Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

"A decent redemption for the Onimusha series..."

Being a fan of the first Onimusha game, and disappointed in the related sequel, Onimusha 3 came as a good suprise when I realized how much polish actually went into this game. Samanosuke is back, and this time he brings even more confusion to the Onimusha storyline. Samanosuke teams up with Jaques, who is played by Jean Reno. Both are intertwined in a confusing debacle of time travel and the inevitable return of the genma.

The game is decent in terms of gameplay. The upgrade system is reminiscent of RPG qualities, as you increase the level of your weapons and armour, the damage and defensive qualities increase. The actual execution of the gameplay is somewhat repetitive, since its pretty much a hack and slash survival horror game. Press direction buttons while mashing the attack button wields different combos, but in the end, its still button mashing, thought the ability to block and evade switches up the tactics a bit.

Graphically this game is superb. Lending itself to the best looking games on the Ps2 and one of the best game intros ever. Capcom hyped this game to have the best ''Opening cinematic ever''; while their claim was a little far fetched, its still exciting and definitely very high quality.

The sound effects are okay, and the music is somewhat diverse, but the focus of the Onimusha games has never been on aural quality. Even though the game plays well, the game is designed so that experts of Onimusha can fly though the game in under 6 hours, while the newbs will take anywhere from 20-30 hours, depending on skill level. Power ups and ammo are perfectly scattered, and just when you start running out of health or ammo, the game graciously offers you a box with more ammo and health items in it. Its perfectly balanced for all types of gamers, and this is where the main appeal of the game lies.

If you had any interest in the first Onimusha, you'll absolutely love this game. Going away from 2-D backgrounds and moving in to full fledged 3-D environments. The exploration will fill any action horror game-fan with glee, and some of the puzzle elements are fairly intuitive.

Even though Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is nothing to write, rant and rave about, its absolutely one of the better releases of the 1st quarter of 2004, and would look good on anyone's shelf.

Final Verdict: 8/10
Top notch cinematic style, with high rate voice acting from some of North America's and Japan's finest actors, this game has a certain cinematographic appeal.
The hack and slash gameplay gets somewhat repetitive, and the game does suffer from some of the worst camera angles, but it definitely doesn't ruin the experience.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/04