It was thought that Nobunaga was defeated at the hands of Jubei Yagyu (in Onimusha 2) but this wasn’t the case. With reinforcements coming to his aid, Nobunaga stood to continue his conquering ways. After what seemed a lengthy absence, Samanosuke reappears on the face of the planet and sets off for the final confrontation. Within the first few minutes of the game, you get Nobunaga’s throne room, only for a black portal to open up and suck you way. From 1582, Samanosuke ends up in 2004 France of all places. Here he finds that the Genma have overtaken this area as well. At the same time, Jacques Blanc from modern day France, one minute finds himself battling mysterious demons then another portal sucks him into historical Japan.
When he gets a spare moment, he can check out the tourist attractions
As we progress, we find that Jacques is chosen by the Oni clan to help with the fight against the Genma. In their respective conundrums, each of these fellows needs to battle their way through demon and monster to find their ways back home and defeat Nobunaga once and for all. The story is an interesting departure from the other games in the series and has some neat opportunities opened up by it, especially why they have ended up in France of all places. However, as with any medium that plays with the concept of time, there are a few inconsistencies. They can be a bit confusing early on but the story is quite grand in its scope and can be quite entertaining.
In the previous two titles, the gameplay was akin to the old-style Resident Evil games, complete with pre-rendered backgrounds and “tank” movement. That is, you character could only move forward and they turned at wide angle. To an extent, it was suitable for simulating the movements of a samurai but it did have several occasions where you were in compromising positions. Not only does Onimusha 3 get the full 3-D treatment but analog movement as well. The tank movement is still there on the d-pad but you don’t have to use it.
You’ll be playing as both Samanosuke and Jacques – consistently switching between one another. Samanosuke plays pretty much like he did in the first game and like Jubei from the second game. By no means is this a bad thing but he does get a couple of odd weapons. They’re not really traditional by any stretch but they do at least feel different from previous weapons. However, they all have the same underlying way of playing. Where as Samanosuke plays with swords, Jacques gets a whip as his primary weapon. It opens up a few new gameplay possibilities. Other than the usual four-hit combo, charging the weapon will allow you to grab the opponent and if they are light enough, toss them. Outside of battle, the whip can be used to get to usually unreachable places with the help from the “Oni-bugs”.
Fundamentally, both players are pretty much the same. And despite their obvious differences, the fundamental search, slash and proceed gameplay of previous Onimusha games is intact. Thankfully, there isn’t as much backtracking and many more new environments and locations. Players now have a little Oni assistant known as Ako. Resembling Tinkerbell, this small fairy-like being comes in handy for finding and picking up items along the way. You can also collect “vests” for her that can change things such as showing enemy HP or allowing you to heal while standing still.
Jacques shows why the French men are such fiery lovers
There’s a lot to like about the Onimusha experience and Onimusha 3: Demon Siege maximises this. In there is just enough in between the battling and the progressing to keep the experience fresh and interesting. The mechanic of soul collection works just as well here as it ever has. It’s added the right balance to the game, where you need to souls to progress and just mowing your way through enemies won’t work. The time aspect is played out very well, with a few levels half-way through the game that require you to switch between characters to solve a greater puzzle. However, there is one portion of the game that doesn’t quite add up.
Combat has been primarily fought from close quarters and in tight spaces. However, it seems that the floor space has been opened up a lot to help accommodate the analog movement. A lot of the enemies seem to have been boosted with significant strength and speed upgrades. To combat, it pretty much the same as it has been before – except it feels like the player movements have been slowed down a bit. For the first half of the game, this is totally acceptable but once you hit the back end, the difficulty spikes upward simply because there are too many enemies that are too fast at once. Add in a slow block and generally questionable balance at this stage and it does become frustrating. While this Onimusha is by far the most generous in terms of healing ailments, the challenge that it provides is not always the one that you’d want.
This issue doesn’t debilitate the game in any way but it does raise a few question marks. Especially the chance nature of getting critical (Issen) hits, they can only be really achieved through pure luck or absolutely godly skill. However, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is still the most complete and most fleshed out title of the series. The main adventure is a solid 10-15 hours and there are a fair few goodies unlocked at the end that may encourage some to take the trip again.
Hardly the time for Rock Paper Scissors
The production values of the game are obviously very high. From the opening CG and through out the game, it is obvious how much effort has been put in. While in game, there are a couple of instances where a little bit of a lapse has occurred, in general, the technical and unique artistic aspects look damn good. Both Samanosuke and Jacques resemble their real-life counterparts (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jean Reno) fantastically. Despite being nearly two years old, they hold up as some of the most solid on the PS2. Sound-wise, the voicing is little dodgy at the start when you’ve got French speaking people having a difficulty understand English speaking samurai from 1582 but once a method of “translation” is introduced, things go well from there. The music is well orchestrated and the sounds are faithful to the series. The whole presentation of the game is very good in general.
Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is a well produced and entertaining conclusion to one side of a much bigger story. There are enough additions and changes to make the experience greater than it’s predecessors and enough variety in between to keep it fresh throughout. The combat is solid if begging for an update as well and the playtime is a comfortable for this kind of game. The time aspect is pretty cool as is slaughtering demons with a samurai and Jean Reno. In the end, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege is the best title in the series to date.
Its not exactly hard to get by without it. To me that means its a fairly useless addon that was implemented nowhere near as well as onimusha's counter system. Tougher to execute, but far more rewarding, and a valuable skill to learn.
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