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Thank God I didn't purchase this!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: March 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I rented a copy from [a video store]. The commercials looked cool, most of the reviews I read were favorable, and I liked the theme etc... Then I loaded it into my console and attempted to play. The controls are difficult to get used to and not at all intuitive and you cannot customize them at all. The story is very broken up and I was disappointed to have some of the screens where the player is "in contol" be so simplistic (goal: walk across room). The graphics were still pretty good, but as far as I'm concerned, that's all it has going for it and it simply isn't enough to keep me interested.

Casual gamer - very difficult

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is too difficult. I'm a casual gamer, but after playing Max Payne and Halo, I just couldn't get used to the controls. I gave up playing after about 2 hours. It was annoying. I found the movement in the previous games easy to master. GO requires you to spend a lot of time becoming comfortable with just moving around (I don't like the D-pad). The program also doesn't spend much time teaching you how to move and fight in the game environment. Upon getting killed you need to restart from the previous save point which might require replaying large segments of the game. I found it more frustating than fun. I wasted my money on this one.

It's...how can I put it...WHACK!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: March 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Can you imagine my disappointment after opening this game having realized it was developed by Capcom (the folks who brought to you Street Fighter vs. Marvel). At first I thought those who considered this game difficult were just whining because Xbox is infamous for it's lack of cheats, but I should have heeded their warning. It's difficult, but for no apparent reason. The characters only move left, right, forward, and back - an incredible limitation (and a shameful flaw for the developers at Capcom) when backed into a four-corner hustle (that's hip-hophonics for "cornered" for the less cultured). The sword play is limited (reminiscent of Wyle E. Coyote with a cleaver) and the character's lack of agility forces you to repeatedly restart the game after taking a beating from the various bosses. Did I mention the sophomoric graphics? Capcom did a half-"you-know-what" in this regard; I've seen better animation on 'South Park'. Ignore the high rating noted on this site and save your [money]...

Not much fun at all

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Well, first of all let me say that I am glad that I rented this game. This is the first game that I rented when I bought my xbox. If I hadn't purchased another game with my xbox, I might have regretted my purchase.
It is true that the graphics are nice, but I am finding the game to be nearly unplayable. The first problem is with the control system. I do not like using the directional pad to move my character. I do not like the fact that whatever direction the awkward camera angles have me facing, I have to push up to move forwards. Perhaps I am not used to such controls, but I believe that controls should be intuitive. In this I mean that the character should move in the direction in which the control is pointed.
A second problem is with the camera angles. It is really annoying when, during battle, the camera angle changes and you can no longer see your attackers. It also seems to me that the angle changes are too frequent for fluid game play.
The third problem is with the saving system. In something this difficult it is frustrating to only be able to save at fixed points in the game. Occasionally I found myself having to redo large sections of the game because I was not able to save often.
I am sure that a purchaser of this game will derive some satisfaction from this game if they have the time to learn the awkward controls. Unfortunately I do not have that sort of time.

How do horrible controls still get put in games????

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: January 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

All right folks, be warned. While this game is on XBox, and we all like to think of the graphics first on the big green machine, you'll have a major obstacle in your way. the CONTROLS. it's sorta of bad Mojo, too. this game could have easily been put in the same category (or close) to Devil May Cry if the controls were better. you ONLY get to use the D-Pad, no analog love for us! think Resident Evil Controls, but worse, you gotta push on the old Nintendo-Pad to move. remember doing that back in the days, when we just didn't know any better?? maybe the army has just gotten me thinking like this, but how could something [like this] continue to happen to games? i hate to see things like this persist in any area, especially gaming...

bad controls, and views make for a frustrating game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: February 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I like challenge in a game, but too often bad design choices lead to a game that's just frustrating instead. To run you use the up on the d-pad, not one of the joysticks and your guy doesn't go the way you push but runs forward if you hit up and turns if you hit the sides. My pad isn't all that accurate (or maybe I just have fat thumbs) but I'm always turning into walls while trying to move. Big deal? Try turning away from the bad guy you were about to destroy and getting whacked and killed for the 10th time. This brings us to the save points. There aren't enough and you end up repeating tons of boring parts to get back to that new challenge.

Now the bad guys: some are pretty simple to kill, others challenging. I like that you have to adopt various styles to be the best against each one...but occasionally you find some bad guy that just doesn't seem to be killable (stupid spinning doll! argh!) and since coming back from you last save is so tedious you're likely to quickly give up and figure out how to just run past it.

The worst thing though can be the camera angles. It hops from fixed viewpoint to fixed viewpoint as you play. Usually this means you get a very cinematic looking game, but from time to time it puts you at a very large disadvantage when you're getting hit (usually with arrows) by someone off screen. There isn't any real way to aim and shoot back so you just replay 5 or 10 times until get lucky.

I suspect that most of this artificial difficulty is put in to slow the game down on purpose. Without it you could play the game through in a single evening (or perhaps 2 at most)...

Good game but ludicrously difficult

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 25 / 34
Date: February 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Genma Onimusha has a lot going for it. Good graphics, nice samurai setting, cool armored creatures, fast sword action, cool concept with the soul tuggings, very good soundtrack. It is a good balance of fast-paced action and puzzles. The play control is pretty responsive although it takes some getting used to due to the unconventional use of the D-Pad.

Nevertheless ...

The game is VERY VERY hard. And I don't throw term around lightly. Even on Easy mode (which can be unlocked by dying five times--not hard to do) the game is ridiculously challenging. The enemies are too strong, there's not enough energy to go around, and there's not enough save points. You're bombarded by enemies early on and they move fast and take a lot of hits to kill. When you do manage to kill these enemies, they can (randomly) come back when you walk through the same rooms again. You can run away from enemies but then you won't build up enough soul points to upgrade your orbs. And there's just not enough Herbs or other items to cure yourself.

A few other notable but less important points: (1) The instruction manual tells you nothing. There are moves that you can do that the manual completely omits. This is based on the idea that game manufacturers produce lousy manuals to increase your incentive to purchase the strategy guide. (2) Since this is a PS2 port, you don't get the option to save at anytime. That's too bad. I would have really liked to save anywhere, anytime. (3) The Control options are pretty limiting. I would have liked to have more freedom over button assignments.

(In case you were wondering, the straw that broke the camel's back was when I died because I couldn't solve a puzzle fast enough. The puzzle was hard and to be timed on something like that is just too preposterous for words.)

In conclusion, Genma Onimusha is a cool game, but its insane difficulty left me too frustrated to stick with it.

good but not great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

After playing this game for about 2 hours i began to get bored with it. Its so repatative, all you do is doge and slash, dogde and slash. However you do get a bow so you can use that untill you run out of bows.
This game is pretty hard, well really the only reason this game is hard is because the controls suck for the x box, in my opinion this game would be better in the ps2 or gamecube. If you have a ps2 buy Onimusha 2, the graphics are equal to the x-box's and the controls are 10x better.

Can only recommend this for the hardcore gamer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I like survival horror games and I like samurai games so I thought this would be a pretty good game. After playing it for a couple of weekends, I can' t fully recommend it to the casual gamer.

First off, the control scheme never really gelled with me. It wasn't difficult to manuever around but it never completely felt natural to me...paticularly when you are engaged in battle.

Because of that, the game seem unnaturally difficult --especially the boss fights. The worst character to deal with was this seemlying unstoppable demonic doll which flys around in the air.

I've played a lot of games before but I never felt so frustrated like this one. There were times I wanted to smash my controller on to the ground.

I give this game points on the great graphics and sound but you may want to rent this one before buying.

Hard to Play, Graphics Overrated, Average Game at Best

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: February 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I anticipated this game highly as most reviewers said that this game with incredible. Well it was incredible -- incredibly average.

The controls are so ridiculous and tiring that even an experienced gamer has a hard time maneuvering as well as trying to fight while at the same time "stealing souls" Halo has exceptional controls, this is just plain terrible.

The graphics are nice, if you like pre-rendered graphics... nothing is real time as far as graphics go, your character can't jump (just what kind of samurai is he?), and he can't do things like walk up stairs!

He can't do that because the background is pre-rendedered... and except for some slight movement, its static and doesn't change.

If you want a good game, stick with Halo and avoid this unless its on sale.

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