I originally wanted to play Onimusha: Warlords on Twitch in October for a scary stream. With blood and guts, monsters and demons, it seemed like a great choice for the month. But I ran into a snag. I own the game, but I didn’t have a working PS2 at the time. I had just gotten into emulators so I started testing out the Onimusha PS2 ROM. Unfortunately, I kept running into issues. The frames would drop constantly and Samanosuke would run in slow motion 90% of the time. I found that you could speed up the emulator and it fixed the slow motion problem. I could run and fight with no issue and it was very smooth. But adjusting those settings did something to make it where the enemies would glitch frequently. Many times enemies would walk through walls and disappear. It got so bad that when they disappeared, I wasn’t able to leave the room I was in because all enemies were not destroyed. I did some digging online and in my research, I found this to be a common problem with the Onimusha ROM. So, long story short, emulators/roms don’t work all the time and I ended up moving on to other games in October.
I got scared sh**less playing Layers of Fear instead
Personally, I prefer to have the real deal. There’s something about the authenticity in the original gaming experience. Sure, emulators and ROMs can work and look WAY better. Not to mention, the ease and convenience of having it all on your computer makes streaming easier. Plus, it’s less of a hassle with all those pesky connections and cables. But for me, there’s still something about having the original disc, the original system, and the original controller. There’s something about that old school Playstation experience (or any console for that matter). Am I nostalgic? Probably. But hey, there’s really nothing wrong with that. The heart wants what the heart wants.
And for me, my PS2 library is extensive. I knew I wanted a new working Playstation 2 again at some point. How else am I going to play all those games I’ve bought and collected over the years? Can’t just let them sit and collect dust. Thankfully, that happened for me in December. A friend of mine had a PS2 he was trying to get rid of and I jumped on that real quick. Through my excitement, I told him that my next Twitch stream would definitely be on the PS2. So I asked him if there was anything he would like me to stream.
His answer was Onimusha: Warlords
My time has come!
There’s not much else that can be said about this game that hasn’t already been said. But I would like to cover some of the basics. This game was originally released in North America on March 13, 2001, five months after the launch of the Playstation 2 console. It was a commercial success, selling over 2 million copies worldwide, with 1.04 million copies sold in Japan alone. The game went Platinum in just under a month in the region, quickly becoming the top-selling Playstation 2 game ever at the time of its release. By July 2006, the PS2 version of Onimusha: Warlords had sold 800,000 copies and earned $28 million in the United States...That’s a lot numbers. That’s a lot of awesomeness. And it’s for good reason too.
I remember I was among those who picked up this game within weeks of its release. And I remember have fond memories of playing this game. But it’s really been so long since I’ve played it that I feel like I have forgotten just about everything about it. When was the last time I’ve played this game?...I’m not sure. I mean, this game came out in 2001 when I was a junior in high school. It’s possible that I haven’t played it since then.
From what I could remember, this game was basically Resident Evil but with samurai and demons set somewhere in feudal Japan. After replaying it, I found out my memory wasn’t too far off. It’s got fixed camera angles, puzzle solving, and similar controls to Resident Evil. So, to me, all of this is a winning combination in my book. Resident Evil is one of my all-time favorite game series ever. Since Onimusha: Warlords was made by Capcom, going into this game, it was pretty easy for me to pick up. This isn’t the first time they’ve made a game with a similar style gameplay. You’ll find similar styles in the early Resident Evil series as well as the Dino Crisis series. For Dino Crisis though, instead of zombies found in Resident Evil and demons found in Onimusha, it featured dinosaurs....Raawwrrr.
I streamed this game on December 23rd, 2017 for about 3 hours. Came back to it nearly a week later on December 29th, 2017 and streamed it for about 4 more hours. On that day I finally beat it.
My thoughts? I loved it and I had a total blast. Typically, that is what you can probably expect from me. Just ask Derptaku. There’s hardly anything that I hate/dislike. And 99% of that is true. But I don’t blindly just like something. I have lots of thoughts and opinions on this game. Let’s find out what they are!
First of all, it was so much fun revisiting an old game and interacting with everyone in Twitch chat. You guys are awesome and engaging. I have a lot of fun with that and it makes playing games, especially older games, that much more fun. Even if a game is terrible, I can still find love, humor, and joy out of it (especially whilst streaming it). But this game was by no means terrible. Not to mention, for a game that came out about 17 years ago, there’s a lot this game has that still holds up very well. The gameplay/action/combat, was easy to pick up again. It fell very smooth on the controller.
When it comes to the camera system, I can see it being tricky for some. I mean, it’s been a while since I have seen a recent game that used fixed camera angles that wasn’t a remake or a port. For me, I’m so used to it because I’ve played the Resident Evil games more times than I can even count. Not to mention the Dino Crisis series. So the fixed camera angles aren’t really that new to me. But when it comes today, games these days are full of first person shooters. Many other games are full 3D environments with an adjustable camera system. So I can imagine that it would take some getting used to for those gamers who aren’t used to a camera system like this.
When it comes to puzzles in this game, there’s not much of a variety. Mainly you just open boxes/item chests. Rare boxes require you to answer a question. The answers are written in a different language for you choose from. To know the answer you need to collect various books and scrolls throughout the game to help you decipher the answers.
The biggest thing, there are item chests that require you to solve a puzzle to unlock. Honestly, every one of these boxes are all the same type of puzzle. Just some more complicated than others. The item chests required you to organize the numbers in order and only give you so many moves to do it. Some are extremely easy, others not so much. Generally speaking, this game is more of an action hack n’ slash adventure. When a demon is defeated, you can absorb their souls using your gauntlet and utilize those souls to upgrade your weapons and spirit orbs. Both weapons and orbs are color coded, blue, red, and green.
The spirit orbs grant you access to locked doors according to its color and your weapons get stronger the more you upgrade them. There are a variety of demons to fight in this game. So there’s always an opportunity to absorb more souls without getting tired of seeing the same enemies over and over again. When you revisit older areas, you’ll find that demons re-spawn often and you can level up your gear pretty fast.
This game is intense and has serious themes. Demons are taking over Japan and people are being slaughtered. There’s blood and guts and grotesque looking monsters. But I find balance between the fun and horror in the voice acting. It’s cheesy as hell. The heroes are very intense and over dramatic. The villains are over the top, laugh out loud funny.
The CG cut-scenes still look stellar and amazing. For a game featured on the Playstation 2, this is still damn impressive. The acting still has that delightful level of cheesiness. But the visuals are still top notch.
How about the music? Just as stellar as ever! The soundtrack is probably one of my favorite parts of this game. The music is absolutely amazing!
Overall, Onimusha: Warlords is still very enjoyable after all these years and I’m glad I got to play it again. Because of everyone’s engagement in chat, I was encouraged to play the sequel, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. Turns out that I didn’t own the sequel any longer.
For some reason, I have some games missing from my collection. I had to remedy that real quick. I had so much fun streaming the first game, naturally, I was pumped to start playing the second. So I just had to hunt it down. I stopped by my favorite local video game shop Fair Game and to my luck, I found a copy!
Picked it up for a great price too. Found it for $8.99. Can’t go wrong with that. And to my surprise, not only did I find Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, but I also found but I also found Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams! I missed out on Dawn of Dreams. Never played it. But since I’m on a roll, I might as well complete my collection.
In conclusion, 17 years since its release, Onimusha: Warlords is still AWESOME! The story was fun. Felt like you were playing an epic movie straight out of Japan. The action/combat was abundant. The variety of demons made it feel less repetitive than it can be. Leveling up felt rewarding. The puzzles weren’t too overbearing. The music was epic. My biggest gripe is probably going to be the overall game time. It can be short. But the game is so awesome that is leaves you wanting more. You can beat this game in under six hours. My total game time recorded was about 4 hours. Total combined stream time was about 7 hours. Replay value I would say is high if you want to go back and get all the upgraded weapons. Not to mention the Dark Realm is a nice escape from the main game if all you want to do is battle hordes and hordes of demons. Overall, an amazing experience and I’m glad I got to re-live the magic once more. Would I recommend this game? Absolutely.
Thanks for reading,
BlueNile101
Comments