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Onimusha 2 Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Onimusha 2 is backwith the same mixture of sword-slashing action and mind infuriating puzzles, providing us with one of the best action/adventure titles this year.
The original Onimusha went on to achieve great success on the Playstation2, as it was arguably one of the first titles to show the true worth of the machine.
The sequel features a number of enhancements and evolves the series into a number of new directions, however a number of flaws keep it from being the perfect title that it could have been.
Fans of the original may be shocked to find out that youâre not once again re-united with Samanosuke Akechi; instead the adventure follows a new character under the name of Jubei Yagyu, both united by the desire to bring down Nobunagaâs demon forces.
Jubei himself is based on the late Japanese actor, Masadu Matsura who most famously appeared in Black Rain alongside Michael Douglas. Set ten years after the events of the first game, Nobunaga has resurfaced and is terrorising the population of Japan with his demon forces. One target in particular for the Demon King is the peaceful village of Yagyu, home to the hero of the story. Iâm not usually a fan of FMV, however special exception has to go to Onimusha 2; quite frankly itâs the most superb piece of CG work Iâve seen in a videogame, rivalling the greatest films in terms of expression and execution.
Racing home to find himself to late to save the village, Jubei encounters a mysterious flying women who informs him that five scared orbs are the only known way to put an end to Nobunagaâs plans. After giving Jubei the first orb, he is sent on his way to track down the remaining four and put a final end to Nobunaga (of course)!
Within the first five minutes of getting into the game youâll lament the old-school controls. Using a similar system to that which first featured in Resident Evil all those years back, you have to use the d-pad to move around the pre-rendered environments and a variety of buttons to execute moves and attacks. In this day and age itâs about time that Capcom laid this system to rest, itâs too obtrusive and almost disrupts the flow of the game. Why Capcom chose not to include analogue support is a baffling question, as moving a character in a 3D world with the d-pad just doesnât feel right.
However the combat system definitely feels better on a d-pad then it would have on an analogue stick. Like its predecessor the game relies on distinct directions and commands to execute the variety of moves available to you, itâs very instinctive and works well so eventually youâll forgive the endless ramming into walls and stilted movement.
With the emphasis placed on combat youâll find that killing demons with your sword provides to be a very satisfactory experience. Having killed a demon youâll be able to suck up their powers to boost your own, much like in the original however this time around it takes a lot of demons to power up your weapons and armour. Youâll find that demons respawn at quite a considerable rate, giving you the chance to boost your bars but also producing quite a heated experience during the encounters. Youâll find yourself facing the dilemma of staying to fight and gaining energy or having to run away quite a lot in the game. For action fans there are only a few other experiences that match taking down demons with deadly sword attacks, and Capcom have produced most of those, these guys are action perfectionists.
New to the game is the gift-trading system, which allows you to give gifts to certain characters in the hope of gaining their support or another gift in return. There are a number of main characterâs in the game who show up at vital times to give you some support, treating these characters well and bestowing them gifts will ensure theyâll back you to their dying days. It also gives the game a branching-story driven system, whereby you can craft your own way through the adventure and enlist the characters that you want to. It also provides some much-needed humour, giving a character something that they donât want will result in some priceless emotions and badly translated dialogue, wonderfulâ¦
Once again youâll be pulling your hair out with some of the mind-bending puzzles that feature in the game. Theyâre slightly more intuitive this time around, however there are still those moments where youâll left feeling as though youâre banging your head against a brick wall.
Visually Onimusha 2 is a mixed bag. The character models are perhaps the most detailed and organic weâve ever seen on a Playstation2, youâd be forgiven for thinking that these are real people. In particular the characterâs heads look amazing, with individual blades of hair and close attention to the smaller details. However Iâm not a fan of using pre-rendered backgrounds and certainly donât believe that you can rate them as visuals, for starters they disrupt the balance between visuals and gameplay and create a very stilted feeling to the game that breaks up the flow. Although the fact remains that as an overall picture Onimusha 2 looks fantastic, it may not feel right, but it certainly looks right.
