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Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

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Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams
North American cover
Developer(s)Capcom
Publisher(s)Capcom
SeriesOnimusha series
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
ReleaseJPN January 26, 2006
NA March 8, 2006
EUR March 18, 2006
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Onimusha: Dawn Of Dreams (also titled Shin Onimusha) is the fourth canonical installment of Capcom's Onimusha series exclusively for Playstation 2. It was released in March 2006, despite producer Keiji Inafune's claim that Onimusha 3: Demon Siege would be the final chapter (it was however the last one where Oda Nobunaga played an antagonist). In a series first, the main character, Soki(灰燼の蒼鬼 a.k.a. Yuki Hideyasu (Hideyasu Yuki in American version)), is not based on the appearance of an actor. Also, this is one of the only two Onimusha games, to have the option of English and Japanese audio, the other game being the first Onimusha.

In the game, he is the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu and is a swordsman who is able to wield two blades. In the beginning of the game, he is seen using the blue sword, Lamentation, in normal combat. The red blade that is strapped to his back for most of the game, Requiem, is only unleashed for special attacks later in the adventure. Although the previous Onimusha titles made use of pre-rendered backdrops for the action onscreen (with the exception of Onimusha 3: Demon Siege), Dawn of Dreams has made the move to a more complete 3D rendition of its environment. This has allowed the player to control the camera for most of the game, as opposed to the static camera angles employed within its predecessors. It is still restricted in a handful of areas but it is one of the largest changes to the series. A shop system allows the player to purchase weapons that they can also upgrade along with valuable supplies such as medicine and accessories that convey a variety of benefits. Finally, a second party member now accompanies the player which they can also switch to and control. During gameplay, the second character that is not under the control of the player can be issued commands via the directional buttons (for tactics) with the AI performing them to the best of its abilities.

The game takes place some sixteen years after the events from Onimusha 3: Demon Siege which had ended with the defeat of Oda Nobunaga, the central "villain" of the previous three major installments. Oda Nobunaga's vassal, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Hideyoshi Toyotomi), has now taken control of the country, unifying it under one banner and essentially ending the wars that had torn the land apart under his former lord's banner. However, this period of peace ends with several natural disasters acting as an omen of things to come including the appearance of an "Omen Star" in the sky. Rumors soon fill the land of the Genma returning and that Hideyoshi may have something to do with them.

The game makes several references to the previous chapters, although it is not necessary to have gone through them in order to play the game.

Characters

  • Hideyasu 'Soki' Yuki: A strong warrior who possesses the dark power of the Oni. Having learned about Hideyoshi's insidious scheme, he sets out on a journey to burn the Genma trees and defeat the Genma running rampant across the land. Wielding two swords with such grace, precision and power, Hideyasu is soon referred to by townsfolk as "Soki", Oni of the Ash, due to his extreme resemblance to the Oni God. Soki's travels are aided by a young creature by the name of Minokichi. He provides Soki with instant "teleported" travel, insight on the various creatures & places they traverse, and quips about the allies they eventually obtain. Soki's hidden costume is that of Ryu from Capcom's Street Fighter series. Soki uses a variety of heavy broadswords. Soki's ultimate weapon is the Gokumonji broadsword, obtained after defeating the enemies on the 100th floor of the Dark Realm as Soki.


Soki is a balanced character with above average hit points and magic points. Thanks in part to his usage of broadswords, he has decent reach and power allowing him to take small groups of weaker enemies and larger, more powerful enemies. However unless his skills and armor is upgraded to an extent, he can be difficult to use against large groups. His strongest normal skill is the helm crusher--a powerful overhead swing. His special ability allows him to use his sword "Requiem" telekinetically, thus extending his reach. His Oni Awakening not only increases his power and grants him invulnerability to any attack, but automatically and continuously absorbs souls--this proves useful against certain enemies of the game.

  • Akane 'Jubei' Yagyu: A young woman with exceptional skills who carries on the name of the famous Yagyu bloodline. She bears the power of the Eye of the Oni, rare even among the Yagyu clan. Prior to the beginning of the game itself, Akane is assigned the duty of hunting down her relative, Munenori Yagyu. Munenori's heinous acts in betraying and killing members of the clan are the reason Akane accepts the task, relentlessly seeking to capture or kill her kinsman. Both Munenori and Akane (near the end of the game) are depicted wearing eye patches to cover their demon eye. This is likely a reference to the widespread image of the historical Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi as wearing an eyepatch. Akane's swiftness and iaido-like style of attack are similar to those of Kaede from ONIMUSHA 1. At one point in the game, Akane is confused as to whether she is romantically interested in Soki, or he is just her elder 'brother'. Her hidden costume is that of Cammy from Capcom's Street Fighter series. Katanas are her main weapons. Jubei's ultimate weapon is the Moonlight katana, obtained after defeating all the enemies on the 100th floor of the Dark Realm as Jubei.


Akane naturally excels in terms of speed, agility, and attack combos. However her hit points are somewhat lower than the other characters as a downside. Because of her talents however, she is able to take large groups of enemies easily. But she is difficult to use against heavy and powerful enemies that are harder to take down unless she has a weapon with a certain degree of attack power. Her best normal skill is the rising dragon--it works like an uppercut combination. Her special ability is called the "quick-draw" and basically works as a split-second state that will cancel any attacks against her and counter it with her own (arguably the most useful special ability). Her Oni Awakening is what makes her shine. Using the power of the Eye of the Oni, the speed of all enemies are greatly reduced while Akane moves at her normal speed. In addition, all hidden enemies or techniques are automatically revealed. Just like all the other characters, she has increased attack power and invulnerability to enemy attacks.

  • Ohatsu: Younger sister to Lady Yoko who is a concubine to Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Since the birth of Hideyori to her older sister, Ohatsu has been very troubled by the change she has noticed in the two. Friends since childhood, Ohatsu holds intense feelings for Hideyasu. She is an expert marksman, with techniques similar to her mentor, Magoichi Saika of ONIMUSHA 2. She is also the daughter of Oyu in ONIMUSHA 2. Ohatsu's hidden costume is Chun-Li from Capcom's Street Fighter series. Ohatsu's uses a wide variety of firearms as well as explosives and a grapple hook. Her ultimate weapon is the Supremacy laser, obtained after defeating all the enemies on the 100th floor of the Dark Realm as Ohatsu


Ohatsu has the best reach among the five characters thanks to her firearms. Although she has reach, her weapons have little stopping power relative to the other characters close-ranged weapons. While every character has weapons with different attack rates, Ohatsu's weapons are much more distinctive. Her weapon types are listed as follows: rifle, shotgun, pierce, slug, and laser. Each of the five types has certain advantages and disadvantages, but the most noticable disadvantage is that after firing, she's left vulnerable. With that said, it is important to increase her evasive abilities to maintain distance. Her best skill is fireworks, which automatically locks on the target even when they're not stationary. Her special ability is the use of explosives. It inflicts minor damage, but does give the enemy knockback spreading the distance between them. Her Oni Awakening allows her to create four portable laser cannons that fire multiple enemies or a single enemy at her command.

  • Roberto Frois: A christian missionary born to a Japanese mother and Spanish father. After being betrayed by his adopted & demonically possessed father, Luis Frois (who tried to use him as a genma experiment); as well as losing many close friends, Roberto is now on a mission of pure revenge. Roberto's weapon of choice are his enchanced arms and fists, capable of numerous destructive boxing combinations. His theme tune also contains a small guitar sample from Devil May Cry 3's first mission and in missions 13-15. His hidden costume is Guile from Capcom's Street Fighter series. Roberto's ultimate weapons are the Covenant Gauntlets, obtained after defeating all the enemies on the 100th floor of the Dark Realm as Roberto.


As fitting for his physique, his weapons and techniques emphasizes on brute strength per hit. With some upgrades, he can take down enemies with a single attack. He also has a special evasive manuever that allows him to dodge and weave enemy attacks without having to block or even move from his position. His power and evasive ability makes him perfect against powerful enemies or even a small group of slow, but heavy opponents. His downsides though would have to be his sluggish speed, low reach, and split-second lag time before his techniques actually hit; this makes him challenging to use against nimble enemies. Learning to use the deflect critical is important, but it's that much more apparent when using Roberto. Many of his skills are powerful, but strikedown has no lag-time. His special ability is known as the death grip and allows him to bind a single opponent to use one of three devastating attacks. His Oni Awakening combines his superior attack power with a very fast boxing combination that exceeds Akane's attack speed.

  • Tenkai Nankobo: A mysterious monk who resides at the ruins of the temple on Mt. Hiei. Sensing an air of evil starting to spread across the land, he eventually discovers Hideyoshi Toyotomi's bold and insidious scheme, and sets out on a journey to find the person that possesses the power of the Oni to help him bring Hideyoshi down. Tenkai's combat style is similar to that of Ankokuji Ekei from ONIMUSHA 2 and Honda Heihachiro Tadakatsu from ONIMUSHA 3. In addition, most of the monk's pole arms are named after Hindu deities for example, Varuna, Indra, and Rakshasa. Tenkai's hidden costume is Ken from Capcom's Street Fighter series. His ultimate weapon is the Clarity staff, obtained after defeating all the enemies on the 100th floor of the Dark Realm as Tenkai


Tenkai is balanced like Soki, but in a different way. He's not precisely as strong as Soki, but his longer reach and faster combinations enable him to switch back in defensive positions more easily. His magic points are noticably higher than the others and several of his weapons allow him to be an effective magic-user and use it more economically. Some of his special skills allow the player to button-mash a combination that could literally last until the enemy is dead or able to counter (hell jab, nirvana, enlightenment). His best skill is probably what really distinguishes him from the others: Thunderclap, allows him to make all the demon souls in the area explode, which greatly damage any opponents within reach. His special ability Purification Arts can enable him to attach multiple tag explosives, attach one powerful explosive on the field, or manipulate an opponent weak enough to fight as your ally. His Oni Awakening immensely increases the power of his staff and is able to thrust across the field with great speed damaging single or multiple opponents that are in his linear path.


General Information

  • The Triumvirate, as revealed later in the game, is the major antagonist group in this story. As a part of their arsenal, they can use poisonous attacks that take a variety of forms. This poisonous miasma, which is actually the Genma's essence, can be absorbed the same way souls are absorbed. Claudius and Rosencrantz use it to form pools of greenish purple venom that poisons anyone that steps in them. Claudius also uses it to form violet colored flame attacks while Ophelia uses it to form a shield around her.
  • One major point of contention with the way that the characters are portrayed in the game is their apparent ability to absorb souls and achieve an Oni Awakening. This is not something that is restricted to only the main character, Soki. In previous titles, characters that did not have the oni power to "absorb souls" were able to thanks to other soul absorbing accessories that were conveniently placed in certain areas for them to use. These items were considered a gift from the Oni thanks to their apparent capability in being able to travel across time and space. However, this kind of explanation was absent from Dawn of Dreams. While it can be argued that this ability was a gift from the Oni, or that each playable character possesses unique attributes that explain this, many fans have voiced that more details should have been provided. For example, Ohatsu reveals that her power comes from the demonic blood tie to her uncle Nobunaga Oda (former Genma Lord), however this is a plot hole since Nobunaga was a human before becoming a demon and therefore Ohatsu should have only human blood. Others have criticized the fact that everyone who achieves the Oni Awakening remains invulnerable until it winds down. The implication is that this places all of the other characters on a level of power equal to the Onimusha, making the role almost trivial.
  • The weapons in the game have similar appearances to weapons from the previous Onimusha games. For example, Fallen Angel and the Bishamon Sword along with Genma Samonji and Gokumonji use the same textures, but they are historically different weapons. Raizan and Enryu are the only swords that are carried over from the previous Onimusha games. However, their magic attack has been changed due to the revamped gameplay system and mechanics. Another change is that none of the weapons have a charge attack in this game, now replaced with a magic charge which allows the character to charge up their Oni magic to three levels of increasing power. Various mythological titles for the weapons appear in this installment as stylized representations of themselves, including: Durandal, Excalibur, Balmunk, Masamune, and Gae Bolga. Additionally, various weapons appear as throwbacks to other titles within the franchise, including Enryū, Raizan (both previously wielded by Samanosuke in Onimusha 1), Tanegashima (a rifle which originally appeared in Onimusha 2), and Onimaru (originally the main character of Onimusha Tactics).
  • The five playable character system was adopted from the previous Onimusha series. However, only the main characters are only able to do secret combos by upgrading the characters attribute skills ( ATTACK, THRUST, LIFT, KICK, AND FINISHER).
  • Criticism has also been voiced concerning Akane's mention during the game that Genma cannot be killed by normal blades. This was proven false in a variety of situations throughout the series' history. In Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, the characters that help Yagyu Jubei were not given any particular ability by the Oni to slay Genma, yet they are able to. Onimusha 3, a character called Michelle Aubert wields an arsenal of heavy firearms that also have no connection to Oni, yet she is still able to destroy them using the otherwise mundane weapons. It could also be argued that she was somewhat mistaken as mundane weapons can kill the genma but would take a far larger effort to do so compared to oni weapons.

Music

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Two songs by Ayumi Hamasaki are featured on the game .

The game's music and soundtrack is composed by Hideyuki Fukasawa and Jamie Christopherson. Hideyuki Fukasawa, who first came onto the video gaming music scene with his work on Chaos Legion, is responsible for most of Shin Onimusha's in-game music and soundtrack (most gamers who are familiar with his work on Chaos Legion will notice his style of composing) while Jamie Christopherson was in charge of the game's impressive CG cut scenes' and FMV's Hollywood-style orchestral scores.

Two songs by Ayumi Hamasaki, one titled "Startin'" and the other "Rainy Day" , are featured as the opening and ending themes for the game respectively in the Japanese version. The opening theme has been removed from the western versions (unless the player selects the game system to 'Japanese' in the options).

Japan Exclusives

  • In Japan, the game is known as Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (If you look carefully at the cover of the game art box, a new Japanese character appears before the title "Onimusha") and shin can be translated as "new".
  • Hori, a Japanese company, made a special PS2 memory card for the game.
  • An animated movie was made based on the game and entitled "Shin Onimusha Dawn Of Dreams The Story." In English, it was called Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams The Story which is aired and shown in the Animax channel, it started in the Philippines by June 30, 2007.
  • A manga created by Takashi Yaguchi entitled "Shin Onimusha Twilight Of Desire" talks about the battle between Tenkai (Samanosuke) and the nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, who was at the time utilizing Genma Power introduced by Ophelia. This story took place before the game and is also part of the reason why Hideyoshi came to utilize the Genma Power.
  • Comic book "Onimusha Volume 1: Night Of Genesis". Two Onimusha warriors embark on epic adventure! One sets off to overthrow the evil warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The other seeks revenge on a traitor to her clan. These Onimusha warriors' paths are destined to intersect. Will they join forces to save the world from destruction at the hands of the monstrous Genma, or will the Omen Star finally descend and bring unending chaos to the world?
  • Comic book "Onimusha Volume 2: Night of Genesis". Yuki continues his quest to destroy the tainted cherry trees and thwart Hideyoshi's diabolic ambitions. Akane departs on her quest for vengeance against Munenori, traitor to the Yagyu Clan. Two Oni journey to Osaka while a mysterious, young girl is pursuing the two warriors! The fiery, intensity that is the world of Onimusha continues!
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