Onee Chanbara Origin

Onee Chanbara Origin remains a cathartic, bloodthirsty, and goofy bit of chaos, whose aesthetic charms have been boosted thanks to Tamsoft's excellent audio/visual upgrade. Unfortunately, the passage of time has somewhat dulled Origin's gameplay, which has been far superseded by other franchises. Offering a short campaign, above-average action, and a slim package, Onee Chanbara Origin is for franchise fans only - and not at its $60 asking price.

Onee Chanbara Origin is a serviceable remake of a couple classic PS2 titles. Developer Tamsoft does a great job giving the games a visual makeover and a much more modern feel. Combat is solid, though a bit basic at times. The experience is also bogged down at times by some performance problems. That aside, and Onee Chanbara is a worthwhile remake of a fun and unique story.

While there's a chance you can't play it without fiddling with things, there's a fun game in here. It's expensive, with far too much DLC, but it's fun.

Onee Chanbara Origin is what it is: a remake of a couple of simple and repetitive action games that largely rely on titillation and buckets of gore to keep players’ eyes glued to the screen. Dig beneath its shallow exterior, however, and you’ll find a combat system that’s surprisingly rewarding when the camera isn’t working against you. It’s just a shame that there’s not much content to it. It’s hard to recommend Onee Chanbara Origin at its full price unless you’re really keen to hack and slash zombies as a bikini-clad badass. When that price drops a little, though, it’s worth jumping on if action games are your thing.

Oneechanbara Origin rights a lot of wrongs found in the early entries, yet it still feels oddly antiquated. The combat is riotous and entertaining, but the overall experience becomes monotonous after a few hours of play. Plus, it's barebones. With only a campaign and an endless wave survival mode, the game is slim on content, unusual since previous entries offered a lot of bang for their buck. It has a B-movie charm that's hard to resist, but other titles of similar fare have shown its possible to mix titillation with action to make a great time.

Onee Chanbara ORIGIN is a bit of a mess. It’s a premium-priced game with next to nothing in content and numerous technical issues to boot. Unfortunately, its combat is all it has going for it.

While the story is unremarkable and the gameplay doesn't provide any innovations to the aged formula, I still very much enjoyed my time with OneeChanbara Origin as it still left me with a satisfying feeling even with the short time I spent with it.

The whole essence of the title revolves precisely around its desire to bring back to our times a title of 16 years ago: without having these premises in mind, the risk is to see only the defects that the game undeniably brings with it: a simplistic graphics sector and a gameplay that is far too canonical as it is fluid, these are only one side of the coin, while on the other there is a really commendable work by the developers to give birth to what is a real remake. Long-time fans of the series, however small and rare these are in the West, will find in Oneechanbara Origins a heart-warming return worthy of the best nostalgia operation, while those who didn’t know the franchise will be able to get closer to it thanks to this production and get a culture about it. No, I never thought I would say "get a culture" about a girl in a bikini and a cowboy hat who cuts zombies like fallow, but I suppose that this is just the magic of Oneechanbara.

Onee Chanbara Origins lacks a lot in terms of content and its combat has simply not progressed well with the new changes. It's a title that, perhaps, will become a foundation for a special game in the future, but for the moment, I can recommend only to the most dedicated fans of the series.

It's easy to pick it up and play short bursts. While the story isn’t the most unique it’s interesting enough to have you see it through and the game looks great.