tragedy: afro samurai, the game i wanted to love

This one's going to be short.

Back when Afro Samurai was early in production, and it was only "word on the street", I had saw a small article in my issue of PLAY magazine.

PLAY magazine, by the way, is, in my humble opinion, the best game magazine I've ever had the privilege to read. It's a more indie magazine with good core beliefs on the gaming industry.
Anyways! I see the first screenshots and art pieces. A month later I get a lowdown on the music and gameplay. A month later I'm salivating on my magazine so I couldn't really read anything beyond that, but it was apparent that I wanted to have this game. The artwork, the style, the sheer thought of playing Afro through his journey to avenge his father gave me the idea that it would be a worthy sixty-dollar purchase.

Well, before anyone jumps on me about how "this was amazing, I have no idea what you're talking about, dumbass." Just please understand this is my opinion. I've spoke with numerous people who loved it, hated it, or...I guess never played it.

The graphics: amazing.
The story: short, semi cliched, but nevertheless, pretty sweet.
The voice overs: perfect.
The music: like nothing I'd ever heard before.

It was in the repetitive gameplay, the terrible camera angles, the fact that (at the time) I couldn't alter the x-axis from being introverted. The blasted loading screens got annoying. I think there were only three different types of bad guys throughout the whole game, that I had played anyways. One other thing I didn't get was the fact that you could "level up" but because there was no health bar, experience gauge, or any stats of any kind, you had no idea what was being leveled up. I assume you gained more life, and maybe your attacks packed a bigger punch, but how the hell should I know? I got that same sense of false hope that Stewie had in that skit where he played with the voice function on his Macintosh.

Stewie's Computer

I don't know. I just didn't feel it was ready to come out. Double it's length, spend a little extra time changing up the look, at least, of the baddies. I would maybe recommend losing, or at least utilizing all those combos in the select menu, because aside from the "ricocheting bullet" combo and the "stabbing the head" combo, I made it through just fine with button mashing.

Like I stated previously, I desperately wanted to love this game. I did, but the amount of things that grew way too annoying over time just laid the beast to rest. Like, I will probably pick it up years down the road and play it out of denial, but for now...

Thoughts?