Onimusha 3 Demon Siege

Attention all gamers out there!  Attention!  The opening sequence of Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is quite obviously one of the finest feats of CG animation ever to grace a video game, any system.  This opening sequence serves to not only ready the gamer for what is a quality adventure game, but it almost seems to inspire the player to want to dole out some bladed justice.

You see, this game marks the final swan song in the Onimusha series (maybe) and Capcom pulled out a lot of new tricks to make this presumably final game a winner.  

Fans of the series already know the story so far; Evil warlord Nobunaga Oda has cut a swath of death and destruction across Japan with his allies the Genma (demons), only to have the noble Samanosuke Akechi defeat him in Onimusha 1 and Jubei Yagyu the half-demon samurai cut him down to size in Onimusha 2.  Well Samanosuke is back to finish the job on Nobunaga who at this point has his top scientist meddling with time distortions.  Fast forward to modern day France and French Military specialist Jacques Blanc witnesses first hand a bunch of vile looking monsters manifest themselves in his fair city and begin butchering it's citizens.  Being a good soldier, Jacques whips out his machine gun and turns them into garden mulch.  But what's this?  Time distortion bounces Samanosuke into Paris 2004 and Jacques back to 1582.  And so begins our game, two fish out of water, trying to ultimately stop an evil that will effect both times.  

Just a side thought, I found myself smiling as I realized that in the cartoon Samurai Jack http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278238/  the noble samurai is flung into the future while doing battle with an evil demon ruler.  Coincidence?  Who knows.  

OK, you play the game bouncing back between both Samanosuke and Jacques in their respective times and through the miracle of time travel items can actually be given to one another via fairy "esque" character named Ako who helps our heroes on a fairly regular basis.  She's a tad annoying but her usefulness far outweighs her annoyances.    

In case you are wondering why Samanosuke and Jacques seem to be able to whip up on the demons while all others fall by the wayside, it's because an ancient clan of magical ogres have bestowed magical gauntlets to them.  These gauntlets allow the souls of fallen demons to be absorbed, the souls are various colors which translate into health, magic and item upgrading ability.  A fourth purple soul can be absorbed and when five purple souls are collected the character is able to transform into the Onimusha, a negatively colored version of themselves who is impervious to damage and can perform powerful attacks.  Being able to activate this ability on command is an improved part of gameplay because it's nice to save this ability for when you are in a boss battle or greatly outnumbered.  This ability also automatically kicks in if your health meter reaches zero and you are about to die, provided you have the five souls collected.  

Both characters will find different items to use, and with the power of the gauntlet, a magical ability will be bestowed upon the characters when orbs are found.  For instance, Jacques' weapons are somewhat whip-based weapons.  One of them is an extendable sword that has fire magic infused into it.  When necessary he can unleash an attack with this weapon that will set fire raining down on it's target.  Several weapons can be found and are necessary to complete the game, many of which have magical properties.   

Controlling the game has never been easier, you can now use either the D-pad (like the previous titles) or the analog stick.  The whole feel of the controls has been loosened up and  it is a welcome addition.  Playing is very smooth and fluid-like.  Using the special attacks and blocking isn't overly complicated and the game rewards players who work on the timing of  weapon strikes by releasing more souls when a genma is destroyed.  The game provides several extensive training modes for some of the more useful moves, and even rewards you with  an item of value upon completion of the training.  There are mini-games to be found and with the help of Ako, many hidden items can be discovered.  Some of which are needed to improve your character's health meter and magic meter.  On some levels, this game possesses several RPG elements with it's upgrading system.  Almost every piece of armor or weapon can be magically boosted up on the level-up screen in order to provide your character with more powerful items.  

The puzzles are fairly easy and the game has limited exploration, there are puzzle boxes placed in your path often and after a while I was starting to get tired of them as they all seem to contain the same character enhancing item.  But I couldn't afford not to figure them out as I just "knew" that if I skipped one it would ultimately come back to haunt me.  There are a couple of traps that happen during the game that you need to solve rather quickly or die a horrible death.  It's likely that one of these "critical" traps will kill you at least once and like the other games in the series, if you die several times an "easy" mode is available.  Otherwise, there is a lot of running around looking for the correct key or crank or other specific item necessary to keep the game going in a forward direction.  In fact there is even a time or two where puzzles need to be completed by both Samanosuke and Jacques being in the same place only 500 years apart.  Slick game making here folks.  

Graphically this is the best of the series, I already mentioned the fabulous cut scenes, but the actual in-game graphics are also done well.  Environments are fully 3D and have a good sense of depth to them.  Characters are rendered beautifully with a strong fixed position camera pulling in and out as necessary with only the rare viewing problems cropping up.

I liked how the demons have almost a motion capture feel to them and the way the human characters move with strong deliberate motions.  Somebody spent a lot of time watching kung-fu theatre growing up and remembered what a man swinging a samurai sword looks like.  Nice.  

The boss battles were done quite well and the introduction of several new genma was a welcome sight.  Don't get me wrong, I still love the zombie samurai ambling towards you with malicious intent, but it's always nice to see new and challenging monsters for me to chop up into little bits.  Couple of things to note before we wrap things up.

You play the game primarily as the two heroes, but occasionally get to play as someone else.  Pay close attention to the fight scene in the game's introduction, Samanosuke moves a lot like Jackie Chan in my opinion when he's dodging the sword strikes.  There are alot of hidden things right there in front of your face, hack and smash as much as you can.  

Gameplay: 8.8
You will be hard pressed to find a game that controls as nicely as this one.  Players who were infuriated by the D-pad in the previous installments will welcome the analog stick with open arms and almost cry from how well this title controls.  Take it out for a test spin and I betcha you buy it 

Graphics: 9.0
This is a testament to what the PS2 can do in the hands of a publisher who's willing to take the time to make a visually impressive game.  The cut scenes are awe-striking, I can't say enough about how cool the intro is, I'm pumped just sitting here typing about it.  And the great graphics don't stop there, they are consistent throughout the game!  Only a couple of times did the screen bog down slightly and that's only because there were so many bad guys on screen, normally it doesn't happen, but with the 3-D visuals in the background it's practically acceptable.  And if that isn't enough, a recognizable Jean Reno http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000606/ is in the game, and my wife even recognized him.  

Sound 8.7
This game takes advantage of the seldom used Dolby Pro-Logic II capabilities that my receiver can decode.  I got seven speakers hooked up to my system and I'll be darned if noise wasn't coming out of each one of em.  No, the game is not 7.1, but rather an audio signal was translated to each of my speakers, and it sounds cool.  The voice acting was even above board for a Capcom game (they are famous for cheesy voice acting) and Mr. Reno even speaks the lines of French.  Why they got some other dude to do the English lines is beyond me, but hey, he does pretty good too.  

Difficulty: Medium
It may feel like you are being led around by your nose at some points, but I guarantee, you will be bested by at least two of the boss battles and that a critical trap will leave you reloading your last save point.  If you can beat the game, a hard difficulty option is available, but beware, they aren't kidding around anymore.  

Concept: 9.1
Time travel, soul powered gauntlets, dual heroes, elemental weapons, robots, demons, an undead 15th century megalomaniac, a fairy, fireflies, the Arc De Triumphe, an underwater city, a drowned motorcycle and the ability to step on a demon's neck and shoot it in the head four times with a .45.  If this sounds even vaguely familiar to any other game you've played then I'm hanging out with you.  

Overall 9.0
It's truly a great game, I can say so many positive things about it and nary a negative one.  Even if you haven't played the other two, it's still a great game.  There is a reason that this is the third one in the series, it stays true to the game's history while providing new and exciting elements to throw at you.  Truly my first must-have title of 2004 for the PS2.

Get it, you won't be disappointed.