I thought Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a reboot of sorts. Happy to learn it's a sequel :')

Onimusha was my first bought PS2 game, I got it a few days before the console itself. I would eventually get all 5 Onimusha games on PS2 close to their release + Genma on Xbox. I barely had the time to play Genma which had major changes and improvements, a shame Capcom chose to remaster Warlords instead. What were they thinking?... another lost code?

Anyways, my favorite soundtracks that I can recall:

1:42 is where it gets real good.

"IT'S HIMMM: The Soundtrack"

SPOILERS BELOW!!

All my ships sunk in this goddamned series, cruel writers. Samanosuke/Tenkai X Ako/Arin ain't happening either but I loved their sweet dynamic as it was. I hope Samanosuke isn't dead yet and Akane and Ako will be present in the new game. I can't believe this series is really back. Praise Capgods!

+1 on everything here. From the new Onimusha taking the road of the sequel, even if it just acknowledges the previous events without them playing to much into it, to the weird choice Capcom made with which version of they original they remastered. Maybe they lost the source code for that version or something.

I started with 3 and went backwards. What stuck with me is how every game that sprung up from Capcom experimenting with Resident Evil had the emphasis on atmosphere stick with it. My young self was expecting a much more arcade-y experience but between the combat pacing, camera angles and music, I got a very different experience, in a great way.

This series is also the reason I was semi-obsessed with Nioh during its troubled development as it sounded like the closest thing to Onimusha.

What exactly happened with the Another Code remaster? I did not pay attention to it but I came across a video that mentioned it kind of skipped content.

I know next to nothing about Another Code!

But yeah Onimusha is a great series and deserved to sell a lot more than it did, I don't hate Capcom for discarding it for such a long time. Skimmed through a recent-ish review on Youtube that kind of trashed Onimusha 3 and made a weird comparison to Ninja Gaiden and DMC. Like... it's a different kind of game bruh. Some people can't appreciate "different". I'd punch a baby for a return of fixed/semi-fixed camera games, and another baby for more tank controls lol. It's not that I prefer games this way, but they make for a radically different experience and a feeling that I yearn for. Onimusha 1-3's lock-on system and movement felt amazing to me with a lot of untapped potential, and nothing like them exists.

To be honest, I'm a liiiiittle bummed out with the style of the new game. But it's too early to judge, and I'm just grateful that Capcom is even trying. If this manages to sell 10 million+ like quite a few modern Capcom games, we may eventually get so much more Onimusha and the thought excites me.

I saw "another lost code" and my mind translated that to you referring to the Another Code situation where they seemingly dropped sections of the game in the remaster. My bad!

On a side-note, they should really do away with the white "deluxe edition" banner on physical games. It's not as bad as the platinum/selects/etc versions but it takes away from the boxart.

Finally got around to finishing Astro's Playroom. Fun little title. Absolutely enjoyed this as much as I did playing the previous 3 titles.

I appreciate the PS nostagia hook it goes for. Lovely collecting the PS hardware. Highly reccomended, especially if you have kids.

Yea I plan to get it one day for my son. Not going to pay anything above $30 for it though but eventually yea I'll get it. He loved the demo that came with the PS5. He got so far into the game I didn't realize there were boss fights and all that in the game.

Just finished Stellar Blade, first run was a full 100% and coz I’m clearly a masochist that includes all 1000+ collectibles (including every box) .. going through NG+ for the plat. Pretty much a basic 7/10, felt like it took “inspiration” from so many games and didn’t really do any of it better. Overall tho it was aight, kept my interest for the last couple of days I had off work. Also Providence can go and do one …

Saros reveal increased the numbers of people playing Returnal since last week.

https://www.truetrophies.com/news/returnal-player-count-up-after-saros-reveal

I have no doubt in my mind that Saros will do a lot better than Returnal. Returnal is a great game and after the SoP I wrote a comment about why I think Housemarque and Returnal are important for PS recent history but it had to face many obstacles like:

-PS5 shortage
-First wave of games at a new price
-Difficulty too high for many
-Not being able to save your progress and shut down you PS5 was questionable at best.

Saros won't have to face those problems and by the description in the PS Blog, Housemarque is looking to improve the difficulty progression.

Just finished Callisto pProtocol, including the 3 hardcore trophies. Overall, I thought it was a fun game and I really enjoyed it. I did 4 playthroughs in a row, immediately beginning the next one as I finished the game.

The story is sees your protaganist trying to escape an prison that is overrun with zombie like creatures. For the most part, the story is serviceable, but it definitely falters in 2 core ways:

1. There's a mysterious group behind the events (like you didn't see that coming), but their utility in the story is so minimal that it may as well not even exist. I guess they wanted a sequel, but the story would've been better served having the villian character just have their arc in this game with the idea that perhaps there were bigger things in play. There's just not enough here to justify the addition into the story.
2. Thematic elements: a big part of the story is Jacob coming to terms with his own guilt for certain actions. But there's no underlying theme for this throughout the game to give it more poignancy. It's clear that this is something all the characters you meet share, but the lack of explorationg outside of Jacob means the idea falls flat. There's an interesting story here, but it's never tapped into.

I do want to give a special shoutout to Josh Duhamel: I actually think he sells the character of Jacob very well with voice acting that sounds largely very believable. I hope he does more game VA actually. Too bad he won't be doing more of Jacob: end of the day I really liked the character even if he's not that complex.

That said, gameplay is the element that gets the most criticism. I never played the launch version so I know a lot of things were changed to make it more managable: that is that melee enemies attack you 1 by 1. Ok, this is not entirely true, there are still moments where another enemy will attack you and honestly, it sucks when it happens because the combat isn't designed around this. If there had been more utility for firearms and the gravitational glove, then yes it could've. 

But that doesn't mean that combat is bad per se. If you're willing to meet it half-way I think there's a lot of fun to be had. The core gameplay loop is that you dodge/ block enemy attacks, and then attack them. Firearms can be used sparingly when needed, but are mostly reserved for finishing off melee combos. The glove is designed, imo, for positioning more than anything else. In many parts of the game, but not all, there'll be these spikes on the walls. To really mow through enemies, you should be using these for insta-kills. This can be done with a melee combo that knocks the enemy back, or by using the gloves to throw an enemey/ or at least position them for a melee attack. 

I think once you figure this out, even hardcore mode is manageable and not nearly the chore some ppl make it out to be. The chances of you only killing enemies bit just hitting them with your baton is not overly common.

Even though I enjoyed the combat, I do feel that more scenarios that allowed for gun combat would've been a blessing. This could've been in a setpiece moment, or perhaps adding more enemy variety (inmates or even prison wardens) that fight differently to the zombie creatures. I mean, there's def room for improvement here, but like I said: i enjoyed the combat and the rhythm of it all and am glad it has a unique feel over every other 3rd person action game.

I'm probably very much in the minority here, but if you grabbed the game off PS + I actually do implore you to give it a go. If you go in with the expectation that it should be Dead Space (closest comparison) then you're in for a bad time. But if you allow it to just be it's own thing, it work out better for you. 

Not gonna lie, I may end up buying the expansion DLC when it goes on sale again even though I don't own the game. I'm kinda itching to play some new content lol