Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

"They're not kidding, it really is different. But is it actually better?"

Answer - Sort of. Unlike most "professional" reviewers, I do not rate every single game "above average". A 5 is just that, a 5 out of 10. Average. A 5 is the current average of games as they are when the game is released. This game is a little above average, so it gets a 6. Now let's launch into a surprising high point of this redesigned Onimusha, shall we?

Story - 8/10

A Capcom game with a good story? Ridiculous!! I'm serious, though, the story really is on par now with some of the RPGs you'll find. It's not the best I've ever seen but it is far from the worst. Not only are there lots of cutscenes, but in between almost every stage you can talk with every character in your party, usually you get a choice of four or so topics to discuss with them. You can talk to them about everything available or you can skip it, your choice. I can't say -that- much about it without spoiling it, but expect the return of a few old faces and lots of new ones. The main problems here, which also happen to be the specialty of Capcom games, are loose ends in the story.

Characters - 6/10

Unfortunately... the characters themselves are often very one dimensional and not really that interesting at all. In fact, most of them are kind of boring. The lone exception here is a Spaniard named Roberto, who is such an interesting character that he really stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Gameplay - 7/10

This is the one aspect that really hasn't changed all that much. If you like Onimusha's particular style of action, you'll like this. If you like action games in general you'll probably like this. Nothing really all that revolutionary, but it is still solid. This time around there are a whole bunch of weapons, something like 31 for most characters. Although they're basically the same as each other with different stats, each character has a greatly expanded moveset which sort of evens things out. Yes, I said characters. There are now five controlable characters and each one handles differently.

My only complaint here is that, especially in areas where you get knocked down a whole lot like the Dark Realm, your character seems to spend most of his or her time kissing the floor. It really slows down the pace considerably - you get hit by an enemy, your character is knocked back and falls down. A couple of days later, your character decides that it might be a good idea to stand up again.

Length - 1/10

This is what -really- killed the game for me. Instead of being "great", it was just "above average". What I am about to say may surprise you but please bear with me. The main game is good overall but there are three main problems. The first are the bosses. The second is that when you complete the game, you unlock a new, more challenging mode. You start on normal, then go to hard, then oni, then ultra oni. The third is the "stage" format. The fourth is the Dark Realm, a staple of the Onimusha series.

As strange as it sounds, this game really proved to me that there is such a thing as -too much- "replay value". I played through the main story and it was great, and the longer I played it the more glaring the game's flaws became.

So, the bosses. They aren't all that hard, really. Their moves are almost always incredibly easy to dodge and you can stunlock at least one very important boss, just sitting there beating on him until he dies. The problem is this - the boss fights take way too long. A perfect example of this is a giant four-legged boss you fight relatively early on in the game. You fight this boss in a corridor, and along the corridor are alcoves that you can walk into. There are two really stupid parts about this battle - the first is that if you walk into one of the alcoves, you are completely protected from the boss' attacks. Any boss battle that you can walk away from and come back an hour later with your character unharmed is not well designed. The second thing is that most of the time the boss' weak point (the only spot you can damage) is well out of reach. You have to wait for him to start up one of his ridiculously easy-to-avoid attacks, step into an alcove, and then walk out and beat on the boss for a while. The boss has such a high amount of health that even if you could hurt it all the time the battle would take too long, but since you can't hit him most of the time the battle is almost unbearably slow and boring. Several other bosses follow this formula - attacks that are really easy to dodge and enough health to keep you mashing the square button for a good long while. The best part of an action game is supposed to be the action, isn't it?

It also does not help that you fight almost every boss multiple times. I swear to god, there is this one boss you have to fight what seems like a hundred times, and it gets more boring and annoying every time you fight him. The main feature of the last level is a ridiculous and out of place boss-rush style thing where you fight several enemies who really have no business being in the story anymore.

Now let's talk about difficulty. Normal is fine, Ultra Oni is ridiculous. -Everything- kills you in two hits. Literally. No matter what your initial HP is, 500 or 5000, the first hit will take you down to exactly 1 HP. The second hit will kill you. There is really no way you're going to avoid getting hit reliably enough to get anywhere. I loved Dante Must Die mode in the original Devil May Cry, but this is just getting stupid.

Ahh yes, stages. This game, unlike it's predecessors, is broken up into stages. It doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but the main thing this affects is that if you want to get everything, you need to go through every stage at least twice - once in the main story, and then you have to revisit again once you have all the characters so you can use each characters' special ability to get to an otherwise unreachable treasure. This is pointless padding, pure and simple. Also of not is a certain facility that cointains a huge rotating elevator in the center... and you get to go through to nearly identical copies of the most annoying area of the game!

Finally, the Dark Realm. Dear god the Dark Realm is horrible now. I loved it in the three previous games, but... bleh, there can be too much of a good thing and Capcom gives us -way- too much. The Dark Realm is an optional area where you can go to between missions to get more souls to power up your weapons and get some shiny new weapons after finishing a set amount of floors. The most obvious change is this - The Dark Realm is now 100 floors deep. Yes, really. Not just "Kill five enemies and advance to the next level", but "kill ten enemies while ten more respawn whenever you kill an enemy, and then 10 enemies all spawn at once when you're finished with the first wave". It is possibly the most soul-crushingly boring side quest I have ever seen in an action game.

But wait, it gets even better! To get the weapons for all of the characters you'll need to go through the Dark Realm with each character individually! So that's 500 floors of pure pain to go through!

And that's not all! Because Capcom decided that you shouldn't get to keep any of your stuff from your previous game.. if you're a real completionist, you get to go through all 100 floors of the Dark Realm for all five characters on all four difficulties, which means 2000 floors of the same pointless garbage.

In summary... yes, this game is different. I feel that they've taken a step back from Onimusha 3. If they plan on keeping the same formula, they've got a lot of work ahead if they plan to make another great Onimusha game... and adding a hundred hours of filler material isn't the way to do it at all.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/06