Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a bold game. Capcom dug into its back catalogue to resurrect a franchise that hasn’t seen more than a remaster or free-to-play browser game in over 20 years. Testing the temperature of a series like this is risky, especially in such a volatile industry that is slowly imploding. Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation is similarly bold in that it is one of the team’s biggest ventures outside of its Pokemon-based safe space. The two are linked by this ambition and penchant for swordplay, but the similarities aren’t favorable for Beast of Reincarnation, as Capcom’s new genre classic repeatedly highlights where Game Freak’s action RPG stumbled.
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Beast of Reincarnation Is a Pale Imitation of Other Games
Beast of Reincarnation pulls from all sorts of different games, but its two main sources of inspiration are Nier: Automata and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The latter is the more pervasive influence since players will constantly be clanging blades against all manner of creatures. But to compare it so directly to one of FromSoftware’s most acclaimed titles does a disservice to said title, because Beast of Reincarnation is a much sloppier action game.
Repetition and lack of innovation are its two most notable problems. Grunts and bosses alike all have a very limited set of moves, meaning there’s not much to react to or master. Even the cadence of swings is eerily similar across enemies. And since everything has such a tanky health bar, it’s necessary to repeat the same swings and parries over and over to come out victorious. Despite the collection of superfluous attacks and glut of skill points, each one of its many battles is a battle of attrition.
Being stuck in a purgatory of repeating the same offensive and defensive techniques is damaging on the small scale, yet its failure to innovate is what is more broadly damning. Beast of Reincarnation does not do anything interesting with its mechanics. The parry may have a satisfying sound effect and animation associated with it, but it is hardly any deeper than that. Without the variability or tension seen in the games it is pulling from, it is like Game Freak made the most surface-level assessment of games like Sekiro — “parry good” — and only made a game with a surface-level amount of depth. It’s barely serviceable and something that indicates how Beast of Reincarnation is destined to fade from memory.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword Is Built to Last
Onimusha: Way of the Sword has a sturdier frame that futureproofs it. Instead of being a simple game where there’s a parry and perfect parry, Onimusha expands upon that standard setup with its own special flair. There’s deflecting as well as the all-powerful Issen move, both of which are more skill-based innovations that go beyond simply hitting block at the right time like just about every other game. Deflecting takes greater timing and two button presses and leads to more a delayed reward, while using Issen counters are powerful but require impeccable timing and leave players open to attacks if they goof it up (and they will rather often).
Combined with grab parries and being rewarded for dodging non-weapon attacks, Onimusha‘s swordplay pushes boundaries by not relying purely on systems cherry-picked from other games. It is not just Sekiro with new characters or Dark Souls in Japan, mechanically or aesthetically. Capcom didn’t follow trends here and instead chose to innovate in the action game space. The same can’t be said about Beast of Reincarnation which cobbles together a few action games without much to call its own and lacks the smoothness seen in other games that would make its basic collection of systems appealing. The inability to forge ahead or polish what’s there doesn’t make good on the promise of a new IP that’s supposed to feel different from its peers. Game Freak should be encouraged to venture away from Pokemon, so this isn’t a complete whiff, but it’s hard to give it much more than a “You Tried” award.
The two trip up in a few of the same areas, most notably with regards to their lengths. But only Beast of Reincarnation‘s runtime is truly upsetting. Because so much of it is familiar and rarely changes during the whole 25-hour campaign, it becomes outright grueling in the final half. Onimusha could have been cleaned up a bit, especially with regards to its hub size and filler side missions, but it never grows stale because of its spectacular boss fights and fluid core mechanics that aren’t ripped straight out of other titles.
Game Freak is committing to patching up Beast of Reincarnation and has made some solid changes so far. However, the game’s fortunes are unlikely to completely reverse when the final update rolls out. It is fundamentally a safe experience that doesn’t stick out, so even though Onimusha is part of an old franchise, it isn’t the sword-based game here that feels ancient and irrelevant.
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Courtesy of Electronic Arts
