Genma Onimusha

released on Jan 28, 2002

A port of Onimusha: Warlords

Genma Onimusha contained many changes from the original release. Besides the requisite minor graphical upgrade, there were various changes to increase the difficulty. Monsters are stronger and there are generally more of them throughout the game, but the most significant addition is green soul energy. Some foes release this when they die and the player must capture it before other monsters do. The player can gain temporary invulnerability, but the monsters become faster and stronger. Additionally, there is a new area, several new costumes, enemies limbs can be cut off by your weapon on certain conditions, some new cut scenes and a new super attack.


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Onimusha is so cool, button the green orb button mashy thing is not the way.

Jogo difícil pra burro. Vou jogar a versão do PS2 pra ver se é mais fácil.

This is the definitive version of the original Onimusha. It has remixed enemy-placement (and a new enemies), a streamlined upgrade system, and new combat mechanics that did a surprising job of keeping me focused despite my familiarity with Warlords. I'm comfortable saying that Genma Onimusha is the peak of the original series. I'm kind of baffled that this isn't the version released on Steam.

Genma retains all the best parts of Warlords like the incredibly climactic score and the interconnected world design while also adding a couple welcome additions, and a couple unnecessary ones.

The additions include more enemies with the main one being Ayame. A demonic doll who acts exactly like Nemesis, she can pop into rooms out of nowhere and you best avoid her because fighting her is never worth it. There's also more armours and more optional challenge towers to take on.

The biggest addition Genma adds are the green souls that enemies can now drop. Collecting enough makes you temporarily invulnerable, but the enemies can try to absorb them too which will make them stronger. If this happens, you go into a tug of war with the enemies in which you have to start mashing. I'm not really a fan of this addition, it breaks up the flow of combat and the reward for collecting enough green orbs isn't enough since the invulnerability period is over so soon. Another change I'm not fond of is how you upgrade weapons and orbs simultaneously here rather than separately like in Warlords. This means that upgrading here takes much longer and I had to grind for souls on multiple occasions just to progress, this is something I never had to do in the original.

Overall though, even the changes I dislike don't sour the experience for me all that much. Genma's best feature is its difficulty, it demands much more from the player than the original did but it never crosses the line to where the game feels daunting to play. For me, it makes Genma a much more satisfying experience overall and I'd say that Warlords is a better starting point, but this is the definitive version.

It's worth to play the original version first but this is indeed a complete improvement. The charge attack system changes things significantly and the game is made to accomodate for that, the game can be really fucking brutal starting out and generally demands more from the player. Be sure to play the additional challenges, you'll miss out on a lot of good stuff otherwise.

Sekiro Heads Wouldn't Last 10 Minutes In Samanosuke's World

real talk though making you control a game on the Xbox controller's D-pad is the funniest shit ever and prevents this game from scoring higher.