Onimusha: Warlords

Title: Onimusha: Warlords
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Capcom
Approximate Completion Time: <8 hours
Game Clear Ranking: B

This is Resident Evil in feudal Japan with demons causing problems instead of nefarious bio tech corporations. This game has been sitting in my collection for quite a while so I am relieved to finally finish it. It has all the key elements of a proper Capcom survival horror game: tank controls, crazy fixed camera angles, sparse items, very shoddy voice acting and 100% pure awesome. I never got around to playing this game when it came out many years ago because I was deprived of a PS2 by my parents and was too young/stupid to earn money for one. It holds up pretty well for being an early PS2 game, I'm always a fan of the pre-rendered backgrounds with 3d characters so this game hits the spot nicely. The gameplay is not bad at all, and borrows the "soul sucking" concept from games like Soul Reaver and gives it a character development spin. You have to suck souls from defeated foes and use them to enhance your weapons and their abilities. I spent a while grinding souls and got my lightning sword maxed out early on so I could breeze through the beginning areas of the game and not get frustrated. Later on it doesn't matter if you have everything maxed as the game gets pretty tough. Lots of dying and reloading in this game so my estimated play time might be off as it doesn't keep track of the time I wasted getting somewhere then dying and having to do it over again about 5 times. Somehow this didn't bother me too badly with this game and I kept on truckin' through to the decent ending. This game is right up my alley and the length was perfect, any longer and it could have gotten tedious. While not as memorable as Resident Evil for me, I may pick up the other games in the series and give 'em a squiz.

Very important fractional Kuni rating: 3.5/5