Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

February 28, 2006 | 7 Comments

I've been obsessed with this game ever since I saw the opening and the TVCM, both of which use Hamasaki Ayumi's Startin' as a theme song. If you're interested in the lyric for the song, I suggest that you check the entry underneath this one. Anyway, there are actually two opening within the game. The first one basically plays as soon as you insert the disc and repeats after a few seconds of no action. This is the one that contains Startin'. The second opening basically starts when you hit the start button and commence the game. And the screencap you see in this entry is basically a compilation of this opening. This one basically introduces the background story for the game as well as the main hero of this fourth Onimusha game, Soki. And just be aware, I think I've gone a little bit screencap crazy this time around.

The opening begins with a fight between two figures on the rooftop. During the fight, the masked figure, who bears a passing similarity to the main hero from the first Onimusha, Samanosuke, got impaled by a centipede-like monster that comes out of the other guy's hand. Eventually, the masked figure lost to the other guy and presumably falls to his death. Fast forward to what is possibly the next day, a temple-like place suddenly is destroyed from inside out by a bright light. This in effect, causes earthquake that destroys the nearby village. A little girl seems to have survive the Earthquake and is about to pick up her toy when all of a sudden a bunch of skeleton army appear and head towards the little girl. Before the girl is killed by the army, however, a blonde-hair figure appears and attacks the skeleton army with his impressive ability.

The demonic army, however, keep coming and this time around appears in various shapes and sizes. There are what looks like demonic ninjas, some more skeleton army, some wild flying beasts, and several gigantic Genmas. These Genmas seem to have been controlled by a person elsewhere. The new Onimusha starts to produce a second large sword which glows then sends a giant typhoon towards the giant Genma. The Onimusha himself starts to emit blue energy from his body. The energy eventually expands to both of his swords. Just as the Genma about to attack, the Onimusha flies towards the giant and combines the two swords before slicing the giant. The giant quickly crumbles into dust, leaving the place temporarily safe. The guy then walks over to the little girl and returns her toy. He then returns to face the rest of the demon army while another blond figure watches from afar. The Onimusha then slices with his sword and reveals the logo.

Impression:

I really love the opening. This should be obvious from the amount of screencaps that I have taken. ;) I am hoping that I'll get to fight those giant samurai Genma within the game. The new Onimusha looks quite capable as well. I am quite amused to see his horns though. The fact that he has a blonde hair as well makes me think that it's a thinly-veiled joke about 'white ogre'. So it was even more amusing when the little girl calls Soki 'black ogre'. Interestingly enough, there seems to be a foreigner observing the entire attack. Game-wise, I've heard that this is the first Onimusha with free-roaming camera. It seems to me this time around there wouldn't be pre-rendered environment. I am a bit conflicted about this because one of the things that I love about the first 2 Onimusha is the detailed character model. If some of the processing power of the PS2 are taken to render the background as well, I wonder if the characters will be as good as the first two games.

Most of all, however, I'm excited about the possibility of using more than 1 characters in the game. As you probably have noticed from the first opening, Soki is not the only main character in the game. The other characters are Yagyu Jubei Akane, Nankoubou Tenkai, Ohatsu, and Roberto. I really hope that I get to control each one during the game. And if the masked character from the opening turns out to be Samanosuke, maybe there is an opportunity to play as his character as well. Enemies-wise, I really hope that the female with the Noh mask in the first opening will be one of the main nemesis in the game. I just think she could be an interesting enemy instead of the usual demon army types. Anyway, I am interested to see what other people think about the game regardless whether they've played it or not. And if you're interested to find out more about it, IGN has a rather extensive coverage of the game.

© memento 2003