Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

"Why does the series have to end now?"

Capcom first starting with Resident Evil: and it was good. Fighting zombies with guns, and running around collecting plates. Good.
Then, Capcom made Dino Crisis came: it was also good. You shot dinosaurs in instead of zombies. And ran around, collecting plates. Good.
Then, Capcom made Onimusha: and it was better. You, as Samanosuke, must defeat the famous Japanese historical figure Nobunaga Oda, using the power of the three Orbs and an Oni gauntlet. In the second, as Jubei, defeated Nobunaga…again, with the help of his hidden Oni powers. Now, Samanosuke is back, and with the help of Jacques, (the new Oni gauntlet wielder) and the Tengu Ako, Nobunaga'a plan of taking over the world with help from the evil Genma shall be put to rest for the third and final time.

Onimusha 3 moves far away from the traditional roots of the first two games. The first two focuses heavily on the Sengoku period of Japanese history, when Nobunaga was actually around, using his military genius to unite Japan. Instead, Samanosuke is sent to present day France to fight Genma there. However, his three original gauntlet orbs to not work there, so he must find new powers. To take his place, Jacques Blanc, a French Special Forces officer gets sent to Samanosuke's time. Jean originally just wants to find a way back to his son, Henri (the best person wearing a Fanny Pack in a videogame ever.) While searching, he finds an Oni gauntlet, and an Oni Whip. He can use the power of the Oni Whip to help him defeat the Genma. To help Samanosuke and Jacques, Ako, a small fairy, follows them around, finding items that they can use.

Though the story may have changed greatly, most of the game still remains the same. The hordes of Genma that Samanosuke and Jacques cut through all release souls. These souls can give them health or magic power. However, most of the souls collected are totaled up, and can be used to power-up Samanosuke and Jacques weapons, armor, or gauntlets. Leveling up your items plays an important roll, because it could mean life or death. If your weapons (and all of them are varied, ranging from long katanas, an axe, a flail, twin short swords) are not upgraded, less damage can be done, so it would take longer to kill the harder Genma. Gauntlets upgrade to absorb souls faster, and weapons can be charged for longer periods of time. And Armor…protects better.
To get the most souls, you need to perfect something called “Issening.” There are two ways to Issen: deflect an attack and strike quick, or attack right before an enemy hits you. If it is preformed right, then it is a critical hit, and the enemy drops more souls. It is possible to perform combos of critical attacks, to rack up huge amounts of souls.
Though collecting souls is a pretty big part of the game, the main premise is still the same from the first two: running around, solving puzzles. However, one person alone cannot solve many of the puzzles. For example, keys are found in one time, and are transported to open new doors in another. That is where Ako comes in. She can transport items over the five hundred year gap to help each of them with those tricky puzzles.
While the game is pretty much the same, with the new challenges with Ako, it gets itself a new coat of paint.

Now, the biggest change in the game is the graphical changes. Instead of the clean, static pre-rendered images, everything is now fully rendered in 3D. Though almost every single Survival Horror game made by Capcom has had these pre-rendered backgrounds, this is a giant leap forward in terms of what people thought. The beautiful character models that were present in the first two Onimusha look just as good in the third. Jacques, Samanosuke, and Michelle all look amazing, and full of detail. Both Jacques and Samanosuke look just like their real life counterparts. However, with all the extra power being used for the backgrounds, it truly is a masterpiece. All of the backgrounds look superb, and artfully drawn with the minutest details. Though these backgrounds are not as pretty as the pre-rendered ones, they still look great, and push the Playstation 2 like very few games have done yet. All of the historical French monuments that are in the game (like Notre Dame, the Arc De Triomphe, and Mont Saint Michel) are look exactly like the real works of architecture. The Japanese part of the game also looks realistic, and the original Oni and Gemna architecture looks great as well. However, there is one problem, which does get very, very annoying when the fighting becomes hectic. When there is more than a handful of Genma on the screen at the same time, and a special attack is used, the game just STOPS. This slowdown does get very annoying, because it sometimes occurs during boss fights, and that could mean life or death. So while the game is fast and furious as 60 frames per second for 99% of the game, the seconds long piece of slowdown just should not be there.

The sounds and music of Onimusha is of quality, but standard with the rest of the series. France and Japan have very different scores, ranging from the traditional Japanese music that was in the first two, or the new, classical score that is played in France. Both of them are very nice, but they are not very memorable. If you do not try to pay attention to the music, it just blends into the background. The music blends seamlessly in with the environments. While the music fits, the voice acting…sure could be better. Though it is Jean Reno on the screen, it is not his voice, so the voice comes off as very odd. Also, with there being no way to change to the Japanese voice acting, you should get used to how the people sound. Each voice just seems to have some missing emotion in them, like they were trying to hard to convey one emotion, so another is lost. So, while the music is superb, the voice acting leaves much to be desired.

Like all other Capcom Survival Horror games, Onimusha 3 has a bunch of extras hidden inside the game. Each character has a closet full of different outfits, like Samanosuke's Panda, or Michelle's towel (yes, only a towel.) Along with extra costumes, there are a few mini-games that are enjoyable. However, not all unlockables can be unlocked just by playing the game on different difficulty settings. If you have an Onimusha Blade Warriors game save on your memory card, Onimusha 3 will read that, and a new costume will be available, along with something new for Blade Warriors. Also, with the Dark Realms that are in the game, weapons from the original Onimusha can be unlocked in a new game. Also, unlike the other Onimushas, this game cannot be beaten in the normal three hours. This is a very long affair, taking over ten hours the first time around.

Onimusha 3 looks to be a great sendoff to a great series. With everything that the first two had done wrong perfected, this trilogy goes out with me really hoping for a fourth.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/04