Onimusha 3: Demon Siege [2004] for the PS2
Goodbye pre-rendered backgrounds, hello Jean Reno. Towards the mid 00s something changed abruptly at good old Capcom, the big brass was now dead set on making a big breakthrough in the Western market. Around this time, Capcom started making new games almost exclusively with Western players in mind. Just think of Shadow of Rome - a beat 'em up taking strongly after the 2000 Gladiator movie - or Dead Rising, an open world-ish zombie game.
Onimusha 3 was perhaps the very first sign of Capcom's new market aspirations. The evil demon race you fought in the previous games - the Genma - have now discovered time travel and started their invasion of present day (well, 2004) Paris. The game starts off with a rather schlocky but entertaining cinematic showing unfortunate French people getting brutally murdered by Japanese demons and undead samurai as the Arc de Triomphe towers over the carnage.
A new setting demands for a new playable character and that's Jacques Blanc, a special forces (SA) operative 'played' by Jean Reno. Therein lies my first issue with the game: Jean Reno only voices the character when he speaks French - and it's not long until all characters start speaking English thanks to 'convenient fairy magic'. Less than 5% of all lines spoken by Jacques are in French. So yeah, he looks like Jean Reno, but it's clearly another guy voicing him, so what's the point? In any case, Paul Mercier provides the English voice acting for Jacques - believe it or not, that's the same guy who voiced Leon in RE4.
The other main character - Samanosuke from Onimusha: Warlords - gets accidentally sent to future Paris as he was about to have his final showdown against Nobunaga, while Jacques takes his place back in feudal Japan. From then on, the game constantly switches between both characters, occasionally featuring some simple puzzles that require you to exchange items between both characters thanks to, uh, time warping gems and Ako, a fairy who aids both characters in their quest. Yeah, a fairy.
There's also a third playable character - although you only play as her sporadically - Michelle, Jacques' fiancee and fellow soldier. She exclusively fights with firearms - shotgun, rifle, grenade launcher - so her sections almost reminded me of RE or Dino Crisis. Jacques and Samanosuke get three new upgradable weapons each - while Samanosuke plays in pretty traditional Onimusha fashion, Jacques's weapons can all double as whips, allowing him to grab enemies and throw them around as well as perform some pseudo-platforming feats. It's also cool how Capcom finally noticed R3 and L3 are a thing in PS2 controllers, so now there's a button for triggering the 'Oni Form' whenever you want, making it less of a gimmick.
While the game still features fixed camera angles and tank controls, the graphics are now fully 3D. They are... competent, but I honestly much preferred the 2D backgrounds from the previous games. Not only that, I even think that comparing the 3D graphics here to, say, Devil May Cry is not a good look for Onimusha 3. Not so much in terms of sheer graphical power, but art direction and style. This is particularly evident in the Paris levels. Eventually you find yourself in the Notre Dame cathedral and then a castle - in these sections I was feeling as if I was playing a much blander Devil May Cry game.
What about the 'somewhat spooky feudal Japan' vibes from the previous games? There's almost none of that. I don't just mean the 'spooky' part, but also 'Japan'. Even playing as Jacques in the past, the game often sent me to places that had nothing Japanese about them - in fact, Jacques even finds himself in the very same French castle as Samanosuke by hitching a ride on a conveniently placed 'demon train'. Just so they can solve one of those silly time warp puzzles.
Sure, I'll admit Onimusha 3 might very well have the best gameplay in the series, but in terms of visuals, story and atmosphere is so very weak. It lacks almost entirely what
makes an Onimusha game for me - an atmospheric hack 'n slash game set in feudal Japan where you fight demons. Turns out that time travel schlockiness à la Ninja Turtles 3 can be entertaining for awhile, but can also end up doing more harm than good.
Onimusha 3 trailer:
Ronin Blade [1999] for the PS1
Ronin Blade - also known as Soul of the Samurai in NA - is a Konami game and a mishmash of ideas from several, better known games. Those games being Bushido Blade, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and Resident Evil - but mostly just Bushido Blade. I would like to address the original Japanese title as well -
Shin Jidaigeki Action: Rasetsu no Ken. 'Shin' meaning 'new' and 'Jidaigeki' meaning 'period dramas' usually used for pieces of media set in the Edo period. Rasetsu no Ken meaning Blade of the Rakshasa - probably a reference to the final boss.
Ronin Blade takes place during the Edo period in a small fiefdom where strange things are afoot. The game features two playable characters: the ronin Kotaro or the young kunoichi Lin. Each character gets to face completely different bosses and explore different areas - and you'll need to complete both campaigns to fight the
real final boss. The gameplay also varies wildly depending on who you're playing as. Kotaro sticking pretty close to the slow and tactical swordfighting from Bushido Blade, while Lin's quicker combat style and ninja weapons she can throw at enemies reminded me a lot of Ayame from Tenchu. The characters can even jump in this game, although you'll barely ever need to.
The Resident Evil comparison comes from the game's inclusion of beautiful looking pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles. Ronin Blade doesn't feature tank controls though, which coupled with the camera was a bit disorienting at first, but I got used to it. Obviously, the Resident Evil comparison also comes from the horror elements featured in Ronin Blade, but Tenchu itself had no shortage of evil monks, zombies and demons.
That said, Ronin Blade doesn't play even remotely like Resident Evil. There are all but two 'puzzles' in the game that require you to find some keys to unlock a door. Unlike RE, in Ronin Blade you can't leave the combat screen until all enemies are dead - not to mention how your character automatically locks onto the nearest enemy. It definitely reminded me more of a 2D beat 'em up game or a 2.5D fighter like the aforementioned Bushido Blade. The horror and adventure elements are all but salad dressing, Ronin Blade is more of an 'action horror' game.
Which genre Ronin Blade belongs to doesn't say anything about its quality though. It turns out that playing as Kotaro and Lin resulted in two wildly different experiences. When playing as Kotaro, the focus is all on guarding and well timed attacks. Taking risks is not rewarded, it's all about playing extra conservatively. I found the rather slow and tactical gameplay only fun for awhile and pretty annoying once you get to face bosses with cheap and unavoidable 'special attacks' or later enemies that can literally punch you completely ignoring your guard.
Playing as Lin, I realized even more how clunky and shallow Kotaro's combat style really was since you can easily stunlock most enemies with Lin's much faster kunai attacks. The bosses she had to face were also much more reasonable to deal with. I definitely had a better time playing as Lin. All in all, the game was over rather quickly as each campaign shouldn't take longer than 2 hours to play through.
Ultimately, Ronin Blade has beautiful visuals, a slightly above average score, likeable characters and a predictable but decent story to go for it. The gameplay is decent but shallow - and occasionally annoying, especially when playing as Kotaro. Some people consider Ronin Blade a precursor to Onimusha - which I can only partly agree with - and I'd rate Ronin Blade about as highly as Onimusha: Warlords. That is, an upper mid-tier game. Although, I think it'd make more sense to compare it to Nightmare Creatures - another action horror game that focuses on melee combat. In that case, Ronin Blade is inferior to NC, but better than NC 2.