With original idea and excellent presentation, Demon Siege does more than just follow the success of prior Onimushas
Onimusha 3 continues the story about the samurai Samanosuke's struggle against the demon lord Nobunaga. After his revival, Nobunaga becomes more and more dangerous, especially now with an invention of the evil scholar Guildenstern: a time shift machine that will allow the demon lord and his minions to travel through the time to any location in this world. So in a morning in 2004, in the luxurious streets of Paris suddenly appear a horde of blood-lust demons slaughtering everyone they encounter... The only hope to defeat the demons is to stop the completion of the time machine, and once again this noble mission is charged to Samanosuke and another man of modern world: the police inspector Jacques Blanc. With such story, players will experience many events in two different but interrelated worlds: Ancient Japanese like in previous versions and modern Paris brand new to the series. Only the mere idea of bring a Samurai to our present world can cause many suspicions but indeed, it not only diversifies the game environment but also help to lift Onimusha game play to a new level.
----------The second main character - the key success of this version-----------
Onimusha is a typical Action-Adventure game and it is not something new if the game allows you to control more than one character. But in most case, you will play a main character in most of the time while others act like decoration. Things are different here, since it's the developers' intention to make Jacques Blanc a second main character, besides our familiar Samanosuke. The amount of time with Jacques is roughly the same as with Samanosuke, so he plays the same important role in Demon Siege. Scenario is cleverly designed, switching between 2 of them in 2 different world, though separate but still closely interrelate, hence, requires players to make use of each character's advantage through out the story. It's here that the game play of Onimusha is enhances thoroughly, both in Action and Adventure.
Right in the first version Onimusha has impressed us with a satisfactory fighting style. In Demon Siege, with the appearance of the second main character, you will have a chance to enjoy a brand new combat system. Generally, although possessing different weapons and combos, both characters share some features in their combat: diverse in attacks style and swift in reaction. Enemies still spawn quickly and always outnumber, letting you to continuously putting their abilities in battle. Moreover, special attacks are all good looking and some really impressive, especially with Jacques' Raisen and Samanosuke's Tenso. In circumstances you have to resort to Tenso combo, you will find there is no other attack in the whole series more intriguing than this one: tens of slashes appear simultaneously make the whole screen shining.
The adventure factor of Demon Seige is even better than prior version. With the appearance of Jacques, most puzzles in the game require the cooperation between two main characters. Since each has their own advantage and exists in different time and place, many details of the puzzle with change whenever you switch between Samanosuke and Jacques. Typical example is the "Undersea Temple": Samanosuke in present can't open a door but Jacques in the past can thanks to his acrobatic ability, then he should transfer the stone for his partner with the help of Ako. There are many similar circumstances cleverly distributed through out the game, making cooperation a significant addition to game play of Onimusha 3. Besides, the small puzzles to open chests are still maintained. Solve these, you will gain jewels to improve mana and hit point bar of both character.
-----------------------------------Graphics and Sounds--------------------------------------
I'm so satisfied with the graphics of the game. Its advantages includes character's movements and countenance. As already known, the archetype of Samanosuke is Takeshi Kaneshiro. And the second character is also the embodiment of a very famous actor: Jean Reno (You may have watched him in Vinci Code). While their motions are swift, vivid and lissome, the facial features is very lively, expressive and fit well to the situations in game. Voice play is also amazing, but unfortunately sound effects are not that good (still acceptable).
You may not like the idea behind the game, but personally I feel that this is one of few sequels in a famous series that manages to surpass its predecessor. Of course, each player have their own thoughts!