by David RodriguezWho would you choose to be from Chinese Tang dynasty mythology: Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, or Sha Wujing? Maybe Tang Sanzang? Well, if you’re Kunio from the River City /Kunio-kun series, you don’t have to choose because he’s all of them in River City Saga: Journey to the West! This Saga spinoff, which began years ago with a retelling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, continues with a loose retelling of Journey to the West, China’s premier epic tale of pilgrimage, Taoism, and sutras that has influenced countless other stories.
River City Saga: Journey to the West is the first River City game to be a roguelite, and as such, it caught my attention. Within my first hour of play, it’s hard not to see the deep, almost shamelessly apparent framework of a game like Hades in it. You beat up dudes, get a reward, go to a new area, repeat with bosses and other situations thrown in occasionally. When you die, you can upgrade yourself permanently across runs, and further developments are unlocked as time goes on or you meet certain requirements. Simple, effective, veritable catnip for someone like me who also likes beat-’em-ups.
Maybe you’re still hung up on what I was talking about in the first paragraph. What do I mean Kunio is four different people? Part of this retelling of Journey to the West in the River City world is casting characters from the latter in the former. Developers Arc System Works and UnitePlus saw fit to make the four protagonists of Journey to the West all Kunio in different forms which makes more sense than it might appear to.
The crux of this game is that you can play as three different characters each with their own abilities. Wukong is the hot-headed monkey god, a speedy all-rounder. Bajie is the pig-headed (literally and figuratively) himbo powerhouse. Wujing is the monster cast down from heaven, a ranged specialist. They are all disciples to Sanzang, a monk in search of the sutras of Buddha to further a journey of enlightenment. Sanzang isn’t playable, but still represented with Kunio. Busy man!
Each run of the game starts at a mountain base. Here, you’ll upgrade your characters, talk to your Heavenly Guide, unlock run alterations via the Peddler, and practice attacks on the straw dummies. There’s four regions to travel through on your way to Tianzhu where the great Buddha resides in a sacred temple. Each region has several screens to battle in, providing waves of varied enemies looking to stomp you out just as they would on River City’s streets. All the cute, “super deformed” pixel art is given new life with details to fit the setting and animations to make it all larger than life. Seriously, depending on the attack, there’s some extravagant stuff going on here. You can straight up do some Dark Souls boss bullshit to enemies and clear entire screens at a moment’s notice.
Each playable character has a standard attack that combos, a special move you can charge up with Spirit meter that replenishes with time, and a Sorcery move that has its own gauge. If you get lucky and choose the right blessing, you can also get an Ultimate move from a god to give you an edge in big fights. Mix all that with a dash move to dodge fire, fists, and other means of Kunio’s killing, and this game’s chaos is apparent. The challenge starts off slow (most enemies in the first region can be done in with one combo depending on who you’re using), but by the third and definitely in the fourth region, you have to lock the hell in. Enemy attacks get ridiculous; they’re more numerous, and you’d better have adequate blessings from Maitreya Bodhisattva, who can grant you an extra life and other goodies.
The Kunioisms are vastly apparent. Classic River City music is remixed with lovely orchestra and Chinese folk instrumentation. The renditions of the main streets theme, shop, and boss music especially stand out. Old River City Ransom sound effects are used like when enemies are defeated, and yes, they do have little text quips upon death. My favorite is when an enemy references being reincarnated after being beaten, or when you finish a boss fight against a mute, the text is in Morse code. I didn’t see anyone say “Barf!” when they died though. Maybe I missed it.
Tons of characters from the series play gods, Bodhisattvas, demons, and mortals alike in the game. Fan favorites like Misako and Kyōko from the River City Girls games appear as gods that bless Kunio’s many forms with upgrades. Kunio’s best frenemy, Riki, even appears as a similarly suited character in this world, Prince Nehza. Personalities are mostly intact, too. Todo appears as a trickster and son of powerful beings, but his original personality as a pouty, rich nepo baby carries over well here. The whole story is narrated by someone named Technos-Tei as well, which is a nice nod to the series’ origins. These are the things that give this game true flavor. As someone who remembers watching early Flash animations with River City Ransom sprites or playing River City Ransom EX on the Game Boy Advance, it’s a fun time.
The writing is very lighthearted and occasionally funny, as one would expect from the series’ usual fare. From what I know, it’s also quite respectful of the original Journey to the West story, just truncated into an action game that can be beaten in about an hour on a good run. Often, it feels a little rushed or awkwardly paced to keep things going, but to be honest, and with all due respect to the source material, it’s not the main draw of the game. Some may take issue with how the game was localized, with certain language being used, but it’s tonally akin to the River City Girls games in my experience (which were written in English first). If you were cool with that, this shouldn’t be a bother.
Lots of roguelite games are going the Hades route, and River City Saga‘s iteration of it ends up being more derivative than anything else. It’s certainly not bad – I love Hades and Hades II, it’s great to see what they accomplished on a foundational level used in order formats – but there’s a prickly nagging that tells me this game could have differentiated its formula more. How that could be, I don’t know. It also doesn’t commit in the areas that it should have, either. For example, there are only a couple of possibilities for conversations with key characters. Since this is a run-based game, it’s replayable by nature, so you’ll see a lot of repeat lines and cutscenes. Apply liberal use of the skip button.
Since this is a side-scrolling beat-’em-up, there are limitations on what you can convey and how you can convey it in settings and environments. Backgrounds are pretty and lush when appropriate, desolate and barren when the time calls for it. No matter where you’re at, though, you’re still confined to a playable area that’s about three screens long. The only things that break it up are barriers, breakables, and traps in later levels, all randomized to a degree, but mostly maintaining symmetry. For what it is, it’s a solid job and well enough within the River City ethos that it fits. Just don’t expect open, traversable areas like the series’ past.
One thing I did that River City Saga didn’t do differently was allow you to unlock stuff and switch characters between regions, not just before a run begins. If you know what’s coming, you can plan ahead and change your strategy with the character and Sorcery you use. I’ll be honest, my go-tos were Wukong with the Silver-Horned King transformation Sorcery that deals massive damage to a crowd. Not only did I get the best results with them, but my first completed run was when they just worked the best overall. Wukong’s speed is great, and you can build him specifically so the damage stacks just as fast, whereas it’s harder to make Bajie and Wujing play out of their ordinary.
It took me a little less than nine hours to beat for the first time, with no assists used, because I am the Bodhisattva of beat-’em-ups. If you need a bit of relief from suffering in your search for the sutras, you can adjust the damage you deal and receive separately, so practically anyone with an interest can have fun with this one. If you really want the full experience of suffering the likes of which would reward you with true nirvana, you can up the damage you take to 200% and lower your own to 50%. Good luck!
River City Saga: Journey to the West, in true roguelite fashion, has multiple endings that reward multiple completions, so at $20, it’s not a bad deal. If you like River City/Kunio-kun stuff, even more so. This is one more for those fans than roguelite fans, in my opinion, as the elements from that series really make this game worth playing. For raw action roguelite enjoyment, there are better games for sure. As it stands, this is a solid experiment from ArcSys with a beloved franchise. Where does River City Saga go next? Hopefully, the team has some cool ideas for us.
River City Saga: Journey to the West
