I was offered a PS2. I went into a game shop. I never heard of Onimusha before. It cost me 2€.

When I launched it, I discovered it was made by Capcom. I was really happy to discover so. When I finished it, I read that Onimusha is the 7th most profitable serie of Capcom. I now know why.

Onimusha comes with a great technology. Capcom decided to create an animation team dedicated to CGI cutscenes (which are great). Thus, CGI would only shine if it would show something interessting. Someone sugested a medieval theme. They went for it.

Now, they had a theme, a clear technological goal... how about making a game ?
In 2001, what does Capcom knows to do ? Survival horror. Let's go on this basis. Unfortunately, Capcom's survivals rely on multiple subleties, one of them being ammo managment. Erf, katana do not need ammunitions. Well, let's put a mana system and reorient the game towards combat action. Let's add a light RPG system and everything will work well. They were right. It works well.


Onimusha is situated between old-fashionned-capcom survival horror games and (for its time) new fashionned beat'em all (see DMC). The adventure is situated in really tiny and kind of oppressing spaces, which can lead to some stress inherent to survival horrors. Thus, most of the time, combats shine. This is due to the variety of opponents you fights and the pseudo-rigidness of your character. Should you either slash enough to make 3 enemies temporaly fall down, which would give you the time to end them on the ground or deal with their comrades, either try to focus the most powerful ones with your magic spells, either run through them taking the risk to be attacked, either take your distances and shoot'em with your bow ? It's up to you, and it's wonderful gameplay-wise. Add on top of this interessting and memorable bosses and you have an intense game experience, set up in a non-commonly seen layout, with imbricated systems that lead to multiples genre and game experiences in a unique software.

at the time this game was basically just resident evil but set in edo period japan. the story is very linear and simple but it works well. the tank controls take some time to get used to but its super satisfying once you figure it out. gameplay wise, i liked the variety of different elements for swords cuz it adds lots of depth to the otherwise very formulaic hack and slash kill undead monsters gameplay. they managed to mash some pretty cheesy and campy horror elements with genuinely soulful action. regarding combat specifically, it was a lot more complex than meets the eye. the progression system was very satisfying with leveling up orbs and weapons.

this game will always hold a special place for me because it was essentially the first console game i ever played to completion. its super endearing, doesnt pull its punches, and in its time, it set a precedent for the new wave of great gaming that came with the ps2. its definitely a must play.

Resident Evil with swords was how it was conceived, and how it plays -- and it shockingly feels awesome. It's slower and methodical, making you think sometimes before you input an attack.

The series just became Devil May Cry after this but the first Onimusha is a solid game that doesn't outstay it's welcome and has aged quite well. Only thing about this game that will send people into a rage are the fixed camera angles, which was the style at the time.

It'd be cool if 2&3 were ported to modern consoles like the first one was.