Part 3: Episode III: How Not to Combat the Undead
Episode III: How Not to Combat the Undead
When last we left our hero, he rescued Princess Yuki... Only to immediately get his ass kicked and lose her again... But he did get a magic gauntlet from some sort of ethereal purple faces. With that said, let's continue...
Well, then. Let's get down to business. Sam has gotten a bigtime upgrade: he can actually kill enemies now. Before pressing on, let's get down on some gameplay elements. You may notice the glowy thingie next to the gate.
This is a "Magic Mirror" -- feudal Japan's equivalent of a typewriter. The game can be saved at these. But, they hold a second ability: the power to upgrade items using souls. Unfortunately, we've neither upgradeable items nor souls to do so with so... I guess we'll just come back to it...
Further ahead, Sam comes upon a sight most grim. I'd like to think all of these shmucks got a gauntlet from the Ogres, one at a time, and this is what happened to all of them.
Crossing the bridge, we come to the source of the massacre: zombies. I'd like to know, has Capcom ever had a series that didn't feature at least one instance of zombies, ghosts, or other less than living creature? I'm drawing a blank.
Anyhow, the few remaining soldiers are using the less than effective defense of...sort of poking at the monsters with spears...
One of the zombies gets the bright idea to just grab one of the slowly jabbed polearms and turn the tables.
Little did this ghoul suspect that the soldier wielding the grabbed spear had some sort of deep, sentimental value attached to his weapon of choice and was not letting go of it.
No matter what the cost...
I think 'death by zombie due to not letting go of your damn weapon' is right up there with 'death by arrow due to prolonged villain laugh' on the embarrassing demise scale.
The zombies quickly notice as Sam sort of strolls up to them like a tool. On a sidenote, am I the only one who calls the hats the zombies wear 'Rayden Hats'?
We now get our first proper taste of combat. I'll be going over a lot of gameplay elements in this update, as the game lobs them all at you at once, so we might as well get them out of the way early. So, if you bore easily, just skip ahead until ugly guys show up.
The battle system works like sort of a hybrid between Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. Enemies can be locked onto by holding the R1 button. Blocking is performed with L1 (and you have to be facing an enemy to block. Which can be a very fickle thing.)
When locked onto an enemy, you've basically got three attack options. A forward thrust (by holding forward and attack, shockingly) which is about as effective as those morons with the spears a minute ago. Then you've got your standard combo, which will see a lot of use. Then there's a kick attack, that does minimal damage but always knocks down smaller enemies. Downed enemies can be finished off by standing over them and attacking. So, the kick is a very useful ability.
Sam can also do quick dodges to the left and right but...the vast majority of the game takes place in cramp spaces and corridors. So, the dodge is about as useful as having a wet cat in a closet.
Lastly, there is the "Issen". This is an ultra powerful counter attack. It's performed by attack just before an enemy strikes you. Sam will dodge to the side of the enemy and deliver a blow that kills all but the strongest of foes. Needless to say, it's pretty damn useful, if a bit risky to pull off. It's also possible to do a parry version of the Issen by blocking just as an enemy strikes you and immediately attacking during their staggering animation.
Issen attacks can also be chained to hit another enemy in the room, but it's pretty damn difficult to do so. To perform a Chain Issen, you must hit the attack button just as the initial Issen animation ends. Unfortunately, the attack animation for all but the first attack will be random. So, unless you've got Spider-Man caliber reflexes, you'll be lucky to get off a chain of more than two. Still, mastering the technique makes you basically a Crimson God of the game's combat system.
When enemies are killed, their bodies crumble away and release little floating orbs. These are the monsters' souls. The ones that the Ogres want you to collect for vague reasons.
There are three types of souls in the game:
Red Souls: - The most common variety of souls. These are used to upgrade weapons and equipment.
Blue Souls: - These are somewhat rare. These don't add to the upgrade tally, but refill Sam's magic meter. Samanosuke doesn't have any magical attacks at the moment. But, soon enough. Spoilers, I know. I apologize.
Yellow Souls: - The rarest of the three. These refill Sam's health. They're most commonly collected by downing powerful enemies. Killing enemies with Issen attacks also seem to up the chance of seeing one of these.
Souls also come in large and small varieties. Pissant enemies like zombies have barely any soul energy. Meanwhile, foes such as bosses and the like can give off several full upgrade bars worth of soul juice.
In summary: It's a complete rip-off of Soul Reaver's gameplay gimmick with a mild RPG element added...
Samanosuke kills the zombies, devours their souls, and moves on.
There was actually two rooms that looked like this. The first one was nearly identical and had absolutely nothing in it to do, aside from enter the second room. I just thought I'd mention the redundancy.
Looks like the pussy squad is on the job.
"Candygram!"
"I'm too pretty to die! Close it!"The door slams shut, trapping Sam.
Onimusha seems to take place in an alternate history where battle tactics are a non-existent element of combat. As such, Samanosuke has somehow managed to have gone from an enemy bottlenecking down an easy defended corridor to...being completely surrounded...
A bit of zombie slaying later.
If only unlocking doors in this game were always that simple...
"I don't know... What if it's a trick?"
"A trick?!" "They could be using mimicry to trick us." "Who?! The zombies?" "Yes. I say it's a trap." "A trap? They're zombies! They can't talk! Why, I saw one with an arrow through his throat!" "It could have been a fake arrow... To throw you off his deception." "Why would they go to all that trouble on the off chance someone might open a door for them?" "Never underestimate the craftiest of your enemy. That will lead to your downfall." "They're not brilliant tacticians! They're animated rotting corpses. I'm opening it."
The Three Stooges Go to Feudal Japan! It's the madcap comedy event of the season!
Sam is understandably pissed. A series of poking of eyes and bonks on the head ensues.
I'm assuming the name of the guy in the upper right is "Prick". They couldn't be bothered to give him a voice actor. So he just nods for the duration of the scene.
"Ugh... It's terrible... Some manner of disease?" "What are ya talkin' about?" "The... the faces... They're ghastly... Is it leprosy?" "Oh, you mean the zombies. Nope. Just good old fashion grave rot." "Err... Right... The zombies..."
This dinky little outpost has been nearly overrun by monsters and they think there's a chance the main castle, behind their lines, has been already attacked... What sort of defense strategy has outposts that don't directly defend the main base?
Oh, right. Onimusha.
You know... If there's only one road...taking it isn't really a shortcut, now is it?
A short hike later and Sam comes upon a cave. There's no story to it.
There are, however, ninja. The demon ninjas are known as "Three-Eyes", due to their bisexual tendencies.
A short stroll into the cavern reveals a hole so deep the bottom is masked in darkness. Samanosuke is unwilling to inch across the perimeter. Nor will he suck up his pride and just jog back twenty yards to the soldier outposts and borrow a few planks of wood. No, he feels the best course of action is just leaping down that sonuvabitch.
At least he knows...
His roots...
Conveniently enough, Sam ends up outside some sort of ominous underground templemajig. I think this might have been a stage in Soul Calibur. I'll have to go check.
Heading upstairs, Sam comes upon this lively fellow.
I swear to god, everyone is a complete slacker in this outfit. Can't be bothered to check the back yard for a missing princess. Can't be bothered to mount a defense of undead hordes beyond lazily poking at them with sharp sticks. Can't guard a temple due to mummification. It's a disgrace.
And to top it off, the prick has the nerve to give us an ever treasured 'feature' of the genre: The File.
Sougen's Note
I'd just like to make a note right here. You know how the title is "Onimusha"? Yeah...the "Oni" part is referring to what they call "Ogres" in this game. They're translated to "Oni" in every other game in the series. Likewise, the generic "Demons" are known as "Genma" in every other instance in the series.
The whole Genma/Demon thing isn't a big deal. Genma basically means supernatural being, which fits the bill of demon. Ogre though...
I can't help but think Sam is a warrior avatar of this guy...
Moving right along, the monk is kind enough to move his dead ass following someone finally reading his little story.
The temple itself has little of note, other than a few gameplay elements crammed close together.
Another, unique file is at the end of the hall. This is one of four "Seiryu" code books. I didn't know they made notebooks in the 1500's.
Seiryu #1
Basically, scattered throughout the game are special treasure boxes. These are locked by cryptic messages. In order to unlock the boxes, you have to answer the message using the code provided in these four texts. I'll explain it further when we get to one. Let's just say, it's the type of puzzle you'll go 'fuck it' and head to GameFAQs for.
Moving right along...
Further in the temple, Sam comes across a foreboding glowing doodad on a pedestal. But, more importantly... Look at those jars! My adventure game senses are tingling.
Come to me, my sweet fruit! Oh...what's this?! It's a fucking file!
Journal #1
"This cave seems to be a nest for strange demons that call themselves "Demons." Strange...
"So, you guys go to battle unspeakable monstrosities... Me, eh... I'm just going to hang back and doodle. Ciao."
Look, kiddo. Come write me when electric tits show up. Until then, don't go around making any wild claims.
Alright, then. Enough reading. Let's check out our first power up: The Thunder Orb. Which, by itself, is largely unimpressive. But, when stuck in the Shrek Gauntlet:
It produces the first of the game's collectable weapons. Behold...
The Raizan Sword.
The Raizan Sword is, as far as gameplay goes, exactly the same as the default weapon. Only, it's more damaging and can be upgraded to get even stronger. Thus, making the default sword obsolete and doomed to rust away in the item screen for the duration of the game.
The Raizan also has the nifty ability of having a magic attack, as you'll notice the new energy bar below the health meter. By pressing triangle, Sam can unleash a devastating lightning based combo on enemies at, shockingly enough, the expense of some of his magic energy. Blue souls aren't all that uncommon so, while it's wise to save up magic attacks for tougher enemies and bosses, it won't kill you to clean house with the attack, in a pinch.
In addition, there are a few points in the game with endless amounts of blue souls for restocking. Which is a nice little feature. There's a bit more to the system, but that's enough for now.
Sam tools about with his new toy for a bit, before moving onward.
Next in our rogue's gallery of game mechanics is this little number: The Puzzle Box.
Puzzle boxes operate like what you see before you, though the numbers may be <greatly> larger than this simple one. The object of the brain teaser is to line up the numbers in order. This is done by rotating four numbers in a square on the grid in a clockwise motion.
Each puzzle gives you a certain amount of moves in which you are given to reach the solution (denoted by the 'REST' number at the top.)
To solve this puzzle, you would:
Rotate the left four numbers once.
Then the right four a single time.
Then back to the left to finish it off. Simple, right? I'll give the solution to these as they come up, as many are mandatory. But, I won't be spelling it out in screencaps, as some puzzles have a dozen plus moves to solve and I don't think anyone cares to watch that.
For our trouble, we receive...a rope ladder... What is it with survival horror games and giving solutions to problems that haven't even come up yet? We're fucking underground! I don't see a ladder, that's only function to go further down, coming to much use, at this point.
At the end of the rather uneventful temple, Samanosuke once more emerges in the woods. A nice little treasure awaits him there.
A Magic Jewel. Since I want to get as much of the boring gameplay crap done with in this update, we'll go over health upgrades now.
Magic Jewels increase...take a guess. They're blue.
Power Jewels increase health. They're yellow.
And that wraps it up. I hope it's been insightful.
At the end of the path, we come to the last couple of gameplay novelties in the update. First, let's discuss upgrading items.
The
The Shiden is the actually Thunder Orb itself. That is, it's basically a glorified silly themed key from Resident Evil.
See the door with the giant loogie hocked onto it? This is unlocked by the power of the Shiden. The trouble is, as the game progresses, more of these loogie things appear on doors. All the way up to three loogies on a single door. The Shiden and its counterparts must be upgraded to the same level as the number of loogie seals, in order to unlock the door.
So, in there early parts of the game, upgrading your weapons first will make fights easier, but ultimately you'll end up grinding low-level baddies for longer, as you're unable to progress at points, until your magical Helmet Key is upgraded.
The skinny: We're going to want to upgrade our orbs like the Shiden first, unless we want to grind zombies for twenty minutes we wouldn't have to.
A last word on upgrades. A full bar of souls on Samanosuke's meter does not constitute a full bar on the weapons/items upgrade screen. So, one of Sam's soul bars equals maybe an eighth of a weapon upgrade. Swell...
We're almost done here. One more sucky gameplay element to go.
The Code Puzzle boxes... These are entirely optional, as far as I can remember. Basically, you're given a question and you need to use the Seiryu files to decode the answer to the message and use the correct symbols.
At this point, we have exactly 0 out of 4 words needed. So, this is a waste of time.
Alright, let's get the fuck out of here. I'm starting to get grumpy.
A new enemy is introduced in the next area, but we're gonna be tripping over the jerks soon enough. So they can wait, for you see...
We've finally arrived.
Tune in next time for:
Lizardmen!
Boss Fights!!
Shakespeare!!!
Education Station:
"Welcome back."
"Future slaves." "Excuse me?!" "Oh, nothing. Just thinking outloud..."
"Right... Today's topic of discussion is Inabayama Castle. This structure is a real location. It was originally constructed between 1201 and 1204 during the Kamakura Period. It stood until 1945, in which it was destroyed during firebombing of the area during World War 2. A three story cement structure with exhibits of the castle and surrounding area was constructed in 1950s in its former location. In addition, it was indeed possessed by Oda Nobunaga at one point." "And demons..." "I should think not. During the time of the game, Saitō Yoshitatsu, who was cited as Princess Yuki's brother, was in possession of the keep. Yoshitatsu died the following year, in 1561, to sudden illness and control of the castle then fell to his son, Tatsuoki." "We he a demon?" "Not to my knowledge." "So you're saying you have no proof he wasn't a demon." "Do we have any proof you are not? You're making my life a small hell. That gives more credibility to your demonic nature than a long dead feudal lord." "I am a demon of science!" "I'm not even going to pretend to know what that means. Getting back to what I was saying, Tatsuoki gained possession of Inabayama up until 1567. At which point a combination of Tatsuoki's subpar leadership and a final attack by Oda Nobunaga's forces lead to Tatsuoki being forced into exile and Nobunaga claiming the keep as his own." "With the help of his demon army, no less." "Don't you have ridiculous robots to make?" "Oh, I'm getting around to it. I've gotten some new inspiration, recently." "That's wonderful. May I finish?" "I won't bar your procreation of lies." <sigh> "Following Nobunaga's conquest of the castle, he renamed it and the nearby village 'Gifu', which it is known as to this day. Gifu Castle was used as Nobunaga's base-of-operations for much of his military campaign and underwent several grand renovations during his occupation of the keep." "Did it include gateways to the underworld?" "Do basements count?" "Eh... Close enough...for now." "Thank you all for listening. I'm going to go take a cold shower and attempt to wash away the taint of this session." "Don't put that mental image into people heads, Norman. Have you no decency?"Bonus Content:
Zombie Introduction
Three Stooges Cutscene