Thank you, Enzyte.

In a moment of financial weakness, I recently purchased the entire Onimusha trilogy for PS2. In a moment of studying weakness, I finished the first game Onimusha: Warlords. It casts you in the role of Samonosuke, a samurai who wanders into the middle of a bloody war between rival power-hungry clans. He shows up in response to a letter of distress from a spicy number named Princess Yuki. In a poor display of form one of the clans enlists the help of…evil. And where there’s evil, there’s an army of mindless zombies waiting to be hacked to pieces with a big sword.

Samonosuke collects orbs (read: spells) of thunder, fire and wind which he can cast at enemies in addition to his bloody sword-swinging. As the game progresses, he collects several other weapons like a bow and a matchlock. There are a few puzzles to deal with along the way which come from the standard Capcom puzzle design toolbox. The game feels a lot like Fable at times and it’s got some of my favorite game elements including but not limited to the following:

- Pre-gameplay disclaimer warning of realistic blood and gore
- Soul-stealing (made popular by Shang-Tsung back in 1992)
- Finishing attacks for fallen enemies to make them feel the burn
- Incongruous voice acting translated from the original Japanese

They are all slain. Gimme some bamboo.

In addition to all this greatness, the unlockable gameplay extra you receive at the end of this game tops most I’ve ever encountered. You are rewarded with a panda suit. Read that again. You, the bad-ass samurai, get a panda suit. Not only that but the previously unused L2 button on your controller can now be used to take the panda costume’s head on and off. I’m halfway tempted to finish this again just so I can watch a panda beat down legions of the damned.

The visuals, sound and music are quite good and the gameplay is very smooth. The opening cinematic is also insanely well done and is alone worth the $5.99 I paid for this title at EB Games. If you liked Fable, chances are you’ll like Onimusha too. Don’t be afraid to take a chance on a samurai with the heart of a panda or vice versa.