Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny Review - Jubei's Bizarre Adventure

Repeat after me: Remasters are important. They allow for longtime fans to re-engage with a piece of media they love. Remasters also open the door for a whole new crowd to experience something for the first time. I'm in the latter with the remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, and I'm very glad to have the chance to play this beloved series.

Beloved, indeed. The Onimusha series may not be as popular as Capcom's larger franchises, but it's still revered by fans across the globe. This action-oriented series takes elements from the Resident Evil franchise and makes it a faster-paced, Sengoku-era adventure as we step into the role of Jubei, a samurai hell-bent on revenge against a demonic Oda Nobunaga.

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny Gets the Remaster Treatment

I enjoyed Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny so much that I went back and played the original almost immediately after. Admittedly, I should have played the first game in the series, well, first, but the upcoming Onimusha inspired me to jump into the series in whatever way I could.

Onimusha 2 is a delightful remaster that contains almost everything you'd want to see: Enhanced visuals, support for modern platforms, and quality-of-life updates. In terms of visual fidelity, Onimusha 2 does a lot to remaster the graphics of this nearly 25-year-old PS2 game.

Onimusha: Warlords, the original game in the series from 2001, received a remaster in 2019. It's more or less the same age as its sequel, yet the remastered visuals in the original aren't quite up to snuff when you compare the two. 

Onimusha 2's enhanced visuals are crystal clear. The backgrounds are exceptionally well done, breathing new life into an aging title. Textures look wonderful on higher resolutions. The various Japanese castles, dense forests, and supernatural, demonic environments are very well done here. Having a fixed camera assures that every angle looks quite spectacular.

The only thing it's missing is support for higher frame rates, but like its predecessor, it's locked to 60 FPS. It's not the end of the world, but it would have been nice to see. Other than that, the remaster ran flawlessly on PC.

In terms of controls, Onimusha 2 translates well over to modern controllers. I like the option of using the d-pad for tank controls (as it was in the base version), but using a joystick is a much-needed and welcome quality-of-life improvement.

One additional quality-of-life feature, which wasn't in the remaster of the first game nor in the original version of this title, is auto-save. There are fixed save points, like Resident Evil's typewriters, so with the new auto-save, if you have a power outage or just have to go at any given moment, you won't lose as much progress.

What isn't included that I would have enjoyed, other than support for higher frame rates, is New Game +. The story is structured in such a way that you have branching paths. Going back and filling in the blanks in order to see the whole story this game has to offer, well, you'll just have to start from square one. That means all your upgrades are for naught if you start a new game.

The intended course of action after beating the campaign is to up the difficulty -- and there is a new, brutal difficulty called Hell Mode, here -- but I'd much rather have an easier way of seeing all the story while retaining my health, magic, armor, and weapon upgrades from previous runs.

A Side Note on the Campiness of Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

Since we're on the topic of story, let's talk about just how insane this game is. If you thought Resident Evil was campy, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Onimusha 2 is so unabashedly goofy that it makes Chris Redfield punching a boulder look serious.

It's the translation and dub that make it what it is. It's not a quality translation, from what I've heard, and the voice acting is so bad that it becomes good. Jubei's dude-bro voice and just how nonchalant he is, despite going through literal hell to get his revenge, is endearing.

The downside to all of this is, if you're looking for a serious, Sengoku-era action flick, this isn't it. It's weird, it's zany, and the story is practically non-existent. The best way to enjoy it is by relishing in the weirdness and appreciating it for what it is, rather than what it isn't. I'll leave it at that. Go in blind, and you'll have a blast.

Sengoku Swordplay, with Magic!

For whatever reason, I was operating under the assumption that Onimusha 2 played more like a Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden game. I was pleased to find it's more akin to Resident Evil than anything else, and that Onimusha deliberately borrowed many elements from it.

Fixed camera angles, limited resources, light puzzle solving, and more. If you like the older Resident Evil games, you'll definitely enjoy this. Onimusha 2 is, however, more fast-paced with hack-and-slash combat, meaning you don't have to figure out whether you should conserve bullets or not; well, for the most part.

There are four separate weapons in this game, each behaving differently from one another. There's a sword, spear, double-blade, and a giant hammer. They have an element attached to them and have separate magic attacks. Being able to switch these on the fly makes combat smooth, and magic packs a much-needed punch on stronger enemies and bosses.

You also have a bow and rifle, which won't be used as much since they have limited ammo. The main source of damage is through your melee weapons, though, and don't you forget it: This isn't Resident Evil!

Enemy corpses drop souls, which you can absorb through your hand. These orbs are used to upgrade weapons and armor to become stronger, so there's a decent amount of progression available throughout the story. Some orbs also heal or regain your mana, so using this in the middle of combat when a bunch of foes surround you can be a bit tense.

While weapon movesets are pretty standard, mostly utilizing just the joystick and one attack button, ass well as a charge attack, you have some nuance to the gameplay with the Issen system. The Issen is a counter to enemy attacks. Right before they hit, Jubei can counter by doing a critical strike.

For many enemies, the Issen kills them in one hit or, at the very least, depletes their health by a lot. Getting the timing of this system down is very tricky and takes practice, as each enemy attack has different timings. Deliberately waiting for an enemy to strike, then countering with one powerful hit, is immensely satisfying.

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny Review | Final Thoughts

Overall, combat is fun, but it's also a product of its time. The enemy variety isn't too impressive, and they also spawn to an absurd degree. Like a hydra head, cut one down, and two more will pop up. The original Onimusha got it down with enemy variety, as it wasn't overwhelming but still enough to be a challenge. Ominusha 2 is relentless. Chill out, Nobunaga.

Well, Capcom, you can count me in as an Onimusha fan. With the next entry in the series dropping in, hopefully, 2026, I'll be very interested to see how Capcom modernizes the series' formula. And hey, it wouldn't hurt to have the third or fourth game remastered, too. Just sayin'!

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny was reviewed over approximately 10 hours of gameplay on PC with a key provided by the developer. All screenshots were taken during the review process.