Onimusha Review3/24/2021
Its more than a game set in another era, its a game from another era.IGN is among the federally registered trademarks of IGN Entertainment, Inc.
Search Loading 0:00 Onimusha: Warlords Onimusha: Warlords Review Collecting Demons souls. Loading By Seth Macy Updated: 21 Apr 2020 5:40 am Posted: 16 Jan 2019 12:13 am If youve ever caught yourself wondering if PS2 games still hold up, I suggest picking up a copy of Onimusha: Warlords. For all intents and purposes, its exactly the same as it was when it first released in 2001, but thats not necessarily a good thing in 2019. Onimusha: Warlords is a classic take on the survival horror genre, set in feudal Japan. Think Resident Evil, but instead of zombies and biological horrors, you battle demons and undead abominations from Japanese mythology. But theyre not new, like you would find in a full-in remaster like Capcoms gorgeous upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake. The graphics are wrapped in shiny new high-resolution textures, but are otherwise the same as they were in 2001, and boy oh boy do they look it. If anything, freshening up the textures without bringing anything else into the modern era really brings out the creakiness of the PS2-era graphics. The pre-rendered backgrounds, the hallmark of PS1 and PS2-era survival horror, look muddy and primitive when the light of high-definition shines upon them. I played through Onimusha on Nintendo Switch, and even on the small screen in handheld mode, the backgrounds looked tired and hopelessly dated. Their fingers dont move at all, stuck in a permanent, almost Ken-doll-like half open pose during cutscenes. Theres a weird twitch to them, too, when theyre supposed to be otherwise motionless. I remember seeing them on my PS2 and being blown away by what was then high-quality CGI video. Theres no modern save system here, so you must find a magic mirror to mark your progress. I found it really irritating, especially since boss fights dont have save points near them. Dying against a boss means not only do you have to rewatch an unskippable cutscene, but you also have to retrace your steps through the castle between the last save point and the boss fight. For all its dusty gameplay mechanics and frustrating old-school backtracking, I still found myself enjoying playing through Onimusha. Since the backgrounds are stationary and prerendered, as was the style at the time, I had a hard time getting a sense of direction. Id run around a corner and suddenly be facing the opposite way. I couldnt get my bearings, and the primitive map system barely helps. On my next playthrough, Im sure Ill be able to breeze through thanks to a newfound sense of familiarity, but on my first time in nearly two decades, I spent a sizeable chunk of time running back and forth, trying to remember where it was I saw a door requiring some manner of medallion or key. I definitely swore more than once after dying and needing to suffer through a cutscene again, but theres something quaint about its aged pre-rendered backgrounds and choppy character animations.
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