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Onimusha 3: Demon Siege
GameRatio Review
PS2 |
View Full Game Info
Published by
Capcom
Released on
2004-04-27
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| 87% GameRatio |
95% GR% Review |
xenoranger
Reviewed on
2004-05-12
Samanosuke returns to bring an end to the Demon Lord Nobunaga.
The series Onimusha has undergone some changes to round out the trilogy. The first Onimusha took place in 16th century feudal Japan. Samanosuke Akechi (Takeshi Kaneshiro) shot an arrow straight through the throat of Lord Nobunaga Oda during a battle. Unfortunate for our hero, Nobunaga made a deal with the demons for eternal life. He seized princess Yukihime in preparation for a ritual to ensure his eternal power. Samanosuke managed to defeat Nobunaga and save Princess Yukihime, but he disappeared during a cave in. About 10 years later, a warrior named Jubei Yagyu found his village ravaged by the forces of Nobunaga Oda. Teaming up with 4 venerable warriors, Jubei managed to defeat the Lord of Demons (Nobunaga).
Now, Guildenstern (a demon scientist) has devised a method of time travel. Though unstable, it has propelled him into the present time. The date is May 8th, 2004. Guildenstern’s forces appear and slaughter the citizens of Paris, France. During the confusion, Jacques Blanc (a member of the French military) spots a samurai killing demons amidst the confusion. While attempting to interrogate the samurai, the instability of the time field transports him back to feudal Japan (1582). Jacques is struck down by a member of Nobunaga’s demon forces. In what seems like his last moments, the Ogre clan of Tengu (Tengu is a form of Japanese demon) resurrects him and gives him the power of the Onimusha. In addition, Jacques is granted the companionship of a Tengu named Ako. Despite her small size, Ako has great powers. The most notable is the ability to enable people to understand one another despite obvious language barriers. With the help of Ako, Jacques is able to understand the Samanosuke of the past, who aides him in his fight against Nobunaga. From the present, Samanosuke (a future version) must team up with Michele (Jacques fiancée) to defeat Guildenstern and return to his time.
The base presentation of Onimusha 3 is actually a combination of the 1st and 2nd. Originally, Samanosuke was alone throughout most of the game. He had to depend on his own skills. In the present (2004), he often times has to do like wise while navigating his way through Paris. But in the 2nd Onimusha, characters would aid Jubei in battle. While playing as Jacques in the past (1582), you get the Samanosuke of the past to often times aid you in your battles. Concerning the pacing, there is always the underlying sense of urgency that made the original Onimusha so intense. This is dissimilar to Onimusha 2 which featured towns and villages that only served to slow down the pacing of the game. Though Onimusha 3 does include these towns, you have only a few objectives before you leave. This means that players spend generally less than 15 min of gameplay in town (unlike in 2 where entire events were based around a single town).
The designs and visuals ring truer to the first Onimusha then the second. While playing Onimusha 2, I got the feeling that Capcom wanted to make more of a manga out of the series than keep the realistic feeling. I’ve been quoted as saying that the enemies were less convincing and more like rejects from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. But in Onimusha Warlords, there was a reality given with enemy design that returns for the finale of the trilogy. The most notable is the main characters. There is no doubt that audiences will recognize Jean Reno as Jacques. He’s complete with the bags under his eyes and everything. After seeing Takeshi Kaneshiro in The Returner (a Japanese movie), the realism set in as to how much more effort toward realism was put in to the CGI models than in most games. The best example of what not to do is in Enter the Matrix, which used a skin layover similar to what people use for making modified combatants for most PC FPS games. Capcom has really outdone the market here. My only problem with character designs is that like the past incarnations, Onimusha 3 only has the high quality character construction on the main characters. Lesser characters still seem like after thoughts, rather than planned portions of the game. Concerning the demon onslaughts, all of them seem to step out of the pages of Japanese mythology and into your PS2 during play. Not one demon is anywhere near less than convincing (to which I have to give Capcom major props on).
A side from the character construction, Onimusha 3 has the best opening cinema I have ever seen. I can’t say that the CGI on it rivals those of Hollywood, but I can say that it supersedes it in every way. From the many skeletal warriors standing in the hold of the demon ship, to the fight with Galegantos, there is just no comparison. Capcom could literally host a screening and charge admission just on this cinema alone. (I know that’s saying a lot, but seeing is most definitely believing.) After the opening cinema is over, Capcom makes a shocking first by displaying the invasion of Paris in full CGI. In this video, you now see women and men being stabbed, shredded, and torn apart by demons with kitanas. This was unexpected the first time I saw it, but it helps add even more realism to the severity of the situation.
I could ramble about how well the audio is on this game, but I think I have something more pressing in mind. My biggest disappointment is that only the French dialog was voiced over by Jean Reno. At first, I heard his voice which added realism to the game as well as a very convincing sense of the character. But, once Ako appears, say good bye to Reno, and hello someone else. The person who voices Jacque doesn’t even attempt to put on a French accent. So here, we have the most intimidating Frenchman ever playing a hardened soldier fighting demons in Japan, but he’s missing the voice that made him such a bad ass. Moving on to the rest of the voice acting, to my disappointment, the option of full Japanese dialog was still absent. Onimusha Warlords featured the option of Japanese or English dialog. Of these two, the Japanese had the most feeling put into it. But, once again, the English voice actors seem to regard games as just a quick paycheck, and not worthy of their full talents and efforts. This does ruin some of the game. The French dialog was extremely well acted. But, this only lasts a short time, and then Ako appears and allows everything to go to the monotonous droning of English voice actors.
Once again, following in tradition, the basic battle system is the same. You can attack or use charged attacks as Samanosuke. You still have to absorb demon souls to summon the power of the Onimusha. The remapping of the Onimusha transformation was a nice touch. Unlike in Onimusha 2, where the change takes place as soon as you gain enough purple souls, in Onimusha 3, you can choose when you transform by hitting the R3 button. This allows you to be more strategic in using the god-like power of the Onimusha armor. To throw a monkey wrench into things, you also have to learn to play as Jacques. Jacques, unlike Samanosuke, uses an oni whip. With this, he can throw boulders as well as pick up enemies and whip them around. Jacques also acquires a bind attack which allows him to use a very focused magical attack on a single enemy. In most cases, this is enough to kill the enemy. The irony of Jacques is that in the beginning of his trip through Ancient Japan, he complains about being out of bullets, however, when an opponent is downed, he’ll stand on them and fire several rounds into the fallen foe. This never made sense to me.
Growth is done much like in the past Onimusha games. By collecting demon souls, you can use the protective mirror (save points) to enhance weapons and armor. The first instinct of most players is to enhance weapons as much as possible, but I found that enhancing your gauntlet is far better. The reasoning behind this is because the gauntlet strengthens the charged attacks of all weapons, where as if you only enhance one weapon at a time, it takes forever to get strong enough to do much in battle.
Ako proves to be a valuable character in the game. The transition between the past and the present is provided by Ako. She will often times flap her wings and disappear through the ages to arrive either in modern times or back in feudal Japan. Doing this signifies the change between characters. During battle, Ako will retrieve items off of fallen enemies and present them to you. This is rather nice because sometimes you just don’t have time to go back and recover that herb or salve off of the skeleton warrior because his larger and nastier brother is beating you with a huge ax. Also, out of all the character voices, Ako is the only one that seems to actually have some energy put into it. The actress may not have many lines, but she is definitely the most convincing of the English voice cast.
Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is a great conclusion to one of Capcom’s best series. Great story, great gameplay, and great cinemas make this game worth owning. Even if you haven’t played the preceding games, Onimusha 3 is one you shouldn’t miss.
GameRatio review by xenoranger
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