PC_Powerplay-Iss_275_2019

GAME REVIEW W

O

nimusha is a series that burned

brief and bright for Capcom. It

began in 2001 and was pretty much

over by 2006, encompassing four main

entries and two spin-offs. The original

isn’t the series peak, but it’s a fun relic

of the era of survival horror games that

was popularised by Resident Evil. I

would only play this re-release in 2019

if you’re an old fan, or curious about

this generation of games that never

had much of a presence of PC.

Onimusha is an offbeat series, a mix

between historical epic and fantasy

that sadly didn’t survive the leap to

the HD era like Resident Evil and Devil

May Cry did. While the second game

— with its innovative trading system,

multiple playable characters, and

branching storyline — is the series’ only

masterpiece, the first game is still a fun

curio from the Resident Evil lineage of

fixed-camera action games. You play

Samanosuke Akechi, a warrior who

ventures to save Princess Yuki from

Nobunaga and his army of demons.

After being owned by the first big

monster he encounters, he’s revived by

a collective of ogres with a gauntlet that

can absorb demon souls.

Even next to Capcom’s Devil May

Cry from the same year, which featured

3D backgrounds, a more active camera

and faster combat, Onimusha feels

retrograde. You mostly spend the game

wandering through tightly-wound

corridors full of demonic enemies and

key-based puzzles. Calling it Resident

Evil with swords, which is pretty much

how the media described it at the time,

isn’t far off.

The combat is still nice and crunchy,

though. Sword fights with enemies are

paced like considered duels compared

to DMC’s acrobatic flurries, and you

really feel it when the blade connects

with an opponent. Enemies spend more

time circling you than windmilling, and

a well-timed sword press will land an

instant counter kill. The fixed camera

angles do suck, though: If you’re

fighting an enemy and they suddenly

vanish off-screen, it’s pretty annoying.

The voice acting is still terrible,

too — what could be a horror-tinged

and creepy story is undermined by

campy enemies and bad lip-syncing,

both products of their time. This stuff

might be annoying to acclimatise to if

you never played these kinds of games

about 20 years ago.

The additional options in this PC

version are super limited. You can

remap the controls and change the

resolution, but that’s it. The main issue

with this version is some noticeable

screen tearing, particularly during

cutscenes. The framerate counter

kept a steady 60fps throughout my

playthrough, but to my eye it doesn’t

really look any smoother than I

remember it on PS2.

WHY

SHOULD

I CARE?

+ “HAHA, IT IS

YOU, I KNEW

YOU’D READ

THIS!” is a joke you

appreciate.

+ You can’t say no

to nostalgia.

+ You love a good

sword fight.

Onimusha: Warlords

A fun relic, if you can stomach how old it feels.

DEVELOPERCAPCOM• PUBLISHERIN-HOUSE

http://www.onimusha2001.com

VERDICT:

A fun relic of the early

PlayStation 2 days that

I still like a lot, but is

slightly too dated for

most players to enjoy. 7

CULT CLASSIC?

It’s also not a particularly long game

at about five or six hours — the asking

price of $20 isn’t unreasonable, but I

would probably have preferred to have

three or four of the original games in

one package for a higher price, like the

Devil May Cry collection. Nonetheless,

for completists, it’s a start.

Much as I complain about Onimusha

feeling old, I am absolutely the target

audience for this re-release, and I had

a lot of fun treating this playthrough

like a speedrun, given that I finished

the game five or six times on PS2. I’d

struggle to recommend it to anyone

below the age of 30 who grew up with

prettier and more refined third-person

action games, but if you were there

at the time, Onimusha remains an

important part of a golden era for

Capcom during the early ’00s.

SAMUEL ROBERTS

The dialogue is

awful, and

delivered poorly.

WHAT COMES NEXT?THE REST OF THE ONIMUSHA SERIES

ONIMUSHA2:SAMURAI’SDESTINY

Tradewiththealliesofyourchoiceandunlock

different storylines in this high point for the

series.

ONIMUSHA3:DEMONSIEGE

Starring Jean Reno, this offbeat sequel came to PC

but was removed from Steam last year.

ONIMUSHA:DAWNOFDREAMS

Released in the dying days of the PS2, I felt like

this first fully 3D entry was mostly ignored,

ending the series.