Onimusha, 4 years old, is still one of the best adventure game on PS2. It spawned sequels in the years to come and has garnered praises for some of the better adventure games this gen. Consider it the new RE for the samurai in all of us. In the intro, Princess Yuki is seen writing to Samanosuke Akechi and a grasshopper is seen on the windows ledge. Samanosuke is fighting soldiers in battlefields, then the scene shows Nobunaga Oda getting an arrow in the throat. The next thing we see, is Nobunaga Oda raises from the dead and leading an army toward Inabayama. This is where Onimusha begins. The Inabayama castle is under siege and Samanosuke is seen racing and enters the castle. What he discovers is that soldiers are getting murdered by hideous zombie soldiers. He discovered that these demon soldiers are the doing of Nobunaga, and the villagers are scared witless. Soon he meet up with Princess Yuki, but she gets kidnapped by an huge ugly oaf named Osric. Meanwhile Samanosuke meet the Ogres through the club of Osric, who killed him. Soon Samanosuke is equipped with a gauntlet and his real adventure begins. Exploring the castle and rescuing some interesting people you meet on the way. On the way, you'll discover some disturbing details about a monk. In the end, you'll learn the true plan that the demons have for Princess Yuki. Onimusha has a RE control scheme, where you have to use the D-pad to turn around. Checking is done by pressing X, attacking is done by pressing square, absorbing soul is done by O and using magical attack is done by triangle. Pressing start will always bring up the inventory, these are the basic command done by RE as well. However, Onimusha has a few differences as well. Blocking is done by pressing L1, however some tougher enemies can't be blocked, so try to roll away, which is done by pressing R1 and the direction. While Onimusha's control system is not intricate as the DMC combo system, it still has a very nice touch and is good for this kind of game. Graphics is pretty good for a 4 year old game and the characters are nicely rendered in real time. The backgrounds are prerendered, as was the case in RE: Code Veronica X, and they look good. Sounds are decent as you hear the scream and the clash of weapons. A nice touch, but a more sinister music would help the mood. When you beat the game, you can unlock costumes and minigames depending on the criteria for each secret. However, most people will play it once and forget about it. Onimusha is a good short game with a nice story and graphics. It's a welcome change to the RE series, where the battle system is less complex. Onimusha has nice graphics and some good gameplay that stands the test of time. Let's hope that Onimusha 4, if there is ever one, will be lengthier. A great game, but needs a little more to make it excellent.
Onimusha as a franchise has forever been plagued with receiving a million and one different comparisons to Resident Evil, Capcom's other big survival-horror hit. Since I've always been a huge fan of the genre, I thought ... Read Full Review
This game was a just a work of art, and an absolute splender to play. From the super slick Pre-prerendered environments to the awesome demon design, it was all around just a very intriging game. Now the only thing bother... Read Full Review
