the increased physical security, but the increased chance that the framerate will work against you, causing you to be spotted for no reason other than a technical defficiency out of your control. Thankfully, this has been fixed in the remaster. The unfortunate/inevitable drawback is that since everything runs as it should, you don't have extra time to react to enemies that are hiding behind walls/screen doors. At that point, the camera becomes your enemy rather than the framerate.



Last, but not least, is the sound design. While the voice acting is all well-done, and the incidental background noises (the aforementioned cheering from random locals, grunting from guards, etc.) are the same standard of all Acquire titles, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Composed by Noriyuki Asakura, the genius behind the legendary Tenchu soundtrack, and subsequent Way of the Samurai games, Kamiwaza's score is atmospheric in all the right places. Noriyuki's signature blend of funk, rock, and traditional "world" music hits you in the face upon entering the premises of the thieves guild. Familiar vocals lend a creepy ambiance to the game when it enters the nighttime phase. If it's not already obvious, I'm a fanboy of the whole production team of this game, but the soundtrack (always an important point to me) in particular struck me as excellent the last time I played.

Flaws aside, I consider Kamiwaza to be one of the more important titles in gaming history. The blend of unique design ideas cannot be understated, and are no doubt the reason the game became a cult classic worthy of revival 16 years after its initial release. Hopefully it will stand the test of time with other modern-day classics like its action-packed older sibling Way of the Samurai, the narrative masterpiece Catherine, or stylistic paragon The World Ends With You. More likely, it will remain in relative obscurity, like its younger sibling Akiba's Trip, passed over by people for its graphics and oddball premise. At the very least, I'm happy it got a fighting chance.