Given how it uses the same fixed camera and controls as the original, you might expect the new edition of 2002’s Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) would be as frustrating to play as, well, every other recent remaster of a game from that era with the same kind of restricted motion.
You’d be wrong.
While it doesn’t feel like a modern game, the new version of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny does have solid controls, and in doing so, will delight people who fondly remember this game, and this series, while also possibly engaging those who’ve never played it but don’t mind when a good game is somewhat retro.
Set in Japan in the 1500s,
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny casts you as a warrior named Jubei, whose village was wiped out by a demon army led by Nobunaga Oda. In real life, Nobunaga helped unified Japan by consolidating power; in Onimusha 2, like 2001’s Onimusha: Warlords, he’s trying to do it as The Demon King. Which is why you, as Jubei, spend your days slaying Nobunaga’s demonic minions.
At its core, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is a third-person hack & slash action game, though you also have a bow & arrow at your disposal. There’s also a fair number of situational puzzles to solve, and no small amount of backtracking. You also heal yourself with some familiar-looking green herbs.
Which is why, if it was 2002, I’d be saying this is like Resident Evil if you swapped the guns for swords, modern times for ancient Japan, and zombies for demon soldiers.
But since it’s 2025,
I’d instead say Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is like Ghost Of Tsushima and Rise Of The Ronin if you swapped their open worlds for linear ones, their player-controlled cameras for ones with fixed positions, and their realistic stories for one rooted in Japanese supernatural folklore.
Now, before we go much further, it’s important to understand that this is a remastered version of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, not a remake. Which is why I compared it to the original Resident Evil and not the recent remake of Resident Evil 2. The difference being that this is the same game that came out in 2002, just with the graphics now in HD. It is not a completely new or revamped or reworked version of that game.
It’s also not like the recent remastered version of Days Gone, which was also the same game as the original, but added new gameplay modes; there are no new gameplay modes in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny.
All of which is why,
if you’ve played Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, you don’t need to get this new version.
Though the operative word in that sentence was “need.” You still might want to. Especially if you remember it fondly, since this is an authentic (though slightly better looking) version of a game you love.
As for people who’ve never had the pleasure, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is, as I said, a hack & slash action game. Running through narrow corridors, you fight all manner of demonic creatures, many of whom have different weapons and attacks.
Now, at first,
it may seem like the combat in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is simplistic, since you only have one attack button. But your pallet of violence quickly expands. Not only can you do a charged attack (assuming you don’t mind leaving yourself vulnerable while you charge up), but if you strike at just the right moment with a regular attack, the result can instantly kill both the enemy you’ve targeted as well as any stupidly standing next to them.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny also gives you some effective weapons to fight with, including swords, spears, a big hammer, and my personal favorite, senpumaru, a staff with blades at both ends like the lightsaber Darth Maul favored. All of which come with their own elemental-based magic attacks.
You can also block attacks, though unlike in Ghost Of Tsushima, doing so does not open that enemy up for a counterattack. All it does is prevent you from getting hurt. You don’t even have to time it right; you can stand there, holding down the “block” button and wait for someone to hit you.
Using these different ways to defeat enemies…
also pays off in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. Like in the God Of War games, you can absorb the souls of enemies you’ve defeated. Which, in turn, will replenish your health or magic, and give you the currency needed to upgrade your weapons and armor.
Though what really helps make the combat in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny interesting is how the enemies are nicely varied as far as difficulty, attack speed, even how they attack. I especially loved / hated the guys with big spikes on their backs who’d knock me down by doing somersaults.
Of course, none of this would matter if the controls didn’t work so well. Sure, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny would be better if it had a player controlled camera and controls that were like those in God Of War: Ragnarok (as we’ll hopefully find out when Onimusha: Way Of The Sword comes out next year).
But as is,
the controls in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny work well, despite the limitations. Granted, it will take a few minutes to reorient yourself to this forced perspective when you first start. And even after you do, you’ll still do that thing where you walk through a door and instantly walk back through it by accident.
But unlike other games from this era, the movement controls don’t require you to turn around to go in a different direction, you just press the right thumbstick where you want to go.
It’s why Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is the first and only 3D game with a fixed camera and tank controls that didn’t immediately make me want to toss my controller in frustration.
Unfortunately,
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny can be frustrating in other ways, ones that I would’ve complained about back in the day as well.
One of which, ironically, has to do with the camera. As with all games that employ a fixed perspective, your view changes when you run off screen, at which point it switches to the next room or a different view of the room you’re in.
In the original version of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, some of these transitions were seamless, while others gave the game a moment to load the next area. Y’know, like when you went through a door in Resident Evil.
But for reasons I don’t understand,
it does the same thing in this version, even though the PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and modern PCs — not to mentioned the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, on which this is also playable — are capable of having all the transitions be seamless.
Granted, these transitions aren’t terrible; they’re only a split second longer than the non-loading kind.
But that’s not the issue. If you move from one area to another before you’ve absorbed all the souls, and it’s a loading transition, those souls are lost, even if you go back. Which is not the case if the transition is the seamless kind.
It’s also odd…
that the game is sometimes (but not always) unaware of what’s in your possession, and will sometimes act like you don’t have an item until you go into your inventory and click on it.
In one part, for instance, you need a purity charm to release a spirit from this mortal coil. But when you click on the dead body in need of purification, Jubei says, “If only I had the Purify Charm” even though he does.
Though there are other times when you’ll, say, click on a locked door, and the game will automatically ask if you want to use a specific key in your possession to open it.
But the biggest mistake…
they made in the original version of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, which is also present in this version, is that you briefly get to play as someone way cooler than Jubei: a woman named Oyu. Not only does she have a powerful broad sword, but she can throw deadly daggers with the press of a button (unlike Jubei, who must take a moment to equip his bow if he wants to hit anything from afar).
Thankfully, none of these shortcomings ruin Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny any more now than they did back in the day. This is still a really engaging, high action, borderline effortlessly fun game of whack-a-demon.
And yes, I admit it: I’m one of those people who fondly remember this game, and this series. Ever since they released the updated remake of Resident Evil 2 I’ve been hoping Capcom would do the same for this series.
But while Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny isn’t that,
it still manages to be almost as much fun as it was back when we didn’t know there was a better way to control characters and the camera. While I was worried going in that this was going to be frustrating and feel stifled, the fluid and deceptively deep combat, and the nicely varied enemies, more than make up for the less than ideal perspective.
Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong
SCORE: 8.0/10
