Video Game / Onimusha

Onimusha ("Oni warrior") is a series of action-adventure games by Capcom set in feudal Japan released primarily for the PlayStation 2. The story begins with infamous real life Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga being felled by an arrow in the midst of one of his greatest triumphs. However, Nobunaga's skill and brutality had already caught the eye of Fortinbras, the king of the Genma, (various types of demons that feast on humans) who offers a deal to Nobunaga: he can come back to life if he agrees to conquer Japan on behalf of the Genma demon clan and turn it into, in effect, a massive feeding ground. Nobunaga accepts, and events get off and running.

Onimusha: Warlords (released in 2001) starts with protagonist Samanosuke and his ninja sidekick Kaede racing to attempt to rescue a princess of the Saito clan, who has written to him of strange disappearances and events around their castle, and how she suspects demonic involvement. When he arrives, the castle is already under mass attack from demons and the princess has been kidnapped to be sacrificed as part of the ritual for resurrecting Nobunaga. Initially at a severe disadvantage against the Genma, Samanosuke receives a power up from the Oni, a clan of demons that were once rivals to the Genma, but which has been virtually destroyed by the Genma. This allows him to use powerful weapons made by the Oni and a supernatural gauntlet which sucks the souls out of defeated Genma and uses their power to aid him. He eventually confronts and kills the Genma king, Fortinbras; The epilogue, however, reveals that Nobunaga managed to come back to life anyway, and conquers the Saito clan territory while Samanosuke vanishes and is presumed dead.

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (released in 2002) has fewer survival horror elements than the original and leans more toward pure action-adventure. Nobunaga is solidifying his hold on Japan at the head of a Genma army, making rapid and cruel conquests. One of these conquests is Yagyu village, which causes Yagyu Jubei, (not the historical Jubei but his grandfather; in the game, the name Jubei is a title given to the head of the Yagyu clan) the half-oni head of the Yagyu clan and a renowned swordsman, to swear vengeance on Nobunaga. This game also features a supporting cast of four characters, each an outstanding warrior in his or her own way (or at least important to the plot) who, depending on the relationships Jubei forges with them, may be important in aiding him in his quest, or have the potential to be an enemy. Despite seemingly being bested by Jubei, Nobunaga swears to return and continue his conquest of Japan.

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (released in 2004) returns to having Samanosuke as the protagonist. In 1582 he and his uncle Akechi Mitsuhide lead an attack with the intent of assassinating Nobunaga himself, but before Samanosuke can deal the final blow, the Genma open a portal that, ala Samurai Jack, sends Samanosuke into the future. In France circa 2004, French DGSE agent Jacques Blanc is attempting to aid the French military in holding back the Genma hordes attacking Paris. When Samanosuke arrives on the scene, the time portal reopens, and Jaqcues is sent back to about a week before Samanosuke left. The player switches back and forth between the two characters and eras, each attempting to defeat the Genma. At the end Samanosuke defeats Nobunaga and absorbs his soul into the Oni gauntlet, preventing him from returning again.

Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (2006) the fourth and (so far) final installment, Nobunaga's chief general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, has replaced his master and finished conquering Japan as Nobunaga dreamed. With a unified Japan behind him he begins a war of conquest on the mainland, but his inability to score a decisive victory makes him turn to the Genma for help. Hideyoshi will supposedly receive the power of a god from the Genma, the Genma run rampant in the land, and perhaps worst of all, Hideyoshi is turning his own soldiers into battle crazed, bloodthirsty human-Genma hybrids. And the Genma have their own agenda and a devious plan to bring it to fruition... however, Hideyoshi's adopted son, known as Soki, and a band of powerful warriors take up arms to defeat him. Dawn of Dreams expanded the RPG elements and gameplay depth, moving away from the Tank Controls the previous games had used to something more manageable, while removing many of the annoying puzzles to make a more satisfying experience.

Three spin-off Onimusha titles exist: Onimusha Tactics, a spinoff for the Game Boy Advance - a turn-based strategy game featuring a new oni warrior named Onimaru, with returning characters Ekei, Magoichi and Kotaro from the second game; Onimusha Blade Warriors, a non-canonical fighting game in the style of Super Smash Bros. for the PlayStation 2, which features characters from the first two games (as well as Gargant, who first appears in the third game, and Guest Fighters MegaMan.EXE and Zero); and Onimusha Soul, a browser-based simulation RPG taking place during the Warring States era, and featuring cameos from many other Capcom characters redesigned to fit the theme. The original Onimusha was also ported to the Xbox under the title of Genma Onimusha, featuring extra content not found in the original game, including new areas to explore and new costumes.

Soki also more recently appeared as a playable character in the crossover fighting game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

A remaster of the original game was released in Japan on December 20, 2018 and worldwide on January 15, 2019. As of the Warlords remaster, the franchise's future is uncertain.

An anime sequel taking place during the Edo Period was announced by CAPCOM in 2022. Directed by prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike, it will be centered on Miyamoto Musashi (modeled after the legendary Toshiro Mifune) and aired on Netflix on November 2, 2023.

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This video game series contains examples of:

• Action Girl: Most of the female characters, particularly Kaede and Michelle.
• Almost Dead Guy: Heihachi in the third game.
• Alternate History: It follows a bit closely to history in Sengoku Period, but everything went off the rails the moment Oda Nobunaga got an arrow to the neck in Okehazama. The death of Honda Heihachiro Tadakatsu before Sekigahara may be the result of this and further enforcing the trope.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The Genma race are filled with nothing but Card-Carrying Villain demons that relish in every kind of atrocities and hatred you can think of, and anyone who willingly made a deal with Genma will also join in the Chaotic Evil personality Flanderization. Just about the only 'honorable' Genma is Gogandantess, the greatest swordsman of all demons! But even then, he was no Token Heroic Orc, just a Noble Demon.
• Anachronism Stew: Though is often highly implied that some machinery came from both the Oni and the Genma.
• Annoying Arrows: One of the monsters from the third game has arrows sticking out of the body. It doesn't affect its fighting style at all.
• Anyone Can Die: Supporting characters, particularly supporting NPCs, don't always have the best life expectancy in this series. The most notable case is the second game, where depending on your actions, two of your four possible companions can die, one of them by your hand.
• Artistic License – History: The narration in the first game says that Tokichiro will eventually go on to conquer the entire world under a different name. Uh... sure, if by the world you mean the majority of Japan.
• Asteroids Monster: There is a 50-50 chance of Zolworms exploding into smaller globs once killed. It's best to keep your distance.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Nobunaga, king of the Genma, is, not surprisingly, the strongest of them.
• Ax-Crazy: Ranmaru, after being transformed into a Genma. Munenori and Ginghamphatts also count.
• Bamboo Technology: Present throughout the series, but the absolute zenith is when you fight Hideyoshi for the last time in Dawn of Dreams. He takes you on in a bamboo mecha.
• BFG: What Vega Donna has installed on Azuchi castle. It's used on the already crumbling Mont Saint-Michel.
  • Michelle also has access to a Grenade Launcher. Time to make some Genma soup!
  • Magoichi also uses a type of rocket launcher to finish off against Ginghamphatts
• BFS: Enryuu and Rekka Ken from the first and second games are large broadswords with fire powers. The third game has Kuga, a nodachi with Razor Wind powers, and the final Onimusha Sword and Genma Samonji. In Dawn of Dreams, Soki's entire arsenal is composed of these, some of them being so encumbering that even he can barely lift them. Some enemy monsters wield these as well, for example Marcellus.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Many high-ranked genma tend to be like this, expecially in Dawn of Dreams, including Hecuba, a Wasp, the Great Genma Beast, the Gargantuan Flying monster which carries Azuchi Castle. Also the true form of Claudius, Rosencrantz and Ophelia
• The Big Damn Kiss: Jubei and Oyu towards the end of Samurai's Destiny (provided his goodwill with her is high enough).
• Bishounen Line: Fortinbras in Dawn of Dreams does this, as opposed to Nobunaga who went One-Winged Angel in the 2 games before Dawn of Dreams. According to the Japanese Wiki, the White Serpent is just a form he takes in certain situations, such as blessing his followers in dark ceremonies.
• Black-and-White Morality: It's pretty simple. Fortinbras and the Genma are Always Chaotic Evil race and anyone who follow them will be a cackling Card-Carrying Villain with zero ability to understand goodness. Oppositions of Genma, be it Oni or other humans, will be The Paragon, savior of mankind and exemplary slayer of evil (or just merely innocent victims).
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Many genma ninja are armed with this. Also Genma Ranmaru.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Played realistically: Blocking will save you from harm and even break the attack of certain enemies. However, stronger attacks will break your defense leaving you open for the following attack and knocking you back. A handful of attacks can't be blocked at all.
• Blow You Away: Shippu and Senpumaru both allow you to summon huge whirlwind. Also the Kuuga sword in Onimusha 3, albeit it's more like Razor Wind and it's listed as "Air"
• Body Horror: Giving you're facing the Genma, you'll find examples of this here and there.
• Body of Bodies: Flying Genma monsters composed of nothing but purple skulls.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: The main protagonists can switch to a bow & arrow on the fly. Jubei can do this in the second game
• Bragging Rights Reward: Subverted with Bishamon Sword in Onimusha 3. The sword is obtained from fairly difficult Dark Realm just before the Final Boss, during which you transform and use another equipment entirely, meaning there's literally no chance of using it. However, if you check the level of the sword used during Final Boss battle, you'll notice that acquisition of Bishamon Sword raised its level by about 2.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Marcellus, a former Oni. Sakon Shima in Dawn of Dreams
• Bratty Half-Pint: Henri Blanc starts off as this somewhat.
• Bullet Time: Jubei Akane Yagyu's Awakening ability. It also has the nice effect of revealing invisible Genma.
• Came Back Wrong: Any humans or Oni who are killed and brought back to life as Genma, such as Marcellus and Ranmaru. (The latter was not pleasant as a human, but after the transformation...)
• Card-Carrying Villain: Most of the villains in the series.
• Catchphrase: "My name is Gogandantess, the greatest swordsman of all demons!"
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Averted. Although the citizens of Paris are brutally slaughtered in a surprise attack in the opening cutscene of 3, the French Army are quick to respond...even if they aren't well equipped to deal with taking down demons. This is justified since they were overwhelmed.
• Chekhov's Skill: There are two of them, all involving Samanosuke:
  • In the very first scene of his introduction in the first game, he is seen to be capable of using a spear. Three games later, it became his main weapon.
  • In the opening scene of the third game, when fighting the two boar-like genmas, Samanosuke cut off one of their spears and used it as an impromptu second sword. Later in the game, the first weapon you got is a pair of swords.
• Chickification: Although Oyu starts off the second game as a capable, take-no-nonsense swordswoman in the face of boorish louts, she quickly degenerates into a fairly weak Satellite Love Interest who needs to be saved by Jubei (or, in one case, Gogandantess) all the time. Unusual, considering she is very able to hold her own against hoardes of demon soldiers during gameplay.
• Cleavage Window: In the second game, both variants of Oyu's armor has this.
• Continuity Snarl: Examples in Dawn of Dreams:
  • Ohatsu inherited her magic powers from uncle Nobunaga. Except Nobunaga was originally human, and she's his niece not his daughter - where's the blood tie!?
    • Also, Ohatsu's mother,Oyu in Onimusha 2, mentioned that the three of them were not her real daughters anyway. That was one of her main concerns throughout the game; "if she wasn't their mother by blood, could the children still love her?" This means that Ohatsu isn't even related to Oyu and Nobunaga at ALL.
  • When facing a horde of demons, Akane tells Soki that "no human blade can kill them". This overtly contradicts the allies from the previous trilogy who fought ably without Oni powers.
  • How did Munenori receive his Demon Eye, which is said to be a rare trait among the Yagyu clan, from his mother if the Yagyu clan (excluding old-Jubei) had previously been wiped out in the second game? (Aside from the obvious answer, of course.)
  • Onimusha Soul itself contradicts one thing. In the first game, Imagawa Yoshimoto was noted to be in contact with Genma. In Soul, on the other hand, he's with the Oni. Is that a reboot or a Heel–Face Turn (which in context of story, would be impossible)?
• Cool Train: In Demon Siege, the Genma construct an undersea track stretching from the coast of Japan to Normandy, France.
• Coup de Grâce: All of the main characters can strike a prone non-boss enemy on the ground, killing him instantly.
• Curse Cut Short: Soki, when he thinks that Tenkai has just killed Jubei.
  Soki: "You son of a...."
• Cutscene Incompetence: Oyu suffers from this a lot (as mentioned in Chickification above). Michelle also has a moment like this in the third game when Guildenstern ambushes her and Henri and kidnaps them both. What with Michelle being a soldier, what was stopping her from making more of an effort to escape and attempting to kick some serious ass? (Okay, so she was taken by surprise, but, still.) However, if that was the case, there would be no need for resident badass Samanosuke to go on a heroic rescue mission, complete with Awesome Music.
• Dastardly Whiplash: The Genma are quite happy with their roles as Black Hats, laughing maniacally and twirling their mustaches. Nobunaga is not immune from this, though he is depicted as more introspective than other tyrants.
• Dark Action Girl: Hecuba, Jujudormah, and Vega Donna.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Samanosuke and Jacques draw their otherworldly powers from their demon gauntlets. Soki, the main character from Dawn of Dreams, is known as the "Oni of the Ash", and is shown in official artwork with horns growing out of his head. He's also the avatar for the God of Darkness.
  • Oddly, the weapons imbued with "Dark" element can actually unleash Thunder magic.
  • The Oni race in general is depicted as demons of darkness. While they may be violent, they're on mankind's side, contrasting with the Genma God being generally Light Is Not Good (the Genma race overall are pretty content with their demonic Dark Is Evil appearances).
• Death Equals Redemption: Despite being a devious snake throughout the series, Tokichiro (later Hideyoshi Toyotomi) has one of these in Dawn of Dreams.
• Death Is Cheap: Only in the case of Henri, when the power of the Oni gauntlet brings him back from the dead.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In Dawn of Dreams, you have to fight each member of your party before they join up with you. Gotta love that Conflict Ball.
• Demon King Nobunaga: At his Best/Worst.
• Demon of Human Origin: The first three games of the series deal with the aftermath of demons taking the soul of Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga and striking a deal with him to become a demon and give demons sway over Japan. After the king of the demons is killed at the end of the first game, Nobunaga becomes the new demon king (it happens more often than you'd think) and begins to lead them in conquering Japan, with the eventual goal to Take Over the World.
• Detachable Lower Half: Ginghamphatts has this happen in Onimusha 2 during the last boss fight. Guildenstern also has this ability, as shown in Onimusha 3.
• Devil, but No God: All these Genma running rampart can make you wonder where the hell is Goddess Amaterasu. She's not in the verse, along with all of the Shinto deities. The Genma was the creators of mankind, even if they're abusive and more or less like the Devil equivalent themselves, though if one stretches, the Oni God of Darkness could count as a benevolent deity himself, but said God still isn't Amaterasu or related to her, especially when Fortinbras usurped Amaterasu's domain, related to light.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Whenever characters die in Onimusha 2, chances are they will end up in Jubei's arms as they draw their last breath. Examples include Takajo and Gogandantess, and also Ekei and Kotaro, depending on their friendship levels with Jubei (ie. their deaths may not occur at all, depending on how Jubei treats them throughout the game).
• Difficult, but Awesome: Issen is a powerful One-Hit Kill ability, but in order to pull it off, you need to time your attack pixel perfect to get it to work. More often than not, it feels more like a random chance than skill-based due to the window of opportunity being so brutally small with pretty much every enemy. But mastery of the skill means that you'll take almost no damage ever, and the enemies you kill with it will always drop healing souls anyway, ensuring you never need healing items, and will also get more than enough upgrade souls to max out equipment.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Dokotsui Hammer in Onimusha 2, Chigo axe (lava variety) in the third.
• The Dragon: Several, but some of the most notable examples are Hideyoshi Hashiba (aka Tokichiro Kinoshita), Guildenstern, and Ranmaru Mori.
• Dull Surprise: In Demon Siege, one of Michelle's colleages is completely unfazed when she introduces Samanosuke (even mentioning that he is a Samurai) to him. Possibly justified - being forced to battle a sudden army of demons probably means that very little surprises him now...
  • Jubei Yagyu reacts like this most of the time.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Used with the Oni weapons in the first three games. This is dropped in the fourth game, which has much more weapons and seems to rely on Call-Back instead (if you look, most of the weapons are actually old weapons from the previous games.)
• Empathy Doll Shot: The second game begins with a dead infant's rattle not only present but played with and eventually snapped in half by Nobunaga's pet snake.
• Evil Laugh: Most, if not all, of the villains.
• Evil Overlord - Nobunaga in the first three games, Hideyoshi in the fourth.
• Exposition Fairy: Ako in Onimusha 3. They call her a tengu, but she's really just a little woman with wings floating around advising the warriors, and she totally acts like a fairy, so she's this trope. Additionally, she floats over enemies to show you what you've targeted.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the second game, Ekei, depending on the players' actions towards him throughout the game.
• Fake Difficulty: Bosses in Dawn of Dreams don't usually end up in the "Fake" category of difficulty. Rather it is some of the late game enemies you will face that will test your patience, especially if you want to conquer the Dark Realm. For example there are flying enemies that can dodge attacks and send a guard breaking, high-damaging laser beam. The main cast (save Ohatsu) has no effective way of dealing with flying enemies, much less ones that dodge. Hope you practiced your counter and deflecting skills because the only time they come down is to attack you. And when you hit them with a combo, no they don't fall to the ground, they go back up.
• Fanservice Pack: The female characters from Soul tend to be much hotter, wearing more revealing clothes and generally having larger boobs, as seen with Kaede and Oyuu for example.
• Final Battle - The ending of Dawn of Dreams has the characters facing off against their personal rivals.
• Five Rounds Rapid: In 3...it depends. In one of the opening cutscenes, the French Army seem to be able to kill the Genma reasonably easily...until they start getting too close and seem to shrug off the shots. Jacques and Michelle, however, do not have this problem.
• Flunky Boss: Guildenstern. Also some bosses in Dawn of Dreams will summon a small escort of Mooks. Exspecially Danemon.
  Danemon Ban: "MINIOOONS!"
• Fonzarelli Fix: Michelle vs. the boat at the zoo.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Tokichiro Kinoshita, later Hideyoshi Toyotomi: goes from a wimpy sack of slime and bootlicker to Nobunaga and ends up being the genuinely dangerous villain and lord of the Genma.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Most of the things done by Samanosuke in the game's opening of the third game (except for all the acrobatics) can also be done in-game.
• A God Am I: Fortinbras in Dawn of Dreams. But unlike most others with this mindset, he actually is a God, and has more than enough power to back it up.
  • Also Hideyoshi, who often shouts things like "Is the Power of a God!" during his first battle with Onmusha-Soki at the top of the temple in Kyoto.
• God Is Evil: In the Onimusha-verse, mankind was a product of Genma as a Slave Race. And Fortinbras, being the leader of Genma, is bent to ensure that the status quo stays that way. Averted by his rival, the Oni God of Darkness, who actually stepped forward to protect mankind from the Genma.
• Giant Mook: Several, usually slow and wielding either axes or clubs. The Gacha type monsters from the third and fourht games are an excellent example.
• Guide Dang It!: The second game's relationship values are a bit more intricate to make the most out of it. Yes, you can easily figure out the relationship items in the second game. Did you know that each item is viewed differently that offers a certain amount of points per item? Did you also know that depending on which items you give, you can get power and magic jewels for them? Did you know that you may have to give less than ideal items to get the items needed to give to other characters to get good items? (the bone fingers require you to trade items that are worth a B-grade reaction, as opposed to an A-grade). Which items do this and are the best ones for it? Get a guide ready.
• Guest Fighter: Blade Warriors, the Fighting Game spinoff, includes MegaMan.EXE and Zero as playable characters.
• Gun Fu: Lots of fun to be had when controlling Magoichi and Michelle, as well as Ohatsu.
  • And Jacques. Grab a Genma with your whip, pull it towards you, then put a gun to its head and pull the trigger 'till it goes "click".
• The Gunslinger: Magoichi of the second game. He also mentors Ohatsu from the fourth game on guns.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Jubei of the second game is half-human, half-Oni. His son Munenori and granddaughter Akane (who also receives the Jubei namesake) have Oni blood as well, which is physically evident in their demon eyes.
• Hell Has New Management: After Fortinbras gets taken out, Nobunaga takes over hell and becomes the new demon king.
• He's Back!: Samanoske returns from his self-exile in Demon Siege disguised as a ninja. He takes out a Genma troop carrier and Gargant (a Genma liutenant from Blade Warrior) before joining the attack on Nobunaga's hideout.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Samanosuke. out of about 10 weapons, eight of them are swords. The other two are Shippu and the axe Chigo.
• Hijacked by Ganon: While Dawn of Dreams features an (almost) entirely original cast, the final boss is Fortinbras, the antagonist from the original Onimusha.
• Historical In-Joke: Numerous, not the least being that in real life it was falsely reported that Nobunaga had been slain by an arrow at Okehazama.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Anyone opposing the Genma and the historical people supporting them gets this. Akechi Mitsuhide (Samanosuke's uncle) is a common example, but Onimusha Tactics also takes Matsunaga Hisahide and made him a heroic person opposing Nobunaga. Because apparently "Villain of Sengoku Era" qualifies enough as a hero when he opposes an extreme Obviously Evil Card-Carrying Villain like Demon King Nobunaga and the Genma.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Every game's Big Bad gets this treatment. The real Oda Nobunaga was feared for his brutality (the burning of the temples on Mt. Hiei actually happened, for example), but this series makes him out to be an actual demon. Toyotomi Hideyoshi gets treated with even less respect, and Munenori gets the absolute worst of it by being flanderized beyond all recognition.
  • Tokugawa Ieyasu is also revealed to be among the Genma in Soul, but instead averts this in the main continuity that the anime is based on: After Dawn of Dreams, he established the Tokugawa Shogunate and stayed the hell away from Genma business. This leads to a long era of peace, like if the Genma has truly been gone for good after Soki's final battle. At least until Iemon becomes unsatisfied with the shogunate's rulership and decides to bring the Genma back...
  • In the second game, despite not appearing, Takeda Shingen is revealed to be on the Genma side.
  • Soul has a whole list of various daimyos who get this by siding with the Genma.
  • And despite not appearing in any games since it took place in Japan, several worldwide conquerors like Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan gets this solely because they made a deal with Genma. Anyone who gets chummy with Genma will turn into Card-Carrying Villain supreme, do the math.
• HP to One: in Dawn of Dreams the Oni difficulty turns all enemy attacks to this.
• I Am a Humanitarian: The Genma aren't shy about their tastes. They even refer to historical battles as "hunting expeditions", implying that the Genma participating in them are awarded with corpses to eat. Also stated is that they historically give people power and technology in exchange for human sacrifices.
• An Ice Person: The Hyoujin Yari and Hyousai weapons: their magic will turn Genma into ice statues before shattering them.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Jubei, Magoichi and Ekei in the second game manage to save a baby that has been kidnapped by the Genma. There is a mild aversion of the trope, however, when the baby's crying gives Ekei a flashback to how he was unable to save his own baby daughter from a fire.
  • Also, in the first game, Yumemaru is captured by Hecuba and due to be sacrificed to Fortinbras, but is rescued by Samanosuke. Likewise, in the third game, Henri is captured by Guildenstern - Samanosuke bursts into the lab just in time to stop Henri being dissected.
    • Also in 3, just when Henri, Jacques and Michelle are happily re-united at the Eiffel Tower, Ranmaru spoils the party by killing Henri. After Jacques opens up a can of whoop-ass on Ranmaru, his Oni Gauntlet vanishes, and restores Henri back to life.
• Infinity -1 Sword: In Shin Onimusha this is what you get from the 50th level of the Dark Realm: Said weapons do have elemental magic and are usually more powerful than the late level weapons you can buy from the shop in the final act like Anguish or Fudo. Soki also has Balmunk, the Dark-Elemental sword which, alas, can only be obtained as a rare drop from the deadly (and rare) Black Genma Generals.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Bishamon in the first game. One-hit-kills all demons that are not Fortinbras, which is to be met rather soon.
  • The Rekka-Ken Zweihander in the second game after clearing the purple demon realm. A bit slow on the swing speed, but it's power is unmatched and it's magic attack, despite it seeming ground based can hit aerial enemies to a degree.
  • It returns in the third game, along with the Ultimate Whip for Jacques.
  • In the fourth game, this is your reward for finishing the Dark Realm: they're the most powerful of the group and give nice bonuses to stats, but are non-elemental, meaning that you're unable to use Oni Magic.
• Informed Flaw - In the manual of the third game, it's mentioned in Ranmaru's info sheet that he's often mistaken for a woman due to his looks. This never, ever happens in game.
• Ink-Suit Actor: The first three games all featured protagonists modeled after famed dramatic actors, such as Takeshi Kaneshiro, the late Yusaku Matsuda, and Jean Reno. Even the upcoming anime has Musashi modeled after Toshiro Mifune, who did one of the best-known versions of the historical figure.
• Jidaigeki - Mostly set in the last years of the Sengoku period, except for the third game, where half of the story is set in Paris, year 2004.
• Jiggle Physics: Very noticeable on Kaede in the first game. Her breasts bounce every time she so much as turns around.
• Job Title
• Katanas Are Just Better: averted, since usually the strongest swords have a straight blade and looks more like broadswords or "Tsurugi"
• Kill It with Fire: Enryuu, Rekka Ken and Enja swords allow you to burn enemies to ashes.
• Landmarking the Hidden Base: Oodles of it in 3. Guildenstern sets up shop under Notre-Dame, before transferring to the Boulogne Zoo. Vega Donna takes control over Mont Saint-Michel, and finally the Time Folder is located at the Eiffel Tower.
• Large Ham: Several characters, but Guildenstern and Gogandantess are the two most obvious examples.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Dawn of Dreams features a plethora of differences from the other games that firmly place it in this territory:
  • While the previous three games had a limited amount of combos, which the player had to figure out on their own as there was no move list, Dawn of Dreams has more combat moves and a full skill tree not unlike other modern action games a la God of War or Ninja Gaiden.
  • The camera is no longer fixed and can be moved freely, and the player has the ability to lock onto targets.
  • Enemies and bosses now have visible health meters, where as the previous games did not have this feature.
  • Issen attacks can now be performed following the use of magic, with a far more forgiving time frame.
  • When you absorb souls, the game actually keeps track of how many you have, with each weapon costing a certain amount to upgrade.
  • Each weapon no longer has its own magic meter, meaning that the player must preserve magic power more.
  • The buttons for performing actions and absorbing souls have been swapped; X now does the latter while Circle does the former.
  • Previous games only had two playable characters (except 3, which had 3 with the addition of Michelle), with one only being playable on certain occasions in Warlords and 2, where as Dawn of Dreams has five, who join you in most missions and can be commanded with the D-pad, a button previously used for movement.
  • The game is divided into individual stages, rather than the world being freely explorable.
• Lean and Mean: Guildenstern.
• The Legions of Hell: The Genma.
• Light Is Not Good: Fortinbras, as the Big Bad of Dawn Of Dreams, where he is explicitly referred to as the God of Light. In the first game, he was your standard dark demon overlord. Also worth noticing that noone of the five heroes start with a light-aligned weapon... whose magic is still effective against certain Bosses (Like Claudius).
• Lizard Folk: In the second game, the typical zombie mooks are changed into crocodilian lizard men who overall behaves in the same way. From the following game onward they return to the standard zombie mooks.
• Love Potion: It is possible to collect and use one of these on either Oyu, Magoichi, Ekei or Kotaro in the second game. Hilarity Ensues.
• Mad Scientist: Guildenstern, Rosencrantz in Dawn of Dreams... Hey, Wait a minute...
• Magikarp Power: Akane's sword Onimaru in Dawn of Dreams is probably the best example. The blade begins with a pathetic 15 attack power, making it one of the weakest blades there is. Upgrading it through all 10 level upgrades, however, will grant several enormous bonuses to the blade's abilities, as at Level 8 the attack power is boosted by 100, (which alone would put it in a very high tier as far as her weapons go) and on top of that Level 9 adds an additional 40% onto any normal attack performed with it, and Level 10 allows attacks with the blade to create a "attack wave" (essentially a Razor Wind) that flies out from the blade and strikes distant enemies. And since the blade can be dropped by the ninja genma encountered in the third stage, (or on the early floors of the Dark Realm) it also doubles as a Disc-One Nuke as long as you're willing/able to grind for the souls to upgrade it. Not until about 3/4 of the way through the game will Akane start getting more useful weapons.
• Marathon Level: The Dark Realms. Especially in Dawn of Dreams where getting to 100th floor will take a few hours.
• Meat Moss: As the Genma invade our realm, the buildings become infested with pulsating fungus. The same is true of the Eiffel Tower.
• Mechanical Monster: The Golden Evil Statue, which acts as the final boss of the second game. Other examples include genma robots in the second game and Brainstern from the third.
• Monumental Battle: 3, being set in modern-day Paris, is full of these. Fighting a robot-demon hybrid on top of the Arc de Triomphe? Fighting The Rival on top of the Eiffel Tower? It's in.

  • All the in-game Monuments are all pretty much accurate to their real-life counterparts.

• Monumental Damage: Mont-St-Michel in 3. Twice. It is first blown to pieces by Vega-Donna's flying castle taking off from within, and in the future it is blown up by the exploding time folder.
  • And the damage caused by Brainstern at the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and the installation of the Time Folder onto the Eiffel Tower may count too.
• Ms. Fanservice: Kaede has a devil◊ in a Chinese qipao alternate outfit, but Oyu and Michelle play this straight. Oyu has a nude Waterfall Shower in the Onimusha 2 intro and the gratuitous Cleavage Window of her battle armor; Michelle is mainly clad in a vest zipped halfway on her torso. In terms of alternate outfits, we have 70's Oyu and Michelle in a bath towel.
  • On the villainous side there are Vega Donna and Ophelia. Averted with Jujudormah, who looks like one at first and firmly believes to be one, but is actually and ugly old crone.
    • However if you play Blade Warriors you can unlock Jujudormah-Ran, her younger self which reveals she is a case of I Was Quite the Looker.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In the first game, breaking the genma barrier. Sure, you need the right equipments (Great Bow and Great Arrow), which involved two Fetch Quest and a Boss Battle. The mundane? Just fire the Great Arrow using the Great Bow. The awsome? It was a cutscene, and it was shown from every angle possible, and we haven't even mentioned the music.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: In the third game, player-Samanosuke comes back in time and sees his alternate-timeline self laying slain by Nobunaga. Touching his Oni Gauntlet merges the two together and the combined power from the paradox enables Nobunaga's defeat.
• Ninja: Kaede and Kotaro. Also, the prologue to Onimusha 3 shows Samonoske wearing ninja garb instead of his usual armor. (He's masked, even.)
  • All games have ninja-like genma acting as though, fast enemies. High-level ones can even throw knives and leaves afterimages behind.
• Nintendo Hard: The Genma world areas are murder. But one boss fight that could be considered this is The Dawn of Dreams Incarnation of Fortinbras. Oh, so much.
  • You could just throw in the ENTIRETY of Dawn of Dreams. More complex character development system, more emphasis on level grinding, combined with hordes of strong enemies and marathon boss battles, easily makes it the hardest game in the series.
• Noble Demon: Gogandantess of the second game is pompous but also surprisingly chivalrous.
• One-Winged Angel: Nobunaga in the second and third games.
• One-Hit Kill: The Issen is a common theme in the games, wherein the player can counterattack an enemy at the last possible second. Said target/s are obliterated instantly, and it is possible to chain multiple Issens in a row to mow down an entire screenful of enemies. In the fourht game you can even switch characters to hit a enemy twice with the counterattack. However, Issen used with parries, chain or combined attacks are weaker than their true blue counterpart.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Black Necklace in the second game (hidden in a secret room requiring three special keys to unlock) and the Black Vest in the third (obtainable by successfully ending the Critical tutorial) will turn every single attack from Jubei/Samanosuke/Jaques into an Issen, istantly killing enemies and seriously damaging bosses. However, each blow is Cast from Hit Points, meaning that if you're not careful you can end up killing yourself by mistake.
• Out-of-Character Moment: A number of characters in Blade Warriors have completely different personalities compared to their personalities in the main series. The worst example is probably Oyu, who goes from sweet and caring to angry and ruthless.
• Outrun the Fireball: In the intro of Onimusha 3, Samanosuke does this when the huge Genma tank collapses in a massive explosion. In the same game, Michelle pulls this off in her car whilst driving the gang away from the exploding Mont Saint-Michel.
• Parent with New Paramour: Henri really doesn't like Michelle... at first, anyway.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: The battlefield outside of Azuchi Castle in Dawn of Dreams.
  • Ditto for the same area in Onimusha 3.
• Petite Pride: Jubei Akane Yagyu. And she's happy with that.
• Power Fist: Roberto, the missionary in Dawn of Dreams has something in his arms called "Exorcising Beads". It gives him the power to kill Genma by punching them really hard.
• Power of Friendship: An actual play mechanic in Onimusha 2 and a major theme of Dawn of Dreams.
• Power Palms: Jubei Yagyu's left hand in the second title.
• Power-Up Magnet: One button is for drawing souls in when you hold it down.
• Precision F-Strike: Soki when Fortinbras asks him to recognize his godhood. Doubles as Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?.
  Soki: You're no God... you're Evil.. you're just a worthless sack of Shit!
• Recurring Boss: In the second game, both Gogandantess and Ginghamphatts are fought three times each over the course of the story.
  • Also, in the first game, Marcellus is fought twice. He is also fought twice in the third game, but the second encounter with him in that game is more of a "mini-boss" fight than a full-on boss fight. The same goes for Brainstern - it is the game's first boss, and it can be fought later as a "mini-boss".
  • Also in the third game, Ranmaru is fought three times, and Heihachi and Gertrude are fought twice each.
  • And in the fourth game, Munenori just does not know when to die. You have to face him a total of five times, and he's still alive in the Sequel Hook at the end.
• Recycled In Space: The majority of the franchise, especially the first one, can be summed up as Resident Evil in Jidaigeki.
• Recycled Soundtrack: In Onimusha 3, the "Demon Forest" theme (the area after Jacques obtains the Enja whip) sounds similar to the "Infiltration" theme in Resident Evil 4, although "Demon Forest" has a more "asian" tone.
• Red Herring - In the second game, you can understand pretty easily the side character's main tastes in gifts. However, certain gifts that may look suitable for one character actually aren't. For example, Ekei loves alcohol and food, but will be disgusted by dark beer, and Magoichi will decline if you offer him the fairy tail book or the erotic novel.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Dawn of Dreams has Soki and Tenkai who are styled after oni but wear mismatched colors.
  • Ekei and Magoichi from the second game have the character types and antagonistic relationship with each other down just about perfectly.
• Relationship Values: A critical part of the second game, to the point that several members of the supporting cast may live or die depending on what sort of relationship you have with them.
  • In the fourth game the more Soki fights alongside one of his allies, the better their "rapport" becomes. It affects how many times the character can combine materials to make items and equipment, and also opens up more conversation choices when talking to him/her at the hideout.
• Samurai
• San Dimas Time: Allows Ako to flit between timestreams and relay info to Jacques/Samanoske.
• Satan Is Good: The Oni clan are dark-powered demons but more or less benevolent as opposed to the Genma who bathe in light, but are still downright evil. The Oni once waged war against the Genma but was defeated and banished, which made parallels with Lucifer's failed rebellion against heaven. And the Lucifer analogue is basically on mankind's side now.
• Say My Name: Gogandantess, being overly arrogant, likes to remind Jubei of his name and self-appointed title ("the grrrreatest swordsman of all demons!") constantly, but it is also used in a somewhat sadder fashion during his death scene, in which he requests that Jubei say his name to him. Jubei agrees, out of respect for his foe.
  • Samanosuke likes to say "Guildenstern!"
• Say Your Prayers: Ekei will die doing this if you have especially low relationship values with him and win the duel between you two.
• Scenery Gorn
• Scenery Porn: Especially so in 3. Beautifully rendered recreations of The Arc de Triomphe, Mont-Saint-Michel and the Eiffel Tower adorn the game. And they're incredibly accurate to their real-life counterparts too.
• Second Hour Superpower: The Oni Guantlet from all games.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: During his One-Winged Angel form, Oda Nobunaga wields the serrated scimitar Genma Samonji, which can be picked up in the sequel by Soki as a earth elemental sword named Starkiller.
  • And before that, in Onimusha 3, try upgrading Enja to max level.
• Shock and Awe: Raizan, Buraitou and Raisen weapons. Also Soki's BFS, Lamentation.
• Shower Scene: Oyu has one in a waterfall during the intro to Samurai's Destiny.
• Smug Snake: Hideyoshi/Tokichiro, Guildenstern.
• Spell My Name With An S: Gogandantess' name was spelled as "Gogandantes" on the packaging of his action figure.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Guildenstern to Michelle in the third game.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Ninja characters like Kaede and Kotaro Fuuma are armed with kunai-like daggers and can use shuriken as distance weapons.
• The Stoic: Samanosuke from the first game, Jubei Yagyu from the second.
• Stripperific: Vega Donna of the third game is practically naked (aside from a loin cloth and some leg/foot armour), with only some odd scale-type-things to just barely cover her (rather perky) breasts.
  • Also, Oyu's unlockable, 70s-style "joke" outfit in the second game.
  • Not to mention Michelle's unlockable "joke" outfit in the third game. She's wearing nothing but a tiny bath towel.
• Surprisingly Easy Mini-Quest: Most of the time when a sub character is taking over for the protagonist they have an amazingly easy time of it.
• Taken for Granite: In the second game there's a special dust which is used to turn some poor miners into stone statues. You have to rescue them by finding the powder antidote. If your friendship with Magoichi is high enough, Jubei will be petrified by Tokichiro, forcing Magoichi to find the powder and save him.
• A Taste of Power: Samanoske begins 3 with Raizan, Enyuu and Shippuu, his weapons from the original Onimusha. (He even wields all three in the opening cinematic). Once dumped in France, he loses all of his stuff and must start from scratch. Worth noting though that should the player complete the optional demon realm in that game, he can unlock the orbs for those weapons as well (and they're on Level 3, so you don't need to grind them up). In addition, that reward carries over to new game +
• Technicolor Toxin: Many cases of yellow poison, expecially in the second game. From the fourth onwards there's purple toxic gas.
• Theme Naming: Fans of Hamlet may recognize a number of demon names, including Fortinbras, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz - supposedly, the reason for this is that William Shakespeare made a deal with the Genma to become a great playwright, but in exchange he had to use the names of Genma for the characters in his plays. In the fourth game, one character has different weapons named after various gods and concepts from Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
• Title Confusion: Of the 'internally inconsistent' type- the European release of Onimusha 3 removes all references to the Demon Siege subtitle from the manual, packaging and official listings, but it's still present on the title screen.
• Took a Shortcut: For a franchise founded on Rule of Cool, this is par for the course. However, it gets a bit out of hand in Demon Siege, when Jacques keeps running into Heihachi while traveling beteen feudal Japan and France. (Though it is conceivable that Heihachi departed from the same train, but how did he board it?)
• Translation Convention: Obviously used in all of the games in the English dub, where the characters would be speaking Japanese, but is especially notable in the third game - Jacques dialogue is in French at the beginning and end of the game (Michelle and Henri also speak in French during Jacques' last scene) but in all other scenes their dialogue is heard in English. The fact that the Japanese and French characters can all understand each other perfectly is explained in-universe - Ako can use her powers to enable them to understand each other.
  • This does, however, get a little confusing with the Genma. Examining some of their scrolls while playing as Ekei reveal that they're written in "the demons' language" - however, as this language is never heard, it is unknown if the Genma are speaking in their own language, in Japanese, or whether it depends on who they're talking to or if it varies from demon to demon.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: The Oni Gauntlet.
• Trilogy Creep: Onimusha 3 was meant to be the final game in the series. And then along came Shin Onimusha. Subverted in that Shin Onimusha is currently the last console release of the series, since there has yet to be another entry since 2006.
• Unidentified Items: In Dawn of Dreams, whenever you find a treasure box and you can't solve the puzzle, you have the option of simply smashing it open, but then you will simply acquire an "Unknown" item. Once you reach the merchant, he can identify it for you... for a small fee, of course.
• Updated Re-release: Genma Onimusha for the Xbox, a port of the first game with a few additional bells and whistles.
• Villainous Glutton: Jujudormah of the second game, although the non-canonical spin-off Onimusha Blade Warriors reveals that she was quite a looker in her youth.
• Warrior Monk: Ekei, who's also a fallen monk, and Tenkai, who's a more virtuous version.
• What Could Have Been: Jean Reno was suppose to be voicing Jacques Blanc in all English releases of Onimusha 3, if it was not for his busy schedule at the time.
• Whip Sword - All of Jacques' weapons are a variation on this, including an actual Whip Sword and a Whip-Spear.
  • One of them is actually a big honkin' flail, though.
• World of Badass
• World of Ham
• Would Hurt a Child: Guildenstern.
  "How I love children. Their organs are so fresh and soft..."
  • Ranmaru also proves that he would when he murders Henri right in front of Jacques and Michelle for shits and giggles. Henri is resurrected, but still...
• You Will Not Evade Me: Roberto's Special Technique "Death Grip".
• Zerg Rush: A combat tactic Genma forces uses. It worked in the 1500s in Japan against samurai and it worked against French troops and gendarmes in 2004 in France.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Implied, as many low-ranked Genma looks like undead people. In the fourth game the village you stumble across in Kyushu has suffered one, as you only encounter traditional zombies of all sizes in there.
• Zombie Puke Attack: The Lost Souls (read: Zombies of what appears to be former christian monks) from Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams can sometimes puke orangeish slime as a form of attack. If memory serves me well, you can also get damaged by stepping on it.

The anime features examples of:

• Arc Words: Multiple characters utter the word "interesting". It's mostly spoken by those siding with the Genma to obtain the power they possess, but collectively, it represents boredom with the peace brought upon by the Edo period.
• Back from the Dead: Iemon resurrects Musashi's old enemies the Yoshioka brothers and Sasaki Kojiro as Genma.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Genma are stopped but virtually everyone is dead. The only proven survivor is Sayo, who still has the baseball-sized gold nugget that started the whole mess in the first place, allowing her to live in comfort for some time. Musashi's fate is unknown.
• Dented Iron: Several characters make a point about how Mushashi is edging past his prime. He is undoubtedly skilled with a blade still, as seen in the introduction, but against the supernaturally-gifted Genma, he stands no chance without the Oni Gauntlet. However, his aging body also means that the gauntlet takes a far greater toll on his body than those of the wielders from the games.
• Dwindling Party: Starting at the end of the first episode, and continuing from there. By the end, the only main character confirmed to be alive is Sayo, though the Oni Gauntlet being left at the gate of the temple that Mushashi borrowed it from hints that he may have survived as well.
• End of an Era: The story takes place in the early days of the Shogunate, with the younger samurai being the first generation to have no memories of the Warring States period, and the older samurai who fought in it now middle aged. Iemon's dream is to end the Shogunate and bring the Warring States back.
• Gold Fever: The story centers around a backwater copper mining village that just struck gold. The local lord sought to set up the mine secretly, only for the samurai he sent to oversee the project to decide to claim the gold for himself to fund his own ambitions, knowing that his lord can't seek assistance from his allies or the shogun without admitting that he had been running a secret gold mine without providing the shogun his fair share of the proceeds (which is why the effort to reclaim the mine from Iemon and his Genma servants is left to Musashi's small party). And it's also mentioned that the only reason the miners reported the strike to their lord instead of attempting the same thing is that they couldn't figure out a way to spend the gold without drawing attention to themselves.
• Improvised Weapon: At the end of his duel with Kojiro, Musashi removes the Oni Gauntlet and puts away his sword, choosing instead to fight with an oar, just as he did in their original duel.
• Noble Demon:
  • Kojiro may have become one of the Genma, but he doesn't engage in pointless cruelty and only wants to fight Musashi in a straightforward duel. He was against Iemon from the start because he found Iemon's idea of warfare through guns and machinery to be devoid of the meaning that crossing swords could have.
  • Sahei in reality is an assassin who was sent to kill everyone who found out about the existence of the gold mine, and while he doesn't show any grievances with the task he's been given, he spares Sayo because his comrades sacrificed themselves to protect her.
• Non-Action Big Bad: For all his talk about wanting to bring back the days when samurai were warriors fighting in actual wars, Iemon spends all his time sending Genma to fight for him instead of doing it himself. His sole run-in with the party mainly consists of him trying to talk his former brothers in arms into defecting to his side, and he gets maimed by Kojiro halfway through his speech, causing him to spend the rest of the series as a helpless cripple until Sahei finishes him off.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Unlike the Yoshioka brothers, Kojiro has no intentions of backing Iemon despite being resurrected by him and only stuck with him because he was promised another battle with Musashi. As soon as he meets Musashi, Kojiro immediately de-limbs Iemon to get his machinations out of the way.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Sahei decides against killing Musashi and informing the shogun about the gold mine's location, the former because trying to kill him would be suicidal given how much the Oni Gauntlet has empowered him, and the latter because a mine that breeds Genma would do nothing but spread chaos throughout Japan.
• Race Against the Clock: A mild example. Musashi only got the Oni Gauntlet on loan, and is expected to return it to the temple he borrowed it from in a month. That said, the only things truly binding him are his word of honor and the company of the monk carrying the gauntlet between battles, and there's never any mention of the time limit running low in the later episodes. The Gauntlet is found resting against the temple gate at the end of the anime by a monk. This is the only evidence that Mushashi may have survived the final battle, and shows that whether he made it back in time or not, he did honor his promise to return it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sayo was the one to find the initial gold deposit, setting the whole story in motion.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: The bookish and physically unimpressive Sahei turns out to be a government assassin sent to kill everyone who knows about the gold mine so that the shogunate can claim it for themselves.

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