Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (PlayStation 2)

Onimusha 3 is the best Onimusha game by far. The controls and game design are perfected, and the story is interesting, if a bit far fetched. The player alternates between controlling Samanosuke Akechi, in the likeness of Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers), and Jacques Blanc, in the likeness of Jean Reno (Leon). The European and American editions of the game do not have the original voice acting of these actors, but are replaced by english-speaking voice actors. Too bad...

The game is joy to play throughout, and the battle system is very good. The 'Issen' critical moves are no longer a secret, but are actually taught in a new training mode. I must admit that I never got the hang of chain critical moves or the 10-slash combo. It wasn't necessary at all, as the game was even easier than its predecessors. The end bosses never had a chance, as I was fully upgraded with both characters, and had ridiculous amounts of health and magic items; I beat every end boss (there were 5 end bosses) in the first attempt without ever being in trouble. Vega Donna, Ranmaru, and the first Nobunaga form all died from me unleashing all the magic attacks I could afford, without landing an attack on me, and the final end boss wasn't a problem. When commenting on Onimusha 2, I complained about the bosses being to difficult compared to the rest of the game. That has certainly been ironed out; I think the game is a bit too easy overall on normal mode.

The game runs in interlaced mode, and it actually looks like crap on a LCD screen. The game uses a lot of dithering, which doesn't read very well on a modern screen. But on a CRT screen, it looks absolutely beautiful; on such a screen, it is fully comparable to e.g. God of War. By the way, the intro movie is just about the most awesome ninja-action anyone can hope for! I can't wait until the movie directed by Christophe Gans (Silent Hill) comes out.