Onimusha: Warlords

"Fantastic sound, a great storyline and brilliant gameplay make this an amazing game"

Onimusha:Warlords is the first game in the Onimusha series. It is a horror survival game taking many elements, particularly the controls and the fixed backgrounds, from the Resident Evil series.

The game's setting is in the feudal Japan period. You play the role as the hero Samanosuke. Prior to the beginning of the game your character sets out on a journey to see the world. When you return to your home you find everything in ruins and chaos caused by demons.

A warlord named Nobunaga Oda attacks the castle Inabayama. During the attack on the castle Princess Yumi is kidnapped so that her blood may be used in a ritual. This leaves you, along with your faithful female ninja accomplice Kaede, to go off into a structure the demons have claimed as their own.

The games gameplay takes a Resident Evil approach, but due to the fact you use swords instead of guns the approach works very well. The camera is always fixed leaving your character and the enemies on top of pre-rendered backgrounds. When you walk off the edge of the screen your view changes. This works very well as you can't see round corners until you are round the corner thus increasing any potential fear from your encounters. To add to this fear sometimes ceilings will collapse causing enemies to fall in front of you.

The game makes you travel through the castle that the demons have taken over and its almost maze like structure. You will find yourself fighting a lot when playing as Samanosuke, and you will do a lot of exploring in order to find places you can enter, and items to enter places. Occasionally you switch play to Kaede who is far more “stealth” based in that you will often find yourself weaving through a room of enemies as she is weak in battle. Also, where as Samanosuke has to explore every now and then, Kaede has quite obvious (almost linear) routes to follow.

My only real complaint about the gameplay is that sometimes you will run into puzzles. Though these puzzles are well-designed and quite entertaining, the fact is that they do not fit into an Action-Survival game, and many people who are playing this game because it is action survival will likely not be able to work out some of the later puzzles.

The battle system is simple, but will take a lot of skill to master. Throughout the game you will get three weapons, a Thunder Sword, a Fire Sword and a Wind Staff. Each of these has a basic attack consisting of 2-4 combo hits, as well as a magic move. You can also find a bow and a gun which auto-lock on to the enemy, though these have limited ammo and leave you open to attack. You guard with L1, enter a strafe stance with R1 (allowing you to strafe around the nearest enemy) and you can do a 180' turn with R2 (which, by the way is VERY useful). The reason the 180' turn is so useful is because you can only walk forward and turn round slowly with the d-pad (which works FAR better in this game than the Resident Evil games). The circle button allows you to absorb souls that you knock out of your enemy, allowing you to heal, gain magic power and gain EXP that you can disperse among your weapons and items whenever you reach a save point. When you play as Kaede you only have one close combat weapon and magic power is replaced by a projectile.

Throughout the game you meet a relatively small number of enemies. However each enemy type has unique attack patterns. This means that, despite there being few enemy types, each one brings something new to the fray, from shields, to slow strong swords, to dashing across the room even to going invisible. Enemy design is also good. Each enemy has its own unique feel and almost all of them look freaky.

The graphics are very well done. The fixed backgrounds look great and the character models are well done. The FMVs are quite-simply amazing. However I do have one slight discrepancy with the graphics and that is that sometimes the characters stand out from the backgrounds a little too much which can make the backgrounds seem almost 2D.

The sound is wonderful. Fire crackles, wind gushes and demon voices send chills down you spine. The music is also good, though it is very simple. However it is simple for a reason as it creates some very nice atmosphere.

However one of the best things about this game is that it feels very rewarding. When you complete a Boss battle or a puzzle you feel happy, and if you die you feel compelled to retry.

The game takes about 3-5 hours to complete, and it has quite a bit of replay value due mainly to the ranking system and hidden items that allow you to unlock a minigame as well as extra costumes and movies.

Gameplay = 9/10
Controls = 9/10
Level Design = 7/10
Enemy Design = 9/10
Graphics = 8/10
Sound = 9/10
Length = 3-5 hours
Replay Value = 7/10

Final Score = 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/07

Game Release: Onimusha: Warlords (EU, 07/06/01)