Title:Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams
Platform of Game: Playstation 2
Genre of Game: Action
Developer: Capcom
Product Model Year: Released in North America on March 8, 2006
Game Requirements:
Playstation 2 Console
Description of game:
It has been 15 years after the defeat of Nobunaga Oda from the previous series of Onimusha: Demon Siege.
That was when his vassal, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, took this as an opportunity to take over Japan.
He managed to unify it under one banner, which essentially ended the wars that had torn the land apart under his former lord's banner.
Though he had good intentions for his country, his high ambitions eventually led him to develop greediness of power, and unfortunately it was during that time disaster happened to strike.
The periods of peace was immediately brought to an end with countless disasters epsecially the appearance of the "Omen Star".
Demons known as the Genmas returned due to such occuring disasters, and along with Hideyoshi's blind ambitions, the Genma decided to make use of him to take over the human world.
With success of that, Hideyoshi then send out massive armies consisting of humans and Genmas to invade Asian contienents overseas, and also started gathering Genma trees carrying the name of the "cherry trees" for the cherry blossoming festival.
That was when, a brave young warrior finally showed up to rebel Hideyoshi's wishes.
Game Play:
You play as "Soki" as the main character as he carries sword and go around hacking genmas, solving puzzles chest and sucking their souls just like the previous series.
As compared to the other series, you are able to control most of the camera angles which helps prevent static camera angles that can cause annoying movement problems.
Unlike the previous onimusha series except the 2nd: Samurai's Destiny, a shop is availiable after the end of every level which make a good opportunity to purchase strong weapons and Suppiles of many wide varieties to your benefit.
Also, another unique feature of this onimusha series is that when you meet up with a puzzle chest and you got fed up with solving the complicated patterns...
Just break it!
However, instead of having a proper unlocked item, you get a mystery item which you can't use.
Therefore, at the end of the level, you are needed to "appraise" the mystery item in the shop (paying is required though) in order to convert it into a useable item.
Finally, the most interesting feature of Dawn Of Dreams is that you are allowed to have an ally by your side to fight alongside againist the genmas.
You can also give them orders like an "all out attack" or "wait and recover" and the AI will perform the given orders within the best of their abilities.
There are 5 characters including Soki in total, each with a unique fighting style, therefore feel free to try each character as you play along.
Graphics:
For a playstation 2 game, the standard of graphics is exceptionally high, with beautiful colours and effects during gameplay.
The characters and enemies were very realistic and the graphics were well balanced throughout the whole game.
Therefore it gives a very satisfying experience in terms of gameplay, cutscenes and cinematics.
Realistic gameplay showing fine details of a main character attacking a Genma.
Beautiful effects of the "oni magic" power.
Realistic details of enemies and the surroundings.
Graphics in CG movies were also pretty well made and interesting to watch, the details of every model was really well refined and the scenes were beautifully made.
Below are some screenshots of a CG movie.
Sound:
The quality of sound in this game are still acceptable.
However, the music composed in this game has a different taste as compared to the last 3 series.
The soundtracks of Dawn of Dreams give more of a modern tone unlike soundtracks that sounds "ancient".
There are also 2 different voices that can be heard during the game.
Those 2 different language are the japansese and english versions.
Players get to enjoy the game in 2 different experience in terms of sounds.
Also, one reason why this game is such a big hit is because there are 2 songs sung by a famous Japanese singer being used in the opening and ending song of the game.
That singer is none other than Ayumi Hamasaki.
Conclusion:
Overall, this game has a really high rating from IGN with a score of 8.8/10.
With that kind of score, it is really worth the time to play this unique series of Onimusha.
I personally feel that it has excellent gameplay and a wonderful story, and the game doesn't end in 24 hours therefore it's a pretty long and satisfying game.