Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (PS2 Game) Review & Gameplay.

Hello everyone, my name is Vladislav, and i glad to have you here on my channel. In today's video, we going to take a closer look at latest chapter in "Onimusha" series, "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams", which until this days, remain alongside PlayStation 2 exclusive collection. Game was released in 2006, as i said for PS2 on 2 DVD discs, which by the way, wasn't a common thing for that platform. And by looking at this awesome graphics, beautiful video cutscenes, gameplay mechanics, and tonns of content, that i will talk about soon, It is really understandable how this game pushed PlayStation 2 to it's limits.

Ok, 1st i want to start with as i think, most huge and interesting part of game - it's storyline. Although "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams" doesn't have number in it's name It's story is actually a continuation of events that happened in original "Onimusha" trilogy. An because of that in "Dawn of Dreams", often we can see references to previous games, like modern technologies, similar locations, and even some characters. And yeah, i didn't called this game a direct sequel, because even original authors of "Onimusha" series, was wanted to do some sort of reboot to series, and bring new story, new characters, and gameplay elements into it. So, events of game take place approximately 15 years later, after "Genma King" Nobunaga Oda was defeated by Samanosuke at end of "Onimusha 3". Now whole country united in peace, under rule of Nobunaga's former retainer Hideyoshi Toyotomi. But one day, peace comes to end, when "Omen Star" appears in the sky. And once again, "Genma Demons" starting to invade the land. Right at start of game, after video cutscene, we straight away gain control over 1st and also main character in "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams", Soki, who also known as "The Oni of the Ash", "Blue Demon", and later in game will be know as "Black Oni" Yep, he have many titles. But at start of game, he is hiding his true identity, because Soki is actually are Hideyoshi's illegitimate son, who decides to fight agains father and his army of demons. Gameplay wise, Soki controls and actions are similar to controls of Samanosuke in previous games. Because as Samanosuke, Soki's main weapon of choice are swords. So that way, if you played any other "Onimusha" game before, you will be very familiar with controls. But on this journey, we won't be alone, and during storyline progress, more characters will join our party. And also, that's where 1st new gameplay element comes in. In previous "Onimusha" games, we could control only one character at time, with some exceptions, when sometimes story driven NPC character, will come to help in some situations. In "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams", in most cases, player have to control two playable characters at same time. While one character remain under player direct control, it is possible to give commands to other, and aside of that, we can actually switch between both characters that currently on mission, and directly control them. So aside of Soki, every new playable character have it's own unique weapon, playstyle, and what's most important, it's own unique ability, which not only allow us to progress in storyline, but also there is a secret places, that only certain character can reach. And first of those characters is Akane, who at start will introduce herself as Jubei Yagyu. Yeah, Akane is granddaughter of legendary Jubei Yagyu, leader of "Yagyu Clan", who also was main protagonist in "Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny". So, Akane is ninja type of character, and because of that, she is also very fast. Akane using small katanas as her weapon, and her main unique ability is to walk through small cracks in walls, crawl in small holes, And walk on light objects, like pipes, bamboo ladders, and stuff like that. Second character, and personally my favorite one in this game is Ohatsu. Ohatsu is another character, that heavily connected with "Onimusha 2", because, first off she is dauther of Oyu, who is one of main characters in that game. And in second, she learned her marksmanship skills from Magoichi Saiga, who also was one of main characters in "Onimusha 2". So yeah, guns, cannons, and even lasers are her weapons of choice, and that is totally game changer yeah. And her main ability aside of shooting, is to blow some doors, that can't be opened in any other way, and use grappling hook for long distance jumps.

3rd character, which is actually very first character, that you will see in video cutscene, even before you start playing an actual game, is Tenkai. And what most interesting about that character, it is mystery that will surround him throughout whole game. Some characters will call him "Red Demon", he use "Oni Gauntlet", he wears red samurai armor, and sometime he mentions events, that happened in previous "Onimusha" games. Yeah, i didn't wanted to spoil it, but is old anyways right? So close your ears for one second... Yeah, Tenkai is actually Samanosuke, who was main hero in "Onimusha: Warlords" and "Onimusha 3: Demon Siege". Yeah, in this game he have different looks, instead of swords, he use staffs and spears now, but it's him. And ofcourse during playthrough, everyone who familiar with previous games, will start to suspect that, and ofcourse it will be 100% revealed at end of game. So Tenkai's unique ability, is talking with dead, or to be more clear, with their spirits. So after talk, they usually may give some items to player, and most often, those items are important to progress in game.

4th and last character is Roberto. Roberto is totally new character, and just like Soki, he is not really connected to any of previous games. So Roberto is actual weapon himself, but ofcourse he use different types of "Gloves" to increase his strength, but i think you got my point. Roberto's unique skills, is ability to move huge stone blocks, and also open metal doors, that can't be opened by any other character. So while i talked about story and it's characters, i think you already saw how graphically game is look like. So about graphics i can say once again, it looks just awesome for it's time, and some elements of it, are really visually stunning. Just look at those scenes, this one going right at start of game, when you have to fight against that huge "Genma", how epic this scene is look like. Or tihs scene with "Cherry Blossom" trees, it looks really beautiful. Or this rainy level. And all this stuff, going on PlayStation 2, without any slowdowns or framedrops. And that's why i said about, that game pushes PlayStation 2 hardware to it's limits. And yeah, interesting thing, that just in half year, after "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams" release, New PlayStation 3 console was actually released. Ok so, now let's talk about gameplay elements. Aside of stuff that we already saw, what else new "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams" have? Soon as you start play this game, or at least in hour of two, you will start notice how different this game, from what you saw in previous games.

And 1st, is actual game length, how storyline developes, how many dialogs and cutscenes going on, in between or while on mission. And all this stuff, is a common thing for Japanese RPG genre. Yeah, there is a lot's of RPG elements going on here. In previous games in "Onimusha"series, we was actually able to rise gear level, by using "Genma" souls, and it's remain same also for "Dawn of Dreams". But aside of that, there is a classic experience points system going on in this game. So now, every character can accumulate experience points by killing enemies, and increase it's level. With every new level, characters will get special points, that can be distributed to enchance character statistics, or unlock new skills. Also now by killing enemies, players will not only get experience points, "Genma Souls", and items, But also gold, yeah, once again, just like in RPG style games. Just like in RPG style games, there is a shop system exist in "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams" too, and don't get me wrong, there was a gold and shop in "Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny", but there it was very different. There it was served mostly to raise bond between characters, and was totally unavailable in second half of game. But here, we actually need to use shop often, especially later in game, and on normal or above difficulties. Because in shop we can resupply various healing items, buy new weapons, aside of those, that we can find on missions, and appraise items. Yeah, as always during our journeys, we will find locked boxed, that may contain a valuable item inside. And as usual, there is a puzzle to solve. But now it's possible to just break those boxes, and get items, but in order to use them, you will need to appraise those items in hideout. And yeah, there are hideouts in between missions, which serves as rest place ofcourse, serves as shop, because shop and item appraising won't work during missions. Also hideout serve as teleport station, so it is possible to revisit previous missions, and later in game, only from hideout it's possible to get inside "Dark Realm". Just like in every other "Onimusha" game, "Dark Realm" is best place to test your skills, and obtain best items in game. Ok, i hope i didn't forget anything important, and did show enough ingame footage, because this game, is really big, really huge. Before making this video, i did beat game one more time, and it took me almost 20 hours to do so on Normal difficulty. Ofcourse i know, there is a beginner difficulty available too, if you lose, like 15 times on very first levels. But i highly doubt, that this game will be enjoyable on difficulty below normal, because how it designed. And yeah, last time before that, i did play "Dawn of Dreams" like 10 years ago, so even on normal, i saw this word many times... Yeah, doesn't it remind you anything? any modern game? Yeah, because of that, i think "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams" is like a one of first, if i can say like that, modern games of that type. And that's really sad thing, as i said at begin of video, game was released in 2006 exclusively for PlayStation 2, and so many years passed, so many games was re released in HD for modern gaming platforms, even "Onimusha: Warlords" was re released recently. But unfortunately, there is no information available, if it someday will be modern HD re release of other "Onimusha" games, and especially this one - "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams". But ok, that was it, that was my "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams" review. If you like content like that, freel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel, hit like, hit bell, and See You Again in next video!