The Onimusha series began in 2001 on the PlayStation 2 and spawned several games between the mainline series, spin-offs for consoles like PS2, and even one on the Game Boy Advance. What seemed to be a very popular series for Capcom quickly ground to a halt, going on a long hiatus until a remaster of the first game was released in 2018.
The series appeared stagnant once again until The Game Awards 2025 surprised fans by announcing a brand new entry, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, scheduled for release in 2026. To tide fans over, Capcom has now released a remaster of the second entry, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny.
Harnass the Oni
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was originally released only one year after the original game and was very well received, just as the other mainline entries on the PS2 were. While the first and third entries share the same protagonist, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny changes things up with a fresh story surrounding Jubei Yagyu, whose village was burned down by a familiar villain in Nobunaga Oda.
Jubei was the only survivor due to him being away at the time of the village being burned down, so he goes out for vengeance upon his return and finds everything he knows to be destroyed. He does meet a female Oni named Takajo, who reveals that Jubei is a descendant of the Oni and can harness those powers for good to help take down Nobunaga. At the same time, we also learn that Takajo is Jubei’s mother, and she sends him on a quest to find five orbs that can be used against Nobunaga.
The first town you are sent to is Imasho, where you will come across four very important characters considered sub-characters in the game. These are Ekei, Magoichi, Kotaro, and Oyu, the latter of which you get introduced to a little later than the first three. The events involving these four can alter depending on how your friendship level with each of them are in the game, which comes down to gift trading within the game that will be discussed briefly. I really enjoyed the banter between these charaters during the game, making me excited whenever a new cutscene was coming.
Coming from the era where Capcom had found major success with the Resident Evil series, the Onimusha series also adopted a similar tank style control system that certainly can be pretty jarring for modern audiences. This includes the usage of pre-rendered backgrounds that you will be moving back and forth between in the tank style, which also leads to some very confusing pathways. I can’t even count the number of times I ended up going back the way I came three or four times because of the way the movement was. This also can be a problem in the combat where you are moving between the small screens while still fighting enemies. Thankfully unlike Resident Evil, you typically can keep slashing to protect yourself here and at least aren’t being ambushed due to the screen change. There is the ability to quick-turn and such, but it still takes some major getting used to. This would have to be completely overhauled to be changed, so you have to take what you get for a remaster, as it still works quite well for the type of tank system it utilizes.
Fighting Like a Warrior
You will be quickly thrust into battle in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, where you start with a basic sword to use that you can slash and attack with. You will soon get a thunder-based sword, though, where you can start to use magic-based attacks as well, though you are limited by a magic gauge that prevents you from spamming these attacks. There are other weapons you will come across as you play more in the game too, so you will have to figure out which ones work best for you in battle and which ones are best for each combat scenario as you can change them on the fly. These weapons can be charged up and used on the enemy, or even block or parry for stronger attacks as soon as the enemy tries to hit you.
Jubei also gains the ability to absorb souls released in battle from enemies you slay. You must hold down Circle to bring these in or they will float away and be missed. Souls come in four colors, each of which can be very useful. Red souls are stored and then able to be placed onto your weapons or gear to enhance them at special save statues. Blue and Yellow souls recover magic and health, respectively, so they can be very handy in combat. Lastly, you have the large purple souls that take longer to absorb, of which you can collect five in your inventory at a time and then use them to transform into an Onimusha in battle for a short time. This makes you all powerful and is very useful against bosses or tough enemies that you are struggling against, but remember that you won’t be able to use it again until you collect five more of the Purple souls.
You are also able to learn additional skills throughout the game via books and scrolls that you find. This is why it’s very important to not only search everywhere and open every chest or interact with anything you find, but also to take part in the trading game that leads to some useful skills.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is far from just a move from screen to screen fighting enemies, as there are some puzzle element to it with the game’s usage of items. Item usage is handled in a few different ways here, with one being the trading of items with the characters with your four allies. To do this, you find them and can press the Start button to enter the item menu to give specific items, with each character having different reactions to certain items. Some will outright refuse an item, while others will love it and give you a good item in return. The items you give here affect the friendship level you have with each of the four sub-characters, while also making a difference on what kinds of items you get, such as better books to learn new skills.
The other way to use non-health items is to go to the item menu in-game and select use when in a particular place or standing in front of a particular person. This adds a bit of a puzzle element to the game as you have to know exactly where to take the correct items. It requires you to be standing directly in front of the right place, or it will not work at all.
A more modern feature that has been added into this remaster is that of auto-save. This saves at certain points in the game and allows you to respawn at those points upon your death. However, I often noticed some oddities here, such as the auto-save taking me further back than my last manual save at a save statue. You would think that the default would be to take you back to that moment rather than a further back auto-save, but it does not. Instead, you have to exit out and choose to load a save instead, without even knowing which will be better for you, without trial and error.
Also new to this version is the ability to play on Easy Mode from the start, which helps to make the game more accessible. This is especially great for those who are having trouble adapting to the tank-style movement in the game. There is also a Hell Mode now available where you die in one hit for those that really want a good challenge, which is even a step up from Critical Mode.
When it comes to the visuals in this remaster, they look pretty good for what is a PS2 era game being remastered. The menus all look very clean and the pre-rendered environments look much clearer here than before. Even though the cutscenes do look a bit dated at this point, they still fit the aesthetic of the game perfectly and it would not have felt right to have redone them without doing a full scale remake of the full game. The English dub in the game is not great here unfortunately, but it doesn’t really spoil the overall experience. The lip sync is also off most of the time, which is something that is just part of the era of games this was from. On the other hand, the game’s soundtrack really did hold up well and was always a joy to listen to while playing.
One of my favorite parts of any remaster is a gallery section and Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny does not disappoint. Not only can you access three special mini-games that normally you had to access in the game to play in the Special Features menu, but there is a separate Gallery with much more. This gallery includes sketches, artwork, and my personal favorite, the original soundtrack. As aforementioned, the music in the game is a standout and here you can play any of them you want in any order.
Verdict
It’s been many years since the remaster of the first game, but the wait was proven to be worth it as Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny still holds up quite well. Even with a few elements that aged poorly, this remaster proves once again why people really loved this series and has me very excited for what is hopefully a remaster of the other two mainline games ahead of Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s release next year.
Score: 8/10
Pros:
- Visuals looks cleaner
- Game holds up very well
- Idea of auto-save
- Gallery options
Cons:
- Dated tank system can be jarring
- English dub is not great
- Auto-save isn’t always the best option to load
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
