Onimusha was an early PS2 game and it shows.

The gaming industry was living through its ugly polygonal puberty, halfway between the primitive but adorable low-poly days of the PS1 and the high-definition beauty of today. It might seem unfair, but I do have to point out that, when it comes to its visuals, Onimusha: Warlords hasn’t aged well. I could have definitely lived without the water trap sliding panel puzzle, for instance. Some of the puzzles, on the other hand, can be a nuisance due to how cryptic they are, as well as the fact you need to complete them in a certain amount of time before being thrown back to your last save spot. The enemy patterns aren’t exactly difficult to figure out and your weapons are powerful and varied. Despite the fact it takes a lot of influences from older Resident Evil games, health bonuses and pickups appear regularly. Onimusha isn’t a very difficult game, even in its harder difficulty settings. Japan, what is it with you and tentacles? However, given how the enemy AI isn’t Nioh levels of intricate, it makes up for a simple but fun button mashing experience. If you’re looking for Niohlevels of depth, this isn’t for you. The combat is simple and far from complex. It’s obvious that those two last gameplay elements have aged as gracefully as the average framerate of a Nintendo 64 game, but weirdly enough, it still works, mostly due to the fact the environments are small and the framerate is always at sky-high levels. What a great way to kick off the year of samurai games!įor the uninitiated, Onimusha plays like your typical proto-Platinum hack and slash with the fixed camera angles and (optional) tank-like movement from the pre-4 Resident Evil games. With Warlords finally back in the spotlight, it delights me to say that the game is still as fun now as it was back in the day. This used to be the pinnacle of graphics in 2001.įast forward to the near end of the following decade, and to my surprise, Capcom has decided to announce a remaster of the first game in the series, Onimusha: Warlords, to all major current-gen consoles (sorry Soulja Boy, not this time).

Onimusha ps4 price