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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.

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.

A whole lot of nothing....

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: January 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The format seems nice, but the game is SO very boring. It is very hard, but not rewarding when you pass a level.

controls suck

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 9
Date: June 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Otogi seemed great when first put the disk in. The first thing I noticed was the controls are horrible. Look around and movement are reversed when using the thumbsticks. Which means it is really hard to get used to the game play. Its like trying to write with your left hand if your a righty. This makes the game impossible and no fun. There's no way to reconfigure the thumbsticks. If someone found a way, please write it in a review. If your ambidextrous, go for it.

Japanese Highlander

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

You should be able to find this game quite cheap now, and it would definitely be worth it.

Just like the latest Shinobi game in the way it plays, with the combo system and everything.

A lot of really immersive qualities with the music and the dreamy graphics.

The story does nothing. It makes no sense and adds nothing to the game.

The camera is awful, and the controls are awkward, but you can see past all this.

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....

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!

Straight up action plus a little bit of chaos.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: August 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Do you want to smash stuff? Look no further. Otogi definately delivers in that category. And as a plus- you don't quite need to pay attention to the story in order to get the most fun out of it. I don't say this to sound like I don't pay attention to the story in the games I play, but I've been sick of winding storylines for the past few months. I needed some action. After remembering the fun I had with the Otogi 2 demo disc, I set out to find that. Well, it was sold out at the store, and I settled on the first game. At first, I wasn't exactly blown away. Things started out slow with the first two levels, and the controls bugged the hell out of me. But once I got past that, I found a lot of fun in each level, and ended up playing for hours at a time. 'pretty surprising with how I felt at first.

Otogi is the story of Raikoh, a being who has been summoned by a princess to destroy demons and free souls in the living world. He's basically a samurai with some cool abilities like the traditional double jump, floating, magic, and the ability to weild some of the biggest swords I've seen this side of Berserk. All Raikoh has to do is defeat the demons specified in each level (though sometimes the objective changes). That's all. In fact, you don't even have to free souls- you can just move on. But freeing souls is where a lot of the replay comes from. Freeing every soul from each level nets you a very powerful weapon. Souls can be found in certain parts of each level, usually in rocks or buildings. And just how do you get these? Smash the crap out of everything. Yes, you can destroy nearly anything you see in Otogi. Rocks, trees, tombstones, bridges, houses, wells, you name it. Heck, you can even knock enemies into parts of the stage, destroying both. All of these will soon be reduced to nothing if you're like me. In fact, the game even rates how well you destroy the objects in each level. A nice touch if you ask me. It's about time we get something like this. At the end of some stages, you get to take on a massive boss. Some more difficult than others. A great example of this includes a water demon in a volcano stage. You can dispatch this sucker with one charged up shot of Phoenix magic. But then, bosses like the giant insect on the floating graveyard often take you out before you know what hit you. The challenge is a little uneven for some players. I'm always reading posts about how people gave up on the game because of a boss that took them out because of a 'bad camera angle'. It's a lame excuse, but that's one of the cons in Otogi.

That blasted camera. Even after I beat the game on 2nd play (think Chrono Trigger's New Game +), I didn't like the camera. It's the worst part of the game. It's slow, reversed, and caused me to get my ass kicked more times than [insert Courtney Love joke here]. I'm serious. In some stages, tons of enemies will gang up on you, sometimes knocking you against a wall. This causes the camera to go directly above you, which would normally be a good thing- see yourself and everything surrounding you. Not in this case. More often than not, the camera zooms in on you, preventing you seeing any enemies. Stupid. And when you use the right thumbstick to move it around, prepare to move it the other way, as the directions are in reverse. Another problem with the game is the magic meter. For Raikoh to stay in the living world, it requires magic. Your magic meter drains as you run around each level, and you need to defeat enemies in order for it to not go down. Well, that's not a problem until you take out every enemy with a charged up magic attack, and then you have to run through the last 2/3 of the level freaking out over if you're going to make it or not because of the stupid magic. The magic meter is more of a timer. Once it's drained, you hear Raikoh's heartbeat, and his life orbs start to drain as well. Once those are gone, you're done. The only other main con for me is how short the game is. There are under 30 levels, and once you go through the game (and see a very lame ending), you have the option of 2nd play. This lets you go through the game again, but this time with the weapons, magic and accessories you had when you beat it the first time around. Sorry, but isn't that what you can do even without the 2nd play? During your first run, you can go back to earlier levels (do this often- level up whenever you think you're too weak) with the option of having the stage as it originally was, or all destroyed. 2nd play isn't exactly much, but it's nice they at least gave us something. If you complete this mode, you get a better ending.

The graphics are something that people are constantly praising in this game. But they didn't look that great to me. Then again, once Ninja Gaiden came along, I had a new standard for what looks good in a game. But that's being harsh, as the two were released at different times. Otogi does look pretty good. Not jaw-dropping good, but its style is unique. Though it looks about mid-ps2 quality, there's a lot going on at once. The forests, mountains and rivers Raikoh encounters all look great. It's just a shame the same can't be said for some of the character designs. Raikoh in particular. There's hardly any detail on his face. At times, he reminded me of a character model from Ico. But you rarely see his face, I'm just nitpicking. As I mentioned before, nearly everything you see on the screen can be destroyed, which happens a lot in the midst of takin' down some demons. While there is slowdown, it isn't that bad actually. The frame rate's usually pretty solid, colors set the tone for each level, and particle effects are amazing. The music's good too. Most of it is traditional Japanese. Some stages just have ambient sounds, which adds a lot to the atmosphere. Sound effects though, don't fare as well. Instead of painful slashes, we get squishes. I didn't think cutting up a skeleton knight with dual axes would result in a squishing sound.

Dispite the cons, Otogi is a good game. I don't know about it being "just for the hardcore", but I'm sure some more mainstream gamers out there can appreciate it. Levels are easy to understand, it's fun to destroy things, and just watching some of the special attacks are worth playing. But if you're turned off by some of the bad things I've stated here, by all means, pick up Otogi 2. It takes care of most of these things. The magic meter's still there, but it's not as much of a problem if you ask me.

Reminds me of the days when games used to be challenging

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: November 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game reminds me of the Shinobi games for Sega Genesis back when you slam you contollers down and yanked the cartriges out of the system. It's that good. I haven't been much of a game player in the 32 bit era because of the poor 3D graphics and slow gameplay, but Otogi shows that we are moving back to the days of both good graphics and gameplay. The story is vague, but it definately works. It ads to the atmosphere and feel of the gameplay experience. It is not a standalone movie like the Final Fantasy series since 7, the story is to enhance the game, you are not playing to unravel the story. Don't get that confused. The actual game is what you are playing. No, this arguement does not make Halo 2 a better game, Halo and its sequel are still mediocre. Forget Halo and Halo 2, buy Otogi and then cop number 2. I haven't needed to use a guide for a game since the first Final Fantasy the way I have with Otogi.

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.

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