I dedicated some of my available time the last few months to playing the first three games of this series. I suppose some general, impromptu thoughts and personal musings I’ll leave here. I wouldn’t say I mastered any of these games, but I have experimented with them a bit.
Warlords was the first I played – namely the original version. It had been awhile since I had played a game with tank controls, so took some minor readjusting, but it’s all manageable due to a fairly consistent lock-on (though I do wish target switching was easier – an issue most of these games seem to have). I do appreciate the first game, having completed it twice, once on normal and hard, for its ideas. Using a small amount of space to fight enemies and relying upon your specific timing for critical, one-hit kills is probably the most depth the game has, but the magic system and weapon types offer some extra variety and choice. Personally, I’d think they offered these sorts of things because just attacking alone without mixups or other options (knockdowns, kicks, etc.) makes it really generic and boring to play. It’s interesting to see them try to merge early-action and the then-horror genres together. It makes exploring Gifu Castle, I feel, a constant place of exploration, even if, when you really pair it down, not that big. I appreciate that it doesn’t give you all the answers either. I’m not sure that the enemies are all that great, however. Outside of the bulls, I can’t really say that I found myself in trouble, even when surrounded – I’d almost argue magic is too effective at points for crowd control. The tentacle monster that can multiple itself and attack at range was a definite favorite because you had to consider distance and making sure you could prevent him from duplicating. Bosses weren’t too great either, but I’d hesitate to call them bad. Mostly found myself baiting Marcellus and then murdering him with criticals or magic. Osric is the quintessential “What, he’s charging? Dodge time. Okay tired? So attack.” boss. Hecuba reminded me of that time I had an important responsibility but couldn’t get it done feasibly and customers would keep coming up to me asking questions about what I had to do next until I figured it all out by chance – I don’t think that fight is best designed for the game personally. The final boss is solid, but not that impressive and gets nuked if you complete the Dark Realm for the ultimate weapon. TDR is a good challenge I feel. The room isn’t too big, and it really asks you to pay attention to what you’re doing. I enjoyed Warlords, but didn’t necessarily find it to be my thing outside of looking for criticals. I’ve heard the Genma version is vastly superior, but I’m not sure I’d be too interested in playing the first game again.
The second game seems like it took the ideas from the first game and decided to make it, well, better. Or at least offer more options. Weapons in particular have different utilities and magic functions. Criticals are also stricter with timing, so taking that risk demands a bit more from a player. The game’s real change is introducing more of an ally system. On one hand, I think this is a cool idea because it can alter how certain encounters are and how challenging they can be (i.e. one character’s maxed relationship can result in a boss being insta-killed), but I also think the whole system functions somewhat arbitrarily (e.g. unclear exactly on how gifts can fully affect relationships and to what degrees, have to use gold to get a large amount of the gift items) and the game sort of ditches it midway through; ergo, past a certain point, you can’t really affect it anymore. Still, I think O2’s combat options and enemy variety offer more than its predecessor did. Enemies are a bit tankier, but there are far more types. The only one I hate is the giant red bulls, which I’ve yet to find a safe way to kill without using magic (on both my normal and hard runs) as the only safe option. Bosses are better too. Gogandantess introduces an enemy that can dodge and counter your melee attacks. Ginghamphatts’ last fight has him split in two and force you to be constantly on the move. Nobunaga is an extremely challenging fight with constantly changing dynamics and attack patterns. In other words, I think the sequel tries to bring some challenge that the first game didn’t. I’ll note, however, it does rely upon some strange enemy placements (rooms with archers you can’t easily reach) or large mob battles, which, in my view, regardless of how much magic can help, isn’t that balanced and forgets how Onimusha’s combat seems to be more about precision than AoE or grandiose attacking. Although you do have more options, I do think some will prefer certain weapons over others, but you do find that some work better versus certain enemies (the hammer can continuously stun larger foes and you can batter them without retaliation until they die). You even have an Oni form that gives you temporary buffs and allows you to increase the souls you absorb. I don’t like some aspects of O2, but I have no problem saying, for what I look for in games, it seemed like an improvement on the base original in almost every way (minus the tighter corridors and atmosphere).
I think the third game was my favorite to play. Although I do think it lacks certain strengths of the first two, I’d argue it improves the combat system by catering the entire system to go towards that action route the sequel seemed to target, but it succeeds more by giving you more options for crowd control that aren’t simply “spam magic”. Chain criticals offer incentive to use criticals more often and can lead to you murdering multiple enemies at once for a large amount of souls as opposed to just one foe. However, they made it harder to time criticals and made more enmies with varying attack speeds to balance those out too. Still, weapons do have their own uses. The charge for a more powerful melee attack seems to have greater utility – i.e. did you know you can attack with more powerful magic off a charged weapon at the expense of greater meter? Likewise, you also can use a 10-hit slash combo move that, with the correct inputs, can deal huge damage and put enemies. It should also be mentioned that you play as two characters. Sam plays similar to your traditional Onimusha protagonist and can even unlock weapons he had used from the first game with the exact same movesets. The other protagonist, Jacques, uses a whip that allows him some ranged options Sam doesn’t have, but you can also grab enemies. Although Jacques grab option isn’t as versatile as one you can find in say, God of War, it can help with crowd control by throwing the enemy around. Likewise, binding them can lead to some magic attacks up close. Personally, I don’t think Jacques’ gameplay lends itself well to the more precision-based aspects of the combat, but it least does offer different options and unique tools. Speaking of interesting tech., did you know you can actually dodge offset in this game? I was. And that’s awesome. Of final comment is the bosses. Although I think many are on the easy side, I think there’s some cool ideas there. Gertrude’s elemental attacks can work in tandem to limit space and its charge attacks means you need to stay on task. Guildenstern takes advantage of the chain criticals you can use to target him, but only at specific times – otherwise, ranged attacks are the way to go. Vega Donna likes to bind you or swarm you by duplicating herself. Ranmaru can prevent you from absorbing souls and is highly evasive. Nobunaga’s human form can critical you. The list goes on. There are even multiple Dark Realms to complete, each offering different rewards and challenges. And it’s all topped off by the final boss – Demon Nobunaga – who stands among one of my favorites ever now. In a series where bosses could often be nuked by magic and criticals, Nobunaga still allows you to use criticals, but he forces you to constantly be on alert from his attacks and break down his barrier to damage him. You even get a one time access to a helm splitter-esque move to attack at a distance in exchange for magic use. It’s just a cool fight that changes as it goes on. There’s more to this game, such as tactics for absorbing souls with the vests, but I’m still playing around with it all. I’ve beaten the game on normal and hard and look to try my hand at critical and devilish eventually. One of my favorite games that I’ve played this year.
I’ve enjoyed this series and reminds me of some of the old-school polish Capcom had.
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