Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

"Almost a Dream to remember."

Dawn of Dreams is without a doubt heading in the right direction of a great game, but seems to have snoozed off in certian areas...

Otherwise, if you love the first three, this will definitely catch your eye's $.

The gameplay boils down to a 3-d - action - adventure - fighting - RPG..." In every aspect, it flies... just not too high.

Onimusha evolved from its roots... not longer do you turn and walk like a tank driven by a monkey. You move in complete 3-d in regards to the camera location. More than not the camera can rotate with a good feel to it. Nothing about the adventure/exploring engines if bad... expect for who ever they put in charge of good chunky levels.

Sure you can break pots (only in the first two levels really...) and "interact" with your surroundings, but to a very constricted point. It would be ok, but the back of the box promised me open-ended levels!

Try this out of size... you play a Character named "Soki, the Oni of the Ash," who can cut down enemies in armor -- Only until you return to an earlier level that has that video game moral: "There are 5 characters, so we need you simply return with one of them who can solve this puzzle." Yep, pretty much it... I mean there are puzzle boxes around, put you can just break them open.

So what was that puzzle? Oh, that's right, two pieces of wood (that kind that you just can step on hard, and it would break?)...

Oh wait, here's a good one... you need to lower a ladder just for other character, viod of his genetic jump syndrome. Only the ladder is about three feet off the wall.

Least the combat is great... or am I dreaming...

True every persons has their moves... and many may I add. Not a bad touch, except the fact they mostly do little difference in damage or style. Use a long charged up move? Nope, would rather use a reguluar 3 hit combo with faster excution and no recovery... oops, I press Square too many time... dam, the 4th hit staggered me!

See, with the lack of jumping, most of the combat involve blocking then counter attacking. Attacking is boring... yes, I can handle hack and slash... just not the type when it's against a boss with too much health.

Boss and enemies are little challenge, a block that can resist 95% of the stuff and 60+ Healing items...

Perfect moment: Early boss, faught in a hallway, took me forever... around 15 minutes... didn't matter, he can't hit you if you stand in a doorway... Not fun. I should of enhanced a weapon to MAX and try to find is elemental weakness! Thank capcom for using a system, where by once something is worth using, for it that you have to spend more orbs than what you have to only have a chance at dealing just 50% more damage to a boss. Not saying it couldn't fly, just that 80% of the 100+ weapons are pointless swaps of each other.

Damn... if only I faught him the second time when I could turn in to my ultra-super-neo-ssj-OMG- oni power! 30 seconds of invisibly, more damage, and could be easily restored with cheap potions...

Seems too easy and unblanced? Just let out some steam in the 100th floor dark realm! Yay, I want to thankall of the development team for making this! Every game in the world should use this... think how many people will sleep easier being tired! Any ways, if it wasn't bad enough to waste up to +5 hours with my life... they make you do it 4 more times with the others! For what? Oh yea, one of them fancy weapons.

The sounds and qualities are ok... just bland envirments...
The difficulty is balanced, up until you drop your video game morals and use an item... better than deing, then restarting in the same room.

I will say, some enemies are good, while some are the kind you want to rip the heart out of the artists.

Flying enemies while you are someone who can't jump... great, thank you!

Eh, I probably letting off too much steam, the game is great, except for these and many similuar things.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/06