The player begins the game with a standard katana sword, and can also obtain long-range weapons with limited supply. However, as the player progresses, the protagonist Samanosuke can gain three elemental weapons: Raizan, Enryuu and Shippuu, each with an elemental magic attack. As enemies are defeated, they release different colored souls that are absorbed by using the demon gauntlet on Samanosuke's wrist: red souls act as "currency" which can be used to upgrade weaponry, yellow souls recover health, while blue souls recover magic power which is used to perform each weapon's elemental abilities.
Some sections are played with Samanosuke's assistant, the kunoichi Kaede. She has her own distinctive weapons and acrobatic abilities, but is unable to absorb souls.
Plot
During the Battle of Okehazama, Samanosuke of the Akechi clan watches but is attacked by Imagawa Yoshimoto's men. Though Nobunaga Oda was victorious against Yoshimoto, he is fatally wounded and assumed dead. A year later, Samanosuke receives a letter from his cousin Princess Yuki of the Saitō clan for his assistance as she fears monsters are behind the disappearances of her servants. Joined by Kaede, Samanosuke arrives too late to Inabayama Castle as Yuki is abducted as he and Kaede split up to cover ground. After being defeated by a monster while trying to rescue Yuki, Samanosuke is visited by the twelve oni who give Samanosuke the power to vanquish the monsters that abducted Yuki, the Genma, and seal their souls in a mystical gauntlet.
While searching for Yuki, Samanosuke finds a laboratory and encounters the Genma scientist Guildenstern, learning that the Genma have resurrected Nobunaga to serve them before slaying Guildenstern's creation Reynaldo. Samanosuke later encounters Nobunaga's servant Tokichiro as he attempted to recruit him before reunited with Kaede as they follow the boy Yumemaru who Yuki took under her care. When Samanosuke finds Yumemaru spirited off, he learns from Tokichiro that Yuki is essential for a human sacrifice where the Genmas' god Fortinbras will bless her blood that Nobunaga will drink to gain the power to destroy the Saitō clan.
After saving Yumemaru from the Genma Marcellus, Samanosuke leaves him with Kaede as he looks for Yuki underground. But as Tokichiro traps Samanosuke, Kaede is knocked out by Genma resembling Samanosuke while Yumemaru is taken by a woman. When she awakens, Kaede is led to the prison and finds Yuki locked in a cell. Guildenstern arrives and leaves Kaede to die at the hand of a powerful Genma, only for her kill it while escaping. Samanosuke awakens and kills his doppelgänger in the underground passage. He makes his way back into the keep and finds Yumemaru with the woman who introduces herself as the Genma Hecuba as she assumes her true form while spiriting Yumemaru into the netherworld with Samanosuke in pursuit.
Joined by Kaede as he learns that her kin intends to kill Yumemaru before Yuki to heighten her sorrow to make her blood more potent for Nobunaga, Samanosuke kills Hecuba. As Samanosuke makes his way through the demon door, he encounters Guildenstern who summons an improved Marcellus. After defeating him, Samanosuke makes his way into Fortinbras' throne room, where he finds Yuki and Yumemaru trapped on the upper level. Before he can free them, Fortinbras enters the room and summons Nobunaga before the monster attacks Samanosuke. After Samanosuke defeats Fortinbras, he frees Yumemaru and Yuki as Kaede enters the room.
However, as they flee the collapsing chamber, Samanosuke is grabbed by Fortinbras as Kaede, Yumemaru, and Yuki are forced to escape. Some of Samanosuke's blood falls on the gauntlet and activates it as it transforms him into an Onimusha. In his Onimusha state, Samanosuke kills Fortinbras by stabbing him through his central eye. As Samanosuke transforms back into a human, he encounters Nobunaga as the room continues to collapse.
During the ending sequence, Yuki and Yumemaru follow Samanosuke's advice and travel the world. After the end credits, Samanosuke is seen alive, viewing Inabayama Castle from afar before he departs to parts unknown.
Reception
Onimusha: Warlords was a commercial success, selling over 2 million copies worldwide, with 1.04 million copies sold in Japan. The game went Platinum in just under a month in the region, quickly becoming the top-selling PlayStation 2 game ever at the time of its release. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of Onimusha: Warlords had sold 800,000 copies and earned $28 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 75th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of the Onimusha series reached 3 million units in the United States by July 2006. Capcom VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development Christian Svensson referred to the first two Onimusha games as one of their most successful titles.
The game has received positive reviews. Critics praised the graphics, sound, and gameplay, but complained about the short length of the game. In Japan, Famitsu magazine scored the PlayStation 2 version of the game a 35 out of 40, and gave the Xbox version a 34 out of 40. As of 2010, the game has a GameRankings average score of 84% for the PlayStation 2 version and 81% for the Xbox port.
At the SIGGRAPH 2000 conference, Onimusha received the "Best of Show" award for its opening sequence. Complex listed it as one of the most beloved and missed PlayStation 2 games. The reviewer from GameSpot stated he was called biased multiple times when doing the article for the video game. In a 2010 retrospective, GamePro ranked it as the 28th best game for the PlayStation 2. In 2012, FHM included the game's Kaede among the nine "sexiest ninja babes in games".
The 2019 remaster received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics; while its action gameplay was praised for standing the test of time, its visuals, game design, and presentation were said to have aged poorly. The remaster's lack of the additional content found in Genma Onimusha was also met with criticism. Horror media website Bloody Disgusting gave it a 3.5/5, stating "Beneath a new lick of paint and some clever adjustments, Onimusha: Warlords doesn't make for an essential action game in 2019, but it's a great modernization all the same"., while Windows Central gave the Xbox One version a 4 out of 5, calling it "not perfect by any means", but going on to state that it was a "wonderful blast from the past". In a more critical review, IGN awarded the game with a 6.5/10, the final verdict being, "Onimusha: Warlords is exactly how you remember it, and in 2019, that's not necessarily a good thing."
