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Onimusha: Warlords
Protagonist(s):
Samanosuke Akechi
Kaede
Genre(s):
Action-adventure
Hack and slash
Rating(s):
ESRB: M
PEGI: 16
CERO: C
Platform(s):
PlayStation 2
Xbox
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
Release Date:
Original (PS2)
JP: January 25, 2001
NA: March 13, 2001
EU: July 6, 2001
Genma Onimusha (Xbox)
JP: February 22, 2002
NA: January 28, 2002
EU: March 22, 2002
Microsoft Windows
CHN: July 8, 2003
RU: December 1, 2005
WW: January 15, 2019 (Remaster)
Remaster
JP: December 20, 2018
WW: January 15, 2019
Developer(s):
Capcom
Publisher(s):
Capcom
Country:
Japan
Series:
Onimusha
Successor:
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny
Onimusha: Warlords is an action-adventure hack-and-slash game developed and published by Capcom, first released on the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and also the Xbox in 2002 as an updated port called Genma Onimusha. The game was later re-released on the PC (China and Russia only).
The game's plot is set in the Sengoku period and focuses on the samurai Samanosuke Akechi who fights against the forces of Nobunaga Oda. After Nobunaga's death in battle, Samanosuke goes on a quest to save Princess Yuki from demons working alongside Nobunaga's forces. The player controls Samanosuke and his partner, a female ninja Kaede, in their fight against demons.
Why It Rocks
Like Devil May Cry, it replaces zombies in favor of demons (making it feel more like an action-oriented game than survival horror), even though the game shares certain elements from Resident Evil.
On that note, the game was originally planned to be a ninja equivalent of Resident Evil dubbed Sengoku Biohazard.
Beautiful graphics and amazing CGI cutscenes.
Fantastic music and Japanese voice acting.
Samanosuke and Kaede are enjoyable heroes to play as.
Engaging combat.
Plenty of puzzles to solve.
Great arsenal of weaponry, including a bow and arrow set, three elemental weapons, and one powerful sword (that you'll get in the end).
Terrific boss fights.
There's a few moments of unintentional black comedy, such as Samanosuke killing enemies while wearing an unlockable panda suit or Guildenstern's English-dubbed line "OOOH, what's this? Oh, a liver!" (despite BQ#3).
The Xbox port, Genma Onimusha, has tons of improvements and extras such as:
Improved visuals
5.1 Dolby Digital audio
New areas to explore
New boss to fight with
New outfits and armor
Changes to enemy placements
A three-tier charge attack to each weapon
The game became an inspiration of Devil May Cry due to a bug that was discovered in it.
The game aged fairly well thanks to the remastered version, with improved controls, new music, better graphics and framerate, widescreen support, the ability to switch weapons in-game without going into the items menu, and achievements (the latter of which isn't in the Switch version).
Bad Qualities
The original version only lets you move your character with a D-pad, which is extremely awkward and unacceptable for an action-adventure game.
Fortunately, the remastered version has joystick controls for movement, as stated in WIR#12.
Short length, meaning that you can beat the game in less than ten hours.
Bad English voice acting (especially on Samanosuke's part) that doesn't match lip movements very well.
At least you can opt for the Japanese voice track instead (see WIR #3).
Unfortunately, there's no way you can change to that voice track in the UK/EU PAL versions.
Like in Resident Evil, camera angles can be a nuisance at times.
Trivia
This is the only game in the franchise to have two voice tracks (Japanese and English) until the fourth instalment, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.
The game faced some controversy when Mamoru Samuragochi admitted in 2014 that he directed his orchestrator Takashi Niigaki to ghostwrite the music for the game, for which Samuragochi took full credit for composition.
It was originally intended to be a Resident Evil spin-off game on the original PlayStation called Sengoku Biohazard, but it was eventually moved onto the PlayStation 2 and became Capcom's new IP instead.
