Onimusha Blade Warriors

"Onimusha Light - Condensed Formula - Single Player Review"

I tried to beat the original Onimusha. I really tried. Unfortunately I had completely screwed myself by the end of the game because I was under the impression I could actually level up and I wouldn't be wasting all of those heal items that would become so precious later on. I kept trying to beat this section of the game with hardly any health and it became impossible. So this is where my Onimusha story was to end, due to the fact I thought the game was decent, but entirely too slow, monotonous, and lacking any real style or gameplay element other than a few aspects.

Four sequels have been released since then on the PS2 alone, and of them this is the best of all. It's like they took all the good parts of the first two games: the soul absorption and samurai attack style, characters, and weapons, and magic, and condensed them into a great little fighting game.
The following is a review of the Single Player Mode only.

Graphics: The graphics for this game are great and really do shine. It has a 2.5D quality and the character models are great. I love each of the level's environments and I think the swords look great as well. What more would you expect from Capcom?

Presentation: The presentation is exactly like Onimusha 1 and 2. Same screens and text, same level up functions, almost everything is there, but its condensed and takes far less time to navigate and utilize.

Gameplay: The gameplay is exactly like everyone describes, Smash Brothers with Onimusha characters. One button for attacks, one button for blocking, one button for magic and one button for jumping. The simplified controls seemed a bit shallow at first, but the enemies are the masters of the cheap shot, so deciding which attack to use is crucial. The thing I loved about the game play was the use of soul absorption. You don't gain health between rounds, so it is crucial that you use your Ogre Gauntlet to absorb every little soul color imaginable. This presents the perfect place for the absorption. In the original Onimusha it was annoying because you were constantly making the decision between blocking, absorbing or attacking, but in a 3-D slowpaced action game, that decision was annoying. This game on the other hand makes perfect use of the absorption and you will find yourself jumping around and quick hitting enemies just to absorb more souls. The levels consist of locals from the Onimusha games, but instead of this game being a 3-D fighter, like Tekken or Soul Calibur, it takes place in a side scroller 2.5D world, exactly like Smash Brothers. You hit "up up" or "down down" to move between the platforms or from the background or fore ground. This can be frustrating at times due to the fact some points don't allow you to move between the back and foreground, but other than that it's a great addition to a fighting game. The player fights through 10-13 levels, depending on the character, with the opportunity to go into the Shadow Realm and fight a huge amount of secret levels that grow increasingly more difficult. Along the way the player will have different goals per level, some as easy as defeating a boss character, others involving defeating a certain amount of simple enemies during a time limit, to finally collecting special souls that come out of only certain defeated enemies. Combine this with the fact that occasionally enemies will absorb souls as well, makes the game an interesting combination of gameplay elements. Of course it wouldn't be an interesting fighting game with everything I've mentioned above, the thing that puts it over the top is the items found scattered throughout chests on each level. From throwing daggers to bombs, from weapon-locks to dizziness, the items make the gameplay that much more interesting. I'm not sure which actually came first Powerstone or Smash Brothers, but I think it was Powerstone. That said, Capcom has always held the title for "Best Items" out of all the game companies out there. On top of these Melee items, you can also find original swords and armor for your chosen character. That's where this game really shines. Which leads me to the final category.

Replayability or Lasting Appeal - The game doesn't really get old thanks to the design itself. Of course besides the 4-player option, which I'm not reviewing because I haven't played the two player mode yet, the one player mode has a New Game Plus feature, that keeps track of how many times you have beaten the game with a character, the character also has the ability to increase levels of attack, magic, and defense by collecting souls during battles. Upon beating the game you are allowed to trade souls for rare items that do all sorts of things. Each character has about 5 to 6 weapons they can find or unlock, as well as armors. Of course no fighting game is complete anymore without secret characters, to which are there are at least 8 or so. Finally the best SPOILER of all is that Mega-Man.exe is a secret unlockable character. Anyone who played the Dreamcast game Canon Spike will understand how great it is to have any sort of Mega Man appearance in a Capcom game. Usually a game like this would have a limited shelf-life, but due to the sheer amount of unlockables it is quite the game to master. Even more interesting is the fact that unlocked characters still have to be unlocked in the 2-player mode before you can truly select them. This game makes you work for it, but it's always fun, and raising the levels of the characters as well as finding their secret items means that even more will be unlocked, making you strive to collect everything. It also has one of the best Save features I've seen in a game like this allowing you to save in between rounds and you never have to worry about writing over a past save, its pretty simple.

Overall: This is a great little game that any fan of Onimusha should own. Even fans of Samurai and Ninja games will probably love this game. Just don't think of it as an average fighting game because its nothing like a normal fighting game, it's more of a homage to 2-D platformers of the past with all of the Onimusha gameplay elements infused. Worth more than a rental, I can't wait to try the two-player mode which other reviewers claim makes the game even better. In my opinion this game is far superior to the games that spawned it and has a much longer lifespan as well. Even if you don't play the 2-player function, which I haven't yet, it still is fully enjoyable and great to just hop in and play for 20 minutes or so...something a lot of games don't offer anymore.

Overall Score 8/10

Best Compared To: Super Smash Brothers, Cannon Spike, Power Stone, Old School Fighting Games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/07