Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future was offered by CAPCOM for overview. Thanks!
Onimusha was positively a franchise that slipped me by prior to now. I hadn’t truly heard of the sequence till the 2026 relaunch was introduced lately, partly because of the truth that Onimusha was by no means initially launched in Europe. To boil it right down to easy phrases, Onimusha is principally Resident Evil if it had been set in feudal Japan. Onimusha 2 performs very equally to different CAPCOM video games of the period, like Resident Evil and Dino Disaster, with a set digicam angle and tank controls for the character.
The setting for Onimusha 2 is an attention-grabbing one, set in feudal Japan, however with a heavy emphasis on fantasy parts. Our protagonist, Jubei, of the Yagyu clan, sees his village burnt down earlier than him by Oda Nobunaga himself, who has known as on assistance from demons with a purpose to conquer Japan. Thus begins our protagonist’s quest for vengeance, whereupon he’ll meet others who’re in related tragic circumstances and need to defeat Nobunaga for their very own causes.
Jubei is a likable protagonist, and is portrayed as your pretty stereotypical honorable, but vengeful sort. The opposite allies you may meet in your journey are additionally fairly likable, though they typically match into the mould of 2-dimensional characters, figuratively talking. There’s additionally a “relationship” system in place that allows you to give presents to your allies, who will, in flip, offer you an merchandise again, which can show helpful, reminiscent of therapeutic objects and extra. Having a excessive relationship stat with an ally additionally makes them present as much as assist generally in battles, which might make the sport a bit simpler.
Transferring onto precise gameplay, when you’ve performed an older Resident Evil or a Dino Disaster sport, you may know the way they really feel, a bit of stiff to manage, and it may be a bit irritating at instances. Onimusha 2 is not precisely a tough sport, however while you swing your sword and the sport decides to disregard the enemy solely, it may be a bit of irritating.
The digicam additionally does not assist the state of affairs; it is a fastened digicam angle, so you’ll assume that the builders may place it within the optimum place so the participant has a transparent view of the motion. Sadly, in not less than just a few situations, that isn’t the case. Generally the digicam is positioned low down, and enemies can stroll instantly in entrance of it, utterly blocking your view of every little thing. It is very irritating. Capcom clearly determined to stay totally trustworthy to the unique with regard to gameplay, however that is one thing that ought to have been modified as a fundamental high quality of life enchancment.
Regardless of these misgivings, the sport remains to be quantity of enjoyable. Positive, it is janky, and it is a bit of irritating when the digicam angle abruptly modifications and also you get disorientated, however it’s bit of straightforward enjoyable, and there is sufficient problem in there to provide you some satisfaction from defeating enemies with out taking any injury.
You’ll be able to change up the fight with totally different weapons, the power to make use of a “magic” assault, which basically makes use of the ingredient of your present weapon to deal large injury, and you’ll allow “Onimusha mode”, which principally makes you whack issues more durable. You even have the power to dam and a few restricted dodging functionality, so there may be some depth to the fight.
Having not performed the unique, it is laborious to say the way it compares, however many of the enhancements have positively been centered on the visible aspect of issues. The backgrounds that you just stroll on are usually fairly detailed, and there are some good visible results for issues like water and sure lighting.
Gameplay-wise, the primary enhancements are the truth that you’ll be able to change weapons in real-time, the “Onimusha Mode” is triggered manually by the participant, whereas within the unique it apparently activated by itself, which appears horrible, so it is a main enchancment. The sport additionally now auto-saves, which makes the sport lots simpler, as you’ll be able to solely save at particular save factors, however auto-saves ignore this limitation, which means when you die, you’ll be able to respawn a lot nearer to the place you died, in comparison with the unique sport.
There’s additionally a “hell mode” problem, the place you die after taking one hit from any enemy, however Oliver is not actually reduce out for that!
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future (Remastered) performs it protected so far as remasters go. It improves the sport’s look, in addition to tackles a few apparent high quality of life points within the unique, however apart from that, it leaves the supply materials untouched. There are nonetheless a few points (just like the digicam angles) that I might have preferred to have seen addressed, however those that performed the unique PS2 launch may respect how intently this sticks to it.
The sport is a bit of on the shorter aspect, as you’d count on from a Capcom sport of this period, however most gamers ought to get 7-8 hours from it if they are not conversant in the sport.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future (Remastered) – Steam Deck Efficiency
Onimusha 2 runs brilliantly on the Steam Deck. The sport has nice controller assist, however it does run at 1280×720, so we do have some black bars on the prime and backside of the display.
There aren’t any graphical settings within the sport, so the changes we will make are minimal. Fortunately, the sport will run on a potato anyway.
The sport truly makes use of comparatively little energy, however the cutscenes, which appear to be rendered in real-time, do take a bit of extra juice to run. The sport likes to stay to 60 FPS, and we will simply achieve this by making use of an 8W TDP Restrict.
Energy draw is low, principally holding round 8W-10W, and temperatures are additionally low, at round 55C. You’ll be able to count on about 5.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and round 4 hours on an LCD. For those who’re conversant in the sport, you may have the ability to beat it in 1 battery cost on the OLED mannequin!
Accessibility:
The remaster of Onimusha 2 principally improves the graphics and leaves the remainder of the sport largely untouched, so we do not have many accessibility choices except for subtitles. The sport does have some problem choices, and when you die a number of instances on the next problem, the sport will ask when you want to decrease it.
Conclusion:
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future (Remastered) sticks faithfully to the unique, whereas managing to enhance in some key areas. May it have completed extra? For positive. However that does not imply that it is a unhealthy sport by any means, it is a good little bit of enjoyable, even for somebody like me with out nostalgia, and I am positive that when you do have nostalgia for this sport, you may have time with it.
Onimusha 2 additionally runs fairly flawlessly on the Steam Deck, with good controller assist, nice efficiency, and an extended battery life.
Our overview relies on the PC model of this sport.
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