Friends and I were huge fans of this game. We loved Onimusha 1 & 2 and spent years playing this together unlocking every character, weapon, stage and maxing out all stats. Has flaws but its Under-rated to me. You end up seeing a lot of extra content, cool character transformations, and secret characters the further you delve into it, which makes it worth your time if you have some friends to try it with.
"We should make a Smash-style Capcom game, which series should we anchor it around?" "How about Megaman? It has a ton of characters and it's bright cartoony fun!" "Maybe a 2D Power Stone?" "No. Let's use the dark, realistically styled survival horror series that takes place in ancient Japan" "..." Okay, jokes aside, this game, in a very odd way, got me interested in the Onimusha series. How? Well, ridiculously enough, Zero (the Megaman Zero series version) and Battle Network Megaman are unlockable characters in this game... and I, being a huge nerd for all things Megaman, found out about Onimusha through that series. Many years later, I found a copy of the original Onimusha Warlords in a GameStop for $1.99 (yes, really) and I was like "Oh, wasn't this the game that had the Megaman cameo?!" it wasn't, but after spending some quality time with Warlords, I had completely forgotten about all that was enjoying the amazing game I had just gotten for dirt cheap xD
Dissapointed because you didn't get to see the real value of this game: unlocking the Megaman characters that look completely out of place but still made fans squee anyways.
Yeah at around 6:03 when he stated that he didn't even bother to unlock any characters.. this shithead put a bad taste in my mouth already and it was all downhill from there.
Good timing. I got this game a week ago when i bought Onimusha 1. Imagine my surprise getting the wrong game and it's a fighting game with characters i don't know yet and weird controls
@@brianpbillingsley3687 okay so I visit a neighbouring city that has a game shop. I want to finally play onimusha, I take the case and pay, the guy puts the disc inside (I can't see it's the wrong one) and I realise he put the wrong game in only when I get back home to my playstation in my home town.
Wanted to dive in deep, and nothing to find? Onimusha 3 and Blade Warriors had crossover content if you had the save files. Blade Warriors would give you Samanosuke's panda outfit in 3, and 3's save data would give you a new overpowered character called "Gargant"(that guy Samanosuke fights in the Onimusha 3 opening). Also, Megaman and Zero are in the game.
In order to get more cutscenes you need to beat the story mode with every character then playthrough as them again. As is i love this game however i would like it more if it was a 2D metroidvania psp onimusha game
Isn't a great thing to know how good a game actually is; especially when a RU-vidr spends time hating on an aspect of it you know they didn't put the work in to see?
@@ROKSolid360 I have nothing against him either; just recognizing another lover of the franchise. This game, if played by any level of a completionist, expands the lore deeply. It also gives characters arcs and growth. When he made the comment, I knew the "W5s" of this story wasn't his motivation for his retrospective. Good video nonetheless 👍.
Man, I remember seeing this game in the electronic store and thinking it looked so cool, but I didn't have money to buy it. I later went with one of my brothers and he bought it for me. We and our other brother would play it together and it was really fun. Whenever I got one of those throwable specials my brother would always juke me by jumping and ducking, pretending to change level and it always got me I'm still disapointed that they didn't let me play as the bosses though I need
Killing it with these Onimusha retrospective's. Cant wait for the Dawn of Dreams to arrive. No one on RU-vid has covered this games with this quality!!! Thank you sir!!!
I remember seeing this game and being a onimusha fan and thinking "wow this looks ehhhhh" and never got around playing to playing it. Also there are some fighters that do have pretty interesting or at least entertaining stories stories.
I first played Onimusha 2, then played this game, which I absolutely loved! I especially enjoyed leveling up the characters as well as unlocking the secret characters. Thank you for covering this game and sharing your perspectives, insight, and research - totes appreciated.
Great addition to a great video series. I’m simultaneously looking forward to your take on DoD, and sad to know that’ll be the last Onimusha vid you’ll put out.
Playing this with my friends when I was younger is some of my best memories. I loooooved this game and VASTLY preferred it to smash. The counter mechanic was so freaking fun.
DUDE! That “nerd” is the little boy from Oni 1! You keep beating with different characters you get different cutscenes and story paths that detail everything. You gotta do it.
I didn't think you'd actually do this game! Haha. I remember this game wasn't anything extraordinary but it was fun playing it with someone else locally.
Nice review, I used to play this game so much as a kid solely from the fact that it was an Onimusha game, as finicky as this game's mechanics are I basically became a master at it over a couple years.
I remember seeing this game in a magazine or something and I was really excited for it. But I don’t think I ever actually picked it up. Game looks neat, but doesn’t seem like I miss out on much. Get the videos coming. Love this stuff.
I remember playing this game back when it first came out. Maybe it's because at that point I hadn't played any of the smash bros games at all, I still enjoyed this game even knowing what it was going into it. Even having casually played one or two smash bros games with friends now and again, I still have memories of having more fun with this game over smash. I don't dislike smash, but I have a love for the Onimusha series so I think that's a major factor. Comparing this game favorably to smash bros is likely an unpopular opinion, but my favorite game in the series is Onimusha 2 (Also not a commonly held opinion as I understand it) so take all of that for what you will. :P
Really enjoyed this for what it was, and I'm not even a Smash fan either. I knew it was supposed to be a spinoff meant to hold people over until Onimusha 3 came out, and therefore I didn't hold it to the same standards as the main entries. It has a fun pick up and play quality and there is good variety in combat and characters if you bother to unlock them all and learn some of the combat nuance. For example (with Samanosuke), holding lock on stance will allow you to stab before starting the 4 hit combo thus making it a 5 hit combo. Then at any point during the combo you can throw a kick in for a stun, and after the kick follow up with an uppercut that sends them flying. Not easy to put all that together but when you get good enough to do so, it becomes more satisfying then just mashing a 4 hit combo.
I picked up a factory sealed copy of this guy a few years ago for ps2. Never opens it. I am happy to see a review of this guy from avalanche. Thank you.
I played the hell out of this game back in the day (as well all the other Onimusha), maxing each one of the characters (5 complete story on each at least and 20+ on Samanosuke and Jubei, and hundreds of hours playing multiplayer and vs AI on max difficulty which was a pain in the ass) I can tell you a few things you missed out: 1- You have to complete the "storyline" (12 fights if I remember well) without dying to unlock a 2nd “storyline” kinda completing the fist part of it. (Think you manage to do it since you got the scene where Samanosuke and Jubei meet. All characters except non main enemies have this. 2- You can unlock many weapons (including new ones) by doing specific things with a character on specific levels, like jumping to a secret room on the flying machine to open a secret chest or complete a level under certain time. (Almost all swords from Oni 1 and 2 are in the game including new ones, some of them making its way to Onimusha DoD). 3- There was a “Darkrealm” mode with 20 floors subsequently increasing its difficulty to get swords, gems and necklaces). 4- There was a hidden character you could unlock if you had a beaten Onimusha 3 save game in your memory card. This would unlock “Gargant” also known as Kanaganto from Oni3’s intro. (There’s even a hint on the side of Oni3’s box featuring the model, so it’s makes me guess is was in development somewhat during Oni3). 5- All enemies where playable except the big red ogre and the bee. 6- Many weapons had interesting “passive” effects like for example bosting lighting damage (Raizen for Samanosuke), negative orbs neutralized, positive orbs boosted and even hurting you on usage like Samanosuke’s Muramasa (as it’s an evil sword in Japanese culture). Being disarmed would make the character draw a smaller version of their original weapons losing the effect until you pick up your weapon again. 7- Yep there’s a disarm attack you use. 8- The load feature was because you could bring your custom character ready to fight including equipped weapon, hp and mana gems spend on it, armor, level and equipped necklace with secondary effects. (Like I would use Samanosuke with Muramasa and a hp recovery necklace to neutralize the sword’s negative effect in order to deal big damage). 9- You could unlock Musashi Miyamoto and later Kojiro Sasaki. 10- The lock function was extremely useful, not just for aiming random items, but to get behind your opponent just when he was about to strike you. (Easier to do than an Issen or Block Issen) 11- You could unlock Megaman Zero and Megaman.exe (I don’t remember how anymore but had them) 12- You could unlock like 6 or 8 extra levels. 13- Not that much important: By leveling the Zombie it’s transforms to the Lizard thing enemy from Oni2. Same goes for Oni1’s genma ninjas, becoming Oni2’s version. 14- Not that much important either, as you level Marcellus he would change its fight style from sword and shield to dual giant swords. So, it may be some kind of Smash’s clone but I there was some more effort put on this game than you thought or it might look. Gameplay was great, having a story to unlock was kinda good and make me replay it many times. And I never liked smash bros at all and I found this game so enjoyable and close to the combat system I was used to from the previous games. I played this game when I was around 15 yo, so my thoughts of it might be a little nostalgic also. Anyway, I love to see someone as fond as I am about Onimusha series. Gonna watch your DoD video now.
Lock on is primarily for abusing ranged options, mainly the guy unlocked from 200 versus battles who gets guns as his default and Megaman.exe and Zero. The CPU is also really easy to cheese, press the absorb button and they WILL attack, which can be countered with an attack that does high damage... or kills them outright with the right item equiped. To do it, press absorb then IMMEDIATELY press attack, you'll knkw you did it right because your character will flash step through your opponent and the enemy will enter a fall animation.
When i was younger, i was super into smash bros, and i saw this game had Megaman and Zero in it, had samurais and ninjas, and it played like a smash game. That was enough to make me want to try, so on a week i was house sitting for my aunt she took me to a rental store for one game and i was going to pick this one, but they did not have it... Onimusha 3 was on a shelf and i figured if i was going to play this game i might as well play one of the games from the series. That week i fell in LOVE with Onimusha 3 and started collecting all the games. I love this franchise.
I remember playing this game for hours. One of the unlockavle characters is megaman, you can lock on and just stay as far away as possible while shooting at the enemies. Super broken lol.
I feel we agreed on this one. I was fine with whatever the story wanted to do. I just couldn't believe it tried to make itself cannon. And these voices chosen were something else.
I actually really liked this game. Never grew up with Nintendo consoles, but I used to play SMASH with my friends when I was younger quite often and loved the game. Blade Warriors ended up being a surprise win for me. Also, you get to fight/play as the genma general that Samanosuke fights in the opening to Oni3, which I believe was never available to fight against as a boss (provided you have an Oni3 save file), so that was a welcome treat (even though he was tough as titanium balls...)
For whatever goofy reason I had this one and played it a lot growing up. Gogandantes in Keji’s story was such a boss I haven’t forgotten him and this game over a decade later.
I was hoping you would be able to unlock battle network mega man and zero to mention how out of place they are.but that's understandable since it seemed you lost your drive as I know that feel haha. on another note, I know everyone has been comparing this to smash but comparing it to Power Stone instead, I feel that this game is closer to that series than this one. anyways, great review as always and looking forward to seeing what's next
I played a LOT of Blade Warriors! I actually like this game. This game opened the floodgate for me to collect all the ps2 titles. Up to that point I only played Warlords, but characters like Gogandantes,Kotaro, and crew made want to explore the second game! Plus getting Gargant if you have a save file for Onimusha 3 was bonus!
MEMORIES! This was the very first Ps2 game I ever played as a kid. Looking back at it really wasn't that amazing as I remember but I spent countless hours on this game as a kid and thought it was the greatest thing ever lol
Def should have unlocked Megaman Zero, by far the best weirdest thing about this game. Like not only is he so out of place in onimusha, but seeing a GBA character on the PS2 is also super strange
Yeah, i picked this game up along with the original and sequel for under 10 bucks and enjoyed it enough. Its definitely more fun with friends so like you said..hard to come by these days.
I sure didn't know this existed till now. Damn, too bad it's not exactly what many would think at first glance. That's Capcom. And now, only one game remains to look at here. A high end or a low defeat? We shall see soon enough, for Jared and us.
Hey dude I wanted to thank you. Your videos of meant a lot to me and I've gotten a lot out of them. I've been kind of bummed because I've never played these games oh, and I've just never been a Sony guy. But I just got on my switch after listening to your video and just found that the first game in the series is on sale for 8 bucks. I'm buying it now. And one of those dead space movies that you recommended, one of the bad guy says synchronicity will reveal the way of the cosmos or something. I'm starting to think it really does. I'm purchasing this now
It does have endings and cross over events I'm not sure how to do it it's been a while as you unlock characters play through as them do you need to go back and pray as the original characters and back and forth not sure if that's right but that's what I remember
This 1 certainly wasn't the best 0NlMUSHA game l've ever played; but it was an entertaining 1 for me anyway; also, it was interesting be able to see how JUJUD0RMAH, aka JUJURAN, was when she was young!
Hey Av, did you ever play the TOCA Touring Cars games on PS1? Would love a retrospective of the series (or just Codemasters in general) ....also Psygnosis! *What* a dev company. We didn't know how lucky we were during the 90's
Keijiro was not created only for this game...he was the kid that samanosuke saved in onimusha warlords but when he was a kid he had a different name he wae called "yumemori"
You needed save data from Blade Warriors to get Samanosuke's panda outfit in Onimusha 3. Save data from Onimusha 3 would also give you a new character to play as in Blade Warriors.
Just found this game for twenty bucks. After what I saw, I'd say that's money well spent. Looks like a really fun game If you're a fan of Onimusha *Which I certainly am* !
Onimushia Blade Warriors is a nice little side game that's like Smash bros, it's got characters from Onimushia 1 & 2 plus a few extras from the Mega Man series, overall it's not the best game in the Onimushia series, but it's a fun little vs. fighting game, if you want to give it a try go for it then you can be the judge ⚔️
3:25 thats were you are wrong! that character was not created just for this game, its actually a RETURNING CHARACTER, believe it or not! remember that kid from oni 1? yeah, that's supposed to be him! (also based on a real historical figure) (obviously they just retconned shit and he was created for this game as far as the setting go, but yeah, cant help but find it funny that is supposed to be the kid from 1)
After playing the HD remaster on a whim Ive gone and found my old copy of 3 and ordered and am now waiting for the ps2 original, 2, and dawn of dreams. Was wondering if I should get this one as well so glad this video arrived when it did.
Having Onimusha Blade Warriors save data will give you the panda outfit for Samanosuke in Onimusha 3. Onimusha 3 save data also gives you a new playable character in Blade Warriors.
for those who are interested in this game mostly for the smash-like side, dont bother. if i had to put this game on a chart between smash and onimusha, it would be like (85% onimusha - 10% smash - 5% original). the only similarity this game has to smash would be items and layers/platforms, otherwise, everything else is onimusha gameplay such as combat, souls, and story, while the original stuff would be new gimmicks such as disarming, story-mode level ups, and the elemental specials
This game was one of my favorite games to play with my brother. We'd play it over and over and have tons of laughs no matter how many times we play it. The fact that the AI is hard but still enjoyable makes the coop perfect. I don't think it was really a low budget game. The voice cast was mostly from MGS games like Samanosuke being Miller, Kaede is Rose and Sunny, Jubei is Skullface, Guildenstern is Volgin, I think Nobunaga is Big Boss from MGS4. The voice director was also the voice director of MGS games. It feels like a bad version of Smash to most people but this was better for me. Simple HUDs, perfect block to issen, characters from the Onimusha which has cool designs, unique gameplay each character. It's better than Smash Bros in everything. The bad things I didn't like about the game was the lock-on i-frame sidestep and the AI doing stuff you can't do such as blocking your Lightning Magic on time and always having the advantage when it comes to contesting on sucking souls.
