The story focuses on the returning hero, swordsman Hidemitsu Samanosuke Akechi, who is in his quest to defeat his nemesis, Nobunaga Oda, who wishes to conquer Japan with his army of demons known as Genma.
In order to appeal to the Western market, the team set this game in Paris and chose French actor Jean Reno to portray Jacques.
Critics also highly praised the CGI intro cutscene, which had martial arts legend Donnie Yen direct the fight scenes.
Samanosuke fights using close range weapons, while Jacques uses an energy whip, which can also be used at certain points to swing across gaps.
[4] Samanosuke and Jacques can gain elemental weapons, changing their fighting style and allowing access to magical attacks.
Unlike Samanosuke and Jacques, Heihachiro and Michelle do not possess upgradeable weapons and cannot enter the Oni mode.
Samanosuke awakens in Paris in the year 2004 where he aids a man named Jacques Blanc in fighting the Genma army that has begun its invasion near the Arc de Triomphe.
Guildenstern recovered a device from Oni ruins that, through experimentation, generated a "time warp" that brought him and a number of Genma soldiers into the future.
Samanosuke and Jacques must stop the Genma invasion in both the present and the past in order to return to their own time periods and undo the damage to the timeline.
Across his journey, Jacques and the past's Samanosuke meet Tadakatsu Heihachirō Honda who is linked with the Oda clan.
Meanwhile, in feudal Japan, Heihachirō is killed by the past's Ranmaru and Jacques avenges him when reaching Honnō-ji Temple.
In the final scene, it is revealed that Nobunaga's death enables his former vassal Tokichiro to begin his own conquest of Japan as Toyotomi Hideyoshi with the Genma now supporting him, leading to the events of Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.
[11] Capcom anticipated this game to sell 700,000 copies worldwide by the end of the fiscal year after its release.
[13] With the use of the modern French setting, the story involved time travel which worried producer Keiji Inafune as it could negatively affect the game if it was not well executed, but Infafune was pleased with the final product.
[15] In order to fit the game's setting, the staff chose the French actor Jean Reno as a model for the new character of Jacques.
Inafune compared Reno's role with Takeshi Kaneshiro's work in the first Onimusha game as both actors are famous.
[17] Onimusha 3 was collected alongside its two predecessors and a strategy guide in Japan as part of a box set released by Capcom on December 22, 2004.
[38][39] The sales in North America regions were found "somewhat disappointing" with Capcom's Jun Takeuchi finding the staff's work was not enough to appeal to Western gamers.
[31][35] On the other hand, Eurogamer criticized the lack of innovation to the franchise and the quality from the voice acting which resulted in inconsistency with Jacques' character.
[31] Jeremy Dunhan from IGN praised the story and the game's lasting appeal provided by its additional content.
[34] GameSpot's Greg Kasavin shared a similar view based on its "strong" but criticized some subplots such as Jacques' relationship with his family or Ako's role as one of the plot's biggest flaws.
[30] In the making of Resident Evil 4 game designer Shinji Mikami was inspired by Demon Siege.
[47] The magazine PSM3 made a feature titled "Onimusha 3: Why it was the pinnacle of PS2 action" where they praised the game for its depth in combat mechanics and how well it has aged despite retaining fixed cameras and a linear level progression.