Onimusha Tactics

"A typical, yet enjoyable, GBA strategy title."

Game Review: Onimusha Tactics

Overview:
If you want strategy titles, the Game Boy Advance is the handheld to have. Within the past few years, strategy titles have been exploding on the console to cult hit statuses, such as Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and the newly introduced to the U.S. Fire Emblem series. However, Onimusha Tactics slipped through the cracks. It is a good title. There is no doubt about that. But it is simply not outstanding compared to the other titles which reign supreme in it's genre. Even if it is a tad too easy and the text is under par, that doesn't mean that it can't be fun. Regardless of it's differences to the rest of the Onimusha series, it keeps fresh and fun.

Storyline: 7/10
The storyline is pretty straightforward. Once a long time ago, a not so bad demon clan named the Oni had tremendous power. The last descendants of this clan, our main hero Onimaru and his sister Oboro, have risen to the task of destroying the Genma, a race of demons bent on taking over the land led by the demon king Nobunaga, after receiving the Oni Gauntlet, a demon killing instrument that collects it's victims soul. If the name seems familiar, you might see some other familiar names throughout the game, as many of the villains have similar names to actual feudal lords of the time. At any rate, Nobunaga is constantly advancing in new ways to increase his power and bring government to it's knees, and it is your job to take care of him.

You start with the aid of only a small band of local warriors after Onimaru's hometown is destroyed, but throughout the game, you enlist new warriors of different classes to help you out. There is a new recruit every level earlier on, and then every other level a little later, then spanning out to a few missions before the next recruit. So needless to say, there is a healthy amount of help on your mission. Each character doesn't just join for no reason either... They always have a little backstory and some involvement before they join your team and help you out.

Later on in the game, however, things become different. The story does become more deep and involved... But unfortunately, it is almost a little slow paced. You work on a battle to battle schedule, and most battles go by pretty quickly, so although you go through chapters (the way in which the storyline is divided) rather briskly, certain portions of the game just seem to drag. You might take several chapters just to take down one area. But once again, things become deeper, and you must ultimately search for the four descendants of gods to aid you in your quest.

The text, however, is not what you would expect from a title with as tight a feel as Onimusha Tactics... It's not that there are a lot of typos, or that things don't make sense, but more that it could have been more clearly translated into the English language. Each and every character has individual personalities, but it almost seems like they all talk just a little too clearly and less individually. It is all just very proper and sometimes a tad too corny, and some failed puns every once and a while don't help either. However, it has it's moments. Things are clearly outlined to tell you where you need to go, and in the end, the text may be a little too "Asian" for North American tastes, but it doesn't fail miserably.

In the end, the story is great. Yup, great. Not good or amazing, but great. The more you immerse yourself into the mildly deep but somewhat predictable storyline, you will get more interested in the characters and more driven to complete the game.

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay does pretty well, even considering it's simplicity compared to other GBA strategy titles. The simplicity actually does it some good. You play on a chapter to chapter basis, and you choose characters you wish to play, each of which have their own individual abilities and classes. Each character levels up depending on how much you use them, and using souls that you collect from the Genma, you can upgrade your weapons and armor to increase your characters capabilities. As the characters level up, they also learn new skills to temporarily increase their own stats, to heal themselves or allies, or to inflict status problems upon enemies.

There are an array of different classes, and things in between as well. You can wield swords, axes, bows, lances, and even a rifle, and each has a range in which it can attack. Swords and axes can attack only adjacent squares on the grid in which you battle, while lances can attack up to two away and pierce enemies so that you can attack more than one at once. Bows can attack far away spaces but not adjacent spaces, and guns can attack adjacent and faraway spaces. Terrain is also an issue. You can climb stairs for a moving penalty, or move on flat ground for a movement advantage. Obviously, you cannot walk on water or other deadly terrain.

At the beginning of each battle, you choose your units you wish to use (typically up to 8), suit them up for battle, give them items for use, and then start the battle. You always start first, and the objective is usually to completely eliminate every enemy on the field, or to eliminate the tougher boss above all else. During your turn, you can command your characters to move, attack, use items, use skills, wait, or use a special auto-counter command that is sometimes given to you by chance during battle. You cannot attack on that turn, but anyone who tries to attack you with a non-skill related attack gets damaged without you getting hurt. The problem with this, however, is that you have no way of guaranteeing that the enemy won't use a skill, which they almost always do. However, when utilized correctly, Issen can be helpful.

Obviously, you need a way to receive new healing items, weapons, and armor, don't you? That's where the beauty of Onimusha Tactics comes in... There are no stores. You can't buy anything, for you never receive money. However, besides the souls you receive for killing each individual Genma which you use to upgrade weapons and armor, you also receive Genma stones, which are used to create weapons, armor, accessories, and healing items for a cost of them. You also receive recipes, which are used to open up the capability to create certain things. You need to collect a recipe before you can create what is on it, and you only start out with a few of them... So you will obviously be getting them often to keep up with your characters need for new equipment.

However, you are not restricted to the individual chapters to fight... You can also enter something called the phantom realm in order to fight enemies for experience, souls, genma stones, and recipes in between chapters. You can refight bosses that you have already vanquished, and the farther you are in the game, the farther you can go into the phantom realm. It is a great way to train a character of any level, be they seasoned veterans or low leveled characters. It also gives you a nice little break from the main game.

In general, the gameplay does incorporate some effective new things, but it won't seem like anything too spectacular for fans of the genre. It's a good play though.

Graphics: 9/10
For what they are, the Onimusha Tactics graphics are actually not too bad. Sometime text can get a little off center, but besides that, it's actually really good. Each character has a portrait or two that represents them that can be seen through text or in the menu. They are fairly realistic, and capture the characters emotions well enough. Better than their name and a colon, anyway. The characters on the battlefield don't look half bad either. Each character looks individual and is easy to pick out from many, and enemies can look like slightly complex looking little samurai to disgusting looking demons. However, they don't get too creative with enemy sprites, and they end up getting reused with different colors sometimes. But hey, who doesn't do that?

The backgrounds are simply fantastic. From little sprites of jars and oriental lamps to big buildings and castles, background sprites are done very well. Terrain such as trees, gravel, water, or sand is pretty cool looking too. Occasionally during a storyline scene, someone will do something that merits only one little sprite that is never used again. I know this kind of thing is done just as well in any other title... But it still amazes me. I can't get enough of it.

The graphics are easily trumped by that of other titles, but it is just a tight looking game in general. Honestly. All of the graphics look good together, and regardless of what you compare it to, it still has fine visuals.

Sound: 6/10
The sound effects in Onimusha Tactics are okay. It's the music that gets it. The music isn't even that bad (although it does seem a little under average), but the fact that the music is overly repetitive and there only seems to be a few battle tracks makes it more aggravating than fitting.

The sound effects, as I said, are average. Clashing of metal, swooshing of air, crackling of fire... It does it's job well enough. Nothing spectacular, but pleasing. I guess I couldn't ask for more, as there is really nothing more that the sound effects could have done.

Controls: 10/10
In a strategy game, controls aren't exactly the most vital part of the game. Like the sound effects, they do their job. But that's about it. They let you get through menus easily, move characters around without problems, etc. Once again, the controls are about as good as they can get.

Difficulty: 5/10
It's too easy. There, I said it. For most of the game, you can get through a mission with almost no problems. With just one hit, you can down a weak enemy, while two is enough to do it for a stronger enemy, at least until much later in the game. After each battle, you have a little screen that displays how you did in the particular battle. You can have from a crushing defeat, to just a defeat, to a victory, to a crushing victory, and several things in between. You almost always get a crushing victory, if you know what you are doing. It doesn't take as much to complete a mission as a harder game, like Fire Emblem, takes. However, I will give it credit for dishing out a few genuinely hard missions. If you are new to the genre, this will be mildly difficult, but those veterans of the strategy genre will find it too easy, although still entertaining due to it's innovations and storyline.

Replayability: 7/10
Just as much as any other strategy title. You can choose to level different characters, or go through the phantom realm completely. Besides that, there is nothing too special you can gain from re-completing the game, except for satisfaction, which you will get enough from with one play through.

Overall: 7/10
No, that is not a bad rating, even though it might seem like it is. It is enjoyable especially for those new to strategy games, and mildly entertaining for everyone else. The graphics and storyline are enjoyable, while the gameplay is fun and fresh. Fans of the Onimusha series will get a kick out of this too.

Rent or Buy?
It takes a while to beat, and it is probably cheap at this time, so even if you have that rare capability of being able to rent GBA games, I would suggest buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/05