Onimusha Tactics

"Not a bad game, but..."

What can I say... this is the third game for the GBA mixing strategy and RPG in the FFTA way... sadly, this is the worst of the three, both FFTA and Tactics Ogre are way better. Well, let's start.

GRAPHICS 9/10
The graphics are great, having cool animations, the characters DO other things apart from just moving their feet when they aren't waiting and the enemy design is good. the portaints of each character are really good too. No problem here.

SOUND 6/10
Average. Not a lot to say here. A couple decent battle themes and not bad sound effects. Again, it might be a little repetitive

GAMEPLAY 7/10
It has got a lot of pros and cons... the characters haven't got classes, so that makes it a bit linear, if you ask me (all new tries with this game are more or less the same). There is no way of leveling up, so if you accidentally have your party very unbalanced, you are screwed, it is new game for you. Also, the area effects can only be centered in a place where there is an enemy standing (yes, if a square is empty and there is an enemy UP, another one LEFT, another one RIGHT and another one DOWN, you can't still hit all of them with the same effect.

Now the pros: each character has got his own set of abilities, and they aren't that difficult to master. Also, there seem to be an a decent amount of different weapons (again, not close to FFTA nor Tactics Ogre). Also, FINALLY bows and guns are used in a logic way (you cannot shoot thought your allies).

LINKING ?/10
No linking options, I am afraid.

STORY 7/10
Not the greatest plot ever, but good enough. Maybe it is a bit repetitive after you have played for a while. The dialogues aren't that good, sadly, and the characters SOMETIMES say really stupid things.

HOURS OF PLAYING 4/10
I don't know the exact extent of the game, but it is around 25 hours (maybe 20 or 30)... if you add that to the factor that, due to the lack of a class system the replayability is almost zero, this lowers my rating for this game...

To sum up: Want a Strategy/RPG game for your GBA? Get Tactics Ogre or FFTA instead. If you have already finished those games and really loved them... then I recommend you this game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/03