Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

"The last, and best, in the series."

Capcom has always been one of my favorite companies as they tend to release quality titles. As of late though, I've been losing faith. Dino Crisis 3? Devil May Cry 2? Both sequels to respectable games and both were mediocre. Upon seeing Oni 3, I had my doubts. Would the final chapter of the series end on a sour note or will Capcom get their act together and go all out?

The latter of which is the end result.

Onimusha 3 is easily the best in the series, not to mention, one of the all best games out there right now.

Gameplay

If you've played the first 2 entries in the series, this is nothing really new to you. Issen, special moves, solve a few puzzles here and there. Standard Onimusha stuff. You're still trying to get rid of Nobunaga so that's still in there too. The difference here is Jaques and Ako. Jaques, as you probably already know, is the 2nd main hero and much to my delight, he plays differently from Sam. Refreshing change of pace as opposed to Dante and Lucia in DMC2 where I found Lucia to be quite boring.

Ako is a Tengu (or you could call her a fairy) that accompanies both heroes on the quest. She grabs small items for you and when equipped with different colored vests, she does things like replenish your HP and give you more red souls.

Not too many huge differences but if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Graphics

Okay, I'm sure it's been said before by just about everybody on Earth but I have to do it: Onimusha 3 has the absolute best opening of any Next Gen game so far. Period. The motion capture is very well done, the effects, the music, it's all just absolutely stunning. You HAVE to see it in motion to get the full grasp.

As for the in game graphics, the character's faces are very well done. Sam looks good as usual but the rendering of Jean Reno for Jaques is perfect. Some of the textures in the game are kinda...well...crappy but it's still quite a visual treat. I also just got through playing Pandora Tomorrow on Xbox so I've been spoiled on graphics. See it for yourself, then decide.

Controls

Everything's tight and responsive. The controls are familliar to the series so no need to really go in depth here.

Sound

Ah, time for my one major gripe. And it's not about Sam not speaking in Japanese. Jean Reno is a pretty good actor. And while I THINK they used his voice for his lines in French, they used a completely DIFFERENT guy for his English lines. This will irk you especially if you know Jean Reno's voice well. The English voice is high pitched and generic. I'm not familliar with Takeshi Kaneshiro's work so I don't know if his VA did him a great injustice, but in Jean's case, it just sucked to not have him do his own English lines (he CAN speak English folks!)

Overall

Capcom did an excellent job with this one and has since restored my faith in their company. Here's hoping they can take this momentum and carry it over to Viewtiful Joe 2 and Devil May Cry 3. If this game is any indication of things to come, I'd say we're in for some mighty fine gaming!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04