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Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is a weird game.
Not weird as in a bad way, but weird that it’s not really tied to any part of the franchise like entries in the series. Apart from Hideyoshi Hashiba and Nobunaga Oda, nobody else from the game appears in other entries.
Thematically, it’s also disconnected from both the first and third games (though the first three games are a loose trilogy featuring Nobunaga Oda), and has few threads (other than Hideyoshi and Ayane) that link it to the fourth entry.
I also honestly don’t remember too much about Onimusha 2. I know I finished it the week it came out on the Playstation 2 and stopped playing it right after. In fact, my most vivid memory isn’t about the plot or the visuals. It’s about one particular enemy that you fight multiple times over the course of the game.
Gogandantess. The greatest swordsman of all demons.
He’s the reason I wanted to replay the damn game.
So, was returning to the game for the remaster worth it?
What is Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny?
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is a 3D action game developed and published by Capcom. It is a remaster of the similarly titled game for the Playstation 2, and the second mainline entry in Onimusha series. The remaster is available right now on the PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles, and the Nintendo Switch.
Our copy was gifted to us by the super folks over at Capcom! Thank you so much!
Like the original, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is set smack dab in the Sengoku era. It’s a few years after Samanosuke Akechi’s exploits at Gifu Castle, and Nobunaga Oda is back on the warpath to unify Japan.
One of the roadblocks on his path to domination is the Yagyu Village. Fearing that the villagers would hinder his plans later on, Oda sent his demon army to destroy the village and massacre nearly everybody there.
Unfortunately, the demon army missed a crucial resident of the village – renowned swordsman, Yagyu Jubei (whose look is based on deceased actor Yusaku Matsuda).
That’s who you’re playing as.
Now if you’re familiar with Sengoku era personalities, you might think this Yagyu Jubei is based on the Yagyu Jubei, aka Yagyu Jubei Mitsutoshi. That’s not accurate. Capcom based their Yagyu Jubei off Yagyu Munetoshi, but the character is fictional and is supposed to be Yagyu Munetoshi’s grandfather. It won’t affect your enjoyment of the series either way, so feel free to file that trivia off somewhere in the depths of your mind.
OK, so now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
His village massacred, Jubei wanders across Japan seeking vengeance. In his travels, he encounters allies who fight alongside him.
The fallen warrior monk, Ankokuji Ekei. The leader of the notorious Fuma shinobi, Fuma Kotaro. The head of the Saiga clan of mercenaries, Saiga Magoichi. A woman with a mysterious past, Oyu.
All will aid Jubei in his quest for vengeance…or will they? Unlike the first game, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is a much more open-ended affair narratively. The game features a gifting mechanic that allows you to give items you find (or buy) to the four allied characters.
Depending on their likes or dislikes, you can raise their friendship levels with the items you give. That influences gameplay in a number of ways.
Allies that like you will turn up to assist you during crucial fights (such as boss battles) or when you’re heavily wounded. More importantly, the friendship levels can also significantly affect the story. Friends may turn out to be foes if you don’t take the time to get them to like you.
Other than the inclusion of allies, the core gameplay mechanic is largely unchanged from the first game. Jubei can still pull off Issen blows, he gains different elemental weapons and he uses his Oni gauntlet to suck the souls of the Genma that fall to his blade. Fights are fast and furious, as Jubei can block, dodge and even parry attacks with properly timed blocks.
While Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny can be played as a pure hack and slash game, delve a bit under the surface and you’ll find that there’s more to it than that. Timing is a key factor in everything in the game.
I do, however, think the timing needs to be tightened up a bit. Issen hits were notoriously hard to do in the original and they’re just as unforgiving in this one. I swear, the timing seems to be really inconsistent! Sometimes I can do multiple Issens in a row, but then I’ll whiff a ton of them and get badly hurt in the process.
I like the risk/ reward factor for trying out Issens, but the game really needs to be more clear on the timing. Even Dark Souls and Elden Ring are more forgiving when it comes to countering! For me, it got to the point where I just gave up trying to do them any more and just relied on basic blocking and countering.
It’s a damn shame but it’s such a cool mechanic…if only it worked reliably. Sure, I can practice over and over to get better…but I review a ton of games for a living, and I just don’t have the time for that. I suspect many other working adult gamers are in the same boat as I am too.
While the game doesn’t have any brand new additions to it, Capcom has tweaked the mechanics to be a more user-friendly. Other than the Issens…that is.
For one, triggering the Oni mode (which you can do when you get five purple orbs) is now done manually. In the Playstation version, the mode would kick in right after you absorb the fifth orb. Needless to say, most of the times it activated, you didn’t really need it.
Now you can finally save the transformation to when you really need it most!
There’s also a new Hell mode for veterans, where you die in one hit. Yup, not for me.
You can also now pick Japanese voices if you want. I highly recommend you don’t, at least for your first playthrough. The Japanese voice actor for Gogandantess (my favourite Onimusha character) is nowhere near the level of the English one.
He is perfect for the role, with the right amount of corny and hammy acting!
You can also now switch weapons in-game (by holding the LT and then pressing a direction on the d-pad), skip cutscenes and a handy new auto-save feature.
There’s a drawback to the auto-save however. It doesn’t save every time you enter a new room or location, only at certain points. You might sometimes have to redo chunks of the game if you died before the game auto-saves your progress. I wish Capcom had just gone all in, with an auto-save system that kicked in every time you got a load screen.
Speaking of loads, the game loads much faster now. Not as fast as I’d like, but still an improvement over the old version. It also runs at a locked 60FPS, which is great and makes everything feel much smoother and fluid.
Needless to say, the visuals have also been enhanced. Texture work is much sharper now (even on 4K) though the character models don’t seem to have been improved much (if at all). Character models are still rather blocky, which is super evident in cutscenes or close up shots.
The prerendered backgrounds are much improved though. I won’t say they’re up to the level of the backgrounds in the Resident Evil remake, but they’re much sharper and more detailed than they previously were.
It’s the fixed camera angles that are still a detriment to the game. Fixed camera angles are fine in slower paced games (like Dino Crisis or Resident Evil) but in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny they are a definite hindrance. They were an issue in the Playstation 2 version, and they’re still a massive issue in the remaster.
You’d be hacking and slashing and Issening everything and then suddenly WHAM! The camera angle changes and you’re disoriented for a bit. In that split second, can lose all your momentum and get hammered by whoever it is you’re fighting.
It’s even worse when you’re just running through an empty location to get to the next area. The camera angle suddenly changes and your movement controls flip-flop. Left becomes up, right becomes down…or whatever. It’s an unavoidable change that will always screw you up when it happens.
There’s no obvious way to fix it with a remaster, so you might as well gird yourself for it. There’s no escaping it no matter what you do.
Finally, I really hate that most of the game’s unlockable secrets are available right from the start. It kills off any incentive for me to actually replay the game. I miss the days when you needed to be good (or actually put in some effort) to get rewarded with extra modes and stuff. Now, it’s all either given to you outright or sold as DLC.
Finally, on the ROG Ally X, the game is just as smooth as it is on my desktop. There’s no issue with hitching, loading or slowdown and everything plays just as fluid on the portable machine. If you’re thinking of taking the game on the road, you will have no issues with it on the ROG Ally X!
The Bottom Line.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is a great remaster of a decent game. Everything about it is improved from the Onimusha Warlords. The story’s better, the game’s longer and companions are a cool (if a bit underutilized) addition. While there’s been nothing added to the game content-wise, the handful of Quality of Life improvements are much appreciated. The game also looks much nicer and plays better now too.
Unfortunately, issues that plagued the original game still remain. The fixed camera angles are still an issue and the timing for Issens seems to be really inconsistent and unintuitive. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Another downside for me is Capcom’s decision to unlock most of the game’s secrets and hand them out to you without unlocking them first. It kills off most of the game’s longevity for me, because there’s not much point for multiple playthroughs anymore (other than the achievements) when all the hidden modes are already available.
TLDR:
Great remastering effort with some solid additions, but core problems still remain that will affect enjoyment.
The Good:
- Fast, fluid gameplay.
- Enjoyable story.
- Allies are great to have in fights.
- English voice actor for Gogandantess.
The Bad:
- Issen timing is hard to gauge and inconsistent to pull off.
- Nearly everything is unlocked from the start.
- Fixed camera angles can cause control issues.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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