Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams is Dreamy

Sequels are both a horrible bane and a great blessing in the world of video games. They can vault new and classic franchises to heights of greatness, or they end up in the doldrums, sharing premature bargain bin space with your Devil May Cry 2's and Lost Planet 2's. And then sometimes the developer strikes a chord with its audience, and can release multiple sequels of more-of-the-same; which works for your Call of Duty's, because it's still fun, familiar, and safe. The best kind of sequel, obviously, would be the kind that manages to improve on a familiar, even classic formula. This kind of sequel still retains the cozy, security blanket familiarity of the original; but improves upon nearly every aspect to the point that the end product feels new and exciting. For the most part, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams achieves this precarious balance. I was instantly familiar with the gameplay, but also surprised to find a much deeper experience than the previous entries. Despite the game's many successes, though, I still found a few supremely pesky flaws in the design.

Before digging in to the actual gameplay, though, let's talk a little about story first - this is an rpg after all (well, kind of). If you've played any of the previous Onimusha games, you're familiar with the bug-like genma, their offering of false power to various greedy humans (read: future boss fights), and their obsession with taking over the world. There isn't much here in terms of depth; however, the handful of party members you acquire throughout the game help hide the lack of substance in the main plot-line. There is Akane, a nimble female ninja; Ohatsu, a gun-toting warrior; Roberto, who punches the crap out of things and could easily cross right over into a game like Street Fighter; Tenkai, a white-haired yet youthful man who fights with pole arms; and let's not forget the main character, Soki, a deadly sword-wielder. Their interactions are always amusing, even funny at times, and their relationships with each other run the gamut between hate and love. Sure, eventually they learn to appreciate each other; but the long road to the end credits sometimes felt like a soap opera, which I actually enjoyed.

As the game progressed, I found myself exploring many types of environments, each with its share of simple but often fun puzzles forcing me to use the character-specific abilites (Akane can sqeeze through tight spaces, Tenkai is able to speak with the dead to obtain useful info and keys, etc).  The game also threw an admirable assortment of enemy types at me, which helped keep the action fairly fresh - a must for this twenty-five hour playthrough.

Let's be honest though, the real draw of the Onimusha series is its combat. The first two games may have served well for their time; but tank-style controls and swordplay just can't stand the test of time. With Onimusha 3, and now Dawn of Dreams, Capcom thankfully injected new life into the series by adding full 3D environments and camera control. I popped in Onimusha 2 shortly after completing DoD and frankly - it was painful, and really made me appreciate the added control of the two latter games. Gameplay is nice and responsive, and each character is fun to play. There are also scads of weapons and items to collect, as well as abilities to upgrade, that will certainly take more than one playthrough for the average gamer to obtain them all. That said, replay value is through the roof here for the Onimusha enthusiast.

Despite pretty much falling in love with this game, I found myself cursing certain elements more than I would have liked. First of all, this game is absolutely brutal. Don't get me wrong, I love difficult games, even crave them from time to time; but for all the love put into DoD's combat it seemed I was outmatched in many cases without any other option but that of flailing wildly or blocking. There would be a handful of small to large enemies in front of me, some behind, and then some other enemies shooting at me from a distance. In fact, most of the latter part of the game seemed like one long gauntlet and I found myself scrambling through some areas just to avoid fighting the mobs. Maybe I sort of suck at this game, but I also didn't get the sense that I could effectively dispatch every enemy in every area without consuming all my health items.

Another failing of this game - one that I am sure was not due to any lacking of ability on my part - was the annoying camera. Okay, I just praised the rotational camera earlier; but it is far from perfect. More times than I could count I found myself flailing at enemies just beyond camera range. One particular boss fight I actually spent the majority of slashing at the edge of the screen, the boss just out of camera shot. During those many heated battles with the games many mobs I also found the camera shifting to look down at my character's head, again leaving me flailing wildly at the edge of the screen until I could turn the camera or run away. The 3D camera of DoD is a far cry better than the static environments of Ye Older Onimushas; but it is far from perfect.

After effectively praising and then, perhaps, lambasting this great game let me end on a good note: the boss battles. Are you a fan of boss battles? I sure am, and this game dishes them out like beads at Mardi Gras. They are frickin' everywhere, and most are just plain awesome. In fact, the last chapter of the game is a series of boss battles totaling (if I remember right) eight tough fights in a row. Be sure to brush up on each character's moves before tackling the final chapter, you'll be glad you did.

Improved graphics, improved/broken fully rotational camera, memorable characters, satisfying combat mechanics, and an almost criminally hard difficulty make this one satisfying playthrough if you don't mind those pesky PS2-era jaggies. Even after playing the likes of Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden Sigma, this aging game holds up very well and may deserve another spin in my Playstation sometime soon.