Onimusha Warlords getting HD version

https://twitter.com/Capcom_UK/status/1034440464978460675

What universe is this? Shame that it is Warlords and not Genma it seems.

I was waiting for this to finally happen! Took way too long though. Not sure why they're not using the Genma version. Perhaps microsoft holds the rights to it or something. This is the only Onimusha game I finished. I think I got halfway through Onimusha 2 before putting it aside. Not because I disliked it, I just didn't feel like continuing at the time. Kind of a shame that they're not just releasing one big collection of 1-4 though. Hopefully that follows suit, along with God Hand, Haunting Ground, Viewtiful Joe, Power Stone, etc. Too many to name.

Also, I reeeealllly hope they included the Japanese voices this time around because, damn that dub is awful.

EDIT: Apparently the original has the Japanese voices? I don't remember that. I'll have to check it out later.

EDIT 2: I just checked. The first one does, the second one does not. That must have been what was confusing me.

Could be because Genma was exclusive to Xbox so they might have a deal and can't release that specific version on other consoles.

I'll probably get this just to have it and and see if there are any changes, but I doubt I'll play it much. I have no issue setting up my old xbox to play Genma.

If they're going to release only Warlords, it is critical that they allow cutscene skipping. I won't buy it otherwise.

As for Japanese voices, strangely, the Japanese PS2 version of Warlords allows you to select both. As does Genma.

It's possible that this IS Genma though. Since it's getting an X1 release too, and they haven't said it ISN'T Genma yet have they? Genma is just a way of showing it's an updated version, but it's still Warlords. Most people would know it as such so maybe that's why they're going with the original name. I scrolled down quite far in the comments and not one mention of Genma. I've had to explain it to quite a few Onimusha players over the years.

They haven't said it's Genma, but I think there are some changes to it. They put in an Easy mode, and I think you can control Samonosuke (hope I spelled that right lol) with the analog stick now. What did Genma add?

Off the top of my head

-hard mode.
-evil doll that randomly appears and attacks you.
-new areas.
-charge attacks.
-magic can be charged so you don't have to use level 3.
-new challenge area (Oni Tower) with special boss.
-new armor.
-those phantom armors from Oni 3 are in but I think they only show up in Oni Tower.
-remixed item locations.
-new enemy placements.

Wow. That sounds awesome! Unfortunately, I think they would have announced it as such if we were getting Genma. Fingers crossed though.

I believe I already saw based on the footage that it was Warlords and not Onimusha, but we'll have to get our hands on the game to be sure. In terms of voices it depends on the region. Genma Onimusha had JPN audio in the USA and ASIA releases, but EU missed out. The voices are extremely horrible but they have a corny likeability to them.
Have to say I never thought this would happen due to the copyrights of the actors having expired and it being to expensive to renew. Really hopes this means we'll see the rest of the series too. While I liked Genma the most, there's some excellent games in there.

Capcom noted that with DMCV and RE2make they are noticing increased interest in older titles, hopefully this means we'll see them return in some shape or form.

Genma isn't that well known so that might be the reason, and most thought it was just 'a port' while it was much much more. That said putting "includes all the extras from Genma" would've only improved upon it.

To expand upon what Bird noted:

- Hard Mode added with a special rank you can gain only on that mode which requires absolute mastery;
- All armors are removed (which were recolors) with unique designs that have special stats like a Ninja Armor.
- There's a Green Orb system which is really fun and unique. Basically randomly when killing enemies a Green Orb will spawn and you have to 'fight' to absorb it. You cannot move or attack while 'fighting' for it. If you win, you get one in stock. If you have 5 stored you can expend them to become fully invincible and healed for a few seconds. While this seems overpowered its a really cool system that rewards planning one when to use it. If a foe (or boss) wins, they become super buffed. If you beat a buffed enemy however, they drop more XP. So if you want you can buff a boss/enemy and Issen them to death for massive XP gains.
- Evil Doll enemies, extremely powerful foes that are extremely hard to defeat for newcomers but give a ton of XP when beaten.
- Charge attacks. You can charge in 3 levels, each giving a different move with different properties and rewards (in terms of what orb type you receive). Some launch, some knock back etc.
- New areas.
- a complete subquest revolving around unlocking a tower that houses a miniature 'bloody palace' with a secret boss and powerful armor as reward.
- item locations remixed as well as new enemies and enemy placements.
- unique unlockable costumes.
- And the biggest one imo: allows you to skip cutscenes.

I'm not going to lie it is the definitive way to play the game.

Nice post.

Voices
I read somewhere they're being redone/re-recorded. The voices in the trailer did sound different from the original.

Green orbs
Can't believe I forgot to mention this.

Evil Doll enemies
Wait, it's not a single one like Nemesis?

definitive way to play the game.
Damn right. I could never go back. At least this release will serve to get people interested. I'll support it because it could lead to a new game eventually.

Dug a little deeper, unless they reused old trailer footage, the trailer shows the Holy Armor of Warlords, which was replaced with the Ninja Armor in Genma. Some people are noting they might add Genma later as DLC (typical Capcom). The voices are I think re-processed. They are cleaner and they changed some intonations (not hard if you know what you're doing). I don't think they rerecorded them. That said I also heard this and read it in some announcements, as well as the 'new music' which was added.

> Evil Doll
Not completely a Nemesis. Basically if you kill it it won't follow you around for a few rooms. If you fail to kill an evil doll it will follow you a bit throughout a few pre-programmed rooms. You can kill the one at the start if you have enough healing items to tank through the rng grabs and don't mind taking 10~ minutes to kill it. There's 5 I believe in the whole game. You can't Issen her from what I recall.

> Green Orbs
Was surprised you didn't mention it either ;p

> version
Surprised to see a Switch version too, would love to speedrun that game if we get the Genma version down the line.

New music
Possibly due to this?


Doll
Oh ok. I thought it was just temporarily defeated. It's intro makes it appear to be a single entity.

Can't issen
I think so. Years back I went on a testing spree and didn't get any results from her.

Green orbs
And this was something I was at one point testing to document the exact changes they have on an enemy. New attacks, guard break capability, appearance, etc. Will hopefully get onto finishing that before I die.

Speedrun
I used to speedrun this with some guys from SDA. I think someone got just under 1 hour from a new game on Warlords. Not sure if Genma has been done. I should check that.

> Music
I remember hearing about this, he was very famous and when this news broke out it was pretty..shocking for a lot of people.

> Doll
Not sure if its the same doll. Always thought it was just a rare enemy.

https://www.cnet.com/news/onimusha-warlords-remaster-coming-to-ps4-xbox-one-switch-and-steam/

It's official, not Genma, only Warlords content.

Would be nice if they gave an actual reason. There's really no excuse outside an exclusive deal with Microsoft back then. But since this version is coming to X1 too, there doesn't seem to be any reason to hold onto that deal, assuming it exists.

What a bummer. There's really not much of a reason to get this if you have Genma. You're basically just paying for higher resolution and widescreen support. Still, it's nice that new players have an easy avenue to play it.

I'd laugh my ass off if the X1 gets the Genma content for whatever reason.

This crossed my mind lol.

You can switch to the bow or gun without going into the menu. Looks like it has to be cycled through. Doesn't show if you can cycle through weapons though but it should. Why not? If you can avoid the menu for ranged weapons, why make us open the menu to get back to our melee weapons?

Also, critical after a kick?

You can also swap weapons on the fly from what I saw, he does it around 38 seconds in.

Do you mean the part where he's using the wind blade then pulls out the gun? Because I can't see anything else.

If so, that's the part I meant. Wind blade>bow>gun. I had an idea (someone else also mentioned this in the boards) that it might be like Oni 3 where you had instant access to the bow, but this isn't like that. He stopped and cycled through.

Makes me feel like it's just to access the two projectile weapons only. If they added weapon switching, that's a gigantic change and it seems odd they wouldn't show it with melee to melee.

I'm guessing the Oni games suffered from that same memory limitation as DMC1 and it has now been lifted in this version?

I might get this from PSN today. It's on sale.

If I do, I'll probably play it over the weekend and posts some notes in the current topic.

Bought it.

You switch melee weapons with R2, and I guess this also includes the ranged weapons but I haven't got far enough. You must be standing completely still to do this, and you have to cycle through your whole list of weapons to get to what you want. Useless in combat.

I get why they wouldn't allow switching during attacks, but it's kind of absurd that they didn't at least allow switching while blocking or moving.

You know what's funny? It's safer to do it in the pause menu because you can pause and change at any point of any animation.

The analog controls allow you to move insanely fast in any direction. Half the time I don't even use the side steps from ready stance because you can just attack then break off by running. Seems unfair to the enemies.

Shit remaster though. Don't buy it. I've made the sacrifice so you don't have to. Don't let it be for nothing.

I guess one good point is playing this reminded me of the mechanics guide I wanted to write. I won't be continuing this remaster though, as I found out what I wanted to know. One day I might revisit and see how tactics change due to the analog controls.

There any particular reason I shouldn't buy this game? Like, do the analogue controls ruin it? I hear that Onimusha is a pretty good action game.

Or is it just that it's not worth paying the price they're asking for for this remaster? Or is the remaster super glitchy?

>reason to buy
If you haven't played it before and can't get your hands on an original Xbox with Genma Onimusha (the superior version), then there's no reason not to buy this. My post was more aimed at those who have played or have access to Genma.

>analog controls
Not sure yet. Worst case they could make things easier. Strangely, I can barely remember Genma's movement now. I'm sure it had analog, but I don't recall it being this responsive. Roy might know the answer to that.

>good action game
That it is, my boy.

>worth the price
Here it's $30, but was $10 off due to the PSN sale.
So if you qualify for my first point, then it's totally worth the price. For those that have played Genma in-depth and still have access, it's an awful release and Capcom should be ashamed. That's my view on it.

>super glitchy
Haven't researched and I didn't notice anything while I was playing, but I don't think the game looks good at all. The pre-rendered backgrounds are blurry and look like shit, there's weird lighting, stuff like that.

Well, I do have an original Xbox. So I guess that's where I'll be playing the game.

Maybe the vintage games store has a copy, but at the moment, I'm flat broke. Oh well, no one's making any money off of the OG Xbox anyway, so... Homebrew time.

I believe the original Xbox game runs on the 360 - I hope it does anyway, that's why I bought it. Haha!

If you can, play Genma. It is far superior, we're talking leaps and bounds. It's basically Onimusha Black if you catch my drift.