When I was 14, I was over at a friend’s house and his mother offered to buy each of us a new game if we cleaned out the garage. Two hours later we were up at GameStop picking out games, looking back it was a very important trip to GameStop for each of our gaming future and us. He got silent hill and fell in love with the series, I chose Onimusha. Looking back, I have always found interest in the similarities between Resident Evil and Onimusha. Not just the game play aspects but also the way the series has released.

The original Onimusha was a very similar experience to my first time playing resident evil. I got stuck at the first boss in both and quit playing for weeks at a time. Eventually i would get up the courage to try again and I would beat that boss. Then later I would get sick of it, cheat, and finish the game. Years later, I would play them both again, but in a more pure form, then i would come to truly appreciate them. Both of them are humble in comparison to the rest of the series. They introduce elements that will stay with the series while resident evil was more innovative at the time than Onimusha was; both are firmly cemented in gaming history.

Onimusha 2 and Resident evil 2 continue the similarities by introducing new weapons, new areas, and more importantly: people. While Resident evil 2 had Ada and sherry, Onimusha 2 had Ekei, Magoichi, Kotaro, and Oyu. Onimusha 2 was one of the first games to make me feel like I was making friends with NPC's, a feeling I have grown to love in games in more recent years and being something i look for more and more often. It fascinated me that if I were friends with one person they would always have my back in crucial moments.

Gaming's best friends?

Onimusha 3 and Resident evil 3 are where the series starts to change things up, while still keeping the core values, and making everything right.  Though i Should clarify that resident evil 3 is my least favorite of the  "classic" resident evil's, while Onimusha 3 is one of my all time favorite games ever.  Both games were willing to add more to the series at this point, whether it was resident evil 3's larger environments and combing item elements or Onimusha 3's time travel puzzles. This is the point for each series where true game play growth began. This was also the point when Onimusha may have gone completely crazy. Releasing alongside the game was a katana shaped controller with "motion controls.” In my experiences the controller did not work that well but it’s a great thing to have around.

Craziest controller ever

Next, there is Onimusha tactics. A game boy advance title playing very similarly to Final Fantasy tactics but with Onimusha characters. I fell in love with the game because all of my old friends from Onimusha 2 were there. It was great going on a new adventure with them even if they did act a bit odd. I wish resident evil had done a tactics style game so it would be easier to compare this to one but as of yet (capcom do not take this as an idea it really is not necessary).

Onimusha took another odd turn at Onimusha blade warriors; a super smash brother’s style fighting game. It even had Megaman (from battle network) and Zero in it. Capcom truly wanted a casual fighter for fans of the series and they got it. An odd turn for the series and it never really clicked with any of the fans I know.

When games change genre sometimes it just does not work at all.

Resident evil on the other hand pumped out spinoffs and side quest sequels in between its third and fourth entries. Then capcom produced one of the greatest games of all time and easily the best game of 2005. Resident evil 4 completely revamped the series, although it lost some of the survival horror core elements on the surface deep down they were all still there. Being more of an action game worked so well for resident evil that most people think of this as the definitive game in the series. I do not believe Onimusha has gotten to this point yet.

Onimusha Dawn of Dreams was released in 2006 to little fanfare and garnered the worst reviews of the core series. Personally, this is my least favorite title in the series, but it was still a solid game. Relating this to resident evil is more difficult than the rest of the series. Is this Onimusha equivalent of resident evil 4? I personally hope not. At best it is the code Veronica of the series, at worst it is resident evil 5. 

Resident Evil code veronica was a love letter to the classic game play of the series while going a bit overboard on the B-movie storyline. A few new things here and there but less game play improvements than technical and graphical improvements. Resident Evil 5 had big shoes to fill and to some people i think it did fill them. As far as I’m concerned, it may be the worst in the series. Not because it is necessarily bad but because it is just mediocre after how new and fun resident evil was in comparison to its predecessor.

I think the time is right for Onimusha to make reappearance in the gaming world. I think it is time for a resident evil 4’s style makeover for the series. People shout for series like Zone of the Enders and Shenmue to come back. I personally would rather have Onimusha come back.