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Platform: PlayStation
2
Related Articles: Review: God of War (PlayStation 2) Review: Onimusha Warlords (PlayStation 2) Review: Shinobi (PlayStation 2)
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Onimusha:
Dawn of Dreams
It's
getting to be time to grab the ol' samurai sword, armor, and oni-fighting
baubles again, as Capcom is plugging away on the latest installment in
the Onimusha series, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. In an
attempt to keep the franchise from getting stale, some new game
features, and a new villain are being incorporated into the game, with
some dolled-up visuals thrown on top for good measure.
Taking place approximately fifteen years after the fall of Oda Nobunaga, it would appear that a new tyrant is on the scene in ancient Japan, a man named Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who has gotten chummy with the Genma, and is hard at work trying to bring the island nation under his dark, iron fisted rule. In an effort to make sure Toyotomi’s plans fail, players will take control of a young warrior with strange powers named Soki who, with the help of other well-meaning do-gooders, will do their best to destroy the demons and their leader.
With Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Capcom is working on some new gameplay elements to be implemented into the series, the most noticeable of which are things related to teamwork. Instead of going it alone, trying to be a one-man army fighting Toyotomi’s legions of demons, players will be able to have one of their cohorts come along for the ride on any |
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given stage, allowing the two to really put the hurt on enemies. With this use of two characters during a stage, players will control one while the computer controls the other, with players being able to quickly switch between who they want to control at the push of a button. Players can also give the computer-controlled character the general gist of what he or she should be doing by issuing commands like "Follow", "Wait", "Attack", and so forth. With this more liberal use of the different cast of heroes in the game, players won’t simply be beaten over the head with Soki’s story, instead also experiencing the tales of the various sidekicks that join the fight against Toyotomi. |
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Up to this point, the Onimusha series has provided a consistently
enjoyable experience. It
may be on
the road to Sequel Ville like many of Capcom’s other franchises, but in
Dawn of
Dreams hopefully this new duo-oriented approach to battle will help
keep the game feeling fresh, and not a quick attempt at making a buck
off of long-time fans of the series.
So far there isn’t a concrete date set for the North American
release of the game outside of a very nebulous "sometime in
2006". In the meantime
we’ll just have to wait to see how this whole Onimusha buddy system
pans out in Dawn of Dreams.
Mr.
Nash (May 19, 2005)
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