We have all heard the story before... a kidnapped princess, her fate, and that of the entire kingdom thrown in for good measure, rests on your courage and strength to seek out and destroy her demonic abductors. I am, of course, not referring to another Super Mario sibling, but the Capcom foray into the action-horror splice adventure genre, Genma Onimusha.

Loosely based on historical events, the game begins immediately after the death of Nobunaga, a notorious warlord in Feudal Japan. The back-story of the game, thankfully, is of little importance to the game, and instead serves as backdrop to a visually mesmerizing world of swordplay and sorcery. During the course of the game, you play Samonosuke, a skilled swordsman, and his loyal (and attractive) ninja sidekick, Kaede, entrusted with the task to rescue Princess Yuki from the clutches of demonic forces before she becomes the star in the upcoming ritual sacrifice.

It is worth noting that Genma Onimusha is a PlayStation 2 port of Onimusha Warlords released in early 2001. The Xbox version boasts several additional features and graphical improvements over the PS2 game, and some of these shall be highlighted during the course of this review.

Going against the puzzle-centric tradition set by Capcom's flagship franchise, Resident Evil, Genma Onimusha is all about the action. It is therefore unsurprising that the combat system is deep, frantic, and a lot of fun. As Samonosuke, you have been gifted with a magical gauntlet that has the ability to absorb souls from slain enemies simply by holding down the (A) button. The souls absorbed can replenish your vitality and magic power, and also upgrade your equipment. A new Xbox-exclusive type of soul has been included in the game that unleashes your ogre power and grants you with some vitality and temporary invincibility that is very welcome in the face of many formidable battles. The twist here is that your enemies can also fight to absorb the new green souls and send them into a frenzy mode, rendering them more powerful and aggressive. Competing for the green souls often gives way to some interesting battle strategies.

The soul-grabbing aside, the combat themselves are intense and take the button-mashing formula to the extreme. Equipped with the powers of three elemental orbs and their sword counterparts, you can execute a great variety of slashes simply by pressing the attack button. You can also perform a deadly strike that is a beauty to behold if you time your attacks correctly. Once an enemy hits the ground, you can get up-close for a finishing move to dispatch it permanently. Each sword becomes more powerful (and naturally bigger and meaner in appearance) as you upgrade them with souls that you absorb, and comes with its own magical attack that can often bring down an entire horde of demons. Countering the sometimes frustrating camera angles and the stiff D-pad control scheme, you can turn around 180 degrees with a button-press and also block most attacks because you are often vastly outnumbered by rivals that all exhibit distinct combat patterns.

I should also mention that you will have a short stint as Samonosuke's attractive ninja sidekick, Kaede. She fights with a short blade and throwing knives. Although without the ability to absorb souls to replenish her health or to perform magic attacks, she can still hold her own during combat and the departure in combat style is much appreciated. I experienced a degree of urgency while playing as Kaede that was not present in other parts of the game. Overall, the combat is enthralling for the most part but some may find it repetitive, especially in later stages where you have to fight literally hundreds of enemies in a single session in order to obtain more powerful items.

When you are not disemboweling, there are several types of puzzles to solve throughout the game. These are often on the easy side and lead to some additional items that aid in making your journey slightly easier. The Xbox version also has some additional costumes thrown in to make your quest more interesting.

Several mini-games and game modes can be unlocked by completing the game on various difficulty levels or collecting specific items during gameplay. These, however, do not hold much appeal in comparison with the main quest.

Genma Onimusha opens with a several minute long CG introduction that rivals the best game cinematics around, and sets up the tone for the game to follow. Within the game itself, all of the animations are mo-capped goodness. Characters move fluidly both in combat and during the numerous in-game cutscenes.

Showing off a new background animation system, the developers have created some of the most detailed and lush two-dimensional backdrops ever to grace a console. I was pleasantly surprised while fighting amidst a patch of bamboos, that they not only swayed with the wind but also gets sliced in half as I slashed my way through. The three-dimensional characters are rendered in great detail and fits in perfectly with the equally impressive and varied environments.

This game has some awesome weapon effects that give a lot of credence to the sword combat in the game. In terms of a background score, the developers have opted for a "less is more” approach. The good news is that what there is of it is appropriate and does its job in accentuating the plot.

It is a pity that a Japanese voice track was removed from the PAL version of the game, as I usually prefer listening to the original voices. Here, the English dialogue is slightly stiff in places, but generally the voice actors all do a great job with their characters. And much of the stiffness may have been inherent in the script itself.