Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

"A love-it-or-hate-it game that could almost be not considered Onimusha"

Onimusha 3 was a great one to play and I had expectations for the next one (although I was feeling a bit meh seeing Soki for the first time) and also expectations that the English dub would suck incredibly hard on me (and it did). Nevertheless, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams is not too disappointing, as some people say. It depends on how you look at it and your taste of games.

This game is not a bad one but it has some flaws, like repetitions of things. For example, the Dark Realm is now composed of 100 stages with various enemy patterns (which can be boring sometimes). This one managed to make me seriously think 'Devil May Cry 3 Bloody Palace Mode' in a jiffy and it really did prove things that people always said about Onimusha: DoD copying DMC3.

Of course I agree with that but I don't honestly hate it since I am actually a big DMC3 fan at heart.

Moving on, I'll start with the typical Onimusha plot.

Plot

The story centers around a warrior clad in blue armour that is trying to put a stop to the Genma minions terrorizing the whole of Japan. For some reason, he always hunts down the cherry trees that are being sent for the Daigo Blooming Festival and burns them. For this he gains the nickname of the 'Oni of the Ash' and/or Soki.

It is revealed that Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a vassal of Nobunaga had suddenly became evil after uniting Japan and is now plotting the rise of the Genma yet again. This led to Soki's rebellion against Hideyoshi. Soki burns the cherry trees down in order to stop Hideyoshi and encounters many enemies and gain much experience.

Along the way, he meets Jubei Yagyu (not the Jubei Yagyu from Onimusha 2, she is the granddaughter of Onimusha 2's Jubei Yagyu and is actually named Akane Yagyu), a young and energetic ninja girl sent to assassinate a traitor of the Yagyu clan. After a confrontation, the two team up and head out to burn more cherry trees. Along the way they uncover more of the mystery and meet more companions.

Generally, this is acceptable because this is Onimusha after all. You wouldn't expect a plot that would keep you interested to death like MGS series and make you finish the game just because you want the plot.

If I had to give this one a score, it'd be 6.5/10. It's nothing out of the ordinary really but with Nobunaga gone, it's lost a bit of that Onimusha vibe in me. It's not their fault though, everything good must come to an end one day.

Graphics

With the PS2 nearing the end of its era, its engine is now being used to its maximum potential, or somewhere near it. Onimusha: DoD is not anything less. It used the engine well and made some wonderful graphics. The CG was not too shabby but Onimusha 3's CG was by far better than this one.

Superb graphics, nothing to complain about really. Character designs weren't all that spectacular though, although I loved Tenkai's outfit, Ohatsu's Special 3 outfit (Chun Li FTW!) and both Tenkai and Soki's Special 3 outfits (Ryu and Ken also FTW!)

Sounds
Music and other Sound Effects

They had nothing wrong going on with the effects but honestly, the music was average/mediocre. Non-memorable songs are fine but they could've used some more tenseful music instead. I'm not too satisfied with the music although the music in the intro was an OK one. Some songs are decent though, although not excellent. I wouldn't be recommending you this soundtrack.

Voice Acting: English

Being one who has watched dubbed Anime stuff and laugh at them a few times (even when they're dying, or crying, I couldn't help but LOL at the damn pitiful voice acting, Flame of Recca hint hint), I could tell you this one isn't good. It's mediocre at best. Jubei/Akane was a bit annoying and oh boy don't get me started on that guy on the string - he's one of the EPITOMES of annoying little shts ever existed on Onimusha. Also, the part where Jubei/Akane was crying of why Soki saved him, I know it's supposed to be sad and all, but please could you be less annoying, I ended up chuckling instead of feeling a bit meh.

Voice Acting: Japanese

There's nothing wrong here. Deserves a good high-five after I used the English VA first. The voice acting is not all that excellent but it's still OK to listen to. Jubei's VA here is a hundred miles ahead of Jubei's english VA. Even that guy on the thread is less annoying here even though I know his primary objective in this game is to annoy the gamers, he is less significantly annoying on the Japanese dub.

Other/General stuff

The characters were fine. Let me summarize a bit.

Soki is a rebel, fighting against the Genma. He is a bit cool, is emotional, a bit relaxed and to sum it up neatly, he's Dante Jr. Much like James Bond on Casino Royale where he was still emotional, Soki could have been the exact same personality Dante had when he was way younger than 19. That's just a maybe though. Honestly, I think Dante is always cocky even when he was a boy (Devil May Cry 2 is merely a fanfic, that's all, so don't get your hopes up on a cold and boring old Dante). He's also the typical Anime hero kind of guy.

Jubei or Akane Yagyu is another typical stereotype in women found in Anime. Generally, she does feel a bit like Kushieda Minori from Toradora! or Aisaka Taiga from the same Anime and is a general type of girl in Anime these days. Those cheerful, young and energetic ones, that is. The girl everyone adores, kinda. To some she's annoying but to others she's fine. I view her as an OK character, the liveliest, no doubt. (Side note: I kinda like the Soki and Akane pairing more than the Soki Ohatsu pairing)

Ohatsu is also another typical personality in Anime. She is the timid and innocent type of girl, naive and stupid. Of course, you can find thousands of these types of people in any show or movie. Timid girls are nothing less than a normal thing these days. She speaks rather softly so I don't really prefer her. She is the daughter of Oyu and was taught by Magoichi Saiga (both from Onimusha 2), making her Nobunaga's niece.

Tenkai is more of the mysterious person. Of course, at first sight, those who've played Onimusha well enough (and by that I mean even for 10 minutes), Tenkai reminds you of someone. I'm not gonna spoil you much so keep that in mind. He's the calmest of the bunch and is a veteran in many things. Of course it would be blatantly obvious who he was half-way through the game once you meet Arin and stuff.

Roberto is a westerner, quiet but not timid like Ohatsu. He is more of the tough guy (literally) with a so-so personality. He has a scarred past being born and raised in Japan and especially during the war and under his foster father, Luis Frois.

And generally those are the primary characters other than the villains. Some people say these are all bad characters but I don't really care. That or I just like things too easily. Well, basically, it is a bland cast of characters but it isn't THAT dislikeable.

Gameplay

With all this other stuff I'm talking about, why not get straight to the point?

Right then. Onimusha: DoD features a whole new Onimusha experience and it rightfully is so.

With the whole thing deviating away so much from the traditional Onimusha equation, it looks like as if it's leaning on a whole new base that's more inspired by Devil May Cry. That statement is fully supported by the fact that Onimusha: DoD plays by missions. The exploring elements of previous Onimusha games is completely re-vamped now.

And now they have some new things for us aside from the system itself.

Their new partner system is also a good addition, in my opinion at least. You could change between each of them like changing your fighting styles. You can control your partner to a general extent where you can give them 3 general orders (either to go all-out [which drains their health as well, a bit un-useful sometimes if you ask me, but still a good command], to follow and attack [self-explanatory] and to Wait and Recover [basically, your partner will be in his/her blocking stance and while he/she does that, his/her HP slowly recover]) and a special command for each partner.

There is also a 2-player mode if you didn't know.

To play the game in co-op mode, both controllers must hold R1, R2, L1 and L2 together and the 2nd controller must press the Start button (there will be a sound indicating the code was entered successfully) and the next time you play, your partner will be played by the 2nd controller.

To play the Onimusha Arena, go the the Special menu and hover the highlighted thing to Exit and press: Square, L1, R2, Square, Left, L1, L2, L3, Right, Triangle

Then there's the addition of Issei (or critical hits) being done only with Oni Magic instead of deflecting attacks first. Sure it can be a bit broken but soon it'll be something like in balance with the difficulty, especially in Oni mode.

Combat is also not too repetitious although sometimes it is. Dark Realm also becomes something like the Bloody Palace in DMC3 and it spans to 100 stages long now.

The puzzles are also your typically challenging Onimusha puzzles. I don't really like those research facilities though, it's kinda boring. Some of their stage designs are a bit uninspired for me and some are great to look at.

Also, a bad side of this game is something like repetition. Probably an RPG kind of thing but this time a bit different.

You know those weapons you have, like your first weapon, Lamentation. Now max that out. Later on, you max out Jubei's weapon too. Then you just found your Soki a new weapon, the Steel Pipe for example and then you decide to max that out. Then after reaching level 6 for that weapon, you just found Raizan! Oh crap, leveling again!? Then you just found Jubei's Masamune! Leveling it AGAIN? Yes that's right. You get that feeling on your first play, always (unless you get help from others who have played this game already).

This game also does not lag much. It is pretty smooth, pretty much what'd you expect. Except on some occasions, rarely do this game make a huge lag or anything like that.

Next up, the systems are different now. Now there is some kind of experience system that gives you more points to develop the abilities you want with the level-ups you get. This is a good thing though. It radiates something like the feeling of achievement, somehow.

Other than this, there is the base system where you would rest each time you end a stage/mission most probably after killing a boss and your health is then restored.

Players just love this or hate this or get used to this and I actually like the new system (aside from the stages/missions). Some players love the game for the adventure features in the older Onimusha games but I kinda like this change.

Pros:
+ New gameplay (Combat + System)
+ Great graphics
+ Nothing TOO laggy
+ OK Characters
+ Good Combat
+ 5 Different styles to choose/swap from
+ Partner to give out command to
+ An "Experience" system
+ A 2-player Onimusha game!? I CMMING!!!11! (Including Onimusha Arena)

Cons:
- Tiresome to collect weapons and max one of them out only to find a better one in the end
- A bit of a rather stupid AI
- Getting a bit repetitious (e.g Dark Realm becomes 100 stages long)

I didn't list in the system though because generally, it's a matter of opinion

Buy or rent?

I think those who like RPG and maybe action stuff would love this one. I like the combat system, the partnering and stuff like that. I felt like it was a completely different game from Onimusha 3 the first time I played it because, yeah well, many things.

Either way, being an Onimusha fan, I wasn't disappointed with this title, although others are. This truly is a love-it-or-hate-it game. Don't always compare stuff with what they were though.

Some Onimusha fans will love this game and some will say that this is the worst Onimusha in history. It's preference. I kinda like RPG and action, something like Tales of the Abyss maybe. This game, to me, felt like Onimusha 3 redone in another style and it really is another style.

So basically, most Onimusha fans who absolutely love the elements of exploration in the previous Onimusha's would probably be disappointed here but it really is a matter of preference (this may not be true to many others who love the exploration element, like me).

Liking action more than exploration, I suggest you to buy this game

Overall it's a 7.8 for me. It could improve a lot. They could build on this base and make another game. Honestly, I would love seeing a non-Onimusha game using this system/engine.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/09

Game Release: Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (EU, 03/17/06)