Great rebuild of an already great series.
Graphics: The graphics I can’t really say have improved by a huge amount. They have been improved however. Soki and all the other characters have their own unique looks. The character art has gone into an anime inspired look. Works fine with an anime fan like myself. The CG scenes are more plentiful if not long. The intro fight scenes are great CG. They may not have been work on by Robot (company that worked on the first three games’ CG) but they still work. The cutscenes using the game engine are plentiful and are excellently choreographed. There is a bit of slowdown if there’s lots of enemies and you use a Critical attack or a charged Oni Magic attack. 9/10
Sound: Good overall. Voice acting fits. Jubei’s voice does annoy the crap out of me though. The music has been a mix of classic Japanese with some rock. The rock music is mostly in the Test Of Valor and the Dark Realms. The Japanese music is soothing and makes you really immersed into the cutscenes. 9/10
Gameplay: This is where the major changes in the game come into play. The player can control two characters on-screen at the same time. One of course is Soki and another is your choice. You can give commands with the D-Pad. The L2 button is used to switch between controllable characters. Combat is more open and you have a lot of options. There is a new experience system implemented to make your characters’ skill stronger. Increasing these skills will unlock new skills unique to that character. There are many weapons for each character to use. Soki uses broadswords, Jubei uses katanas, Ohatsu uses firearms, Roberto uses gloves, and Tenkai uses staves. Each category of weapons has about 20-31 weapons each. Weapons are upgraded through the use of red souls. Upgrading them will give you a higher level Oni Magic Attack and might unlock stat boosts or special abilities. Armor is also upgraded through the use of Red Souls. Accessories are introduced and fit well. Some might increase attack, defense, resistance, HP, OP, MP, decrease MP usage, make Oni Magic more powerful, etc. Now onto the real combat. The L1 button is used to ready your character and lock-on to an enemy. Locking-on shows the enemy’s HP bar. Basic attack is the Square button. Press continuously to unleash a combo. The combo is dependent on the type of weapon you use. 3-hit combos are powerful but slow. 4-hit combos are my personal favorite. 5-hit combos are also good. 6-hit combos are the fastest. The more number per combo the weaker each hit is. The Triangle button is used for the Oni Magic Attack. Hold the Triangle button to charge up the Oni Magic Attack. Oni Magic Attacks can be used to make Critical chains occur. A Critical is when you hit an enemy when he is about to hit you, when you deflect the enemy’s blow, or when you hit the enemy when he is stunned or dizzy. The Critical takes more HP off and usually kills the target. Hit the Square button again at the right time turns the Critical into a Critical chain which is critical linked together with others. Oni Magic Attacks usually have an element. The element is determined by the weapon you have equipped. The four other characters you control besides Soki (Jubei, Ohatsu, Roberto, and Tenkai) have their own unique fighting style and abilities. Jubei can crawl through small spaces while Tenkai can talk to the dead. Each character then has a unique Special Attack when the L2 button is pressed. This can be leveled up as well. The puzzles are back and usually require you to use many characters with their different abilities. When you charge an Oni Magic Attack to Level 3 you can press L2 to join with your teammate in a Team combined Oni Magic Attack. Oni Awakening is when a character goes into the Onimusha phase in the past games and has special Triangles button attacks and is invulnerable. This can be activated when you OP gauge is at least half full.All of these changes add depth to the boring hack and slash of thr original three. The Dark Realm is back and has gained a lot of depth. Each character has there own Dark Realm with 100 floors. Each character gets their legendary weapon when they reach the 100th floor. When you finish a stage you reappear in the Hideout. This is where you can shop, enhance (skills and items), combine items with other characters, talk, revisit past locations, and save.10/10
Story: The story is Hideyoshi (Nobunaga’s slave like person) is now ruler of Japan. He started acting weird when a giant planet showed up. The Genma started reappearing and caused havoc. Hideyasu Yuki or Soki Oni of the Ash has made it his destiny to kill Hideyoshi and bring piece back to the land. The story is close to that of an anime/soap opera. There are twists and turns. Almost as good as modern RPGs. 9/10
Value: This game has an amazing replay value. The story is good enough to play through again. The combat is good. Weapons are plentiful and are awaiting Red Souls. The Dark Realm calls you to kick it’s ass. You can revisit past stages which adds more depth in exploring.. There are also unlockable modes, costumes, and joke weapons. 9/10
Rent or Buy: If you’re new and want a good game with great combat buy. If you’re an Onimusha fan buy. If you’re an Onimusha fan wanting a big change buy. If you’re new and want to play something, rent.