I got this game because it features Zero (as he appears in the GBA Rockman Zero games). I love it for that, but otherwise it’s an OK entry in the “platform fighter” subgenre.
I don’t know anything about the Onimusha series. From what I can gather it’s set in feudal Japan and, like many historical-fiction Japanese games, Oda Nobunaga is the villain. He’s been consorting with demons and it’s up to protag guy to stop Nobunaga using his special soul absorbing powers. Blade Warriors has a selection of playable characters drawn from the two games in the series that had been released at that point, and because it was directed by Keiji Inafune he slipped in MegaMan.EXE from Battle Network and Zero as bonus characters.
The gameplay is not unlike Capcom’s earlier Power Stone but 2D, or think Smash Bros.: a simplified fighting game system with more jumping and traversal of a stage. In this case, stages always have planes to hop between and may curve, which can throw off projectiles. There’s a VS. mode, but as my brother was immediately bored stiff I spent most of my time in story mode on my own.
The campaign sees your chosen character fighting waves of mooks, with the occasional longer health bar. Everyone has a sword (it’s in the name) but other usable weapons often spawn. Taking down bad guys releases souls, which are up for grabs and have effects from restoring health to granting special attacks, or giving you experience points to spend between stages. Upgrading your character in this way or by finding new weapons and items is pretty satisfying, especially for the Mega Man characters who have additional armour forms. You’re really building yourself up to take on the optional gauntlet stages, which have a high potential for frustration if you overreach and lose an hour’s progress.
Blade Warriors is sort of in between an action game and fighting game, with compromises on both sides. It’s not a great fighting game because play control is stiff. It’s not a great action game because the story mode lacks variety. But it manages to sit in a small niche between genres, and has some unique mechanics to boast of.
But more importantly, how did I like Zero in this game? He plays very much like every other character in the game, with a default ranged attack that helps with the pesky evasive archers you encounter. He lacks the familiar flashy style of his other main guest appearance in SVC Chaos, again by conforming to the 3D graphics of this game. Rino Romano’s voice acting leans more towards his Spider-Man than his Batman in tone, seeming to take cues from X4′s localised depiction rather than any Japanese VAs, the later X games, or what I imagine the Zero series’ version of the character should sound like. His stage is a modern city in ruins that doesn’t really reflect the aesthetic of his games too well visually, with a weak cover of Departure playing over it.
What I’m saying is overall it’s not a great
showing for Zero, but the excitement of this rare appearance by one of
my all-time favourite game characters overrode all my criticisms and I
enjoyed playing as him after I’d put in the work to unlock him. The
game’s still just OK, and its treatment of Zero is OK, but the fact that
he’s there at all fills my heart with love and joy. Oh wait, his
moniker in-game is “MegaMan Zero”… that’s just flat wrong. Never mind,
I hate it now. (jk)
