Onimusha: Warlords

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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).

A remaster of the game is released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows (via Steam) in January 2019.

Plot

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

1. 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.
2. Beautiful graphics and amazing CGI cutscenes.
3. Fantastic music and Japanese voice acting.
4. Samanosuke and Kaede are enjoyable heroes to play as.
5. Engaging combat.
6. Plenty of puzzles to solve.
7. Great arsenal of weaponry, including a bow and arrow set, three elemental weapons, and one powerful sword (that you'll get in the end).
8. Terrific boss fights.
9. 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).
10. 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
11. The game became an inspiration of Devil May Cry due to a bug that was discovered in it.
12. 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

1. 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.
2. Short length, meaning that you can beat the game in less than ten hours.
3. 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.
4. 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.

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