REVIEW : Onee Chanbara ORIGIN (PC)
What do you get when combining zombie hunting girls, jam-packed action fights, and bikini its one and only “Onee Chanabara origin”. The game is developed by Tamsoft and published by D3 Publishers and D3 go, the game was released in October 2020 and it has surely turned some heads along the way. The Onee Chambara series has blessed the fans of the series with heroines wielding blades and fighting. But the series has always had mixed fan-based and it was not very popular in the western countries. Just to make sure the players grasp the concept of the game and get players on track, the developers Tamsoft did all this hard work to combine the first 2 entries of the game in 1 game which I think is a 2 edged sword. The game consists of a lot of remastered videos which refreshed your memory on how the story started, but like I said it’s a 2 edged sword and I think it has done more harm than good. Onee chamabra origin is the retelling of Onee chambara 1 and one chambara 2 the game begins by giving a brief story of sibling rivalry as sisters “AYA” and “SAKI” fight it out. As the game moves on you will get to know the complete backstories of the sisters and you will get to know how close both the sisters are and how they both were bought up in life. The game does a good job of building the feelings of loss and hate as the story goes along and players get to know about the family of the sisters. Both the sisters are very good fighters and at the end of the adventure, you will know almost everything about the origin of the sisters. Even with 2 games combined into 1 the game isn’t that big as much I expected it to be yes there are some long cinematic and dialogues but the story can be completed in like 10 or 12 hours maximum.
There are some new additions to the game like new boss battles and story which has been refined to a great extent which makes it’s a lot easier to understand as over the top it is the flow of the narrative is much easier to understand and follow but this came at a cost, the cost of condense levels that lost minimalist themes for the backdrops.
I did face some issues with this game also this game doesn’t make the series go in any new direction it’s just following the same track and going on. I think the developers could have made something that would have given the fans of the series something new like a follow-up part of the series but they took out the time to combine 2 games into one which doesn’t satisfy the need of the players. The way the characters are designed is quite good and appreciable but the revealing clothes that get drenched in blood as you fight on are really good. But I don’t think there is any point in additional costumes as they won’t get much attention. There is no flaw in costumes as the game and developers don’t care about it as the characters aren’t wearing much of it anyway.
The game does get kind of serious on time with all these long cinematic in between which kills the mood. There aren’t many players who will take interest in such long serious dialogues all the players want is to see some busty girl fight zombies and get drenched in the blood of the victim. And this gives off the feeling that game is holding itself back from letting players have fun and in the end, all you are left with is an action game that is operational in systems.
Characters have 2 types of attacks which can be combined to make combos but here’s the biggest catch it’s hard to know that you are doing something different because most of the attacks have the same animations and because of this they look the same so it’s very hard to tell that if you are doing something new or just repeating that same old combo. It’s the same way for the whole game and even with new weapons, it stays the same which is a mood kill. After each level, you will get experience to level up your character and skill points to upgrade your HP, Attack, and defense but I didn’t see any difference in anything. I used all of my points to upgrade the defense of the character but it was all the same. The developers tried something new which went the other way in the game you will face some enemies that can only be hurt if you parry them first and because of a very small parry window, it’s annoying a lot annoying. The combos are very limited and this is holding the game back for better or for worse. The new battle systems run great and it looks just amazing but this excitement is short lived as you will see the same animation again and again. Missions are not that very difficult as you have only one job to clear out the room full of zombies and fight a quick boss at the end and do this all over again in the next level. The one good thing that is added to the game is a daemon type transformation that the character undergoes after fighting for some time but we get no control over this transformation which is a big drawback. This transformation occurs when the gauge is filled up. The runs great it’s amazing how the game is just a mindless action game but it runs so smoothly that it never gets overly complicated and you will be able to beat the game’s system very easily. Some additional modes will unlock as you play along.
REVIEW : Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (PC)
