The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Onimusha 3

More Sequels! Yay!
This time, we have an actual real sequel. Rather than Onimusha 2, which had no real relation to Onimusha 1, Onimusha 3 closely follows the story as it ended in the first game. Once again, the lead character is Samanosuke Akechi, voiced by and shaped after Takeshi Kaneshiro, but this time he is joined by Jacques Blanc, voiced by and shaped after Jean Reno, who is inexplicably popular in Japan, hence the movie Wasabi, which was pretty stupid, except that it had Ryoko Hirosue in it.



The story is that Guildenstern, the Genma's evil mad scientist has invented a machine that causes ruptures in the space-time continuum to send hordes of Genma into the present day, as well as their leader Oda Nobunaga, who is of course voiced by the omni-present Akio "what HAVEN'T I done?" Otsuka.

In the beginning Samanosuke gets caught up in a randomly generated wormhole, as a cause of the instability of the machine, and he is whisked to Paris of the year 2004.
In his stead, Jacques Blanc is sent back to feudal Japan in the 16th century where he has to make due without his cellphone.

Of course, this wouldn't be a sad soppy story line if Jacques didn't have an 8-year old son, whose mother died in an accident several years ago, and who now has trouble adjusting to Daddy's new and MUCH YOUNGER blonde gilfriend with incredibly big boobs.
"Sorry son, you'll understand when you're older" indeed.
You just know that your beautiful Japanese jidaigeki has gone to complete waste when it involves Grenade Launcher wielding busty blondes, methinks.

So the story is really stupid and doesn't make ANY sense whatsoever. Even though Samanosuke is sent to the future, there is STILL an alternative self of him in the past, even though there's only one Jacques. Well, logic doesn't apply, and turning your brain off probably helps best. This IS Keiji Inafune after all, who brought us the many marvels of story-telling that was the Megaman Series, so I guess you should be happy Samanosuke isn't a Kobun.

The whole timeline thingy is introduced into the gameplay by a special Interdimensional Mirror (I had one of those, but I threw it away because it didn't match the carpet), which allows Jacques and Samanosuke to exchange items over a span of 500 years without worrying about inflation or exchange rates. Naturally, lots of puzzles depend on this. Jacques is in the past, so sometimes he needs to open doors and solve puzzles so that Samanosuke can access the appropriate areas in the present.
It's a nice and enjoyable system even if it is rather obvious.

The biggest change this time however, is the fact that the Prerendered backgrounds are now completely gone. The game has finally been fully done in 3D, and admittedly, even though you'd expect the graphics to loose some polish and detail in the process, the environments look absolutely stunning, offtimes looking nearly as good as some renders of the original.
The game now also offers full 3D control, with additional 2D control. The left 3D stick lets you run around wherever you want, whilst the directional pad AT THE SAME TIME, no setting of options is necessary, allows for the traditional control method, which can still be useful if you have to move ahead in a straight line.
It's strange however that, even though we now have 3D environments that allow for dynamic camerawork and such, they STILL have not done away with one of the major problems of the original, ie that sometimes the fixed camera angles obscure your view of nearby enemies.
Even in 3D the camera is often fixed in a certain dramatic position, not allowing you to see any nearby enemies, so you still get the frustration that accompanies prerendered backgrounds, it's just that it doesn't look as good this time.

Speaking of which, Onimusha wouldn't be Onimusha if it didn't have some fantastic CG movies. And surely enough, the opening cinema is an awesome sight to behold. The team has not lost its magic with motion capture, and it's still the most fluid animation in the history of the WORLD, but the quality of the CG movies is now not as consistent anymore. Basically, the opening movie, and a small epilogue movie, are of the high quality we have come to expect, but all other movies in the game look like they have been done with slightly spruced up real-time graphics, which doesn't make any sense. Why not just use real-time then? Why make a CG MOVIE with Real Time graphics!? Perhaps it is to ensure nicer special effects and more polygons or something, but it looks really rather sad next to the awesomely beautiful CG scenes of Onimusha 2, or even 1.
God of War had the exact same problem by the way, but God of War was a rip-off anyway.

So what you're left with is a game that, even though they decided to do it differently this time, STILL does not fix the problems of its prequels, although it is considerably longer this time. Almost as long as the first two put together!
There are plenty of unlockables again though, amongst which is an entire side story involving one of the secondary characters, so enough to do even after you finish the game, but it lacks the clever scenario system of Onimusha 2, that added REAL replay-value to the entire story.

Also, the preachyness of Onimusha 1 is back, and it is paired with Family Drama this time. Yech. It has lost its great medievil Japanese atmosphere, which was pretty much its raison d'être if you ask me.
That said, it's not actually a bad game by any means, it's just that it feels too dull after the first two. We know how it goes now, and Jean Reno is not interesting enough to breathe new life into the series. I do like the authenticity of him actually speaking French, even though this is a Japanese game. He is replaced rather shortly after the start by a lousy Japanese voice actor though, so even that was messed up.

So like I said, still a fun game, but definitely the least interesting of the three: 8.5

posted by Ingen! @ 3:22 PM