Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

"So, who wants to kill some more demons?"

Well, as we all know, this review is for Onimusha 3: Demon Siege. That darn Nobunaga is at it again, and it looks like its time for you to brandish your sword (or whip) and turn into a legendary fighter and kick some demon booty. As most of you probably already know, the introduction movie for this game has been floating around on the net for quite some time now. If you have not seen it I highly recommend you do so as it is one of the most amazing CG movies I have ever seen made for the PS2 thus far. Enough with the intro, on to the review.

Graphics: 10 of 10
Alright then, first up is the graphics and level of detail in this game. If you remember Onimusha 2 and how nice it looked for its time, then your are going to be very impressed with Onimusha 3's graphic engine. The guys at Capcom decided to totally remaster their engine with real-time photo shots of all the backgrounds you see in the game. That means anywhere you are running around in has at one point been a real-life picture that Capcoms developing crew has looked at for information on how to build the environment. The character models in this game look exactly as they would if they were real. Capcom used the finest of the finest to pull out what is some of the most extraordinary looking detail ever put into a PS2 game. They have matched the lip-synching with the English language very well and overall I havent seen many texture glitches on any of the characters or monsters, so thumbs up to Capcom on a job well done.

Music and Sound: 7 of 10
Some people might not agree with me, but hey this is my review. I did not care for the music in Onimusha 3 aside from the opening intro sequence. As I went throughout the game I found that the music was quite boring and dull and it really didnt keep me on my toes. Not to say that the music was bad, it was actually decent, but nothing worth praising in my book. The sound effects on the other hand I thought were nicely redone. Pretty much your going to hear the same hacking and slashing sounds from Onimusha and Onimusha 2, but there have been more added such as Jacques whip effects and gunshots. All of them sound realistic as if you were actually there on the battlefield though, so dont worry. You'll pretty much think you are in a theatre. The character voices were quite good. Nothing horrible or out of place and everything sounded as if they were actually having a real-life conversation. There were a few bad lines here and there, but no movie or game is complete without those anyway. And if you are wondering, there is no option to put the game back in its original Japanese language. I know some people like that kind of thing, however it looks like it was removed from this title.

Controls and Gameplay: 8 of 10
This area is actually quite better then Onimusha or Onimusha 2's controls and gameplay were. The fighting system is along the same lines as it was in the first 2 games, however there are a few minor problems. When holding down the R2 button to go into ''Draw'' stance to quickly move around your enemy, it is quite difficult to navigate sometimes. It is also a bit harder to go immediately from attacking to blocking in this game as well. So you might take a few extra hits in the beginning that you think shouldn't have been there. Another slight problem some might have is with Jacques Oni-Whip throw. While it sounds cool, and its fun to do, it takes a little bit of getting used too since you can only throw the enemy in 2 directions, and not whichever direction you want. Criticals in this game to me seemed a bit more difficult to pull of as in this one you only press [], right before the enemies attack hits you, and it requires a good eye to time every single enemies attack in this game. After 10 hours of practice or so you should get it. Puzzles are back of course, some are easy as pie, but as you get farther into the game some require a good level of IQ, or a good GameFaq's guide, whichever you want. As far as response goes in the game the 4 buttons work fine. I used the analog stick to control the movement in the game and didnt run into too many problems, however if you use the D-pad to move I find that you run into a bit more problems with walls and obstacles.

Replay Value and Fun Factor: 9
Ill say it right now, this game is fun to play. Slashing hordes of demons and powering up your weapons to godly levels and then going in and slashing 6 enemies with one critical hit and annihilating the entire room is just so much fun no matter how many times you do it. There arent too many extra things to do in the game. There is the wonderful Demon World challenges as in the first 2 games where you attempt to go through level after level of slaughtering demons. Be prepared though as it gets hard. There are also some unlockables in the game that you can access in the options section but Ill let you figure those out by yourself.

Well in closing, I must say I was quite impressed with Onimusha 3: Demon Siege. Good story, good characters, nice battle system, and decent sound and music. A great job by Capcom. If your into this type of game it is a definite buy, however if smashing hordes of demons into oblivion isnt your type of thing, then you might want to try a rental first. Peace, Im out!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/04