Genma Onimusha

"Not a whole lot of extras but a solid buy."

For those of you who don't know about the Onimusha Series, Genma Onimusha first appeared for the Playstation 2 as Onimusha: Warlords. Proclaimed by many to be a Resident Evil clone, the game featured a survival horror storyline, with Resident Evil style controls. It was then ported to Xbox and renamed Genma Onimusha with some added extras.

The story of Onimusha is spectacular based on actual events in feudal Japan. Yoshimoto, a Japanese warlord is fighting for control of Japan. While in battle with another warlord named Nobunaga Oda his army is defeated, however, not before Oda is struck in the throat by a stray arrow. For some reason though demons give him a chance to destroy Japan and revive him. You Samanosuke must defeat him and save the princess he is planning on making his sacrifice.

Genma is a port and it shows in the graphics. Resolution is a bit higher, but otherwise the graphics are pretty much the same as the PS2 counter part. Not a big deal if pretty visuals are not important to you. What's important is frame rate and collision detection which is solid throughout the game. It would have been nice if they had spent more time taking advantage of the Xbox hardware. I can imagine this being a very beautiful game.

The game controls identical to Resident Evil, which is a bad point in my opinion. It just never made much sense to me why the polarity of the analog stick was fixed onto the direction your character is facing. In layman's terms when you press down on the analog stick, but Samanosuke is facing south you will move north. Press down on the analog stick the character moves up. I don't get it...

The game play is simple enough. You collect the souls of demons by slaying them. The souls you absorb increase your health, magic, and special attack power. But be careful because sometimes green souls are released and is an enemy absorbs it before you do it makes the enemy super strong. On the upside if you collect 5 of these bad boys you get the power of the ogres which makes you super strong and invincible. Along with basic hack 'n' slash you can also upgrade weapons and armor and use special samurai attacks followed by an occasional puzzle.

The only thing impressive about Genma in the audio department is the ability to turn of that damn annoying English dubbing and turn on English subtitles. Music is nothing great. Just generic Japanese sounds, sword slashing, and enemy grunts.

Many of you may be asking if this title is worth picking up if you already own the PS2 version and the answer is definitely no. The graphics have not improved much and the only extras they provide is increased difficulty and an extra tiny area to explore. Save your cash. However if you are uninitiated its an excellent buy since you can buy it for about $15-$20 new. Although I caution that you can beat this game in a rental period.

Grade: B- (8/10)
+Great samurai action
+Not your average ''Save the princess'' story
-Not enough extras
-Bad controls

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/03, Updated 05/21/03