Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers

"Best hack and slash on the Wii, though that competition isn't fierce"

Let me get the thesis of this review out of the way right now for those who have followed this game. Oneechanbara is a brutal, gory, stylish hack and slash game that has cribbed most of its pages from the Dynasty Warriors playbook, while still carving out its own niche. It is a budget game and aspired to be a dang good BUDGET game. If you've been following it and you realize that you're dealing with a budget game, your only question is going to be if it is fun and satisfying. To that, I answer yes, with some minor flaws, which I'll detail later.

Now that I got that nonsense out of the way, Oneechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is a budget caliber hack-and-slash focusing on ridiculously costumed women wielding massive katanas and cutting through an unending army of zombies. This represents the latest iteration in a long-running budget series in Japan, though this and it's counterpart on the Xbox360 are the first to reach American shores in this reviewer's estimation. Despite the garish subtitle, the game is hardly any more of a striptease than any other video game of its sort. The ladies in this game are dressed no less ridiculously than, say, the ladies of Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry. Make no mistake, the focus of this game is definitely its satisfying combat. The ladies are merely window dressing.

Gameplay: 8/10. Repetitive in the fun way, but still repetitive, and marred by a few questionable choices.

Most of what you'll be doing in Oneechanbara is slicing zombies up, and the game does that right, presenting combat far better than the likes of No More Heroes. Attacks are done with rhythmic shakes of the Wii remote or in some cases the nunchuck, something that definitely could be done better with buttons, but it definitely isn't mindless flailing. Put a side slash in your combo for a different set of attacks with a wider arc. In one of your combat styles, the nunchuck serves as a guard breaking kick attack. Depending on the character and the combat style they are using, you could be using the nunchuck to trigger throws or alternating remote, nunchuck for dual-sword slashes. Combine that with the fact that the game's style combo system heavily rewards you carefully timing your swings and you have a workable combat system. Again, buttons would have been a better choice, but the system isn't completely irritating.

Each of your characters has two combat styles to carry her through the levels, one standard and one unique per the character. Aya can whip out her second sword, Saki can put hers away and switch to fisticuffs and grappling, Reiko can pull out guns (Appropriately useless in a game based on sword combat.), and Misery can expand her sword into a powerful, Ivy-style whip/flail sword for massive, far-reaching, powerful... but slow... strikes. Blocking is nonexistent; you are expected to hit A to jump/evade enemy attacks, again, better timing yields better rewards, allowing you to pull off massively destructive counter-attacks under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, evading doesn't cancel your own attacks, so on higher difficulties, you'll need exercise a bit of strategy. As you deal more damage to the unending zombie hoards, you'll have to consistently swipe zombie blood off your swords, lest they grow less effective and eventually get prone to getting stuck in your foes. Timing proper "releases" in your combos will allow you to do this safely in combat. Also, kill enough zombies, and your character will go into a berserk frenzy, massively increasing their attack power, but also draining their life. It can only be ended by consuming an item that drops from zombies or visiting one of the game's save points.

The zombies themselves have a respectable degree of variety, most of them are fodder, but you'll encounter foes that can block, fire weapons, and throw explosives, slow and powerful monstrous zombies that look like Andre the Giant, birds, dogs, and freakish monsters. They all have different patterns, and the game actually stops you in the bevy of tips it throws at you to explain each of these foes' patterns and how to best handle them. One problem with this is that for all the emphasis on each foes' attacks being telegraphed by unique sounds, I never ONCE was able to make any of these sounds out over the din of my attacking. Another big issue... One type of zombie can only easily be killed with a palm thrust attack, which looks just as ridiculous when your character does it as the move it requires of you: Three standard swipes and a forward thrust with the Wii remote. If I had a nickel for every time the game would not register this thrust, I would probably have my money back for the purchase of this game. It isn't a deal breaker... there ARE other methods to handle them, but it is a giant pain nonetheless.

Still, combine all that with a few intense boss battles with the other player characters that rely heavily on evasion and you've got yourself an enjoyable romp, though you might find yourself running away from any zombies that aren't forced upon

Presentation 9/10: This game bears the polish of being the latest in a series

Oneechanbara brings the replay value with a decent array of modes. Each of the four characters has a fairly short story mode of 8 levels, many levels repeated between various characters. In Dynasty Warriors fashion, each character may be levelled up and have their stats boosted, more hits unlocked in their combos, all the way up to level 100. Three unlockable difficulties await, perfect for testing the skills of a fully leveled character (Unlike Dynasty Warriors where the difficulty curve is indefensible, the highest two difficulties still present an enjoyable challenge for even max level characters.). Clear the game on all difficulties and you can even reallocate the stats of each girl, allowing you to relive the halcyon days when Normal wasn't a cakewalk. Each story mode level may be played in Free Play mode, wherein you can take any girl as well as a second girl to switch back and forth from. A Survival mode is also included, both Free Play and Survival offer co-op. Unlockable stat-boosting rings are hidden in all the story mode levels, requiring you to hunt them down and face foes that can only be bested with really good combo timing. Each story mode level has a series of "Quests" that must be done in Free Mode. These quests unlock additional costumes and are purely of the 360 achievement-style variety. Taunt 30 times, go undamaged, etc. One weakness is that the game doesn't tell you the requirements until after you have beaten the quest, you only get the name of that quest. But you can compare that name against similarly named quests you HAVE completed to get a better idea. A fully-fledged training mode allows you to fight any creature from the game, including bosses, and even receive timing hints for the game's attack patterns. The game also has a View mode that lets you view the models for every character in the game, the girls and the zombies, as well as see all of their animations and hear all of their voice clips. It is a nice touch.

The story, revolving around the cursed blood carried by the principal characters, driving them to fight endless hoards of zombies caused by that same blood, is clearly a labor of love by someone, but definitely not the folks responsible for putting the story in the game. Exposition takes the form of scrolling text on still backgrounds that focuses on each character's thoughts, Aya's fears that she may never live a normal life, Saki worrying about her sister, Misery's insanity, Reiko's scientist/secret agent combo... all the dialogue is in Japanese with English subtitles, and it never really tells a cohesive story. Nor does it ever explain why Aya is dressed as though she fell through a cabaret's costume department and just chose to wear whatever stuck nor why she struts like a lingerie model.

Graphics: 7/10 Budget is the operative word here

Oneechanbara offers a decent array of environments... better than what you get in the average Dynasty Warriors game, as well as a nice array of zombie models, complete with gruesome limb-chopping-off action. Each of the girls is animated and modeled quite well (Complete with obligatory boob physics.), but the entire game still feels quite static... again, I call back to Dynasty Warriors similarities. The design is technically good... but unambitious. It isn't architecturally impressive a la Deadly Creatures nor does it offer the atmosphere of any of a dozen other Wii titles. Again, though, you're likely not going into this expecting Metroid Prime 4. What the game offers is serviceable, if not very PS2-era.

Special attention goes to a few of the animations of the main characters for stylishness. Aya's fashion model walk, Saki's brutal throws, each of the girls are divas in their own way and are definitely a high point of the game's graphics.

Sound/Music: 7/10 Bread and butter

I don't have a lot to say in this regard. The sound is functional, even though the audio cues for enemy attacks are not recognizable at all. Sword slashes, growling zombies, gore splatters are all enjoyable. The voice acting is largely unimpressive, though Misery's actress deserves a pat on the back for impressive work as an insane psychopath. Her work is definitely the only Japanese dialogue worth hearing the delivery for. The boss themes of the game are pretty good as far as that unique rock/techno/video game music niche goes, but the rest of it doesn't fit the bill as it should. Bonus points for a somewhat cheesy pop vocal song to narrate the final boss battles, even if none of them are really climactic enough to deserve it.

Overall 7/10: Worth a second look

In the end, I enjoyed Oneechanbara. Of course, I am already a Dynasty Warriors fan and have enjoyed budget styled games like EDF in the past. This is definitely not a game for folks expecting anything ground-breaking or spectacular, but it is fun, satisfying, brutal, and if you enjoy the game's combat, it will give you plenty of reasons to come back for more. The story modes are short, the levels are repetitive, but the entire thing is a vehicle for the combat, which I feel is enough to carry the product. Hell, the amount of hours you put in to unlock everything and get really good at the game if you choose to go that far will easily dwarf the time spent just beating the story mode. In the end, Oneechanbara effortlessly slaughters the competition of Soul Calibur Legends and No More Heroes as the finest action hack and slash on the Wii. But, note well though, the game isn't for everyone. It offers more depth and better features as a budget title than the average full-priced Dynasty Warriors game, but it still is cut from the DW cloth, so that is the best litmus test I can offer: If you think DW is terrible, then stay away from Oneechanbara. If you, however, enjoy Koei's work, then try this for some much-needed variety from Koei's formula.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/09

Game Release: Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (US, 02/10/09)