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The nuances of the samurai mystique have been masterfully crafted into a magnanimous fourth chapter in the Onimusha series. Dawn of Dreams stays true to its name and teeters as closely to perfecting the genre as any have come thus far. This is Capcom's true strength, the very reason it has such staying power in an evolving industry.
Where titles such as Devil May Cry 3 and God of War still reign supreme in the action genre, Dawn of Dreams excels because of its precision, its patience and stubborn refusal to convert to the full-on action formula. You still can't jump in Onimusha and you aren't going to reach those insane juggle combos you might elsewhere. But the samurai is meant to kill with a single stroke and in that vein the combat has been refined almost to the point of quintessence.
I want to keep this review brief. I want it to sell you on my second favorite Capcom game of recent years (maybe your third if you place Devil May Cry 3 above this one) and then I want you to go through your game library and trade-in all your 3D samurai games, cause you won't need them anymore. Though don't be mistaken by my gushiness. Dawn of Dreams isn't going to win awards like Resident Evil 4 did and it sure isn't doing anything groundbreaking.
But what it does do is offer more than 20 hours of almost seamless samurai action (my final play through time on normal was 30 hours with most extras unlocked). There are brief moments of annoyance. Some puzzles are just kind of lame. Many of the bosses don't challenge like they should and there are just a few places where the fighting engine falls short (finisher moves sometimes completely miss the downed enemy). The pros outweigh these nitpicks ten fold.
What you should care about is the new two-person action system (which has unlockable 2 player co-op, yay!) and completely expanded combat. What you should also find interesting is the scope of the story and the way it unfolds over two discs and tons of gorgeously rendered cut scenes. To save 16th century Japan from evil lord Hideyoshi (who has aligned himself with the Genma), you must recruit heroes to prevent the destruction of the world.
Five heroes in total will become fully playable and customizable as you dispatch the Genma. There's Soki, the only one strong enough to defeat the Genma; the gorgeous Ohatsu, a gun user whose heart belongs to the hero; Roberto, a foreigner with crazy boxing skills; Tenkai, a noble spear user; and little Akane Yagyu, the precocious descendent of the legendary Yagyu clan (she goes by Jubei most of the game – a title bestowed upon the strongest of the clan).
If you had a problem with the series' antiquated controls, well they're sort of gone, but you still can't jump or do any of the crazy stuff you can in Devil May Cry. This is a samurai Resident Evil. Much the way Capcom re-invigorated that series, it did the same for Onimusha. What Capcom didn't touch, thankfully, is the precision of the controls; they simply expanded the move lists and made skills upgradeable using points earned from leveling up. For me, the real draw of the series is the counter/critical system. For fans of this aspect: you can block/counter kill; critical kill (wait until you are about to be hit and then strike); and now you can use your weapon's Oni power to start critical chains on certain enemies.
After each level, you now have a base that you can use to create items, buy weapons and accessories, revisit old stages, and more. Since there's no shortage of respawned enemies or souls, leveling up the characters and weapons is a fairly quick process, especially once you have access to the Dark Realm -- a multi-floor area where you can find rare items. There is also no shortage of weapons. Each character has tons of weapons and accessories at their disposal, making it nearly impossible to max them all out too early in the game (one of my gripes with the previous Onimusha games).
For a series that was supposed to end with the last game, I'm very happy to see Capcom give us an all-new adventure. There really is nothing that compares to ancient demons and powered-up samurai. A cut above the rest, Dawn of Dreams has raised the bar for the genre and with its replayability (unlockable costumes, items, and modes), you can't go wrong adding this one to your collection.
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