What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, props on not getting Marfa'd badly. Shudder thinking about that one. I gotta spend some time with my PCB of this

[7711]

Also, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.

I'll have to buy Xenoblade first
Never been a big FF fan but I'll have a look.

Ada's "Leon is a near genius" report is just embarrassing

I don't remember it, what's it about ?

A while ago I replayed the regular campaign on Pro. It was pretty damn ugly - I don't know if they've increased the difficulty from the GameCube release or whether I've forgotten how difficult it was the first time around, but 77 deaths to 950 or so enemy kills. Ouch

Yeah, the game in pro still kicks my ass, but its a great challenge

[BIL]

Congrats, trap. Besides the clear, that run also seemed a good deal more aggressive than the previous, you really tore through stage 3 in particular. Nice Brocken aka SWASTICA fight too, I wondered how you'd handle him with your health looking a bit low going in.

Ta for including the full credits btw, I heartily approve of this practice in replays. Kazunaka Yamane did some nice stuff with Technos, I've been rediscovering his DDI&II soundtracks lately. I love how the sedate intermission BGM carries over to the next stage's intro, then gets blown apart by thrash guitar as the title crashes in. THE SLAUGHTER TROOPS

[Ed Oscuro]

Ada's "Leon is a near genius" report is just embarrassing

I don't remember it, what's it about ?

http://residentevil.wikia.com/Ada%27s_Report

Strangely, reading ahead about some other stuff that happens in the later games (none of which I've played!) it seems they adopted some of this as canon, or close. They also have been taking inspirations from the Anderson movies (which, again, I've gone out of my way to avoid).

So far in a new Pro playthrough, no deaths - just rescued Ashley, though, so nothing really difficult has come up yet. Just having the Red9 exclusive is enough to knock down the game-open villagers in one hit, and regular game villagers aren't much different. I should also mention that I've taken to using melee a lot more now, and conserving ammo a lot. TMP only got used on the last playthrough for bosses and the occasional difficult situation (also stuff like the bulldozer ride + occasional shiny item dislodging, because TMP bullets are a more cost-effective way of sending out individual shots than anything else, at only 20 ptas a shot, compared to 50 for a handgun bullet). I fully upgraded everything I could in the last Pro walkthrough, collected everything (nice how the game still has a way of forcing me to "rediscover" some of the really obscure hidden environmental stuff, though, though they're just little stones so it's not a big deal if you miss 'em) and upgraded everything fully, except for the broken butterfly.

Not sure I really want to try to figure out how to kill super chainsaw guys on Island with Hunk for 60,000+ points...maybe I don't need to. Handcannon seems nice but pointless from the standpoint of keeping gameplay intact, even without upgrades, because of the broken butterfly's already overpowering traits.

[BIL]

He has what it takes to survive against overwhelming odds.

He certainly does Ada!

Encountered a fucknut. No refuge.

1. Matrix backflip
2. Buddy dead "NOOOOOO"
3. Reverse German Suplex

[trap15]

Congrats, trap. Besides the clear, that run also seemed a good deal more aggressive than the previous, you really tore through stage 3 in particular.

Yeah, I decided I was a bit tired of trying to do runs, so I cracked open a coke and let the anger loose Stage 3 is mostly just about waiting until THE SLASH STREET SCREAMERS decide to cooperate and accept their fate

Nice Brocken aka SWASTICA fight too, I wondered how you'd handle him with your health looking a bit low going in.

Swastika is actually probably the easiest boss past stage 2. Slash sometimes catches me if I'm not paying attention, and Windwalker is actually where I still have the most problems. You might have guessed by how cautious I was being during that fight.

Ta for including the full credits btw, I heartily approve of this practice in replays.

I wholly agree! It should be a crime to not

[Ed Oscuro]

this episode of sesame street is brought to you by the letters "A" and "X"
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/9290 ... 953938.jpg
- it is because you are part insect

that reminds me of things that are super silly: Ashley's expression after "My...ffffatttther?" Uhh. But Separate Ways adds a couple new ones...arguably Saddler during Ada's fight (compelling new content = "a slow dude follows you around and occasionally attacks you in a manner you can always dodge, unless it's just some kind of random weak long-range tentacle thing with no windup time, great design choices all around boys") but especially Ada's indescribable expression as she leans back in the chopper seat. I also enjoyed the bright sun blotting out the credits of the people involved with this effort.

I really need to put this thing to bed and crack open those DMC and Onimusha packs though, also the copy of Shinobi I bought at retail years ago.

[Hagane]

Gave the PSP remake of Tactics Ogre a try...

What a mess. They completely ruined the game in every imaginable way. Damage for everything has been significantly reduced, which makes fights long and tedious. Before a hit or two was enough to down someone, now characters can withstand several blows and survive. To add insult to injury, for some reason they decided that making pretty much every attack not guaranteed was a good thing. So even attacking from the back has a significant chance to miss, making everything random as hell. This is particularly annoying with archers, who seem to be unable to hit anything from anywhere.

And then there's a ton of dumbing down to help the usual braindead Square-Enix fan to clear the game: characters don't die instantly anymore and you have a three turn period of grace before they are gone, you can buy resurrection items right from the start (and stock on a good number of them since you get a lot of money after freeing Ronway), you can go back in time if you mess up, the aforementioned reduced damage of course lets you play more sloppily while in the original a single mistake in positioning meant dying in one hit... Tactics Ogre wasn't really that hard, you just had to be a bit careful, so all this dumbing down was completely unwarranted.

Then there's the awful revamped job system and the stupid new way to learn skills... I really can't find a single new thing I can consider an improvement besides the obvious audiovisual stuff. A shame that they completely fucked up a nice game like this.

[trap15]

On viewing my 1CC video and a Double Dragon Advance 1CC video a few times, I think I've realized what makes Technos brawlers so much damn fun.

Not only does everything feel awesome to beat up, but it's nice and fluid once you get a handle on how to do everything.
Even past that, the logic for the enemies is brilliant: they actively try to surround you, which is certain to lead to your own pounding. You need to blast through enemies so that you can catch them all in a group for beating. The key is very much to never be surrounded, and avoid being knocked down at almost all cost.

[BIL]

I just love that committed sense of physically beating down enemies. You have to hit them until they're visibly doubled over in pain before you can grab them or land a knockdown blow, and they become less able to escape ground attacks or grapples as injuries add up. It extends to the player side, too - when you make a mistake and get clobbered in these games you really feel it, with the character staggering helplessly before getting sent to the ground. Then there's the way even minor enemies have to be smashed ruthlessly - everything's a threat, with just a couple scrubs capable of surrounding you and taking an irretrievable chunk of health.

It's the genre equivalent of purity like Raiden II's, where the basic action of shooting/fighting has an addictive impact, complemented by awesome presentation. Technos's hit sfx are the Seibu explosions of their genre.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Never been a big FF fan but I'll have a look.

Crystal Chronicles is Final Fantasy only by name. That and character designs. I like this review.
The Crystal Bearers and Excite Truck happen to be the Wii games that make me feel least sorry for the console. Zack & Wiki shapes up to be the third.

[7711]

Never been a big FF fan but I'll have a look.

Crystal Chronicles is Final Fantasy only by name. That and character designs. I like this rewiev.
The Crystal Bearers and Excite Truck happen to be the Wii games that make me feel least sorry for the console. Zack & Wiki shapes up to be the third.

It does look pretty good :)
I don't know why I always imagined it would be some kind of cheap spin off... The one on the wii also looks like its pretty close to the style of FFXII, the only FF game I really liked, so why not.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Pulled off critical chain in Onimusha 3 a couple of times. Rather demanding indeed. I wonder how accurate input must be (how many frames we have to push square). Almost finished Beginner lesson, 3 kills short of the goal.

Another big company that at least tried to take Wii seriously was Ubisoft. Red Steel 2 isn't great, but it has got excellent presentation. PoP: The Forgotten Sands is a different game altogether from the multiplatform one that shared its title.

[starbelle]

skyrim~~~~~

[Marc]

Ninja Spirit. I'd forgotten how awesome this is. Made it to the last level on one credit years ago but never finished it. Don't think I'll rectify that now, stalling at St4 but loving every minute.

Oh and to Trap and BIL, thanks for turning me on to Double Dragon Advance. Fucking brutal. First GBA game that I want to play emulated on a big screen with a stick because it deserves it. Kerb stomps SoR.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I decided to get Far Cry 3 since it was marked down to $20. Haven't played it much yet. I'm hoping that cranking up the difficulty helps with the AI. The computer is doing a lot of dumb things on the default difficulty.

[CMoon]

With Soul Hackers done and a week+ before SMT4, I'm playing Vagrant Story.

[Aguraki]

anyone here played rogue legacy?
curious what u people think of it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Michelle Aubert can do criticals in Onimusha 3 too, which makes for a funky mixture of RE gunplay and Onimusha issening. With a hint of "true" survival horror (which Onimusha generally isn't), as grenades are way trickier to use than magic.
The weapons she finds remind me of something... that I can't put my hands on... I get it! Dante's firearms in DMC3 that can't be used mid-air. Not sure if some animations aren't even the same.
Her chapter makes pretty obvious that 3 isn't just second helping. Gotta wonder what new (other than co-op) Dawn of Dreams have brought to the table.

[Domino]

Teki Paki from Toaplan is a bloody amazing puzzle game.



Too bad the game isn't popular. It is pretty damn good for a puzzle game.

[Ed Oscuro]

I had high hopes for Onimusha 1 and 2...thinking back on it, it's probably a wonder they turned out as well as they did.

Part 1 was barely a game; Part 2 is a showcase of infuriating bad design. Capcom gets my respect for the Issen stuff but it seems very random to pull off - not the sort of thing I can do. Compare this with Vagrant Story, which is less interactive (in a way) but still lets even the lowest scrub player in on the secret of balancing the timing game with hit-and-run gameplay via the phenomenal Risk system; Onimusha's second-long pauses between screens during tense fights and disorientation can't compete. Just having played it puts into stark relief how big an advance RE4 was at the time, in almost every way (although I've yet to play the DmC games so there's always that, and hoping it's not the same crowd promoting it that clamored for more games in the vein of Onimusha 1 and 2). Still a bit hopeful for Oni 3 and eventually Dawn of Dreams but "Action Adventure of the Year" = what happens when clueless graphics-whore fanboys run the console sites...and when myopic developers fail to pay attention to little things in the game design.

IGN's Onimusha 1 and 2 reviews are masterpieces of how not to write reviews. It is so painfully obvious that they just took all the sucker punches and chalked it up to "reasonably tough gameplay" and just wanted to focus on the pretty, pretty graphics. Also their reviewer really let Onimusha 2's voice acting crawl under his skin - which is really a stupid thing to complain about, because the VA here is actually not bad. Yes, they don't have both soundtracks on the same disc anymore (bigger game maybe?). I'd rather take Capcom to task for the painfully slow text scroll speed (unadjustable) and their tendency to make you wait through painfully long cutscenes before entering tough fights, or the even more disjointed level design of the original. Onimusha 2's cutscenes can all be skipped (hoo-fuckin'-ray) but the game's many preposterous boss design decisions will make you wish for Onimusha 1's design instead.

Maybe somebody can riddle out the logic behind these passages from IGN:

Much like the first Onimusha the captured souls of your fallen opponents act like experience points for your weapons and armor to gain strength and power. An approach that was mastered far too easily in the original game, the soul collecting/experience system in the sequel is just the opposite: it takes too long. Requiring a heap of fallen spirits before powering up your items even halfway to their first level (especially true for armor-type goodies), you can expect to move in and out of rooms for thirty minutes to almost two hours building up your reserve of souls: A necessity so that you can compete with the latter enemies. And while I'm just as big a dungeon crawler as any other RPG veteran out there, finding a more balanced way to approach the need to fight and collect souls should have been considered.

That's not to say that it isn't fun -- because it is. More action than adventure, the hack and slash situations Jubei finds himself in may grow tedious if you're a perfectionist, but are just what the doctor ordered for straight-forward action hounds.

Fuckin' unreal.

The only things I failed to do in the original (finish time was around 9 hours) were find two fluorite pieces and therefore the oni-spirits game remained hidden as well (which sounded like a bit of fun). I kept a savestate before the final bit just in case I wanted to try looking for the pieces in the hopes that one wasn't hiding in a spot where only Kaede could get to them (which is unlikely) or in another now closed-off section (also unlikely, I hope). Using smarts to recharge health from scrub enemies allowed me to upgrade every herb in the game and save them for the Dark Arena, which I completed on my second try (using a bunch of medicines - maybe 6? - ended up with that much later). Didn't really need health through the rest of that game.

Onimusha 2 is a wholly different matter; a lack of foresight meant that a certain exceptionally badly designed fight on Capcom's part (after two cutscene parts!) means I'm now down to a single medicine (found once I could restart exploration as Oyu). If I had been able to see this coming I would've backtracked and refilled my health, but they want to throw you in a really vulnerable state into a fight you can't win, without signalling what the conditions for winning are - it's telling that even walkthroughs for Onimusha 2 fail to mention that the real condition for the beach fight is hitting that guy a whole bunch of times (even blocked hits count), not surviving for a minute, and not doing damage. I think the only thing the game has let me feel like I've achieved is the ability to kick down enemies and get asked "ARE YOU FUCKING SUPER SURE YOU DON'T WANT TO ENTER SCRUB MODE THIS TIME YOU GODDAMN BLOODY PUSTULE?" every time I die.

Terrible non-games. They have their moments and it's not too hard to forget your troubles for a moment when looking at some of the areas, and then you're off again, getting juggled as Oyu for a three-hit combo 'till death by a giant enemy, or trying to strafe-crawl around some enemy while there's a wall in the way. The water closet puzzle from the original should have been the high-water mark for frustration in the series. Instead it's a fair representation of the whole series: Do it again and try not to be frustrated.

[Kaiser]

Give Onimusha 3 a try Ed, it's certainly the best of the series by far, most fun and most balanced. Although beware, some of the frustrating issues including camera may still annoy you.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Capcom gets my respect for the Issen stuff but it seems very random to pull off - not the sort of thing I can do.

Training sessions in 3 might come in handy. Since it requires sharp reflexes, you're better off practicing in the morning. Deflect critical is your safest bet. Sidestepping is easier done with d-pad, but if you bet on deflect critical, you can ignore digital movement controls.
Thing is, the more you Issen, the more enemies respawn and the more orbs they give away. I fall for this kind of hooks in action games (see chaining/mugging in Blood Will Tell and Crimson Tears). This is what Diablo needs (as well as return to one fat dungeon).
3 is certainly the easiest game to play safe of the Onimusha trilogy, and there are no more ARGH moments of sheer game design lunacy (1 and 2 had one each).

Just having played it puts into stark relief how big an advance RE4 was at the time, in almost every way (although I've yet to play the DmC games so there's always that, and hoping it's not the same crowd promoting it that clamored for more games in the vein of Onimusha 1 and 2).

The most technical challenge in RE4 is to cancel reloading animation by hitting the menu button in the right frame. Its combat don't play on the same team as combat in Onimusha or DMC. Michelle of Onimusha 3 is as close to "technical" RE as you're likely to find in a game.

Aiming in RE4 takes skill for sure... in the shooting range. Who's ever gotten hooked on those chalenges? (I collected all prizes with a Wiimote, which was easy.) That Wii controls don't "break" the game is a proof RE4 has never been about precise aiming.

[CMoon]

I had high hopes for Onimusha 1 and 2...thinking back on it, it's probably a wonder they turned out as well as they did.

The series needs to be remade with modern gen technology and 3D backgrounds, not static 2D rooms. I actually have some fond memories of this series (played all 3), but I agree that going back and playing them now would be a pain. Dragon's Dogma is a good step forward for Capcom even if the game itself is a bit lacking...I think that game engine could work well for something like Ominusha.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Polygonal backgrounds didn't make Onimusha 3 (where I feel the formula peaked) any more 3D. People who played those games for the graphics must have practically cralwed through them without learning what the combat is all about. Most English-writing reviewers? Which is not to say I have never crawled, or that games shouldn't have been more self-explanatory on the subject to begin with. If my buddy wasn't crazy about Onimusha back in the day, I might've dismissed it after the first mortifying cutscene.

[CMoon]

Wasn't really thinking about the graphic quality of the backgrounds, but rather how static 2D backgrounds effect gameplay. Vagrant Story may look like it is made out of legos, but the world is fully interactive.

[Obiwanshinobi]

One thing God of War did better than Onimusha 3 was the camera (the other thing was antialiasing). I don't think Onimusha needed to be any more substantially 3D than it was. Even the camera isn't without certain charm whilst playing as Michelle (when it does feel like RE with an arcade hook). Onimusha neither tried, nor should have been PS2 Shinobi so to speak.

[Ed Oscuro]

Just having played it puts into stark relief how big an advance RE4 was at the time, in almost every way (although I've yet to play the DmC games so there's always that, and hoping it's not the same crowd promoting it that clamored for more games in the vein of Onimusha 1 and 2).

The most technical challenge in RE4 is to cancel reloading animation by hitting the menu button in the right frame. Its combat don't play on the same team as combat in Onimusha or DMC. Michelle of Onimusha 3 is as close to "technical" RE as you're likely to find in a game.

Aiming in RE4 takes skill for sure... in the shooting range. Who's ever gotten hooked on those chalenges? (I collected all prizes with a Wiimote, which was easy.) That Wii controls don't "break" the game is a proof RE4 has never been about precise aiming.

Can't take you seriously when you say you used the Wiimote, which I keep hearing "makes aiming easier, but doesn't break the game," which leads me to suspect that it actually breaks the game and people don't want to admit they didn't have the skills to aim in the classic style - which is the style the game was designed around.

No, you cancel reloading animations by exploiting dodge prompts or a close-range dynamite explosion. Other interesting techniques includes taking out threatening mobs by attacking a stunned enemy with your own melee attack, exploiting dynamite throws, exploiting grapples from enemies behind you, attacking Garradors at point-blank range with a shotgun (the cage match in the castle was a pain for me on Pro this time, but I am sure I approached it the wrong way), and more. Just playing through on Normal with liberal use of a magnum isn't the full experience; Pro is quite difficult (77 deaths!) but quite doable with care.

I don't get what this "technical play" argument is supposed to do for Onimusha. It feels like people who excuse every insipid plot non-development and thoughtless grinding gameplay in a jRPG and deem the whole steaming pile playable "because there are lots of styles available which are really well thought out and balanced." In Onimusha, everything "technical" is hidden from the player either deliberately or by virtue of completely inept design, especially in the sequel which is trying to be too many different genres at once, feeling fragmented and carelessly made as a result. Gotta love those useless perspectives at the beach fight, and what the hell is up with Gingafatsu's second fight in the woods? Having the boss hide in the undergrowth and confuse the player about where he actually is located (even using lock-on it's not clear) is clearly terrible design (stealth ninja from the original were fine). I loved finding out that Jubei is completely incompetent to attack up or down the incline at the very start of Yagyu village, even though enemies seem to do it just fine! I also have to love a game that allows you to upgrade all your armor right away if only you'll spend hours grinding on it. RE4's treasure system is far superior; now choices are "should I go for 10,000 pesetas right now to get that last bit of an exclusive, or will I wait for the full 35,000?" which compares well to Onimusha's "keep grindin' buddy" which promotes mindless grinding instead of playing. I do like multiplying soul bonuses via the Gyaran, but there's not really that much of a risk to balance it out (aside from losing souls if you try too late to attack one escaping, and the general shittiness of trying to attack enemies at height with melee weapons doesn't help). I don't like repeatedly executing the kick + ground stab only to have enemies either roll out just in the nick of time, or to have more enemies show up and engage me so that I cannot even reap the rewards of my earlier fighting. I understand the game designers are within their rights to try to goad you into taking damage from enemies if you carelessly try to suck up souls instead of paying attention to the enemy, but the window of opportunity for making good still feels off.

Ranking games is much more involved than just how narrow the window is for executing high-level concept moves. RE4 is often excessively forgiving in executing many of its own special moves, but it has plenty of them, does a great job teaching the player about these moves, and ties them together into a cohesive system which offers real choices. I view this as an obviously more advanced system than boiling everything down into when you hit the square or R1 buttons. And we should remember the technical affronts the player must endure in this system, like trying to cross a timed fire puzzle with second-long pauses between movement due to unnecessary camera angle changes.

Sometimes Resident Evil 4 is clumsy to control, that's true, but mob control is generally far more satisfying than I've seen in the Onimusha games so far, absent a lucky issen shot (ain't got time for trial and error to figure out timing on every different enemy attack) killing two big critters at once, or hitting a line of four enemies with the spear's freeze attack. In RE4 there are a host of little tweaks to the system that make up for a player's potential loss of spatial awareness or limited mobility, and bunched mobs tend to form up naturally, but the game doesn't go easy on you either. (Ladders are the obvious exception to this rule, which are terribly easy to exploit; door bashing can be tedious as well - which is why I didn't shoot any doors or intentionally door bash an enemy in my last Pro run, although I still used ladders a few times.) There's plenty of times where accuracy and speed are critical in RE4 - not just the shooting range (I cleared every level this last time through the first time I visited each range by using the TMP - with a high score of only 5300 from an early visit - the pistol is much harder), and you have to mix it up with movement and mob control. Perfect example (which annoyed the hell out of me, but I think I approached it wrong) was the Pro-level Garrador cage fight with regular castle ganados jumping in or sniping at you from outside. Outside of Pro, and the length of the game, there's still an amazing amount of content, like The Mercenaries. Even getting 60,000 points is a challenge with some characters, but great players have gotten many multiples of that. The Dark Realm barely qualifies as a minigame, and is really just more of the main game. Oni-Spirits sounds interesting but Capcom gets no thanks for tying it to another insipid fetch quest. If you're really proud of your minigames you make them accessible, like RE4 does.

For me the bottom line differentiating these games is accessibility - RE4 is transparently designed in many important respects with a host of thoughtful decisions and it makes the game far more fun as a result. Onimusha's defenders point to systems that are totally invisible to the great majority of players, and the first two games are grind-heavy and poorly controlling, even taking into account its "advanced" features, with a terrible engine and even more terrible control options. What's up with releasing two games without analog control for the PS2? Issen disappeared, would there be anything left in Onimusha worth defending? Maybe the Gyaran dance, and that's about it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Outside of Pro, and the length of the game, there's still an amazing amount of content, like The Mercenaries. Even getting 60,000 points is a challenge with some characters, but great players have gotten many multiples of that.

Onimusha 3 has training (literally called "training") and it's by far the most challenging part of the game accessible during the first playthrough. Calling the game grind-heavy indicates you really need to bet on deflect critical (as stated before, issening multiplies enemies in every location and the number of orbs each gives; no extra loadings, no grinding for the glory, just practice, practice, practice).
RE4 simply doesn't have techniques as demanding as chain critical. I cleared Pro on PS2 and it doesn't compare. Execution is that much easier.
Having played neither Power Stone, nor Gotcha Force, I suspect The Mercenaries is a slower-paced take on this kind of challenge. I need something to play drunk or tired too, but I don't mind more technical kind of challenge either.

[Ed Oscuro]

Somebody didn't read my post at all.
1.) I'm not talking about Onimusha 3 yet. I'm playing through the series in order, and I'm midway through Onimusha 2. I haven't referred to Onimusha 3 at all except to say specifically that I'm still holding out hope for that one (and Dawn of Dreams).
2.) I already have stated that I am not impressed with your confusing "how little time is available for a button input" with "technical gameplay," and in turn confusing "technical gameplay" with "stuff I ought to give a fuck about in a game."

I don't know why you'd mention Power Stone and Gotcha Force, as those are standard 3D fighters to my knowledge. Might as well talk about P.N. 03 instead. RE4's Mercenaries is definitely an improvement over Onimusha 1's Dark Realm, which is basically just more gameplay (and Oni-Spirits also sounds like normal gameplay, but with pot-killing quotas added). They did the bare minimum to add gameplay here - I don't see the Dark Realm as being anything but a challenge for "self-motivated" (i.e., excessively bored) gamers to play while crippling themselves. Guess what? You can achieve the same in RE4 by limiting your weapon selection. Even the shooting range from RE4 has got replayability built in, so long as you don't ruin it with the Wiimote:

[...] Wiimote aim (as stated before) doesn't seem to wait for 3D model to move. Again - God Hand it is not.

But quantity over quality, right? Onimusha 1 is about 4 hours of actual gameplay (the rest is backtracking and grinding). Onimusha 2, well, didn't you say it best?

Resident Evil 4's opening hours made me swap the disc for Onimusha 2 and play that instead. Many moons later I came back to RE4 and found it not as weak on the balance as its opening hours made it seem, but man, was that one lame opening.

It is different from Onimusha 1 - the grinding is even more excessive and takes up an even bigger chunk of gameplay. Of course I forget myself - we're comparing playing Onimusha 2 with Issen alone to playing RE4 with the Wiimote and abusing everything we can!

Sorry, but I think I'll stop you right here:

[Re: Grappling hook games (Bionic Commando, etc.)]
Resident Evil 4 (Separate Ways), where it works a lot like the aforementioned brush technique in Ōkami.

Cinematic qualities of RE4 were clumsy and embarrassing if you ask me (I like Mercenaries, where it all boils down to sheer mechanics, better than the scenarios).

RE4 apologists