PSX5Central
Playstation/Gaming Discussions => PS3 Discussion => Topic started by: RichG on July 08, 2001, 10:59:46 AM
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Ok I checked a frequently asked question to see how far I was in the game. Turns out im at the end boss. Anotherwords review time. :) Also you might be interested to know that I have rented this game, there is no reason to play it up so you can trust my review, but remember its only my opinion.
So Onimusha Warlords is Capcom\'s first entry for survival horror on the PS2. So its a pretty hyped game, esp considering how many copies this thing has sold in Japan alone.
The reviews i\'ve read all say its a decent game except a bit short. Well heres my opinions.
Gameplay: Onimusha takes the Resident Evil formula of other Capcom games and uses it distinctly, this is evident in the static camera angles and puzzles.
You will instantly notice that the game is more action orientated. A action game with adventure elements rather than a adventure game with action elements is how I would describe Onimusha, this differs from Resident Evil which I would describe with the latter description. Basically this is because attacking monsters is encouraged throughout.
The main character (I won\'t even bother attemping to write the characters names cause of typos :) ) has a guantlet which can suck up souls from undead monsters, these can aid life, weapon upgrade and magic. In addition to this 3 different swords can be used in the game which all have different characterists and can be fueled by the magic souls. So collecting souls is well rewarding which means you will find your self actually wanting to get in fights unlike say Resident Evil where you really want to avoid the monsters.
Fighting is a simple process and the controls have been improved upon compared to Resident Evil. I personally found I ignored the "onguard" button which allowed you to step about and simply went for the press the action button a lot, that allows your character to do a combination attack. This is most cases works perfectly, so really theres not much tactics to beating the monsters.
Theres also sections where you control your female commerade, a ninja. Unfortunatly although she handles perfectly fine, I felt she could have been put to better use. She was basically the same as the main character, i.e press the trigger button and kill the enermies. You do find play a little different with the ninja as killing enermies isn\'t rewarded so you find yourself basically running past them, ala Resident Evil. Shame really they could have put the ninja sections to much better use. As they stand though they are mainly fillers for the main story.
So you basically progress through the game going to a few different buildings and like in Resident Evil exploring each room. Theres also this thing called the Dark Relm which is a 20 level sort of slash em up with some bonus at the end (I won\'t tell you what it is. :) ). This seems to have just been added to make the game longer. Its quiet a hard thing to complete you see and it becomes frustrating and inevitably not fun.
So the whole game takes this action element of collecting souls, solving puzzles and getting snippets of story throughout - that is the Onimusha formula and for the most part it works well.
Graphics: The graphics are very good. Both CG cut scenes are very nice as well as the rendered cut scenes which remind me of those from Tekken. Ingame is also very nice. The static backgrounds have a lot of details and it all runs along at a nice frame rate. The only slowdown that is in the game is with loading. Theres a section where you need to light some candles and the room goes from dark to light, the game pauses for a second whilst the new room is loaded. The loading is different to Resident Evil and is a lot faster. No more opening door sequences.
Also the character models are impressive.
Sound: The sound is very good, its all well presented. Its not exactly my kind of music but suits the game perfectly. Good stuff.
Ok the downfalls: Unfortunatly im going to have to give this game a relativily low score in comparasion to the other games i\'ve reviewed, red faction, sky odyssey and gun griffon blaze and its because it has some anonying flaws which ruin what would be an amazing game.
The flaws...
Lastability: I rented it last night. Im on the final boss today. £45 for one day. The hour counter (present at the save game section) isn\'t reading 10 hours (like mags suggested). Be warned you should expect this game to last a day if you gave it a go. Longer if you broke it up but its ridiclously short. If your curious about length in comparasion to Resident Evil, its like Resident Evil 1 with just the mansion and guard house.
Cut scenes / frustration: Ok folks, this game is frustrating. Theres times when you die, say at a boss, or at a puzzle. Fair enough. However imagine this puzzle or boss taking 10 attempts and each attempt requires you to get to the room, watch some unpassable cut scenes, do some more stuff and then finally have a shot at the task at hand. This will have you spitting teeth. Also the Dark Relm is plain anonying.
PAL Conversion: If you can IMPORT! This is a poorly done PAL conversion. Thats right folks! After the wait for this game its a bad conversion. Basically no 50/60 Hz option, fair enough, the intro movie is a little jerky, i could imagine this being faster on NTSC footage at PSW, then again fair enoigh you only watch it once. Finally the screen is way off centre. It can be centered but I still never got it totally accorss. I mean its very high up, needs lowered and moved to the right. Also the boarders are big. What was the guys at Capcom thinking?
Conclusion: Ok there is no doubt in my mind that this is a good game, however this is all it is. It isn\'t wonderful and it unfortunatly doesn\'t have the same impact as Resident Evil. Its a firm title which should be solid ground for the sequal but pales when compared to the likes of Resident Evil 2. Im glad I didn\'t purchase it due to the game length. At its heart it still is a same old Resident Evil clone (theres even a puzzle where you lift something off a statue and the door locks, meaing you need to find a replica of the item, we aint seen that too many times!). It can be very frustrating. The action is nice and its a good change, but truthfully speaking it is really, hack monsters, collect souls, complete an area, move onto next and repeat. Finally the shortness is unforgivable. So its not a must have title. Its a good game thats for sure but only whilst it lasts which isn\'t long.
Score 7/10 (I was tempted to give it 6.5/10 but its many charms pulled it up to 7).
If you really want it, go for it. I personally think Sky Odyssey (9/10) Gun Griffon Blaze (8/10) or Red Faction (8/10) will be money better spent.
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Update: I did the review right at the end of the game. Well i\'ve now offically completed it. Took 3.5 Hours / One Day and I got a grade B.
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well up untill now I\'d say I would give the game an 8 out of 10. Note that I\'ve got a PAL version because I live
in Europe. Strangely it isn\'t half as bad as you describe
it. ( maybe you had a different PAL version ?)
About the screen centering : I just move it a little ( and thats really not much ) to the right and it\'s all ok.
Also I don\'t have those big black boarders, they\'re just absent.
Animation and framerate are really sweet, yeah even though it\'s Pal. About the length : I\'m busy with it now for about a small week. But I have to note that this is my first Resident Evil-like game I\'ve ever played. Took me some time to get used to the control scheme after playing so much MGS demo.
The character models are sweet. A little more anti-alias
would be awesome though. But I can\'t complain because it\'s really good as it is. Dah !
All the flaws you describe are kinda not in my Pal version
strange enough. My PAL Tekken Tag does have those flaws however.
Good job Capcom. :)
Knotter8
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No they will be! Capcom don\'t release two different PAL versions.
Basically screen centering is fine when you look at it as the image seems ok, just needs moved to the right a little.
However it is touching the top and theres a gap at the bottoms so I moved mine down so the picture had boarders both top and bottom.
The boarders definatly are there. So many people have mentioned them, Stanzo for one on this board. As well as a post from http://www.gamefaqs.com complaining about the PAL converstation.
Im simply stating that if our PAL copies are different mine is more to the norm. I just don\'t want people to purchase it and be disapointed thats all.
In short the PAL conversion doesn\'t ruin it. I was just mad, esp after considering how long it took to arrive.
The 7/10 still stands on lastability alone, let alone its other downfalls. I mean im not a wonderful gamer but 3.5 hours!... On normal mode. 7/10 is still a good score, for a good game.
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Well maybe it\'s the same PAL version...
But the fact that I didn\'t notice boarders indictates
that at least it\'s not a problem. I\'ll look for em next
time I play though.
Bad thing is the English dubbing. So out of lipsync.
Frequently the English dub is way short than the actual
Japanese lines, and you can see the mouths move after
the English dub stopped already for seconds. Very stupid. I ask myself, and in this case Capcom : Why bother with the English voices and release late while Japanese voices with English subtitles with fast release is way better ? ( btw I don\'t have that option in my game )
Knotter8
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What no one else going to read my review ?
Fair enough. :D
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I think the worst thing about the game is that the euro version doesn\'t have Japanese voices!!! I\'m furious...... WHY would I want to hear english, french or german in a game that\'s as Japanese as it gets? Do I wanna hear samurai speaking in euro-languages? Hah. What idiot ever came up with that idea. I\'d rather hear awful Japanese acting than decent English. I wouldn\'t want my samurai movies dubbed either. Ban dubbing.
Otherwise I think the game is great. Exploring & fighting in a good balance. The atmosphere is great. Maybe it\'s not the hardest game in the world but it\'s fun. Not too short for me either, I\'ve played many nights now and still got plenty to do. But then again, with all the Japanese stuff (not to mention the lovely main character) I\'m bound to love it. I recommend it.
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Okay, so I looked at it again and damn, RichUK
you\'re right. I must a been eating mushrooms again.
Didn\'t really notice them boarders. Thanks to you now I do. Thanks alot pal !
About the prerenderd fmv. It\'s a bit choppy sometimes, but at least that\'s not the case with the intro movie.
Loading times with big animations in the background are
sometimes slow/choppy as well : at the welding/lava factory in the west area... So now it scores 7.7 outta 10.
Another thing, since you ppl won\'t respond in the hints section : I\'m stuck at going down to the Dark Realm.
I get killed after about 15/20 levels down, although I start with full life/orbs and 4 medicine.
Can I go up or do I have to go all the way down. How many more levels ?
Knotter8
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the dark realm is a pain in the a$$, i got the flute thing and then some badguy turned up and killed me, fuc**ng annoying!!!!!
i would say it shorter than re1 bit (than what you said) i think im on the end boss or near it, fighting the big snake thing, im been playing about 2 hours. ill takee it back when ive fin as ill prob never play it again, ill take it back and get gt3 :D