I remember first loading up the original Onimusha: Warlords on PlayStation 2 way back when I was a young teen. The unique blend of Resident Evil-style gameplay in feudal Japan was right up my alley. I found the horror atmosphere with relatively fast-paced combat felt just right and allowed me to become fully engrossed in the story.
When a sequel was announced, I was so excited to continue Samanosuke’s story and was slightly let down to see a new protagonist, Jubei Yagyu. Add on that the sequel seemed to be moving further away from the horror elements of the original and embracing a more action-oriented approach, and I started to lose confidence. However, I quickly found out that I shouldn’t have been skeptical of the direction they were taking the series.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny took a lot of what made the original Onimusha special and improved on it in almost every regard. On top of this, it also added a whole new layer of RPG elements that allowed it to stand apart, not only from the original, but from the series as a whole. So, when Capcom gave us the chance to preview the upcoming remaster of Onimusha 2, I instantly jumped at the opportunity to revisit this game that I had such fond memories of when I was younger.
A New Journey
The story of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny follows Jubei Yagyu, the head of the Yagyu Clan. His village is attacked by returning villain Nobunaga and his horde of Genma. Jubei ends up meeting a mysterious Oni who gives him a magical orb and tells him that he must collect four more of them in order to gain power to fight Nobunaga. She also brands Jubei’s hand with an Oni mark and tells him to present it to a nearby shrine. Upon doing so, Jubei gains his first Oni weapon and vows revenge for his village. He then heads to the mining village of Imasho in order to look for clues.
It is a classic video game setup that instantly hooks you to want to continue on this journey and avenge Jubei’s village. It also raises mysteries about Jubei’s heritage as the Oni woman addresses Jubei as “her son”.
Improving On a Classic
Combat in Onimusha 2 is relatively similar to the original game except for a few key elements. When the player holds the right trigger button, Jubei is able to charge whatever weapon he has equipped, and this will allow him to unleash a charged attack or attack combo. This is very useful when tackling the challenge of fighting larger enemies and bosses that take more of a beating. This can also be combined with another useful addition to the combat, secret techniques. These allow you to unlock new combos for weapons by inputting a button combination. These combos can be used in conjunction with Jubei’s regular 4-hit combo to really lay in the damage.
Counters have returned from the original game, but they feel a lot easier to pull off. I was able to confidently block and counter a large majority of the standard enemies by the time I was done with my time with the preview build, and it never got old.
One feature that is new for the remaster is the ability to swap weapons on the fly without having to go into your menu. By holding the left trigger, you can use the left d-pad to change to ranged weapons and the right d-pad to swap between your melee weapons. This is especially useful for encounters where you have ranged and melee enemies. No more having to keep going into your menu just to take out a stray archer.
Quality of Life Changes
An addition that a lot of people will be happy with is that there are now analogue controls for those not familiar or comfortable with tank controls. It is a nice addition, but I still found myself using the tank controls as it felt more natural to traverse through the pre-rendered backgrounds and multiple camera angle shifts. This could also just be due to the fact that I am an unapologetic tank control enjoyer in this style of game.
Speaking of the pre-rendered backgrounds, they have been upgraded to high definition quality, and they are gorgeous. It is a joy to travel to a new area and be treated to the stunning environments.
The game also has an auto-save feature now. If you find yourself getting swarmed in combat and die, you no longer have to go back to your last manual save and instead will be graciously taken back to when you entered your current area.
Forming Bonds
One of the biggest additions to Onimusha 2 is the companion and gift-giving mechanic. Very early into the game, I met Ekei, Magoichi, Kotaro, and Oyu, four warriors who had come to Imasho Village for various reasons. After I was introduced to these characters, I was able to give gifts to them in order to strengthen my bond with them. These gifts range from ancient texts, booze, globes, and wise-cracking parrots. Figuring out who likes certain gifts can involve a little trial and error, however.
The interesting part is that whoever you have the strongest bond with actually has an effect on your playthrough. I played through the preview twice, once focusing on Magoichi and another on Ekei, and there were some notable differences. For example, in a section where I was exploring a mine, I was ambushed by demons. In one playthrough, Magoichi came to my aid while Ekei sat by the wayside while complaining that I had never done anything for him, so why should he help? In the other playthrough, Ekei was the one fighting by my side while calling out Magoichi for being lazy.
This mechanic will hopefully add a lot of replayability that makes me excited to see how much it will change throughout the rest of the game.
After my time with Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Remastered, I can safely say that I am very excited to play through the rest of the game. The beautiful backgrounds, engaging combat, and many quality of life changes that Capcom has made should allow this title to reach some who may not have played Onimusha before.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Remastered is slated to come out on May 23 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
