The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels Ever – Part 6 of 8
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
The Onimusha series follows a really unusual track, as far as series (and especially survival horror series) tend to go. The first game was good, but suffered from Capcom’s pathetically inept early Resident Evil control scheme (seriously, to this day the only explanations I can think of for that unwieldy thing are syphilis-induced madness and an incredibly elaborate game of Double Dare). The second game was a walking pile of ass, and every copy of it should be thrown into a fire. Then they came out with Onimusha 3, and somehow managed to fix every single problem I had with the first two games, throwing in an intuitive, helpful control scheme along with voice acting and character modeling by Jean Reno. I like Jean Reno, and a game that allows me to actually play as the only living French badass is difficult for me to criticize. Sure, the game wasn’t particularly deep, and the story was as laughable as anything Capcom has ever produced, but it was fun and engrossing, and if you didn’t enjoy the frenetic combat, I don’t know what the hell to tell you. After Onimusha 3, I was extremely excited for Dawn of Dreams, thinking that the makers of the series had finally figured it out, and we would be treated to more of the same for years to come.
I’m not sure what the hell happened. Maybe the development team went on a year-long bender. Maybe Obsidian employees snuck in the day before launch and completely re-wrote the game. Maybe the makers of the Silent Hill series kidnapped the lead dev’s daughter and threatened to murder her if the dev didn’t submarine the entire franchise. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
Dawn of Dreams completely abandons the game’s survival horror roots. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing; Resident Evil 4 was only loosely “survival horror” at best, but it was still a great game (albeit one written by chimpanzees with typewriters). But while Resident Evil sacrifices survival horror in the name of interesting and well-crafted gameplay and controls, Dawn of Dreams sacrifices survival horror in the name of squirrel turds. There is absolutely nothing enjoyable about the combat system implemented in this game. It’s not just the combat that’s the problem, either; the entire concept of an interconnected series of smaller maps so integral to any survival horror game has been thrown right out the window in favor of an inexplicable old-school mission system with an over-the-shoulder scrolling camera that effectively transforms Dawn of Dreams into a third-person shooter with swords. I don’t think I’d have that much of a problem with this if the missions didn’t all consist of “walk down street, hit monster in face” and the levels didn’t look like the same standard recycled crap you’ve seen over and over and over, but as it is I’m left wondering why God hates me so much.
The weird thing is that the character designs really aren’t half-bad. It’s obvious that a lot of thought and effort went into them. Evidently, though, the developers were only interested in drawing pretty pictures, and when it came time to actually design the gameplay, they couldn’t be fucked to make a half-decent effort. In honor of their laziness, I’m ending this article now so I can go get a sandwich.
