January 29, 2004 - Headed for Japan next month and scheduled for our shores in May, Onimusha 3 is in for plenty of changes when it comes stateside in only a couple of months. Set to receive a slight title change to Onimusha 3 Demon Siege (why there isn't a hyphen, we'll never know), the latest and greatest from Keiji Inafune is being billed by officials as Capcom's premier title for the PlayStation 2 in 2004.


"Onimusha 3 Demon Siege will surpass its predecessors in all areas: gameplay, art, cinematics and technology to become the ultimate installment to complete this epic trilogy," said Todd Thorson, director of marketing, Capcom USA. "Onimusha: Warlords and Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny set an unprecedented standard for the PlayStation 2, and the team behind Onimusha 3 Demon Siege realized those standards and has stepped forward to surpass them. By evolving the technology to create highly detailed 3D environments and enlisting the talents of Jean Reno and martial arts choreographer Donnie Yen, simply put, Onimusha 3 Demon Siege will be awesome."

And awesome is a good word to use when describing Oni 3's enormous production values. From the absolutely terrific opening cinema (nearly 7 minutes in length) directed by Takashi Yamazaki and mo-capped by Donnie Yen, to the all-new 3D backgrounds and added character detail, Demon Siege is definitely among the best looking PS2 titles of this generation. So far the gameplay matches it too, as Inafune has done away with the trading system from Samurai's Destiny, and refined the combat engine to be quicker and more action oriented.