Onimusha Hands-On

Onimusha is Capcom's second attempt to take the now classic Resident Evil formula and apply it to an entirely new setting and premise. Onimusha: Warlords is the first game in Capcom's planned series of survival-horror games set in feudal Japan. We got our hands on a Japanese demo version of the game to see if Capcom can replace Resident Evil's gun-toting heroes with a sword-wielding samurai.

Onimusha: Warlords tells the story of Samanosuka Akechi, an honorable samurai who finds himself caught in a sinister world full of undead monsters, powerful spirits, and horrible demons. Capcom has taken actual Japanese history and woven in its own brand of excitement to create the storyline of Onimusha. Oda Nobunaga, easily the most famous of feudal Japan's warlords, appears to be the main villain of the story. Though Capcom is keeping most of the details of Onimusha's complex storyline under wraps, the five-minute cinematic introduction shows Nobunaga's throat pierced by an arrow, and it then shows the warlord riding his mount amid an army of demonic warriors. We do know that Nobunaga is close to uniting all of Japan, and he's preparing an assault on Yoshitatsu Saito's castle. Unknown forces have kidnapped Yoshitatsu's sister, a young princess and cousin to Akechi, and the samurai takes it upon himself to save her. In the process of tracking her down, Akechi is attacked by a huge demon that seemingly kills him. As Akechi lies dying, a godlike presence surrounds him and forces him to wear an odd soul-sucking supernatural gauntlet. Akechi is miraculously healed, but he appears to be a prisoner of the parasitic gauntlet, which must consume the souls of Akechi's demonic victims as he slashes his way to the kidnapped princess. Other characters, such as a fairly unknown female ninja character named Kaede, will come into play and help Akechi as he fights the horde of demonic warriors.

The game controls almost exactly like Resident Evil. At this point, Onimusha doesn't take advantage of the analog controls, and it's unclear if the final version will. You'll use the D-pad to control Akechi - pushing up makes him walk forward, pushing down makes him lurch backward, and pushing left or right will make him slowly rotate in the appropriate direction. Akechi launches his attacks with the square button, and he examines items and opens doors with the circle button. If your demon gauntlet has been equipped with one of the game's three special orbs and has consumed enough souls, you can launch a ruthless super attack. Akechi blocks incoming attacks with the L1 button and spins 180 degrees with the R1 button. The game has a menu system similar to that of Resident Evil - when you press start, you're taken to a screen where you can manage your inventory, read through journals and other documents you've found, and equip different weapons. Also, Onimusha appears to use an armor system, and it's likely that Akechi will be able to find and equip different armor through the game.

Onimusha really doesn't stray too far from the Resident Evil formula. You spend most of your time moving from one static location to the next, and you view most of the game through overdramatic camera angles. Akechi spends plenty of time indoors, moving through narrow passageways and flipping hidden switches. Still, the focus this time is definitely on fast-paced sword-slashing action, as enemies have a nasty habit of respawning and Akechi's sword attack is lightning quick and does a very good job of auto-aiming on enemies. Akechi will often circle around enemies, and he'll even alternate his sword blows between two attacking baddies to keep both at bay. Additionally, killing enemies leaves their souls behind, and you can absorb those souls through the demon gauntlet to provide you with special power-ups. Souls come in three varieties - red souls give the gauntlet experience and make it more powerful, blue souls charge the gauntlet's special attack, and yellow souls replenish Akechi's health. As such, the game encourages fighting, as killing certain amounts of enemies without taking damage can actually increase your health and prevent you from dying.

From what we've seen in the demo version, Onimusha will have a good assortment of items for you to find. Among the most important items in the game are the special gems that fit into Akechi's gauntlet. There are three gems - thunder, wind, and fire - and equipping them to the gauntlet has a dramatic effect on the game. Not only does each gem change your special attack, but they're also used to open certain doors and solve certain puzzles. Additionally, Akechi will find plenty of traditional Japanese weapons, as well as lots of odd items and crazy documents to help him piece together Onimusha's mystery.

Onimusha has plenty of talent behind it. The storyline was written by Flagship, a subsidiary of Capcom famous for writing the script of Resident Evil 2. Additionally, the character of Samanosuka Akechi is played by the famous Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro. Not only did Kaneshiro do voice work for the character of Akechi, but Capcom also went to great lengths to model Kaneshiro for the game. As such, Akechi is the digital spitting image of Kaneshiro, and he exhibits some of the most realistic and powerful facial expressions ever seen in a console game. Additionally, Onimusha's production is in the hands of Keiji Inafune, creator of Mega Man and the man behind several of Capcom's top-selling games. Onimusha's powerful CG sequences have been produced by Links, and they're some of the most dramatic and realistic cinematics to come out of Capcom. The musical score was composed and performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, which is led by the renowned composer Samuragouchi.

The game has some of the most stunning graphics ever seen on a console. From the breathtaking CG intro and the individual in-game cutscenes to the motion-captured movements of the detailed character models and the amazing prerendered backgrounds, Onimusha is a delight to look at. The characters in Onimusha all move and express themselves extremely well, as plenty of motion-captured movements help lend a smooth, graceful quality to the characters' movements. Akechi and his posse look absolutely fabulous, while the undead monsters and evil villains in the game are extremely detailed and quite frightening. The characters move on nonstatic prerendered backgrounds. While the prerendered backgrounds add an incredible sense of crisp detail, certain effects like moving trees, cloud effects, and other interactive elements have also been added to help breathe a sense of life into the backgrounds. Also, while Capcom's infamous prerendered backgrounds have caught flak in the past for making the blurry pixels of the characters and items of earlier PlayStation games stand out like a sore thumb, the incredibly crisp characters and items in Onimusha fit right in with the amazingly detailed backgrounds.

Onimusha's sound effects and music help add a definite dramatic flair to the game. The score is extremely dramatic and helps bring a true Hollywood feel to the cutscenes. The sound effects are awesome - from the various types of sword attacks to the grunts and noises of the monstrous enemies. The monotonous moan of flesh-hungry zombies has thankfully been left out of Onimusha. The voice work appears to be spot on, but we've yet to hear any US voices. Capcom promises that top-notch voice actors will lend their talent to the voices of Onimusha.

While Onimusha looks and sounds awesome, at this point the gameplay is definitely lacking. So far Akechi has simply been running around, killing plenty of enemies, and examining items and flipping switches. The game still has obvious problems with the dated Resident Evil control scheme, and it has a familiar feel to it. Apparently, Akechi will be spending a good amount of his time fighting indoors, in narrow hallways or odd passageways, and he'll have to solve plenty of puzzles and open lots of locked doors. At this point we haven't really had much of a chance to explore the game, as the Japanese demo version was fairly limited. Hopefully Onimusha will achieve its goal and be more than just a pretty Resident Evil clone with swords instead of guns. Onimusha is due out late this month in Japan, and it should hit US shores this March.