Despite some major flaws, its still an enjoyable weekend romp for the summer.
Graphics: 2/5
I've seen better looking games come out of 2004 for the PS2. Except for some of its nicer cutscenes, the graphics were average. But the main complaint I had with them was the towns, which looked completely unihabited. I found this annoying because, for all I knew, there really were no villagers whatsoever, and just a bunch of oddly empty houses surrounded by fun monsters to fight. As a result, it rather detached me from the game experince a little bit, had there been even a touch of just people shutting their doors as you walked by, that would have been enough too. It made me question why I had to walk through these damn towns when there wasn't anything interesting there. The brown colour scheme everywhere didn't help make it any livelier.
Sound: 3/5
The music was minimal, but it never got in the way of anything gameplay wise. The problem here was with the voice acting. While just competent enough, it makes you think there wasn't any discussion as to how to pronounce the character's names for the english dub. In the same scene, you might hear Hyakkimaru's name pronounced three different ways. I really wish there had been a mandatory meeting for this sort of thing.
Gameplay: 3.5/5
This should have been the strongest suite here and luckily, it manages quite well. The controls are responsive and rather logical after a time. My only complaint was with the camera. While you can push L1 to snap it behind you, there really is no way to actually turn the camera, instead, pushing the right analog stick in any direction will inexplicably put the camera behind your head. The boss camera that can be turned on and off during most bosses works well though. While you can certainly defeat normal enemies with button mashing, strategy is required for the game's 48+ bosses. As bosses are a huge part of this game, it does seem that extra care was put into the bosses, even if there are a few repeat bosses. Upon defeating bosses, you get body parts back. This aspect makes the game feel more like an RPG as stats boost when you get parts back, but that isn't a bad thing here, even if you can't choose what body parts you get back when. Some body parts will also unlock new abilites and combos or upgrades. Getting your left eye back for example, lets you see the game in colour where it was black and white before, and getting back the sense of pain turns on controller vibration. Its quite clever and fun to see what you'll get next. Even if you can easily button mash enemies away, its still fun to see Hyakkimaru's attacks.
But, the game is plagued with some lock on issues and platforming issues. Whenever you use Hyakkimaru's gun or Dororo's throwing stones, the game sometimes doesn't want to seem to actually hit what is clearly in front of you and might miss it completely, or hit something to the left or right. While this rarely kills you, its simply very frustrating and annoying. Worse are the platforming issues. I remember one area in particular where the camera was fixed so you had to jump towards the screen, except it didn't actually show you where the next jump was supposed to land either. While you won't die from falling, you will lose some health. Then the game sometimes presents jumps that you should logically be able to make in any other game, but you can barely make here without falling about 5 times. Even jumping in air to land on platforms in difficult as you can't be quite sure which way you will go when you hit the analog stick in the air no matter how logically you are pushing it.
Overall though, the platforming isn't frustrating enough to make you completely put down the game (although you may shout profanties at it) and the combat and regaining body parts is a lot of fun.
Story: 5/5
I usually only consider stories for rating if I consider the game in question an RPG, and here I do. The story is based off of the legendary Osamu Tezuka's work, Dororo. Even though Tezuka died leaving this story unfinished (the ending was made by the game's creators), it isn't a bad ending and it feels natural with the rest of the story.
The story, bizarre as it is, is well told and has suprising plot twists. Even if the dubbing is horrible, the story is well interesting enough to keep you through to the end. I prefer to avoid spoiling any story and actually telling any of it to avoid making actual points about the game, but the story is engaging and the gameplay is good enough to keep you through to the story's end.
At the end of the day, you'll probably have more fun with it going in with lower or no expectations. Its not nearly as much fun as God of War, but its an enjoyable weekend romp for the summer.