For starters, you get both Japanese and English as a choice for voices and subtitles, which is a great relief to many people. You can listen to the original Japanese dialog while you watch the subtitles in English. This is a big plus since the in-game mouth movements are modeled for the Japanese language, and does look pretty weird with English selected as the voices.

The game’s controls are reminiscent of Resident Evil’s, with the digital control pad, having up go forward. The rest of the buttons either block attacks, draw your weapon, sucks souls, attack, use magic, and check the ground Samanosuke is standing on. It's basic and nothing extra special there. There are the ever- present static, but dramatic, camera angles as in the Resident Evil games. This makes the game easier to get into for veteran Resident Evil players.

The basic structure of the game is rather simplistic as it is geared to the gamer that loves to collect everything in the game. Just about everything in Onimusha is easily found and out in the open, requiring little time spent searching. There is a special item called ‘Floruite’ that you can find hidden a few times all throughout the game, but this makes up most of the "exploration" of the game. It's not even required to find them, just a little fun extra, which ends up getting a bonus of some sort (I don't want to spoil it).

Unlike Resident Evil where you face tough enemies in cramped corners a few at a time, in Onimusha, you hack and slash through large groups of enemies in open spaces, much like Berzerk. The weapons are based on orbs, which are placed in your Ogre's Gauntlet. The orb then materializes a weapon and magic type, depending on the orb. There is the Thunder (Blue) orb, which produces a quick short sword weapon coupled with a powerful single-enemy lightning magic attack. The Fire (Red) orb produces a large slow sword, which does lots of damage. It does have a wide arc, though. The Fire magic attack basically shoots forth a large wave of fire which will use up magic whether the multiple enemies it can hit block or not. Finally, there is the Storm (Green), which produces a two-ended halberd, which can attack multiple enemies gaining up on you. The Magic attack creates a whirlwind tornado, which is pretty useful for getting groups of enemies away from you. Of course there are the obligatory extra items. In Onimusha you can pick up a Bow and Arrow set, plus a Gun. There is the rumor of a mega-powerful sword too.

When enemies are killed, souls are released in the form of colored orbs. Just pressing Circle automatically sucks the souls into the gauntlet. Yellow heals you, blue refills magic, while the common red adds to your Ogre Gauntlet soul power. You can stock up on souls and use them to increase the power of the Orbs' weapons and magic. They can also be used to enhance items into new, more powerful ones, such as Herbs to medicine, or Arrows to Flame Arrows.

The graphics are drop dead gorgeous. The main CG's are all ultra high quality, even competing with the likes of the Final Fantasy movie! Not only that, having the game on DVD makes them all DVD quality. The in-game graphics are a stunner. Never has so much sharp intricate details been shown since Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast. Each and every enemy is detailed right down to the clothing, and is animated smoothly. Enemies look amazing, in terms of style too. There is nothing overboard, and nothing too bland. As for Onimusha’s sound, there is nothing much to say, other than great sound effects, and great music to get you in the mood to play.

Now, there are some downfalls to Onimusha. The first one is that the game is very short. The average gamer can beat the game in less than 5 hours, easily. Another minus is that all of the game, aside from a special area, takes place in and around the same area. Again, the graphics are so spectacular, most people probably won't notice until by the time you get to the end of the game. Those looking for puzzles will have to look elsewhere. There are a few "find the key" puzzles, treasure boxes, and some very easy number games.

There is usually a Magic Fountain near save points, which basically lets you have unlimited magic. On the other hand, there are very few places to get health; either via the rare yellow orb, or the extremely rare herbs/medicine. Enemies do re-spawn a few times if you revisit an area, which can be a hindrance, although most of the time there probably will be a need for more souls and to try for some yellow orbs.

After beating the game the player is treated to a ranking system, which rates a few things. Since most of the ranking is based on exploration skills, the replay value is definitely there to perfect your game the next few times.

Overall, Onimusha is one amazing game. If you love hack and slash action or resident evil type games, you should definitely get this masterpiece, especially with the replay value. Everyone should at least rent the game, even though that means getting a little peeved having to return it before you play a perfect game.

Onimusha 2 is not far away, lets hope it is much longer, and the gameplay is a bit more varied.