Cheap Onimusha 3 (Video Games) (PlayStation2) Price

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Customer Reviews of Onimusha 3

Onimusha 3 is the best of the Onimusha games!!!
Capcom's newest - and officially said to be last - game in the venerable Onimusha series takes all the minor complaints people had with the first installments (prerendered backgrounds, ''Resident Evil-style'' controls) and completely eliminates them, resulting in a crowning achievement for Capcom and a fitting end to Inafune's story that bred (and comprises in it's entirety) the ''Sengoku Survival Action'' genre.

STORY:
It so happens that Oda Nobunaga - one of the ''3 Unifiers'' of feudal Japan, it's first Christian leader, and the historical figure that is perhaps the most familiar to Japanese schoolchildren and adults alike (think of him as a sort of Japanese version of George Washington but replace the wooden teeth and boy-scout honesty with a sword and a healthy dose of sadism) - that inhabits the Onimusha games has been resurrected after a grisly death or two by dark forces and now works to take over the entire world with a demonic army. We know this from the first game and it's even better sequel. What's new here is that he no longer seems to be satisfied with the time frame his world inhabits. He has more sinister schemes this time around and thanks to his head scientist Gildentstan (my own translation of the Japanese name, so please don't e-mail me to say that I spelled it wrong as katakana can be interpreted many ways and I've not played an English version of an Onimusha game and therefore am unfamiliar with the ''official'' English rendering), he has hatched a nefarious plot to twist the fabric of time itself, allowing him to take over several time periods at once. A brilliant scheme indeed, and one that would no doubt be successful if it weren't for the triumphant return of the wandering swordsman Akechi Samanosuke (played by Japanese movie star and hearthrob Kaneshiro Takeshi) and the assistance of French paramilitary trooper and doting single father Jaques Blanc (played by French action star and proof that ungracefully ageing men with bags under their eyes can inexplicably be considered international sex symbols Jean Reno). I won't spoil the finer points of the plot, but suffice it to say that there will be many creative uses of the time travel aspects of the story, and a fairly interesting cast of supporting characters, of both the villianous and heroic variety. Onimusha 3 is a sweeping epic that straddles two countries; two cultures; two time periods and keeps the pace of the story moving at a nice clip. Figure in a few cool scenes of culture/time shock (what would a samurai from the 16th century make of handshakes, not to mention cellular phones?) and you have a winner of a storyline.

GAMEPLAY:
Take the survival horror style item conservation and puzzle solving and the simple to learn but difficult to master combat engine of the first two games, add the variety of a second character, smoother controls, more moves at your disposal including a Final Fight style throw system for our friend Jaques, and a much longer quest fraught with original puzzles and plenty of variety in the environments and you have one nice package. This game takes everything that made the earlier games in the series winners and expounds upon them, offering up more of the same in greater quantities and still managing to throw in plenty of fresh new ideas. Another welcome addition is Ako, a fairy of the Raven clan who can jump time at will, facilitate communication between speakers of different languages, and even assist in combat thanks to an array of equipable clothing available in the game. Depending on what she wears, she can increase the speed of the gauntlets' soul absorption, heal your character, show an onscreen life gauge for enemies, and much more.
The puzzles are difficult but don't quite reach the level of frustrating and the combat can be intense and pressure filled, but never quite cross that line into the realm of ''so hard it's no longer fun'' territory. An easy mode becomes available if you die too much in succession and a hard mode is available from the outset, so gamers of all levels of experience can enjoy this game equally. The Phantom Realm areas are back, but this time they're more plentiful and they branch out into multiple paths instead of being a simple journey from top to bottom. Also new is a training mode wherein you can practice the various techniques available in combat.

CONTROL:
Following Outbreak's lead, Onimusha 3 allows for both traditional ''Resident Evil style'' controls using the D-Pad for Onimusha purists and ''Devil May Cry style'' controls using the left analog stick for those more accustomed to that sort of action game. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Walking/running around narrow areas is certainly easier with the analog stick, but combat moves like the kick and straight thrust are more easily accomplished with the D-Pad. What's great is that both control schemes are available to you at any time by simply changing the position of your left thumb, so it's easy to switch on the fly during combat or exploration scenes.
The Square button unleashes your character's main attack and the Triangle button activates the special attack. The X button sucks souls from vanquished foes with your gauntlet. Circle - when used in conjunction with the R1 button - fires arrows with Samanosuke and grabs climbing implements or activates a secondary combo set (whether used with R1 or not) with Jaques. The L1 button blocks while R1 locks the direction you're facing into place while moving. The R2 button initiates a 360 degree turn for D-Pad aficionados, and holding the L2 button for a few seconds calls up the map screen. Clicking the right analog stick (R3) tunrs your character into his demonic self, provided you have absorbed enough purple souls. Start opens the menu screen and Select pauses.
The controls are responsive and intuitive.

GRAPHICS:
These are - hands down - simply the best graphics I've seen on the PS2. The developers somehow managed to come up with an engine that incorporates stunning real time light particle diffusion (you can see a hazy field of light just inside the outlines of solid objects directly in front of a light source), fully polygonal 3-D backgrounds, jaw-droppingly gorgeous fire and water effects, and insane amounts of enemies on screen at once with virtually no effect on the 60fps frame rate or slow down except in the most extreme of situations - and even then it seems to be there deliberately to enhance the effect of breaking ice or multiple issen (death blow) chains. The environments are as breathtakingly varied as they are beautiful. Lush forests, craggy cliffs, bustling trading villages, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, a rain soaked zoo, a snow and ice covered Lake Biwa, a battlefield teeming with soldiers in combat, a Parisian sewer system, and plenty more await your exploration and admiration. The best part about the backgrounds is that everyone's favorite complaint these days - the camera angles - are so well thought out and presented that you will likely never even notice them change. They're so intuitive that you never find yourself in Devil May Cry style directional confusion following an abrupt angle change and you never find your view blocked by unseemly background elements.
The characters are also well designed and drawn and move with a lifelike fluidity.
In addition, the opening CG sequence is an absolute masterpiece.

SOUND:
Not only are the multi-lingual and professionally acted voices fantastic; not only are the sound effects well timed and designed; not only is the orchestral music well suited to the game's various locales and themes; it's all presented to you in Dolby Digital ProLogic II Surround Sound. In addition, you have the option of choosing to listen to the surround sound from the point of view of the camera or from the character himself. The results are amazing. It may be ProLogic, but it'll sound as good as legitimate 5.1 to even the strictest audiophile.

And who ever said we wanted Jubei back??????? Nobody wanted him back. Half the Onimusha fans wanted Samanosuke. Jubei and the other characters from Oni 2 were just too stupid. And please people don't think your going to play the game like how the intor looked. Give me a fucking break.

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Great Onimusha game!
The third installment in the series vaguely deals with the other two. Of course, some enemies return and Samonosuke returns as well. Also, the game now features two main characters with the ogre gauntlet.

Basically there is a rip in time, and genma have traveled 500 years into the future, into Paris. Samonosuke gets sent to Paris, while Jean Reno gets sent to Japan.

Visually, the game is stunning. The graphics are great and the cinematics are probably the best ive ever seen. The game also features that really cool whip of Jeans and his gun.

The combat is basically the same. Samonosuke has pretty much the same style of combat as always, but with some new swords. The new combat stuff is Jean Reno's whip and gun. Jean can whip his opponents and throw them. He can also shoot them but he can't do that from far away. He has to shoot them on the ground or grab them first. This is still cool and makes the combat more fun. They also kept those really cool white counter slashes. The first boss is fun because Samonosuke can slash the room up and the environment looks spectacular. Also, like the other Onimusha games, the heroes get help from NPC's which are relatively good at fighting.

The story is pretty good. The interesting part is how the past affects the future. You can travel through time to distribute items or when you successfully changed the past. This system works well and is fun to use.

The game is pretty much like the other two games. It isn't really creepy anymore, and there are less of those "Find the key!" puzzles. It is more of a hack and slash but doesn't have that town thing like Onimusha 2 did. This is still good. In fact, the game resembles MGS2 at times with the constant cinematics. They rock though so it's fine.

The only bad part about the game is the downshift in creepiness. I was expecting to go through a tight corridor mansion slashing monsters and such, but now it is more slash- away fighting. The other bad part is near the begginning of the game, Jean's voice changes. He no longer speaks French and all-of-a-sudden has a completely new voice actor. You will probably say, "This is retarded". It is, because Jean's voice rocked, but just near the begginning they completely changed it. It is kind of annoying because the new voice doesn't sound like Jean.

Still, the game has some specials for completing it. It also kept those cool white counter slashes which let you decimate foes. I would reccomend purchasing this game if you enjoyed the other two. 4 stars!

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Best Onimusha
This game truly lives up to its hype. The opening cinematics and the cutscenes are great, one of the best I've seen in PS2. I really liked the game play and as in previous Onimusha games, bosses are challenging, and if you die a certain amount of times it gives you the choice of continue play in easy mode. They took away the friends side quest of Onimusha 2 that was boring. Although Jaques has diferent weapons and moves it's easy to pick up. ANOTHER GREAT IMPROVEMENT ARE CONTROL SCHEME, not like Resident Evil or Atari 2600's Combat. You might question the fixed camera, but you can ignore that with such artistic environments, specially the Arc De Triumph, and cutscenes. This is at least a MUST PLAY game. Even if you are not familiar with Onimusha, you will really enjoy this game.