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Beautiful, Deadly Sleeper Waiting to Happen

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: July 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Otogi: Myth of Demons is a mythological action-RPG much in the vein of recent hits like Devil May Cry and Shinobi. Published in the US by Sega (a sequel is already being worked on in Japan) and developed by From Software, Otogi deals with an undead samurai named Raiko, who is charged with destroying an invading army of demons and freeing trapped souls, restoring the balance of ki to the land.

Gameplay set up in a series of linear missions, each with its own objective (but often boiling down to "kill everything"). At the end of each mission, you are able to upgrade Raiko's abilities based on your performance, and can purchase additional spells or weapons. You are able to replay missions, with the option of having the highly destructible backgrounds intact or in the damaged state you left them. In all, there are about 30 weapons (including swords, staffs, and axes), 12 spells, and 29 levels to visit. A second replay lets you keep all the items and stats you build up.

Similar to Sega's PS2 game Shinobi, Raiko's life meter and magic meter are connected. If his magic runs out, it starts eating away his life. Magic is recharged by - you guessed it - killing demons, and killing them as quickly as possible. There are many attack combos possible, including stabs, twisting slashes, leaping attacks, and launching attacks - different combos work better against different enemies.

But the combat has more to it than just hack-n-slash. In an interesting twist, Raiko's weight directly affects his performance. If he is lighter, he can dash faster and jump to greater heights, but his attacks do less damage. If you increase his weight, he becomes slower, but his attacks are more powerful. Also, if Raiko uses fire-based magic more often, he becomes more susceptible to ice-based attacks by enemies. Overall, you can increase attributes like strength, defense, and speed, up to a max level of 31. This lets you customize Raiko to your own style, lightning-quick or full-on power.

Controls are as follows: A is jump (hold to double-jump), B is a weak attack, Y is a strong attack, and X is magic (hold to increase power). The L trigger locks-on a target, and the R trigger lets Raiko dash. Proficient players can spend most of the missions in mid-air, a la Sega's GunValkyrie, helped by combos and dashing that keep you aloft. Battles can be very dynamic, as Raiko can hurl opponents through buildings, and throwing them to the ground leaves craters in the earth.

The game set in mythical Japan, so the backgrounds include temples, bamboo forests, lakes, and the like. On selected levels, certain enemies and platforms appear only when the moon shines on them. The environment can also change, affecting gameplay: on one particular frozen level, a river soon melts, changing the battles entirely. The soundtrack is a welcome change, consisting of traditional Japanese instruments like flutes and drums, and is dark and foreboding, adding to the atmospherics.

Otogi's visuals are some of the best on the Xbox. Raiko is a wonderfully rendered character, and the demons he faces are all fearsome and inspired. Battles explode in a shower of smoke, crackling energy, and sparkling swordplay. Some of Raiko's stunning magical attacks include a huge dragon of flame and a dancing swarm of icy butterflies. Together with the great sound effects - including optional Japanese voice-acting - and Otogi ranks as a superb technical achievement.

While not quite having the same high profile of Devil May Cry or Shinobi, and similar to those games in a couple of ways, Otogi: Myth of Demons stands on its own as a compelling, well-executed, gorgeous game that action junkies ought to give a serious look.

With Sega involved with this game it has to be quality.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: August 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I played the demo of this game when I got the as of today most recent demo disk from the Official Xbox Magazine about a week ago and was blown away by it. I hope this game enjoys at least some retail success because from many sources, it is very fun and well made. If the demo that I played is any indication, this will be one entertaining title.

Stunning action game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: August 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Mindboggling presentation and probably the best level design in an action game ever. You mix in furious high-comboing shinobi style 3D action with mid-air glorious gunvalykrie esqe combat with endless combinations of weapons, spells, accesories with a tight leveling up system that adds huge replay to levels with a haunting presentation that sucks you into the game with the most amazing and widly innovative levels ever put in an action game and you have this masterwork.

The game is deeper then any action title to date. Not only does it have an impressive 29 levels and the ability to replay them, there is also actually a need and desire to replay and master them. When you first get to most levels, they are so insanely difficult that you will have to do a more cursary runthrough the level in order to meet the objectives, get the most experience possible, and get out of there while you are still alive. It is almost impossible to master most of them on the first run through, but possible to complete them. Later in the game, when you have more experience, items, life, and weapons you can go back and really raise hell. And there are two great reasons to go back and play and master these levels which set apart this title from other action titles. 1) With the RPG element it the game, you need to go back when you have the ability to get the most experience and gold possible so you can better attack the next levels. 2) The level designs are so unique, amazing, fun, and challenging you will actually want to go back and play them. You will want to gather people around the TV say and say "look at this stuff, it's damn crazy."

To give you and idea of some of the early innventive levels which is the games real strength and why you need to buy this game you will do things like:

1) Go through an ancient ruined city; dodging behind buildings; fighting hordes of demon skulls, demon sorcerers, and other demon (stuff); causing as much destruction as possible; not falling through a massive bridge; not being sucked in by the incredible AI which tries to make you jump off cliffs; trying to get as many items as possible; and double-jumping up huge platforms to a summit to reach the final objective all while the final objective launches a fury of massive fireballs that can send you to death faster then you can say "damn not again". And once you get to the objective, yep, more hordes of demon sorcerers preventing you from taking out the objective while it launches fireballs at you.

2)Trying to get across a massive series of bridges to take out a evil sea nymph. Only about 10 problems though: if you fall in the water it begins to sap your magic power(and in turn your life); being pursued by hordes and hordes of powerful demons that can smack you off the bridges or destroy the bridges(their choice); when you attack the hordes of demons after you, you will probably accidentally destroy some bridges; whenever the moon is covered by clouds the spirts of the dead come out in the form of small fireballs that surround you preventing you from moving anywhere except at a crawl; if the fireballs come out when you are on the bridge, one of the demons will destroy while you are putzing around; if you are in the water when the fireballs come out, the water will sap your power while you are putzing around. When you get to the sea nymph, guess what, she is invincible when the moon is covered. So you have to avoid her(not easy) while she chases you and launches a barrage of magic attacks and you are surrounded by fireballs, try to chase her by dashing multiple times in midair as she flies away when the moon is uncovered and do what you can in a mid air combo you can manage before falling into the magic sapping water, get back to dry land before the moon is covered, deal with more hordes of demons trying to smack you off the land, and repeat.

3) Ride a ship through a graveyard of sunken ships to fight a big time demon. Problems you ask? The angry spirits of the dead who sunk with the ships (which the boss is the great embodiment of) are kind of (mad) and want your ship to sink as well. They jump on it in forms of massive, heavy blobs that try to weight it down and sink it. While you fight them off(you have to destroy them or they will jump back on the ship), some demons launch magic attacks at you, some demons try to hit you off the ship, and the ship is constantly tipping under the weight of the blobs and makes you slide off. And if you don't have everything on the ship under control when you get to the boss(not easy), the great big blob will quickly send you sinking into the great abyss.

Which leads me to another amazing thing about this game which sets it apart. In action games you usually feel invulnerable, unwavering, bold, courageous, and not afraid at all. Not really the case in Otogi. I have never really been scared in an action game before. But the creepy presentation, creepy story line, creepy visuals, and all around creepyness give the game a unique feel to an action game. The image of me sinking into the dark abyss in the graveyard of sunken ships to become and angry spirit that will in turn try to sink more ships and destroy more spirits is just damn creepy. It gave me the chills each time it happened and still makes me shivers. You almost have to overcome your fear in the game and do what has to be done to purify the world. It really does make the game as some have said a religious experience where you get sucked into the games realism, creepyness, and difficulty and use your talents, weapons, and ingenuity to overcome the situation and purify the world of the demons.

BUT BEWARE. The first three stages are a laughibly easy warmup and a poor representation of what the game is. Make sure to keep playing to get to the really interesting and insanely difficult levels.

Very impressed!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game came out of nowhere, and Ive been enjoying it more than soul calibur 2. It takes about an hour or so to really get a handle on the controls. Its very cool after you mastered how to stay airborne. The graphics are top notch, some levels are alot better than others, but overall everything is great. The RPG elements are great, story is decent (the typical ambigous japanese story filled with some corny cliches) If you like anime I highly recommend you pick this game up, very ninja scroll etc. The enivorments are almost totally destructible, which is my favorie part. Its totally rocks to smack your enemy into a building or wall and see particles fly everywhere. Oh and just a side detail, after the rubble falls to the ground. It doesnt fade away lamely like most game do, it actually builds up on the ground. Its a sleeper hit, and will be a cult favorite.

Beautiful graphics, difficulty is insane

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 21
Date: September 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I had high hopes for this game, and they were met for the first couple of levels. After 3 hours on the fourth level however, I gave up. The difficulty of this game is ridiculous. The fact that there were 20 someodd levels after that, which I assume get more difficult, mean this game is destined for ebay. Designers should realize games are meant to be fun, not frustrating. The ability to save in a level may have helped.

read

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: September 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, one thing that I didnt like about the game was its very vague and not so interesting storyline, but the gameplay made up for it. Otogi is the game for people who dont easily give up if they lose once or twice. You have to have a lot of determination to make it through the game, cause some of the levels are that much of a pain ...But one nice thing about it is the ability to go back to levels uve beaten and increase your stats and them and earn secret weapons. Doing this can increase your experience and help you conquer the harder future levels. Plus you have the option of purchasing weapons, spells and accessories....I stil havent beaten the last level (lvl29)...but im just biding my time, gaining experience to make it easier....If your not someoen prone to throwing your controller on the ground when you lose and would rather press your start button to give that level another try. then otogi is your game....

Fun but dont like the stages idea

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 9
Date: October 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a really fun game, great fighting format. But the one thing that got on my nerves was that the game was set up in levels. Like most super old games there is a section between each area to alow you to save, change equipment and check about the next level. But this is a real drag after a while when your in the middle of a level and have to go, or the boss is one type of magic but you have the same because you needed it for the other creatures on the way there. Also the game gets pretty hard and boring, I was hoping it would get better the farther i got but it didnt. Over all the games dissipointing, but i cant wait for Ninja Gaiden to come out.

one of the worst games ever.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 59
Date: October 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game just straight out sucked.

One of the BEST games ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 26
Date: October 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Just had to edit my review... it was so poorly written. This is truly an underrated game and I'm sad to see that it's not part of the Xbox 360 compatibility list. It may well be lost forever... cuz who wants to keep a big clunky Xbox around?

I just realized it today, but Otogi's camera works even better than Super Mario Galaxy's camera, which is considered the current pinnacle of 3D cameras I suppose. The controls are perfect. Environments are destructible, and you can replay levels in their destroyed state after the fact or reset them to demolish the landscape all over again.

This game is art. And I have no idea why developer From Software haven't bothered to do anything nearly this creative since (save for Otogi 2). Better than Ninja Gaiden. Seriously. Experience it if you ever get the chance.

A great game, but destined to disappear under the radar.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: December 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, I was dispairingly sitting in my local video rental store on a friday night. Naturally, all the games I wanted to try were sold out. In my left hand... Legacy of Kain: Defiance. In my right... Otogi. Vampires or demons. Demons or vampires. Apples or oranges.

I thought Onimusha was decent, so I decided to give Otogi a shot.

Dear God. This has to be one of the most stylish and unique games I've ever had the privilege to play! Once again, Sega has given us a masterpiece. Unfortunately, like every other great Sega game, it will most likely go unappreciated by the masses. But don't let that stop you!

This game is pure adrenaline. The action is fast paced, the enviroments are beautiful, and the music is stunning. The game simply oozes Japanese mythology. Imagine, if you will, a lush meadow with bridges, small stone structures, and of course, lots of challenging demons to obliterate. Now imagine being able to destroy all of it. Imagine fighting mid-air with a crow-like warrior demon, smacking it THROUGH a wall, and listening to its surreal howling as you absorb its soul. Yeah, it's like that.

Even though the stages are fairly small and linear, the game makes up for it with superior attention to detail. And I can't stress how good the music is... although a few songs are repeated throughout the game. This can be easily overlooked, however. The music is THAT good.

Now with all that said, this game isn't for everyone. The protagonist has a Legacy of Kain-esque magic bar, meaning that he must have souls to stay alive. Once your magic bar is depleated, you begin to lose life. Once you're out of life... you're dead. (Obviously!) This isn't as bad as some would have you believe, though. The difficulty is medium... you may have to play a few levels over again, but this rarely becomes frustrating.

Anime fans will feel right at home playing this game. All you Inu-Yasha or Ninja Scroll fans out there have to give this game a try. The furious hack-and-slash, high-flying battles will please arcade game fans as well.

I beat the rental game in about a week, but it was so addictive I had to go out and buy it. Otogi is a solid addition to any X-Box library, so do your self a favor and play this game. It will be one of the best games you've never heard of!

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