Capcom’s Onimusha Warlords is one of the most-highly anticipated PS2 titles to date. Promising survival horror on an epic scale in feudal Japan, the game’s production values are second to none. With tons of gruesome monsters, intense swordplay, and many devious puzzles, the gameplay offers what fans of Resident Evil and Dino Crisis have come to expect. It’s highly polished but does it go far enough or is it more of the same?

In the epic opening cinema of Onimusha Warlords, players are given an elaborate glimpse into the world of the past din what is perhaps the most elaborate and beautiful CGI cinema in gaming history to date. The length and attention to detail of this opening are astounding and most gamers will probably want to watch it several times before getting into the main game. No other game has ever featured such an impressive opening – it sucks you right into the game and immerses you into the world. The battles of Feudal Japan are at their height and Nobananga’s forces are squaring off in a huge battle against a huge number of rivals. With the battle won, the confident Nobananga exudes confidence when suddenly, a stray arrow through the neck ends the mighty commander’s days on the battlefield. Or does it? An army of demon warriors appears in the background steadily marching towards the screen, ominously advancing through the foggy, death-strewn grounds. Who is leading the battle? Why, it’s none other than the reanimated warlord himself. The scene switches and we see the hero of the game, a brave samurai warrior named Samanosuke riding through fields in a desperate attempt to save Princess Yuki. Unfortunately, he’s a little late and the princess has been kidnapped by the forces of darkness, for reasons and motivations unknown.

This is where the quest begins and unfortunately, despite some good effects, the main game can only be seen as a letdown after such an elaborate opening. Luckily, after the disappointment wears off, a solid game is revealed that at points, comes very close to expectations, just not as elaborately or revolutionary as you’re led to believe initially. It does a good job of integrating the opening sequences of the game with the cinema, and the in-game game graphics are almost as entrancing as the opening movie, but this is overall, disappointing because you’re expecting much more. Instead, for all the glitz and polish in the cinema, Onimusha’s structure is very similar to Resident Evil and as such takes a similar approach with cinematic elements seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. It plays in a straightforward manner with players commanding Samanosuke through the levels, occasionally switching to his female companion, Kaede. As Samanosuke, players will fight a seemingly endless pool of demons through the many locales, and the twist here is that instead of merely killing them, they release brightly colored orbs. Players can then use their special sword to suck in their energy to gain more health, power up their sword or increase their magic ability. In this sense, the game plays a bit like Soul Reaver, which is a pleasant surprise and adds a new layer of strategy as you can build up your levels by efficiently destroying the demons. This makes Onimusha a lot more than just Resident Evil with swords. This added gameplay element gives this a unique feel and flow all its own. It makes the game more interesting by adding layers of strategy and some RPG elements to what could have been a mindless hack and slash effort. Unfortunately, this can also lead to long periods of tedious backtracking when you have to find a missing item. Onimusha is also structured in such a way that at certain points, you have to kill and destroy loads of creatures in order to gain a new level, this is also very annoying as this is where the game gets a bit frustrating as you feel like you’re going around in circles for no reason.   

Still, perseverance is key and getting through the dull parts is essential because it’s vital to keep powering up your character as the game continually ups the ante with ever more difficult opponents. The player can collect other items such as armor, a bow and arrow and a gun, plus other special items that increase vitality. Players can also collect orbs that power-up their magic abilities that give Samanosuke’s sword a limited-use special powers for a devastating attack. Unfortunately, these only work for one or two hits after which he has to recharge them, so they must be used sparingly. There are also special orbs that can be used in certain situations to unlock doors and seals. Like many of the other items, these power-ups can be upgraded in the course of the adventure.

For the most part, Onimusha should feel familiar because it’s mostly structured like Resident Evil. This means you’ll spend a lot of time exploring the levels, looking for objects and fighting the hordes of demons that have been unleashed by the dark forces. Not that the gameplay is completely monotonous since some levels consist almost entirely of puzzles and tricks. Some of this is quite tricky and requires quite a lot of practice in order to beat but are welcome changes of pace from the relentless, combat-packed gameplay. Fortunately, these levels do serve to break up the action and bring a welcome balance to the gameplay, making for a more satisfying experience overall. There are also loads of boss confrontations. These are quite dramatic and do a good job of giving the game an appropriately epic feel and increase in difficulty exponentially as you progress through the game. 

As Samosuke, players command quite a versatile and powerful fighter which will allow him to do well in most situations, which is important because players will face puzzles in addition to the expected hacking and slashing. Players will find the basic gameplay and setup similar to Capcom’s other survival horror titles, with the main character controlled by the d-pad, not the analog sticks, which aren’t used in the game. This continued failure to take advantage of analog controls by Capcom is a bit odd, but the controls are very effective, allowing the player plenty of options while remaining responsive and intuitive. Onimusha’s interface is also very similar to the Resident Evil series, where players pull up a menu to use and control various items. It seems a little dated and could use some reworking to make it more transparent, but Onimusha’s interface gets the job done adequately. So overall, the controls and interface are nice, but they are starting to show their age a little and Capcom should seriously consider upgrading their “survival horror” conventions with future installments. It’s not a major drawback, but it does hurt Onimusha’s claims to next generation status a bit.

Not hurting at all, however are the game’s visuals that are examples of the finest the PS2 has on offer. Some may complain that the backgrounds are pre-rendered, and this is noticeable at points, but that’s really splitting hairs, to be honest. The lush backgrounds look incredibly realistic, with Capcom’s trademark attention to detail and nuance clearly in evidence. Brilliant light sourcing and detailed texture mapping is in evidence throughout the game, making for a visually stunning game that’s highly polished throughout with tons of cinematic flair. This is doubly important because of the game’s high reliance on in-game cut-scenes to give the game a cinematic appearance with dramatic angles and close-ups making for quite an impact. Onimusha’s visual look is consistent and beautiful evoking the feel of medieval Japan. This makes itself known, down to the smallest details such as calligraphy and paper screens that create a believable and truly evocative environment. The brilliantly designed enemies have a classic Japanese feel to them, and gives them a menacing appearance that makes them quite intimidating. What’s even more impressive is their high polygon-counts allow these demons to seem lifelike in appearance.  The main human characters look great as well, since they move realistically, making for a truly impressive graphics engine. The texture mapping and scanning is excellent, taken from real Japanese actors and allows the characters in Onimusha to display a number of believable emotions and reactions, further enhancing Onimusha’s storyline. Unfortunately, while its cinematic approach is one of Onimusaha’s greatest assets, it’s also the game’s biggest visual flaw because some of the camera angles can get in the way at certain points, making your position difficult to ascertain and causing the player to take unnecessary damage. In the end, this can be anticipated and compensated for and don’t excessively detract from the incredible visual punch that Onimusha packs. On the audio front, the game excels with excellent voice acting giving the player an immersive world of characters to interact with and the excellent score evokes the feel of feudal Japan without overwhelming the game – it’s quiet and ambient at certain points, other times underscoring the action with ominous swelling chords.

Onimusha works on most levels with most of the elements in place to make the experience an enjoyable and satisfying romp. While the rest of the game doesn’t quite live up to the incredible opening cinema, it still remains one of the more dramatically staged and implemented games to date with some excellent visuals, that pre-rendering aside, offer some of the most impressive environments seen on the PS2 to date. Onimusha’s gameplay may owe a bit too much to the Resident Evil series which also means some of those game’s problems have translated as well, but it still has a good mix of strategy and action with some RPG elements that should please most action gamers. It’s a little bit on the easy side, since most experienced players can get through it with little problem, but it still offers enough challenge to make the experience a rewarding one. Players looking for a breakthrough title will no doubt be disappointed that Onimusha offers only incremental improvements on Capcom’s “survival horror” formula, but the game is slick and fun, offering one of the most enjoyable cinematic adventures on any console to date.