Onimusha: Warlords

Steam Deck performance review of Onimusha.
This game is listed as 'unsupported' but here is my steam deck performance feedback after spending +19 hours and getting 100% of the achievements. If you want a full review of the game itself, there are plenty of reviews online for this +20 year old game.
Full disclosure: I played this game to death on the PS2 back in the day. I knew everything about the game inside and out so this was like a re-visit about 20 years later on a new platform.
Long story short: It runs but with one minor problem.
Problems I encountered with Onimusha:
1. The main issue has to do with the FMVs. The game would show a multi-coloured screen/coloured bars when some of the FMV played in place of the FMV. When an FMV did play, their would be audio glitches, static and it would be out of sync. Cut scenes were fine though.
2. Minor graphical glitches and texture clippings (but this was also present in the original game).
The analogue control setting was a major and welcomed change to the game and vastly improved how the game played when compared to the original 'tank' controls.
I encountered no gameplay or audio glitches (only in the FMVs). No forced restarts/resets. No frame rate drops. No crashes. No game breaking bugs.
Using the original LED steam deck with 50% brightness, I was getting about 3.5 hours of battery life in a single charge. You can technically play the game from start to finish on a single charge with juice to spare.
The game is fully playable on the steam deck but keep in mind the FMV issue.

Great game, LOL port.
Capcom should have just remastered the entire series in a collection similar to the classic Tomb Raider titles.

old mechanics. only worth nostalgia wise. MAKE ONIMUSHA 3 CAPCOM!!!

A fun early 2000's Capcom game without the pain of Resident Evil games of the same period. The updated controls help with the remake, although certain fights are clearly designed for lock on. Overall worth a play, not that long (less than 4 hours to complete the story plus some extras). Played on Steam Deck and used experimental which resolved issues with some of the cut scenes but not all.

It takes the gameplay of Resident Evil, tones down the horror aspects, and increases the combat in a supernatural feudal Japan setting. Wish they would remaster the rest of the series for PC!

I love this game and I hope the whole series gets a remaster or at least an HD remaster like this game. A full remaster of graphics and everything would go hard.

Games have come a long way in 20+ years. Wow. Twenty plus years. Past Me from 2001, starting out in the real world after my run-in with college is having a 'WTF just happened, how long was I blinking and how much did I miss' kind of moment.
“Onimusha” is a short (~9 hours), enjoyable romp which leans all the way in on Capcom's action/horror themes in use since the mid-late 90s. This is to say: gore splattered scenery, monstrous looking enemies, grotesque transformation sequences, set in a world on the brink of hell thanks to human greed or ambition. Only one elite agent, cop, demon hunter, samurai can save the plagued land and endangered people. Stereotypical and simple in its messaging but no less fun for it.
The game looks decent. It's sharper and a bit more vivid than the original, enough to hold it's own against many more modern titles. After all, if you wanted to play a remaster of game that's more than 20 years old, you're less concerned about cutting edge graphical fidelity, right? Game play is tight and responsive, though I don't remember how (if at all) this compares to the original. It's also surprisingly simple: mostly press the colored buttons on the right (attack, interact, absorb souls, magic attack) and the top left shoulder (to block).
Re: the simplicity of the controls/game interactions. When I got to the first fight with Marcellus (about halfway through the game), I actually 'lol'd': the encounter is not only laughably easy, but I distinctly remember how Past Me struggled with it. In retrospect, I get it. There's some Souls-ness in this game play: can't get greedy on attacks, you must block and move, you need to balance combat actions with the need to absorb orbs for currency to strengthen your equipment, etc. None of these features were implemented in a way that was particularly demanding but they're still hurdles to overcome when initially introduced. Nevertheless, I'm shaking my head when I remember how thrilled I was when Past Me finally defeated that version of Marcellus and how at the time I felt the fight I'd just completed was pretty tough. It's hard to reconcile that memory with the knowledge that, before this recent excursion with “Onimusha”, I had been considering a third play through of “Sekiro.”
My only real gripe was with the camera. This is probably a petty take but I couldn't get away from it. Running toward the camera is disorienting, especially when the camera continuously cuts to change distance. There are also a lot of small cuts that are unnecessary and distracting, such as when moving down a hallway. I'd forgotten precisely how aggravating fixed camera angles are in terms of how an enemy model is able to block a vital part of the field of view.
Fixed camera and context oriented control are as bad as I remember, too. “Hey, we changed the camera on you mid-stride. Since the camera is behind you now, that directional input you were using to traverse the room is taking you in a different direction. Fun, right?” No. No, it is not. We accepted it at the time because there were no, or very few good, other options. In defense of the approach, there are times when fixed cameras are able to work some wonderfully evocative imagery but I'm still not sold on those instances making up for the general frustration they caused over the bulk of the game. I can respect that there's a good faith argument to be made about how moving away from fixed cameras may have had an adverse impact on the artistry of framing a shot or setting the scene. Even so, the functionality gained by being able to actually see more of the scene and make more informed decisions about how to navigate said area is a bigger gain. At least it is to me.
The remaster looks sharper and cleaner than the original but I'm unconvinced that makes it worth playing for folks who've already taken this ride. For those like myself who never finished (or even started) the original, this version of the game seems well worth it. Also, given the industry trend toward letting old games disappear, I'm glad a remaster exists if only to keep the memory of the game alive that much longer. Perhaps Capcom may revive the franchise when they run out of awesome RE and DMC content.
Recommended for: game history enthusiasts (ha! Try that on for size); fans of Capcom's late 90s action franchises (Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Onimusha); short action games with splashes of genuine body horror. Easy one thumb up.
edit: probably format and clarity. this one is less focused than average and had less time, too. i expect great things revisions for it. there's the first: paragraph that begins with "The remaster looks sharper and cleaner...", swapped "never started" with "never finished." upon a re-read, it sounded like i was saying i hadn't played it before, which wasn't true; just didn't finish it.