Due to the amount of fun I had playing the first Onimusha on Twitch, not to mention all the encouragement from everyone in chat, I went out and rebought Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny! I also found a bonus in my shopping trip. I found Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams and picked that up too. Never played it. But I might as well add to my collection, right? I am excited to check it out at some point.
But yeah, Onimusha 2! Let’s jump right into it.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was released in North America on August 27, 2002, about a year after the first game’s release. It was a commercial success in Japan. In April 2002, Capcom announced they shipped over a million copies in Japan having faster sales than its predecessor. During that year, it was also the third best-selling game in the country. As of May 2008, it has sold over 1.9 million copies worldwide. Personally, I remember owning it, I remember beating it, and I remember really liking it. But it’s been so long since I’ve played it that I’ve practically forgotten all about this game. Weird thing for me too was that for some reason, this game was missing from my PS2 collection. Same thing with Onimusha 3 Demon’s Siege. To rectify this, I went out to hunt ‘em down. I was unable to find Onimusha 3 (for now at least). However, I found Onimusha 2 at my favorite local video game shop Fair Game Retro Inc. for about $8.99. Pretty sweet, right? I got it hooked up and began streaming it on Dec 31st, 2017. Going back into this on Twitch, it was as if I was playing it for the first time. I remembered absolutely nothing. But that’s also what makes it that much more exciting. It was like going back to it with a fresh set of eyes. Naturally, I found quite a few unique differences compared to what I’ve experienced in the first game.
To start off, the biggest difference is you play a new character, Jubei Yagyu of the Yagyu village. Also, this game takes plays 10 years after the events of the first game. You do not have a gauntlet to absorb demons like Samanosuke did in the first game. Instead, you absorb them through your hand. This power was given to you by Takajo, a demon woman who explains how to defeat Nobunaga, the evil warlord from the first game. Apparently, he’s continuing to wreak havoc across feudal Japan. It just so happens that Yagyu village was one of those villages caught in the crossfire and was destroyed. Jubei seeks vengeance and this is how the story starts.
First impressions? Graphics. Dude. Within the span of a year, it is a visual feast. Not just with the CG cut scenes that are always looking fantastic, but the main game-play graphics looks amazing. Weather is more prevalent now than just having it going from day to night like in the first game. It rains in many areas. The environment looks wet and slick as the rain hits the ground and the characters. Even the environments in general have a lot more going on now. There’s lots of rivers with moving water, and there are also various ponds and lakes. Some of them are filled with demons that appear and they affect the movement of the water as they move through it. To add more depth to your surroundings, there are animals like frogs jumping around as you run through areas. It’s really impressive.
From a game-play perspective, combat feels much smoother and a bit more refined. With that said, fighting enemies is way more intense. You get a lot of defensive enemies so you can’t defeat them all so simply. They’ll block your sword attacks often making fighting a bit more challenging. They also re-spawn much faster, almost instantaneously, and charge you in droves. Not to mention, there is way more enemies to fight. It’s as if they’ve doubled, almost tripled the amount of enemies you encounter compared to the first game. It’s crazy. But, at the same time, it’s awesome. They made it a bit easier to dodge attacks more often. But what’s also cool about that is that it gives you an opportunity to deliver a one hit killing blow. It’s pretty epic. Also, yellow souls appear more often so you can heal yourself without constantly using medicine or herbs. The downside to that is that it costs a lot more souls to upgrade your equipment. A lot more souls.
Speaking of upgrading, you upgrade the same way you did in the first game. Collect souls and use them to upgrade your items. But what items you upgrade is slightly different. No longer are you required different colored orbs to upgrade to give you access to other areas. There are no orbs in this game. And because yellow souls appear more often, you don’t need to add souls to turn herbs into medicine. That feature is not present in this game. And you do not collect armor in item chests like you did in the first game. For Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, they kept it very simple. You upgrade your weapons and your armor with souls. That’s it. Max level is still three. But the other side to that is, it costs a lot more souls to level up. So you will have to fight a lot of demons to level up anything.
To mix up the combat though, they added a really cool feature. At the end of the first game, we saw Samanosuke turn into an Onimusha, or Oni. It was cool glimpse into how powerful you can become. In Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, you can actually turn into an Oni during game-play. Using this power, you battle demons quickly and effectively. To do this, you have to collect 5 large purple souls. Once you absorb the 5th soul, you will immediately turn into an Oni and have a temporary boost of power to defeat your enemies. This makes mixing up the combat that much more intriguing and fun. The only down side to this is when you are trying to absorb souls and accidentally grab that 5th large purple soul by accident. Thus, turning you into an Oni when you didn’t want to. To partially combat that, they’ve made it where you absorb regular souls faster leaving purple souls to reach you at much slower rate. So you can time it just right where you don’t pick it up, grab the one’s you want, then leave the rest to disappear.
One of the coolest features I found in this game is that you interact with a lot of characters. Jubei meets four friends along the way, Ekei, Magoichi, Kotaro and Oyu. Each of them have different personalities making them stand out from the standard NPCs that roam Imasho, the main town. These friends you meet, they end up fighting alongside you randomly throughout the game. If your health gets to a certain point, one of them will show up to assist you in battle. Who is chosen to fight alongside you depends on your interactions with them. In Onimusha 2, Imasho is a gold mining town which is free of enemy encounters. Here is where you are introduced to several role-playing elements in this game. In the areas surrounding Imasho, defeated demons leave behind piles of gold which can be spent on gifts in the town’s shop. These gifts are items that can be given to the friends you’ve met.
Reactions to a present will depend on that person's temperament; giving Oyu a bouquet of flowers will make her happy, whereas giving it to a male recipient will simply irritate them. Jubei's gift-giving will determine which warrior will assist him as the game progresses, and will in turn influence the story. In some cases, if the player fails to win a character over, that person will opt to shun or betray Jubei later on. If they do like the gifts you give each of them, they will give you handy items like herbs, medicine, or ammo. Some even give you other gifts you can, in turn, to give to someone else who may like it. Overall, it’s a welcoming new mix to the way you play the game. It’s more than just hacking and slashing your way to the end of the game. It adds depth to the overall game-play and the interactions adds depth to the overall story and world you inhabit.
The voice acting in this game is just a cheesy as the first one, if not even cheesier. With the amount of new characters you can interact with, you will find the acting to be just as over-the-top and delightful as it was in the first game. See for yourself!
And the Oscar goes too...
Believe it or not I actually have a couple of gripes about this game. This is not something you see from me very often, if at all. But the puzzles in this game, dude, they’re hard. When it comes to puzzles, it’s a simple set up like the first game. There are two types of puzzles to solve. One puzzle found throughout the game requires basic math skills. Add up the numbers and place them in the right spot and you’ve got treasure. Not a big deal. But the other boxes…
You’ve got to line up the picture together with the scattered pieces by moving them using only the amount of moves listed. It started simple enough. But I found myself getting so frustrated with these puzzles the further I progressed in the game. They get harder the further you get. I got so salty that at one point, I just started leaving them. I couldn’t open them and it was really boring to see me on stream getting frustrated trying to open a box for long periods of time. So the really hard ones, I just left them and moved on with the game. In the end, all it did was really hurt me. These particular puzzles have either a power jewel or a magic jewel in them. And these are things I need to upgrade my health and magic bars. It was great with a few challenging puzzle boxes because I did have a bit of help with a few viewers on Twitch. So it wasn’t a total loss. But there were some that I just downright couldn’t figure out. They shall forever remain a mystery.
The other thing I could probably gripe about is the level of difficulty. This game is a lot harder than the first game. I found bosses to be a real challenge. If you don’t level up your armor and your weapons, prepare to die a lot. I would reach a boss and die so much that I would end up find myself backtracking areas I’ve been in just so I can level up some more. Every little bit helped. But what I found the most challenging of all was the final boss, Nobunaga Oda. You remember him from the first game? He’s really really tough. What made it even more difficult for me was the fact that I missed a lot of those puzzle boxes which prevented me from upgrading my health and magic. I died so many times. So. Many. Times. But I did prevail! I beat him! At least, that’s what I thought I did...
Turns out, after you defeat him, you’re still not done. Nobunaga pulls you with him in an alternate dimension for one more showdown. You end up automatically turning into an Onimusha for this battle while Nobunaga turns into some sort of demon tank of pure destruction. With that, you lose your ability to use your weapons. Instead, you are left with shooting lasers out of your hands as this tank of a demon chases you down, while also shooting lasers and demon faces at you. It’s intense. It’s hard. And if you are out of herbs/medicine, you are screwed. To make it worse, if you die in that fight, you are sent back to your last save, leaving you to re-fight the first Nobunaga.
Also, there is no saving in between fights. You either defeat him or you die and defeat him from the beginning again. It’s brutal. So brutal that the game asks you if you want to play it in ‘Easy Mode’ since you keep dying all the time. I died so many times that I finally caved in. I selected ‘Easy Mode’. I was streaming this game on Twitch with a live audience. No one wants to see me die over and over again. They were encouraging me to keep trying though, which was awesome. And I did. I really tried. But, alas, I finally succumbed to the dark side and went easy mode. I wanted to beat this game. I want to beat it for me and for the audience.
Funny thing is, after selecting it, I didn’t find the battle any easier! However, the game did give me more healing items. I found I had an herb, x3 medicines, x3 secret medicines, x2 magic liquids, and x1 special m. liquid. I was better prepared to face Nobunaga now that I had an abundance of useful items. Items aside, I still found the battle with Nobunaga very difficult!
Let me put this into perspective: I don’t get salty often. Hardly ever, actually. I don’t rage quit. I don’t throw my controllers. I don’t yell at my TV. Sure, like anyone, I can get frustrated. But it passes. This game though...This game’s last boss made me so salty that I started getting pretty frustrated on screen. It was brutal. Absolutely brutal. Between Nobunaga and those puzzle boxes, I could feel the rage within. Rage I didn’t even know I had. It was crazy!
Alas, I prevailed and defeated him in the end.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was a challenging game. But it’s changes and additions in this entry compared to the first game were both invigorating and exciting. The game-play changed from a hack n’ slash survival horror in Onimusha 1, to an action adventure role-playing hack n’ slash survival horror style game in Onimusha 2. There was a variety of locations to visit in this 1570s Japan setting, both new and familiar. You spent more time outside than you did inside. More trees, more mountains and caves, more lakes, rivers and oceans. It wasn’t all outside though. There were a lot of Japanese structures to visit. But overall, all the locations, the variety, they were so fun. Revisiting the castle from the first game and utilizing it as part of the plot was a fun connection to Onimusha: Warlords. The new role-playing elements were also a welcome addition. Interacting with the various NPCs, as well as fighting along side with your comrades, all brought a fun story/game-play element that added more depth not found in the first game. And let’s not forget about those graphics, man. The graphics, both in game and CG, were absolutely beautiful.
Overall, this game was amazing. It’s been a long time since I had a game challenge me to the point of salt and rage. And even in my weakest moment where I chose the ‘easy’ path, I still found it extremely challenging. But I feel that it also made the experience that much more fulfilling when I finally did finished it. So, the overall experience was amazing and I’m glad I got to re-play this game as if it was my first time, again.
Would I recommend this game? Would I recommend this game? Absolutely.
Thanks for reading,
BlueNile101
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