What do you get when you cross Resident Evil with Tenchu? The answer is Capcom's long awaited title Onimusha. The Demon Warrior has had a rough couple of years. First, for some stupid reason Capcom decided to develop Onimusha for the N64. But the game's chance actually being completed and playing well on the system was as low as an ice cube trying to survive in an oven set to 400 degrees. Later, The Demon Warrior was announced for the PS which made more sense due to the capacity that a CD has which is 650 MB compared to about 35 MB on a cartridge. It seemed as if Capcom had their game set on the PS, but yet another road block came ahead. It wasn't that the PS couldn't handle Onimusha, the problem was that the PS2 was revealed and Capcom had decided to port Onimusha over to the PS2 due to the console's enormous power. Just for the records, when Onimusha was still in its PS1 development stage, the game looked incredibly close to the visuals of Resident Evil 2 and in some areas actually surpassed them.

      Since Onimusha is just a visually enhanced port of the unfinished PS version, the gameplay will definitely remain the same as it was when the game was being developed for the original PS. You walk around with the camera always panning to different directions, exactly like Dino Crisis and the RE titles. You are Onimusha (roughly translated as "Demon Warrior", hence the sub-title) during  the journey you carry some nice lookin' swords with you to help you out if you encounter any ninja battles. The gameplay is expected to be pretty fast, both graphically and action wise, due to the limitless possibilities that the PS2 will provide us with. If you are a fan of the RE series (and who isn't) and planning to purchase PS2 (and yet again who isn't) then Onimusha is the one game you must pick up. Your swords not only give you the power to slice the organs out of your enemy, but also the ability to cast spells, and that is what the Demo Sword does. I'm guessing that this is the final, yet most powerful sword in the game. Along with your Demon Sword you get the Demon Head, which is not only a weapon but its a shild as well.

      There hasn't been much footage of Onimusha is action for the PS2, but the game is up and running on the PS2 according to some people. The most known about the game is that it will feature 3D backgrounds instead of the traditional pre-renderings that Capcom uses in their Horror games. And the cut scenes will be in real-time and not in CG or FMV format. Then there are the logical known facts such as the gigantically improved visuals in character detail and texture detail.

      Onimusha still has no set releases date but Capcom has confirmed that the game will definitely be released on the PS2 around 2000 for sure. Onimusha is a great step over the RE series and maybe Capcom's newest groundbreaking title since Resident Evil Code Veronica. This is really one of my most awaited PS2 games.

02/22/00  SolidSnake

PS2 Main

Scheduled release date:
TBA

Publisher:
Capcom

Developer:
Capcom

Genre:
Adventure/Horror

Number of Players:
1