Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, the 3rd and rumored last Onimusha featuring the hero Samanosuke Akechi (hero from Onimusha Warlords), and first Onimusha to feature a fully 3-D environment (gone are the pre-rendered backgrounds this time around). This one takes place in not only one time period, but two...Feudal Japan and present day Paris, France. This installment also features two main characters, Samanosuke Akechi (modeled after Japanese actor, Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Jacques Blanc (modeled after French actor Jean Reno). The gist of the story centers around each hero getting accidentally warped to the others time, with Samanosuke being transported ahead to present day France and Jacques being transported back to feudal Japan. They must both work together to not only defeat the returning menace Nobunaga Oda, but to also make it back to their respective times.

Gameplay 5/5

 I found the gameplay in this installment even more fun than the first two, movements were so much more fluid being able to now use the analog stick, though the camera was still fixed in the 3-D environments (which as always can be troublesome with getting hit by off-screen enemies), I didn't have so much trouble with it for it to detract from the overall gameplay. The difficulty was noticeably easier in this one, most bosses I managed to defeat with no problem at all, and the Underworld (bonus levels) were a billion times easier to traverse than it was in the first two.

This Onimusha also features all new weapons for Samanosuke, though I found them "less cool" than the ones in the first, there was still no let down since there may be a way to get Sammy's old weapons from the first game to use on your next time through the game ^^, I won't spoil the fun by telling you how you do this, but it is possible.

Also one neat gameplay mechanic, was how you could send items back and forth through time to each character, in fact some levels required you to send certain key items back and forth so each character could get through the level any other time you could send extra curative items to the most needful character. I thought this was a cool and noteworthy aspect of the gameplay.

Sound 4/5

Nothing fantastic about the sound, but it's what you would expect from a "hack 'n' slash" action/adventure. No disappointment but nothing surprising either.

The voice acting is great, especially since Jean Reno himself voices Jacques' French spoken lines. His English lines are voiced by a different actor which was disappointing seeing as how Jean Reno speaks fluent English, and the fact that the substituted voice actor sounds nothing like Jean Reno, but still it isn't a big enough problem to make the game less enjoyable. There is one character though...Ako, her voice may grate on your nerves, at least she did mine, but the voice fit...once you play it you'll see why, so no worries there either.

Graphics 5/5

 The graphics are even better than Onimusha 2, which is what you would expect, but it's still surprising considering how great they were in both 1 and 2. The CG's are beautiful, and the opening scene is probably the best CG scene I have yet to see in any game. The character's movements are motion captured to perfection, the dubbed voices are also superb, considering the mouth movements were originally synched to Japanese...and yet if you still don't like them, you have the option to switch the spoken language to Japanese.

Story 5/5

Yet again, very well written story line....I came into this game skeptical on this since I didn't see how time-travel could be or even why it should be added to a samurai game, but sure enough Capcom managed to pull it off with ease. Everything fit perfectly and seamlessly came together and made for one exciting adventure.

Value 4/5

This game is definately worth its price tag. I'm not sure if it's still going for $50 now or not, but even if it is, it's worth picking up, and if you're not interested enough for a buy, give it a rent at the very least. I played through it 4 times and still had fun on each play through, so it definately has some replay value, which if I were to rate I'd give it a 3, and a 3/5 for a "hack 'n' slash" is quite good in my opinion.

To sum it all up, I thoroughly enjoyed this game, and it didn't let me down in any area, if you have been a fan since the beginning like myself or if you're new to the series altogether, I highly recommend it. I will also recommend playing the first two as well. It's not necessary to have played them before this one, but it may be a good idea just to see how the series has progressed.

Good Luck and Happy Gaming!!