Onimusha 3: Demon Siege
Resident Evil was never meant to be a good game. And to be fair, they have kept their promise, by never making a good game.
Resident Evil was always designed as a shitty B movie.
Now, are Resident Evil games fun? Yes. At least until they discovered quick time events, (I spit upon the name of God of War for introducing them. Anyways, they started playing around with what they could do with the premise.
One of their spinoffs was Devil May Cry. DMC was based off a potential control system for Resident Evil. It turned out to be a dumb idea for Resident Evil, but a great idea for Devil May Cry.
Another was Onimusha: Warlords. While DMC took the cinematic aspect of Resident Evil, Onimusha took the controls, and tried to perfect them. The end result was what are referred to as Tank Controls. Tanks, at least early tanks, had to stop to turn. While Dante can turn on a time, Samanosuke has to turn that way before moving. This provided a plodding, methodical movement system.
And, we need to take a moment to point out that early 3D games absolutely suck. OoT was great. Mario 64 was 50/50 over whether the camera controls worked at the moment. Parasite Eve has completely unique controls, because while it (barely) worked, they were absolutely idiotic, if fun. Two-stick and mouse-look were not invented until the PS2 era.
And so, Onimusha's tank controls were, honestly, revolutionary at the time, even if they are rightfully left in the dusts of history.
The original pair of Onimusha games played off the Unification Era. Oni are good. Genma are evil. Because, subverting expectations.
The first one was actually close to Resident Evil, in the sense that it starts off as an investigation that turns supernatural. The hero of the first game is Samanosuke Akechi, whom is basically Akechi Hidemitsu. In the game he is an idealized confusion warrior. Confusion warriors are paragons of selflessness, to the point they don't have a personality, and the game is primarily interesting because you are dealing with people from the unification wars, although many of them are possessed/empowered by the demonic Genma. 2 was a different story, with a different character, but still used history as the primary way of making it interesting.
Onimusha 3: Demon Siege brought back Samanosuke, and added a new one.
Jacques Blanc
A modern French soldier with a blue trench coat flak jacket.
The two swap eras, coordinating through tier fairy tengu.
Jacques Blanc has whip-like weapons. Instead of the bow that Samanosuke uses, Jacques uses alternate whip attacks, which can grapple opponents. He can then draw his side arm to pepper them, toss them, slam them, etc. His whip also gives him a vertical movement option, dramatically improving the exploration options.
He allows the game to be a LOT more dynamic and exciting, even if, at it's base, he uses the same tank controls of Samanosuke.
He also has a personality. Girlfriend. Son. Emotions.
Demon Siege also follows the growing Resident Evil tradition of having a bunch of interesting characters have their own sidestories.
And this is an colossal east/west division, as while 3 is far more interesting for a foreign audience, it's largely decried by the Japanese audience.
This was honestly one of the best games of the PS2 era, but because of the disinterest in Japan, will likely never get a modern remake.
