Onimusha is one of those really enjoyable games that's now been left
behind and seems content to be stuck in a rut. In isolation - and
compared to the other games in the series - it's a game you can get
really engrossed with, but also one you can get quite tired of. The
combat's fluid, relatively deep and involving once it gets going, but
it's also a wholly repetitive game that's been surpassed in so many
meaningful ways that you can't simply be content with 'more of the
same' anymore. By all means rent it; die-hard genre fans won't
complain, but if you're looking for the next big hack and slash epic
that does something new, there are more exciting options around than
Dawn of Dreams right now.
One major new addition in Dawn of Dreams is the new command system,
allowing you to deliver basic orders to your cohorts via the d-pad,
such as all-out attack, attack and follow, wait, as well as a
character-specific skill. As useful as it sounds, it merely shows up
the limitations of the buddy AI, with characters either far too gung-ho
for their own good or not effective enough. To get around these
limitations, downed buddies never actually 'die' no matter what,
meaning that they'll wake up and rejoin the battle after while. Not
only that, ordering them to wait recharges their health halfway (which
is a bit of a cheating fudge) or you can go the whole hog and take full
control of them and take advantage of whatever special abilities they
might have.
the game is an incredibly formulaic grind that settles into an
immediately identifiable pattern right from the beginning - just like
the previous games in the series. The carrot of all those upgrades, new
skills, new characters and the end-of-level boss encounters always
seems within reach.Unlike the previous sprawling adventures, Dawn of
Dreams is divided very specifically into 17 stages (which you can
revisit between levels with the newly unlocked characters), spread over
2 DVDs, making it (by some distance) the biggest in the series to date.
As gratifying as it is to level up all your characters abilities and
weapons, the fact that you can keep switching between characters to get
around your failing health is a ruinous mechanic that you can't resist
using. As a consequence, nothing's ever that much of a challenge, and
getting through the game feels less satisfying than it used to.
Onimusha Dawn of Dreams is a great game!
