Onechanbara has a terrible story, boring cutscenes, repetition to the extreme and is certainly not worth your time.
- If you don't mind repetition, this gameplay can be quite fun
- Decent graphics
- Nice amount of replay value
Negative
- Very repetitive with poor AI
- Horrendous story and cutscenes with no English voices
Should there really be women in their bikini fighting zombies? That's a good question. A bigger question is why the game is titled Bikini Zombie Slayers since there is only one woman in bikini here. Onechanbara is a mixed bag throughout the game. You may not like it because it's highly repetitive, features a horrible story and is way too easy. If you don't mind this, this zombie slayer can quite grow on you.
One part where Onechanbara fails miserably is the story. You have two playable characters; Aya and her sister Saki. You have 2 stories, one for each where each of them tells the story from their perspective. The storytelling is awful, some of the worst I've seen in a long time. You'll virtually understand nothing, except that there is Baneful blood involved and the fact that there are a ton of zombies. Beating a character's story unlocks the antagonists of the game and tells the story from their point of view. You will probably understand it more after you beat it once. There are other modes to play aside the story mode. The game never does the effort to put you in.
The gameplay is the biggest mixed bag. For starters the game is highly repetitive despite being a decent amount of moves to pull off. The 4 characters play fairly similar to each other in terms of hack-n-slash. Swinging the remote randomly won't do you any good, because you need to swing in the right direction to hit. It may take a few minutes to get used to attacking, but after you get that you will be slashing zombies nonstop. Each character has 2 different combat styles. Saki for example has beat mode and sword mode. In beat mode she doesn't use a sword, but her fists. By shaking the Nunchuk Saki will ran towards an opponent, grabbing him. Then using the analog and shaking the Nunchuk Saki will throw the zombie in the desired direction. Aya uses single sword and double swords as her style change. Getting yellow orbs and killing loads of zombies levels up your character and the game lets you improve their power, vitality, and skill.
There are 2 difficulties in the beginning. You can pretty much sweep the game in one go without losing since the game is a piece of cake on easy and normal mode. The zombie's artificial intelligence is poor. It's not like in Left 4 Dead, zombies attack you. In Onechanbara, you attack them and these zombies do nothing. They are varied decently. There are male, female, cops, bird zombies, ugly things and even giants. Small ugly things will come at you and attack. Some zombies continue to live even after losing their heads, and some even after losing the upper part of their bodies. Some enemies, in Saki's case she needs to grab the enemy in kill them in a special way, for example the mudman. Some stages are boss fights but these are very easy to deal with as well. Mostly you can spoil them with overpowered special attacks. Going on a rampage is a useless addition since you only become slightly more powerful, and considering the difficulty it is unnecessary, plus you'll be using your life for it. It could have been cooler, more gruesome or something. Prepare yourself since the game is really bloody.
Presentation is lacking, with very few cutscenes. The graphics aren't great, but every level is almost different, but almost all levels feel similar. The character models are good, excluding Aya's. If the game has Bikini Zombie Slayers in its title, including more bikini zombie slayers. Dismembering zombies is cool. The sound on the other hand is fair. There is no English voice acting, so you'll only hear the Japanese voices, which could have been much better than this. The soundtrack is merely ok. The cutscenes are so boring, you will sleep or skip them.
By no means, it's not a bad game, it's a mediocre game. The story and gameplay, nor the presentation are anything special. On the other hand the combat may grow on you, resulting in fun due to its easy but you won't play this game for more than 6 hours. It will become tremendously boring. You won't stop playing due to frustration or annoyance, it will be boredom. Don't waste money on this one.
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Graphics = 7.1
Looks ok. Every looks different but feels the same. Good character models. Should have included more Bikini Zombie Slayers from the beginning. The blood looks good.
Sound = 6.0
Passable soundtrack with no English voice acting. Not everyone will like the Japanese dubs.
Presentation 5.8
Cutscenes are rare, and aren't exactly praise worthy. Controls need some more work. The camera didn't give me any trouble.
Gameplay = 6.0
Boring at first, but might, just might become fun. 4 playable characters and 2 of them are unlockable. Alternative costumes available. Very repetitive. Poor zombie AI and relatively easy.
Story = 3.5
A lifeless story. Some other modes to back it up. Don't play this game just for a zombie story.
OVERALL = 50 / 100
Onechanbara has a terrible story, boring cutscenes, repetition to the extreme and is certainly not worth your time nor money.