Onimusha Blade Warriors

"Import review of this great fighter."

Onimusha Buraiden is a fighter in the neighborhood of one Super Smash Brothers franchise, with battles that rival that of the Nintendo giant. Once you insert the game disk into your PS2, you're instantly introduced to the fascinating Onimusha universe via an Onimusha 3 preview trailer, where Samanosuke and new comer Jack take on multiple enemies using various weapons and techniques: Jack uses a whip and more modern means of taking out enemies while Samanosuke sticks with the old trusted blade. Once the amazing trailer comes to an end, a new trailer kicks in introducing you to the universe of Onimusha Buraiden: multiple players on screen at once battling it out on multiple level tiers using all sorts of weapons, items, and powerups. What strikes you first is the sheer speed the battles dole out; they're so fast a whole battle could be ended in one minute.

Once you press the ''start'' button, you're taken into a menu of selections to make: story mode, versus mode, advanced versus mode, training, and options.

In story mode you select a character out of the ones made available to you at first (Samanosuke, Jubei, Kaede, and nine others), and take it/him/her through a series of battles (with different objectives for each battle) where that character's story unfolds. The story as a whole is well integrated with the Onimusha universe, though a few questions are left to be answered (what does EXE or Zero have to do with the Onimusha franchise?). The more you play story mode the more items, weapons, characters, and levels you'll unlock in versus mode for you and up to three of your friends (or computer controlled characters) to enjoy. In story mode, the aim is to finish each level completing one of the multiple objectives on offer: sucking a pre-determined amount of orbs (the orbs are released when you kill certain enemies), killing a certain number of enemies, finishing off a boss, or killing all the enemies in one area. Once you've accomplished this, you're given access to the next level via a screen where you can level up your character (using souls you've sucked), change it's/her/his armor and weapon, and use items you've purchased from the cocoon guy. The battles proper are real addictive, offering huge doses of fun to be had; you can use a hammer to slam your enemy, charge your weapon and unleash it's wrath upon your foe, or use one of three specials (wind, fire, and electricity) that become available upon sucking their corresponding orbs, giving you the opportunity to witness some of the best specials seen in a Capcom game. All the characters share the same button commands but different visual implementations, making the game easy to master (the game has an arcadey feel to it). It'll take some time for you to unlock everything, but once you do it you'll have all the content you'd ask for in a versus mode, making you motivated to unlock more and more stuff. The versus advanced mode allows you to transport your leveled up characters into the versus gameplay, offering a tactic element to the multiplayer scraps.

The graphics are real fruity, providing levels that range from the cold of a frozen cave and the coolness of EXE's program world, to the rooftops of multiple architectures and the cool breeze of the ocean (while you're fighting on atop of a ship). The level backgrounds are candy for your eyes while the surfaces and textures are real clean. The character models are top notch and the animation is as perfect as can be. The game is barely interrupted by slowdown, but that's only when you have ten+ characters on screen at once.The voices are as good as they come in Japanese, while the music fits the mood of the battles.

In the end of this review, I'd like to advise you to purchase Onimusha Buraiden upon it's english release, as it offers an enjoyable one player mode and a killer multiplayer mode in the vein of SSB. A definite 9/10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/04