Official Onimusha 4 Thread
I did a search and couldn't find a thread for it. If there is, feel free to delete.
I've been playing the import Oni 4 for about 10 hours now and it is amazing. The import is in full English (you have to enable the option every time you restart the machine for some reason!) and gives you both English and Japanese voices w/subs (whichever you like).
So anyway, so far this is probably Capcom's finest effort of late besides RE4 and DMC3. It's really amazing. The system has been completely redone, but still has the classic Onimusha control feel. You now move up, by hitting up, but you can't jump, and you still need to use precision in place of the hack n slash stuff you may have played in Genji.
The way I've always played Onimusha is to play a critical/counter game. Thankfully, it's well done in this one and not quite as hard as Oni 3 to chain critical (which if you remember was sometimes a freaking pain in the ass. I never did get that one hidden vest you had to get by doing all these criticals, anyway...)
You can block/counter kill, critical kill (wait until you are about to be hit and then strike), and now you can use your oni power to start critical chains on certain enemies. So for certain enemies, you do a couple hits, then a level one Oni strike and then depending on meter, you can chain it to the number you have leveled up using you points from leveling up (I talk about that in a sec).
There are 5 characters (maybe more hidden!?), tons of weapons, and I mean tons. There are also tons of accessories. You now level up the character and also get points for leveling up, so you need to add the points to various elements, such as critical, chain, etc. You can level up attack, thrust and other things and unlock new move. So like little Jubei Yagyu is a bratty girl who can do dragon punches (she’s not really Jubei, but it adds some humor to the story!) and crazy rushdown combos, the main star is a beast with a sword. There's a fist fighter, a spear user, and a gun user also.
The two character system is really fun. You can switch on the fly to control either character and the AI is really well done. You control what they do by hitting the d-pad in any of the 4 directions.
After each level you now have a base that you can use to fuse items, buy stuff, revisit old stages to unlock new stuff (there are challenges in each level that once beaten give you cool items). Also there is no shortage of respawned enemies and souls. I’m only on like stage 6, but am having fun just leveling up weapons and skills. I already maxed out a few weapons. It’s hard to tell how long the game really is, but it’s a 2 disc game and I’m sure I’m not even half way on the first disc.
Of course there's the puzzle-solving aspect which is fun but not annoying -- yup there's no equivalent of the water puzzle, at least not from what I've seen so far. A lot of the challenges require using both characters to move stones, switches, etc. There are puzzle item boxes as well.
The cinemas are gorgeous, the characters are well developed and the storyline is great -- in 16th century feudal Japan you must gather forces to stop the evil Lord Hideyoshi (I think that's his name) from reviving some demon or something. And man some of these demons are huge!
I definitely recommend importing if you have the means and if not, getting the US one. I hope they still keep the Japanese track in the US one, but they may not, hence a great reason to import.
So far if everything stays the same, I'd give this a 9/10. It really takes the Oni series in a new direction and makes it the grand, expansive adventure it always should have been.
ssb
