I hate survival horror games. Yes, you have met the one person in all the world that can’t stand survival horror games. When I first heard about Onimusha, I was glad. It was about time someone made a survival horror game with a weapon worth using. You can shoot someone 10 times in the head with a 9mm and they can come out alive. But no one survives a decapitation...no one.

So, I buy the game, thinking that. It will be a survival horror more to my style, feudal Japan, being a samurai. Boy was I wrong. Onimusha can’t be classified as a survival horror. It just doesn’t have the scariness and the pop-atchu factor of Resident Evil or *shudder* Silent Hill (damn, I still have nightmares about that game). But this game is a fully interactive cinematic experience.

First, let me give you some advice: Go to the options and put it in Japanese dialogue. The English just doesn’t cut it (thank you Capcom for giving us the option). Truth be told, I wouldn’t know what exactly to classify the game as. It has those traditional Capcom/NES aspects of defeating your enemies by finding their weaknesses. And it’s about time, they give you a kick ass warrior to start the game with (coincidentally, the protagonist is modeled after a famous baseball player in Japan).

I beleive the game was designed along with directors, designers, and writers of film in Japan. Nice move, Capcom. The character animations are flawless, along with facial expressions (that’s why I recommend Japanese dialogue...to fit the animations and expressions).

The true way to enjoy this game is to enjoy the fact that you are part of an electrical movie going on in your PSX2.

Bottom Line: Where Metal Gear Solid left off on being a cinematic video game, Onimusha takes off and jumps light years ahead.

-Ten
(Dragoonshiki@hotmail.com)

This game is not your typical Samurai Resident Evil, It has way more depth. Although it has many traits of Resident Evil, it packs allot more. The control is about the same but is different in some aspects.

First off I am very glad Capcom made a game like this. About the only flaw in this game would have to be its length. I took me about 3 hours to beat it! Very little annoying backtracking helped to tone down the game’s length. It’s a very easy game, that’s not saying it’s not good though. This is a pretty big game, except maybe the last realm. But for the most part it has large areas to explore and battle demons. The battle system is much fun. Hacking and slashing at the demons and monsters is actually quite fun. You would think it’d get repetitive but it is refreshing to have the fighting like this. They make you have to fight, not run away from the monsters, how you ask? They do this by getting souls by killing your opponent. The yellow souls give you health, the blue souls give you magic points, and the red give you experience for your weapons and orbs. Speaking of weapons and orbs, there are three main swords with a combined orb. There is a thunder sword, a fire sword, and a wind sword. Each can go up to level three. You get the fire and wind sword from bosses.

The games graphics are incredible. The backgrounds may be prerendered but that doesn’t take away from the game too much. The characters are so highly detailed that they are just so gorgeous. The in game movies are pretty good, (not that they’re not awesome, but) the cut scenes graphics are wonderful! They are only at the beginning, end and middle of the game. If you haven’t seen or played Onimusha yet I insist you go out and try it.

The control of the game feels somewhat like Resident Evil but still very different. This game is more about action than suspense.

And you can tell by playing it. The attacking is different than Resident Evil, because you use swords and magic, but it doesn’t have that god awful aiming attack. The hacking and slashing of Onimusha doesn’t get repetitive though, so expect to have tons of fun killing demons.

The sound in this game is dead on in this game. From the video scenes to the bosses this game has it all. Onimusha does have some suspense music, but not allot. Don’t expect to get scared very often in this game. The noises in Onimusha sound just fantastic.

This game is pretty much a must buy, for anyone who likes this type of game. Even if you don’t I’m sure you’ll enjoy it unless your 5. It has some gore, plenty of blood though. It has some adult scenes like the guy talking about cannibalism. It has pure graphics that match the gameplay and control. It does fell a bit outdated though, with the Resident Evil type controls. But that doesn’t take away from the experience you will have with Onimusha. The story takes you into the game from a good perspective. It’s not too terribly complicated. There are some puzzles, none that are too great of a challenge to you. This game (Onimusha) is a piece of art. You can’t play this type of game anywhere else. It is quite short, so it’s not the end all game, but the length does take away from this masterpiece.

Do your self a favor and buy it!

-kid drug
(milk_bot@gamespace2000.com)