Official Onimusha 4 Thread

[ssbomberman]

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

[Korly]

What about the Street Fighter characters?

[ssbomberman]

What about the Street Fighter characters?

They are just costumes, no? Not sure. Checked gamefaqs, but they just mention new costumes. Not more unlockable characters. I won't find out for a while since I'm going so slow in the game.

ssb

[Korly]

Just costumes? I guess that explains a lot.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

How is the English VA? Does Steven Jay Blum make an appearance?

[ssbomberman]

Haven't actually listened to it yet, but I'll give it a go tonight and see. I think Capcom USA will probably take out the Japanese track, which is a shame...

[Dolemite]

I really used to love this series, but got kind of played out after the third game.

I did a search and couldn't find a thread for it.

I found threads for it here, here, and here.

[ssbomberman]

Lol.

Dole, you should give it a go. Basically my opinion is that it is hands down the finest 3D samurai action game to date (at least of what I have played, I'm sure I missed a few in there).

As long as you aren't looking for pure DMC3 style action, you will enjoy it. The story is decent, the action is solid, and because there are 5 characters and tons of weapons and skills to level up, you could play it for a long time. Case in point, I am the 25 hour mark and still haven't beaten it, because I'm doing all the extra stuff.

The pacing is solid and the 2 character cooperation is well done. Really, this is Capcom's finest game of late next to RE4.

ssb

[Dolemite]

I'm sure I'll give it a rent at some point in the near future.

[Will]

So it seems like some kid didn't receive his OPM in the mail since I had received one in my mailbox a couple of days ago which had various demos, one of which included Onimusha 4.

I've only played a bit of Onimusha 1 and I enjoyed it so I'm not burnt out on the series or anything which led me to give the demo a shot, surprisingly I had a good deal of fun. The combo system is still way too simplified especially after the DMC games but otherwise it played fairly smoothly. My only problem is that well, it's a PS2 game so I was hit with very grainy/jag fest within the first battle.

The main character looks kind of cool and the CG is incredibly good (if you're not numbed by CG already) with the voicework being pretty decent. I'll most likely get it for $20 whenever it hits that price so for now I guess I'll just keep playing the demo.