It’s absolutely wild that the Onimusha series was revived over five years ago, and it’s even more wild that its sequel is getting the same remaster treatment. But when you consider the fact that Capcom is hard at work on Onimusha: Way of the Sword, it all makes sense. A lot of fans consider Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny to be the best game in the series, and while that may be the case, like Onimusha Warlords before it, it hasn’t aged well.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny stars Jubei Yagyu, a samurai who’s out to take revenge on Odu Nobunaga after the destruction of his village and family. As he makes his way through feudal Japan, Yagyu comes across four allies that join him on his journey, while encountering horrific demons and interesting magic along the way.
To keep things basic, it’s your run-of-the-mill samurai story whose only purpose is to guide you through the gameplay. I wasn’t really paying attention to what was happening; I just enjoyed myself slashing through enemies and demons, which is what a lot of people did as they played most of the games in the series anyway.
Jubei’s friends sort of play a big part in Onimusha 2., if you let them.
For those unaware, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was developed at the same time as the original game. When Onimusha: Warlords originally released in the west in 2001, its sequel was announced not long after, so the games played fairly identically to one another with a few meaningful differences here and there. That said, if you haven’t played the original, this is a fine place to start because it really isn’t all that different from the original game, and that’s not a bad thing because this game is better. To out myself, this game was actually my introduction to the series. I played a little bit of Warlords after, and I honestly don’t feel like I missed much.
The gameplay jumping from the remaster of Onimusha: Warlords has hardly changed. As its predecessor did, you don’t have to worry about tank controls anymore, though they’re still there with the D-Pad if you’re a purist. Upon killing enemies, you can absorb their souls to power up weapons and armor, except you’re more reliant on this than ever in Onimusha 2. This sequel also gives you the ability to upgrade your weapons at any save point, along with giving you a new purple souls gauge that’ll act as a way to trigger your Onimusha transformation (a limited state where you’re more powerful and indestructible) if you have enough to use.
The biggest change from Warlords to Samurai’s Destiny is the addition of the Jubei’s allies and the gifting system that gives the game light RPG elements. When you come across new allies, you’ll have the option of providing them with gifts that you either buy from a shop or find out in the open, and that’ll influence your relationship with them. There’ll be points in the game where one specific person will join you as you take out enemies or bosses, and all that is dependent upon the gifts you’ve given them and whether or not they like them. The problem is that it feels like a gimmick. You hardly ever know when they’ll make an appearance and when they do, the stories they have don’t feel like they have any relevance to any of the tasks at hand. When they join you in your fights, they can’t get hurt, so there’s no real urgency or reason to be attached to anyone except for the purpose of achievement-hunting. The fact that any of these characters befriend Jubei at all is confusing.
Samurai’s Destiny features the same hack-and-slash combat from Warlords, with a larger array of weapons and abilities to launch an onslaught on your enemies.
The HD visuals also do what they can to make the game look more modern, but Capcom really would’ve been better off with a full remake. Since Onimusha is a remaster of an early PlayStation 2 game along with tank controls, that also means pre-rendered backgrounds are once again making their unwanted appearance. With HD textures, they just look flat and muddy, and all the characters and enemies stand out like a sore thumb. It all just feels dated and makes you wish you were playing on a sixth-generation console with a CRT instead. The one saving grace is that you have the ability to skip cutscenes if you got killed by a boss or something.
It might also be worth noting that I played the game on Switch OLED mostly in handheld mode, so I might have seen worse overall visuals than you might see on the PS4, Xbox, or PC. I can’t confirm it because I never got my hands on a home console version to tell the difference, but I will say the trailer featured on the Steam page does look like some elements pop more.
This also makes the character models–namely the faces–look awkward. Throw in the horrid mono-sounding voice acting, and you definitely have a Japanese-made game from the early 2000s. The worst part about the voices is that we’re forced to listen to the English dub when Warlords actually had the Japanese dub available to players. It all just gives off vibes of Shenmue without the sailor memes.
While the hack-and-slash still feels good, it’s made even more visceral by one-hit-kill strikes that you can perform just as an enemy hits you.
Despite all this, there is some fun to be had with Onimusha 2. The absence of tank controls really makes the gameplay a whole lot more approachable, and it eventually becomes easy to go through the motions and slash at enemies corridor after corridor. Capcom always intended on Onimusha being a hack-and-slash feudal Japanese take on Resident Evil, and it still very much is, and that’s where all the charm comes from. I love ninjas and samurais and hate zombies, so that makes Onimusha a solid choice for me.
Though the game is obviously rough around the edges, I developed a sense of appreciation as I played through it. Had I actually played the original PS2 entries, I’d probably be a bigger fan than the one I’ve become. Either way you look at it, there’s really nothing that’ll make anybody call Onimusha 2 a must-play in 2025 aside from the fact that the latest entry in the series is coming. It’s always good to revisit the classics, and if Way of the Sword ends up being the same home run that Capcom has been hitting all generation, experiences like this will be much easier to appreciate.
It’s absolutely wild that the Onimusha series was revived over five years ago, and it’s even more wild that its sequel is getting the same remaster treatment. But when you consider the fact that Capcom is hard at work on…
It’s absolutely wild that the Onimusha series was revived over five years ago, and it’s even more wild that its sequel is getting the same remaster treatment. But when you consider the fact that Capcom is hard at work on Onimusha: Way of the Sword, it all makes sense. A lot of fans consider Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny to be the best game in the series, and while that may be the case, like Onimusha Warlords before it, it hasn’t aged well.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny stars Jubei Yagyu, a samurai who’s out to take revenge on Odu Nobunaga after the destruction of his village and family. As he makes his way through feudal Japan, Yagyu comes across four allies that join him on his journey, while encountering horrific demons and interesting magic along the way.
To keep things basic, it’s your run-of-the-mill samurai story whose only purpose is to guide you through the gameplay. I wasn’t really paying attention to what was happening; I just enjoyed myself slashing through enemies and demons, which is what a lot of people did as they played most of the games in the series anyway.
Jubei’s friends sort of play a big part in Onimusha 2., if you let them.
For those unaware, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was developed at the same time as the original game. When Onimusha: Warlords originally released in the west in 2001, its sequel was announced not long after, so the games played fairly identically to one another with a few meaningful differences here and there. That said, if you haven’t played the original, this is a fine place to start because it really isn’t all that different from the original game, and that’s not a bad thing because this game is better. To out myself, this game was actually my introduction to the series. I played a little bit of Warlords after, and I honestly don’t feel like I missed much.
The gameplay jumping from the remaster of Onimusha: Warlords has hardly changed. As its predecessor did, you don’t have to worry about tank controls anymore, though they’re still there with the D-Pad if you’re a purist. Upon killing enemies, you can absorb their souls to power up weapons and armor, except you’re more reliant on this than ever in Onimusha 2. This sequel also gives you the ability to upgrade your weapons at any save point, along with giving you a new purple souls gauge that’ll act as a way to trigger your Onimusha transformation (a limited state where you’re more powerful and indestructible) if you have enough to use.
The biggest change from Warlords to Samurai’s Destiny is the addition of the Jubei’s allies and the gifting system that gives the game light RPG elements. When you come across new allies, you’ll have the option of providing them with gifts that you either buy from a shop or find out in the open, and that’ll influence your relationship with them. There’ll be points in the game where one specific person will join you as you take out enemies or bosses, and all that is dependent upon the gifts you’ve given them and whether or not they like them. The problem is that it feels like a gimmick. You hardly ever know when they’ll make an appearance and when they do, the stories they have don’t feel like they have any relevance to any of the tasks at hand. When they join you in your fights, they can’t get hurt, so there’s no real urgency or reason to be attached to anyone except for the purpose of achievement-hunting. The fact that any of these characters befriend Jubei at all is confusing.
Samurai’s Destiny features the same hack-and-slash combat from Warlords, with a larger array of weapons and abilities to launch an onslaught on your enemies.
The HD visuals also do what they can to make the game look more modern, but Capcom really would’ve been better off with a full remake. Since Onimusha is a remaster of an early PlayStation 2 game along with tank controls, that also means pre-rendered backgrounds are once again making their unwanted appearance. With HD textures, they just look flat and muddy, and all the characters and enemies stand out like a sore thumb. It all just feels dated and makes you wish you were playing on a sixth-generation console with a CRT instead. The one saving grace is that you have the ability to skip cutscenes if you got killed by a boss or something.
It might also be worth noting that I played the game on Switch OLED mostly in handheld mode, so I might have seen worse overall visuals than you might see on the PS4, Xbox, or PC. I can’t confirm it because I never got my hands on a home console version to tell the difference, but I will say the trailer featured on the Steam page does look like some elements pop more.
This also makes the character models–namely the faces–look awkward. Throw in the horrid mono-sounding voice acting, and you definitely have a Japanese-made game from the early 2000s. The worst part about the voices is that we’re forced to listen to the English dub when Warlords actually had the Japanese dub available to players. It all just gives off vibes of Shenmue without the sailor memes.
While the hack-and-slash still feels good, it’s made even more visceral by one-hit-kill strikes that you can perform just as an enemy hits you.
Despite all this, there is some fun to be had with Onimusha 2. The absence of tank controls really makes the gameplay a whole lot more approachable, and it eventually becomes easy to go through the motions and slash at enemies corridor after corridor. Capcom always intended on Onimusha being a hack-and-slash feudal Japanese take on Resident Evil, and it still very much is, and that’s where all the charm comes from. I love ninjas and samurais and hate zombies, so that makes Onimusha a solid choice for me.
Though the game is obviously rough around the edges, I developed a sense of appreciation as I played through it. Had I actually played the original PS2 entries, I’d probably be a bigger fan than the one I’ve become. Either way you look at it, there’s really nothing that’ll make anybody call Onimusha 2 a must-play in 2025 aside from the fact that the latest entry in the series is coming. It’s always good to revisit the classics, and if Way of the Sword ends up being the same home run that Capcom has been hitting all generation, experiences like this will be much easier to appreciate.
by Danreb Victorio
