Onimusha - Warlords

Capcom had a problem in 2001: the fixed-camera, pre-rendered formula behind Resident Evil was wearing thin, but the studio still had a great deal of expertise in it. Onimusha - Warlords is what happened when it pointed that machinery at feudal Japan and handed the player a sword. The backgrounds are lush painted-looking environments, the camera sits wherever the designers decided it should, and the dread of an unseen corner is still there, only now the thing waiting around it is a demon with a blade.

The hero is Samanosuke Akechi, modelled on Takeshi Kaneshiro, who is sent to rescue Princess Yuki from a castle overrun by the Genma, the demonic army serving Nobunaga Oda. Early on he gains the Oni Gauntlet, and with it the game's signature mechanic: slain enemies release souls that you absorb. Red souls feed your weapon upgrades, yellow ones restore health, and blue ones fill magic. It is a simple loop, but it ties every fight to a reward and keeps you wanting to finish enemies rather than avoid them.

Combat is deliberate. Samanosuke commits to his swings, and the timing of a successful strike matters more than button speed. Landing a well-timed finishing blow, known as the Issen, is satisfying in a way that few action games of the period managed. Fights feel weighty rather than flashy, and the game rewards patience over aggression.

The puzzles lean on Resident Evil conventions: keys, item combinations, and a fair amount of backtracking through the same castle corridors. They are not especially clever, and the tank-style controls are a clear product of the era. Moving Samanosuke around feels stiff now, and the fixed camera can hide threats in ways that feel more irritating than tense. The game is also short, and a competent player can clear it in a handful of hours.

What holds up is the confidence of its look and the clarity of its design. It arrived early in the PS2 life cycle and showed that the console could carry cinematic, richly detailed action, and its success launched a series that Capcom kept alive for years. Played today, it is a tidy piece of design from a studio at the end of one formula and at the start of another.