18-Apr-2006 Capcom's splendid demon slayer erupts onto PC, but unfortunately, it's not the smoothest of transitions... If you know anything about the console world, you'll be aware of the Onimusha brand. A cornerstone of PS2 gaming, the series centres around samurai characters hacking and slashing their way through a host of demons in feudal Japan.
This time though, the game features two main characters - Samanosuke and Jacques Blanc (played by Jean Reno) - and after an early inter-dimensional mix-up, alternates between the Frenchman in the ninja-laden lushness of Japan and the samurai in modern-day Paris. Combining forces, they work together to hack their way through the demon forces of pesky warlord, demon and all-round bad chap Oda Nobunaga.
The result is some hugely enjoyable (if a tad simplistic) gameplay, plenty of trademark Capcom puzzle-solving (including some great 'across time' puzzles), masses of demon-slaying action, decent characterisation, a compelling storyline and perhaps one of the best intro movies ever made.
Unfortunately, the conversion to PC is a sloppy affair, leaving it with a number of issues, such as a frame-rate that's at times slower than a bed-ridden sloth, a bizarre lack of sound effects, an option to change resolution that doesn't work and the fact that the game defaults to running in a small window. Couple these with the obligatory low-res console textures and the fact that unless you've grown four extra fingers, a pad is essential, and it's soon clear that while Onimusha 3 is still a great game, this halfarsed PC conversion doesn't quite cut it.
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