When Onimusha Tactics was first announced a couple of years ago, I must say I was intrigued. Taking the well-known samurai franchise and adapting it to the SRPG genre seemed like an interesting idea, to be sure. Unfortunately, the game we ended up with is much less than its sum of parts.

The game follows the story of young Onimaru, who is descended of the Oni Clan. Because of this, he is bestowed power through the Oni Gauntlets, which have mysterious abilities in connection with his not-quite-human blood. The evil king of Genma Demons, Nobunaga, is dead set on having rivers of blood flow throughout Japan. It is up to Onimaru and his band of warriors to stop Nobunaga and his Genma horde.

Tile sets and sprites look remarkably similar to those from Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, which was released near the beginning of the GBA's lifetime. Spell effects aren't exactly mind-blowing either, making for a decidedly average-looking title. The music has a definite "feudal Japanese" sound to it, and the composition is up to snuff. But sadly, there is little variety, especially in battle themes. Presentation, however, is handled quite well. Hand-drawn stills help evoke the era and certainly set the mood.

That ambience is quickly shattered as one realises that the gameplay is sorely lacking. From simple things such as the lack of counterattacking to the utterly pathetic level of challenge, Onimusha Tactics will not appeal to fans of the genre. Characters come pre-defined, and can be reduced to one of four pseudo-classes: Swordsman, Ninja, Archer/Gunner and Healer. Swordsmen hack at things, Ninjas can throw shurikens or use knives on things, Archers/Gunners shoot at things, and Healers repair unit damage. The problem is that characters are essentially interchangeable, and there is little use for Healers, as characters do not permanently die.

With the lack of any counterattacks (excluding the Issin command), the game plays something like an RPG set on a SRPG map. There is little strategy involved in clearing a stage, as you can attack with abandon and the areas themselves are far from interesting. In fact, the greatest annoyance players will find is that if you take your time defeating your foes, more will appear randomly, at the opposite position of the map from your party. By the time you reach the half-way point in the game, the hero will learn an incredibly over-powered attack that simply dispels any possible difficulty the game may have had.

As mentioned before, the Issin command is the only method in which to counterattack, and while it is an interesting concept, it has little worth in practice. Issin allows you to completely destroy an enemy if it tries to physically attack you. Too bad that most enemies you'd want to kill in one hit will use a special attack instead, which will bypass it. The only enemy units that do not use special attacks constantly are so underpowered that Issin is a waste. In fact, the only advantage to gambling with Issin is that, if you do destroy an enemy, the Oni Gauntlets will absorb quadruple the Souls than normal.

There aren't any shops in the world of Onimusha. Instead, the lead character, Onimaru, creates items with the assistance of the Oni Gauntlets. By combining Genma Gems which are awarded randomly after defeating an enemy, it is possible to create incredibly powerful weapons and armour. Unfortunately, you have to first find the "recipe" to begin transmutating anything. Recipes, much like the Gems, are dropped randomly after killing an enemy. While certain types of enemies carry different categories of Gems, it can get annoying quickly when you simply do not receive the required stones to make that new sword your character needs.

Items you've created via the Oni Gauntlets can also be powered up with the souls of your vanquished foes. When you "enhance" certain weapons, new skills will become available to the character equipped with it. It will also raise the attack/defense of the item in question.

Onimusha Tactics is an extremely linear game. There are absolutely no branching paths and there is only one "side quest", and it can't truly be called that. During their travels, players will be shown a cut-scene in which Onimaru finds a strange stone fragment which transfers him into the "Phantom Realm": an endless barrage of boring battles. Thankfully, you can "Withdraw" from the area whenever you wish. Players can use the Phantom Realm to level up their characters, and collect Genma Gems, but that's about it. That is because the World Map only gives you three options, "Start Battle", "Save/Load" and "Phantom Realm".

This brings me to the biggest annoyance I have with the title. Players can only access their Organize screen (which lets you equip your units/create items/etc) if they are about to head into battle. If players want to experiment with new recipes they've found or see what equipment you need to change, they'll find themselves hopping into the Phantom Realm instead of being forced into the next story-based brouhaha. This quirk is very shortsighted on Capcom’s part and borders on being a design flaw.

In the end, Onimusha Tactics is neither horrible nor wonderful. With its lack of difficulty, underdeveloped Creation System, and boring pre-defined characters, Onimusha Tactics lags behind others in the genre. Capcom may have tried to make the game appealing towards novice SRPGers, but it simply leaves much to be desired.