Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is an interesting game with a lot of ambitious ideas. It looked at what worked for the original Onimusha and not only improved on it, but added a more systems on top of the existing formula. While these new systems and mechanics are exciting to engage with at first, after awhile the rough edges start to wear on you. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of fun to be had with Onimusha 2. In fact, I’d still say that after my two playthroughs of this remaster, it is a superior game to the original.
Enter Jubei in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny
The story of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny takes place ten years after the conclusion of the first game. Nobunaga has taken hold of the genma army and is rampaging through Japan. He attacks the village of Yagyu and catches the attention of the Yagyu clan leader, Jubei. Jubei ends up meeting a demon who bestows on him the power to wield Oni weapons, and he sets off to find Nobunaga.
From there, Jubei finds himself in Imasho, a small gold mining encampment. This area acts as a hub for the first third of the game and you will return here often during the opening hours. You will also find allies that Jubei can befriend that will help him on his journey and go shopping for supplies with gold dropped by enemies.
These allies are Ekei, a loud, spear-wielding warrior, Magoichi, a stoic rifleman, Kotaro, a rambunctious ninja and Oyu, a mysterious swordfighter. Each of them have distinct personalities and motivations for why they are in Imasho that you will have to give gifts to in order to earn their trust and learn about. This gift giving system is a major part of the game and has a strong impact on how the story will play out.
Depending on your relationship with these characters, you will gain additional scenes or even playable sections as these characters, revealing more about them. Want to know why Kotaro is so suspicious of Oyu? Or maybe you are more interested to learn about why Ekei drowns himself in alcohol and women? The game expects you to make the commitment and befriend these characters in order to answer those questions.
While the story is rather straightforward, it keeps you engaged by having you become attached to these characters. It’s impossible to see every character’s full story in a single playthrough, and this makes you want to play through Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny multiple times to see how each of their stories play out.
Half-Baked Ideas
However, because the game relies so heavily on the friendship and gift giving mechanic for its story, there isn’t a clear indicator for friendship levels with your allies, and it’s frustrating for that reason. The most the game gives you is a small animation that plays when you first talk to each of them, which corresponds with their view of Jubei. This makes it very difficult to know who has the highest friendship level and who you should be giving gifts to at times.
On my first playthrough I was trying to max out Ekei’s friendship and thought I was giving him enough gifts based on early cutscenes and his interactions with Jubei. Despite this, about halfway through the game, he practically disappeared from my story and I had no idea where I had messed up. I wish Capcom would have addressed this problem in the remaster from the original game, but unfortunately this mechanic, even if it does add replayability, will still cause frustrations for some people.
The central hub and shopping mechanics also end up being abandoned after a few hours into the game. It’s a shame because I enjoyed the RPG like feeling of returning to town to see what the shop has restocked with after major story events. I wish this was fleshed out more throughout the game and gave me something to do with the excess gold I had collected.
Additionally, the story does suffer from some pacing issues. The last quarter of the game especially moves at a breakneck speed leading to a rather rushed feeling ending. I couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed with the grand conclusion to the game simply due to how fast it was over.
Even with these pacing issues, I can still say that Onimusha 2 bolsters a much more personal and compelling story than the first game. The villains in particular are much more fleshed out and interesting. Gogandantess, the self-professed greatest swordsman of all demons, is an obvious standout character that had me grinning ear-to-ear with every appearance. His over-the-top voice acting and antics were welcomed comic relief throughout the story.
Speaking of the voice acting, Onimusha 2 Remastered uses the original voice lines from the initial release of Onimusha 2. While some may wince at the clumsy and often goofy delivery of character dialogue in the English dub, I found it absolutely charming and fun to listen to. For those who would rather experience the Japanese voice acting this remaster allows you to switch to Japanese for the dialogue, unlike the original release.
Draw Your Sword
The combat in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Remastered will feel very familiar to those who have played the original game. There have been some very notable additions to the remaster, however. One of the biggest changes is the ability to change your weapons on the fly without having to go into your menu. This allows you to stay in the action without having to fumble through menus if you want to change your weapons. This is especially useful when you find yourself facing off against both melee and ranged enemies.
Jubei has access to five possible melee weapons as well as a bow and arrow, and guns. Each melee weapon feels very different and will have you approaching combat encounters in different ways depending on which you have equipped. The spear, Hyoukin-Yari, is very powerful but doesn’t work as well against crowds of enemies. Meanwhile, Jubei’s dual-blade, Senpumaru, is able to attack swiftly and hit multiple enemies at once while not dealing as much damage per hit.
Combat feels smooth and responsive, regardless of which weapon you are using in Jubei’s arsenal. Ranged combat can be finnicky, however, with the auto lock on not always targeting the enemy you would like when you are facing a large group of adversaries. This can lead to some frustrations when you have a lizard demon slashing at your face, but you just want to take out an annoying archer that keeps shooting you in the back and can’t quite lock on to them.
Another key change is Onimusha mode, Jubei’s powered up Oni form, is now triggered manually. This is a much needed improvement over the original, which would immediately throw you into Onimusha mode after absorbing five purple souls. Now you can absorb your five souls and hang on to them for a particularly difficult boss fight or other encounters.
Outside of combat, you will be spending a decent amount of time solving puzzles and working your way through gorgeous pre-rendered environments. Those familiar with the Resident Evil franchise should feel right at home with these sections of the game. The original Onimusha wore its Resident Evil influences on its sleeves, and this sequel is no different.
I will say that if you have a dislike for sliding box puzzles, Onimusha 2 may be your worst nightmare. Throughout the game there are a significant amount of these puzzles that are required to acquire items that are either necessary to continue or extremely useful on Jubei’s quest. They were spaced out enough that they never really bothered me, but I can easily see others being turned off or intimidated by the amount of times these puzzles are used.
For those who don’t gel well with tank controls, Capcom has also added analogue support. This is a welcome addition for a lot of people, but I still found navigating through the pre-rendered backgrounds to feel more natural and intuitive with the standard tank controls.
In addition to the main game, three mini-games that you originally had to beat the main story to unlock are available right off the bat. These offer a fun way to engage with all the aspects of the gameplay of the main game while offering unique rewards and challenges.
Team Oni is a gauntlet of twenty levels with increasingly difficult enemies to battle. You will find new gear and equipment as you move through these levels to increase damage output or heal up after tough encounters. The gimmick is that you can freely switch between all five main characters from the main game. Enjoy the fast paced close quarters combat of Kotaro? Switch to him and take out enemies with blinding speed! Did a giant minotaur with an axe spawn that you want to keep your distance from? Change to Magoichi and unload on them with his rifle! This mini-game offers a fun way to experience combat with the main cast of the game and practice with their move sets.
Another mini-game is the Man in Black mode. You play as Jubei and have 5 minutes to work your way through enemies and collect film reels. The catch? Jubei is only armed with a large sponge as a weapon and can’t kill enemies.
This is a fun little challenge that tests your reflexes and dodging skills and rewards you with being able to watch cutscenes from the main game, but now Jubei is decked out in his Man in Black costume.
Lastly, there is the Puzzle Phantom Realm. Remember how I said if you hate those sliding puzzle boxes, Onimusha 2 would be your worst nightmare? Well, Puzzle Phantom Realm is your personal hell. Jubei must move through twenty levels filled with puzzle boxes that get increasingly difficult as he moves through them. This is the ultimate test of your box sliding puzzle knowledge, and it left me scratching my head for a long time on some of them.
It’s a very difficult challenge that rewards you with additional concept art for those who enjoy collecting it, or just want to challenge themselves with the hardest puzzles in the game. While these mini-games aren’t for everyone and entirely optional, I found them to be a welcome challenge after completing the main game.
The last main addition to Onimusha 2 Remastered is Hell Mode. In this near impossible challenge, players are tasked with beating the main story without getting hit once. That’s right. A single strike from any enemy that lands on Jubei will instantly kill Jubei sending you to a game over screen.
This is an insanely challenging mode that only the most hardcore players will be able to overcome. I attempted it and made it a couple hours in before I hit a brick wall against an early boss fight and decided that maybe this just wasn’t for me. I’m happy that Capcom has added this mode for those who really want to put their skills to the test, and I can’t wait to see the first Hell Mode speedrun. I just don’t think I am willing to put myself through the agony of making my way through Hell Mode.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is a Successful and Welcomed Remaster
All in all, I very much enjoyed my time revisiting Onimusha 2 after playing the original title and loving it as a teenager. The story isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the large cast does add to the overall experience and makes the journey feel more personal than the original game.
The combat is improved, not only from the original Onimusha, but also from the original release of Onimusha 2. Nice quality of life updates allow the combat to flow and not break up the action, since you are able to have more direct control over your abilities.
There are still a lot of things that hold Onimusha 2 back though. The obtuse gift giving mechanic can lead to frustrations and end up leaving some character stories incomplete with no way for the player to know where they messed up or how. The pacing in the later parts of the game feels rushed and ultimately leads to a slightly unsatisfying conclusion.
Also, abandoning the central hub and economy systems seems like wasted potential. I would love to see a version of this game that keeps this going throughout the entire campaign. It seems like they were almost afraid to move too far into RPG territory and reverted back to a more linear action/adventure experience.
This remaster successfully captures what makes Onimusha 2 so fun and unique in this franchise while also keeping the quarks that can be off-putting for some. Here’s hoping that Capcom keeps remastering the rest of this series and we can see Onimusha 3 and Onimusha Dawn of Dreams brought to modern consoles in all their glory.
Disclaimer: Capcom provided an Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny key for PlayStation 4 to Final Weapon for review purposes.
