Platform: PlayStation 4

Developer: Capcom / NeoBards

Publisher: Capcom

Release Date: January 15, 2019

Genre: Action/Adventure

Rating: 8/10

Written by ChronoSloth

 

 

The PlayStation 4 remaster of Onimusha: Warlords had me super excited when it was announced. I had many fond memories of playing the original in 2001. The only thing that gave me trepidation was that my recollection of the game was pretty foggy. As a poor, dumb, 7-year-old kid, my experience with the game was over the course of two separate rental periods and I had long spaces between progress since I had no access to the internet to save me when I was hopelessly lost. I vaguely remembered elemental weapons, spooky environments, stabbing enemies on the ground, a giant snake boss, and cool music.

The only thing I remembered vividly (and wished that I could forget) was this horrifying, sneering, wrinkled, gross, surely fetid, man-creature who is wrapped in what looks to be some sort of rotting lettuce cocoon who drops down from above in one of Onimusha’s save rooms. He’s upside down with his long mustache swaying along with his swaddled body, and until you make a certain amount of progress in the game, he appears but won’t interact with you. So he just stares at you and retreats back into the ceiling. Upon playing the Onimusha: Warlords remaster thoroughly and to completion (one and a half times so far), I can confirm that all of my memories, both those foggy and the one I remember in lurid detail, are present here in what is a tight, atmospheric, and enjoyable game that was inherently great, and has been improved upon in this remaster.

I’ll start with what’s been changed and/or improved with the remaster before delving into the game itself. Capcom and NeoBards have done much more than simply raise the resolution for this rerelease. Just as the Resident Evil series that inspired it (we’ll get into the Resident Evil DNA in Onimusha: Warlords later), Onimusha has pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles. I mention this because just as the PS4 remaster of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0, this has led to Onimusha’s graphics working together in the opposite way of how they used to: character models and other real-time graphics look more impressive than the backgrounds. This isn’t a knock against it, however; the real-time graphics look great, and the artistry of the backdrops are still gorgeous. They simply aren’t as sharp because making something render at a higher resolution and remastering ancient JPGs are two different processes.

Players can also choose between widescreen (16:9) or the original screen ratio (4:3). I chose to play in widescreen to see how the new “screen scrolling” feature would work, and it’s excellent. What the feature does is move the screen along the pre-rendered backgrounds as the character moves. I was worried that having only parts of each background show based on where you are on the screen would obscure enemies or important items, but this didn’t seem to be the case at all, and the scroll is subtle and smooth. In fact, Onimusha switches camera angles so often (sometimes too often) as you move through the environments, the “screen scrolling” doesn’t happen much, if at all in some areas.

Aside from the improved visuals, Onimusha has also received an entirely new soundtrack and has been redubbed with a new Japanese voice cast aside from actor Takeshi Kaneshiro reprising his role as protagonist Samonosuke. The poor English dub of the game remains unchanged, which is a negative for anyone looking to take the game’s story and events seriously, but a pro for anyone who wants to experience the game as it was in 2001, or those who enjoy old kung-fu movies and a good laugh. Luckily, you can choose from either Japanese or English audio before you start or load a game, meaning you can essentially choose between samurai horror epic or samurai horror comedy anytime you want. I beat the game in English and now I’m going back through in Japanese, and both have been enjoyable. Also of note is that playing the game in Japanese makes a cutscene that is censored in English play uncut, though it’s thoroughly disturbing either way.

The new music is likely due to the original soundtrack being composed by scam artist Mamoru Samuragochi (or possibly/probably his ghostwriter Takashi Niigaki, I’ve talked about these guys before). I don’t feel like the new score contains as many memorable or epic tracks, but it works very well in-game. The new OST retains the Japanese instrumentation (very fitting of a samurai game), but feels much more horror-focused than the old music. There are some creepy environments you’ll pass through where the tracks are just laden with foreboding, and the combination of the gore-filled backgrounds, demonic enemies, and suspenseful songs cement the atmosphere. However, the gross cocoon man I mentioned earlier actually has a less frightening theme this time around, and I appreciate that immensely. Thank you, Capcom.

There are two more new features for Onimusha: Warlords, one large, one small, but both implemented to make the game more palatable for modern gamers. The first, small change is that Easy Mode is now available from the start instead of requiring players to die three times. I would make a joke about people needing this option because they suck, but I think it’s an awesome decision to make an older game like this more accessible to a wider audience. The second, large change is the ability to use the left analog stick for free, 3D movement in addition to Onimusha’s original tank controls; tank movement is still available by using the d-pad. While the addition of free movement using the analog stick essentially allowed one to break the way enemy encounters worked in the PS4 Resident Evil remaster, the nature of combat and the ability to move quickly even with tank controls in Onimusha: Warlords makes analog stick control a great fit. The tank controls still work great for their intended purpose: keeping players oriented when moving through various fixed camera angles. The free movement here is a great addition for gamers who don’t enjoy the d-pad based movement and also makes crowd control in combat easier, without breaking combat. Strafing around lone enemies or bosses with the d-pad moves you just about as fast as running around them does, making both styles viable and useful. In small areas, running under threat of attack, the analog stick is a godsend for players who don’t want to master an ancient control type.

Now on to what lies beneath the changes and polish: the core experience of Onimusha: Warlords. Onimusha is an action/adventure game that began its life as a samurai-era Resident Evil spin-off that eventually became its own game, and later, its own series. Even more-so than the first Devil May Cry (which was originally in development as Resident Evil 4), Onimusha carries with it many classic Resident Evil traditions. There are tank controls, fixed camera angles, pre-rendered backgrounds, herbs as a healing item, macabre stories told through found journals, environments littered with bodies and gore, two playable characters, antagonists obsessed with running experiments and obtaining test subjects, jump scares akin to the infamous RE1 dogs, large, humanoid enemies in giant glass tubes, and it all takes place in a big trap and puzzle filled location that has you going underground as you progress. While borrowing heavily from RE, Onimusha is very much its own game when it comes to combat.

Onimusha: Warlords puts you in the role of masterless samurai, Samanosuke, on a quest to rescue his dear friend Princess Yuki. She is essential to the plans of the evil, undead Nobunaga and the demons he serves, so Samanosuke must battle through the hordes of evil creatures who are hellbent on stopping the samurai from saving her. While there aren’t tons of varied combos like you’ll find in most modern action games, there are quite a few weapons at your disposal, most with their own attack types and magic abilities. Blocking is important in Onimusha as well, and there are very few attacks that break through your raised guard. There are 5 total melee weapons obtainable with three being tied to the Onimusha’s puzzles and serving as keys to doors, along with 2 projectile weapons with 2 ammo types each.

Defeating enemies releases souls; red souls are experience that can make your weapons more powerful or have them unlock bigger locks, yellow souls restore your health, and blue souls replenish your magic gauge. These souls aren’t collected automatically; players use the circle button to lift up Samanosuke’s right arm and Kirby-style suck them all out of the air. Souls disappear after a short time, so in long enemy encounters, there’s a balancing act between sacrificing souls to take on more enemies or backing off for a second to retrieve souls while watching for pursuing foes. When enemies are defeated, an area is safe for the moment, but revisiting it causes enemies to respawn, which means you can grind battles for souls if you’d like to make your weapons stronger, or if there are doors you need to go through that your weapons can’t yet unlock. If you aren’t running from encounters as you pass through areas regularly, there’s very little grinding required, making it an optional pursuit to make your weapons stronger or upgrading your healing items or ammo. An awesome part about upgrading your weapons is that their appearance actually changes as they evolve. Not only are they more powerful at different levels, but they look more powerful, and you can see your handiwork during in-game cutscenes with Samanosuke showing them off.

Onimusha: Warlord’s combat isn’t about juggling, or being stylish; it’s about spacing, blocking, dodging, parrying, and using your available resources to efficiently damage and kill opponents. You absolutely can go in swinging and stunlock some enemies, but there are plenty of enemies you can’t stagger and some groups that you’ll encounter where you need to attack carefully while watching your back for ninja demons as well. Watching your back can be tough sometimes too; enemies that can rush in and attack from great distances, or even archers can be off-screen thanks to the implementation of fixed cameras. These fixed cameras also switch many times in certain areas, with one L-shaped hallway having between 4-5 angles to orient yourself to during frantic combat. Getting used to this ends up being a part of getting good at Onimusha.

Players can likely make it through Onimusha running from certain enemies and button mashing against others, but the most efficient and rewarding way is to learn the attack patterns of enemies, see which ones you’re good at parrying, figure out which of your weapons works best on which creatures, and grind a bit to not only upgrade your weapons but to improve your own skills. The good thing is that both methods are enjoyable. Bashing your head against the wall, brute forcing your way through enemies and consuming all the health items you can find while plowing through the game is fun, and so is becoming a kill-in-one-strike master samurai with a full set of powerful weapons.

There’s a mechanic that the game has a trophy for but is never really explained. The trophy name is “Deadly Strike” and calls the blow a “special attack” in the description, and there’s a second trophy for doing this ability against a boss where it’s called a “critical strike”. However, the term is defined in the third game in the Onimusha series as “issen”, so that’s what I’ll be calling it. To issen an attack, you must block it at the last second (parry), and then follow up with an attack while having your weapon readied with R1. You can also issen enemy attacks simply by striking at just the right moment before an attack hits you. I’ve also pulled one off by dodging or even just running by a foe’s attack animation and then slicing at the right time. This technique is hard to master but is incredibly rewarding. Not only does it feel great to pull off, but it will also instantly kill any enemy you use this on, and will net you extra red souls and yellow souls.

Aside from combat, the other obstacles to your progress are navigating the castle grounds and solving puzzles. The puzzles here are a weaker aspect of the Onimusha: Warlords experience. The process of finding keys or using items to unlock doors or activate objects is fine, and puzzles that involve using your character’s abilities to interact with the environment (light candles with your fire magic, cut the supports for a rope bridge) are awesome. It’s the “puzzle boxes” that are the most repetitive and boring. One type of box, often containing items required to progress, features numbers in a grid that are jumbled and must be made sequential by rotating the left, right, or middle parts of the grid in a certain amount of turns. These aren’t that difficult but don’t feel rewarding to solve, and I pulled up one of the many guides online that contain instructions for these and the next type of box for my playthrough. The next type of box offers gems to increase your maximum health or magic, and you must use files you’ve found to answer them. I like the idea of needing to pay attention to or read the lore to answer the questions, but having to answer in demon (or Ogre, I’m not sure), means you’ll be swapping back from the puzzle screen to the file screen, trying your best to remember what symbols represented what and maybe swapping back a second time. It’s just a bit tedious.

The story in Onimusha: Warlords isn’t that compelling, but there’s enough here to keep you intrigued as to what happens next. I recommend playing in Japanese if you care about the narrative experience, as the English can be so funny that it’ll take you out of how high the stakes are supposed to be. While the plot can be simple and a bit underwhelming, the lore that serves as the backdrop is plenty interesting and sets a tense tone for the game. The gameplay experience is the selling point here. If being a samurai, fighting demons and gaining power from their souls in a bloody, ravaged feudal Japan sound awesome, it’s because it is, and that’s Onimusha: Warlords.

The presentation here, not even considering remaster additions, is excellent for its day, and still holds up well now. The character designs are simple, but cool, and the enemies are very distinct and memorable. Even some of the later enemies that first appear to be palatte swaps have unique animations and equipment. The elemental weapons you acquire have a neat organic look to them, with demonic growths devouring the weapons as they level up (particularly prominent with the lightning sword). Samanosuke’s soul stealing gauntlet is a strikingly designed piece of equipment as well, with light from its eye having a trailing effect. The pre-rendered backgrounds are full of detail, with many featuring light sources, or moving parts like bodies of water or machinery which really bring them to life. The sound design helps sell these pictures as environments as well, with the bass-y thump of Samanosuke’s footsteps when running over a wooden bridge, or disgusting squelching when running through slime around a demonic laboratory.

Onimusha’s animations are especially good for its day as it implemented motion capture before it was commonplace. The regenerating tentacle monsters and the glowing eyed ninjas stood out to me as particularly impressively animated. Speaking of the ninjas, many of the enemies that aren’t in the area when you enter it don’t just lazily spawn in. There are areas where some of the weaker samurai crawl in through holes, ninjas will jump into your vicinity from above or from somewhere in the background, and there’s one later level where a giant mass of flesh on the wall spits out more tentacle monsters. Onimusha: Warlords’ graphics, audio, and design all give you a great sense of place and make the game atmospheric and gripping.

Onimusha: Warlords packs all of this action into a runtime of about 5 hours. While I enjoyed the game enough that I wanted more, the experience is better for not including filler and not requiring that much backtracking. The very last environment you enter is strangely brief and bare, though, and that’s one place I really wish was expanded, or at least had more to enemies to fight. There’s also replay value in a new trophy list for the game, unlockable costumes achieved through a high rank on your complete playthroughs, a super-weapon obtainable by surviving a 20 round gauntlet, and an ultimate difficulty that’s convolutedly unlocked after beating a mini-game which is unlocked by gathering 20 collectibles that are invisible(!) for the majority of the game.

Despite the frequent viewpoint switching sometimes having you cheaply eat an attack, there being collectibles that you literally can’t see until you pick up a key item 3/5 of the way through, a so-so story, and the final act wrapping up too fast, Onimusha: Warlords is a pleasure to play, and in today’s gaming landscape, a unique pleasure. Short, but content-rich, focused, with hidden depth, an awesome premise, and a polished presentation, games like Onimusha are hard to come by, so I’m glad it’s been brought to modern consoles with care. The rest of the mainline Onimusha series all released on PS2, so I don’t believe it’d be a stretch to think the remastering process for those would be a similar undertaking to Onimusha: Warlords. Bring them on, I say! Oh, and I’m sorry about this:

This thing has haunted me since 2001. #Onimusha #PS4share pic.twitter.com/vQTVStRFKX

— BusterSwordBoy (BSB) (@BusterSwordBoi) January 17, 2019

Now you have to have him in your head too.