Repeat after me: Remasters are necessary. They permit for longtime followers to re-engage with a chunk of media they love. Remasters additionally open the door for a complete new crowd to expertise one thing for the primary time. I am within the latter with the remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future, and I am very glad to have the prospect to play this beloved collection.
Beloved, certainly. The Onimusha collection might not be as well-liked as Capcom’s bigger franchises, however it’s nonetheless revered by followers throughout the globe. This action-oriented collection takes components from the Resident Evil franchise and makes it a faster-paced, Sengoku-era journey as we step into the function of Jubei, a samurai hell-bent on revenge in opposition to a demonic Oda Nobunaga.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future Will get the Remaster Remedy
I loved Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future a lot that I went again and performed the unique virtually instantly after. Admittedly, I ought to have performed the primary recreation within the collection, nicely, first, however the upcoming Onimusha impressed me to leap into the collection in no matter manner I might.
Onimusha 2 is a pleasant remaster that incorporates virtually every thing you’d wish to see: Enhanced visuals, help for contemporary platforms, and quality-of-life updates. When it comes to visible constancy, Onimusha 2 does loads to remaster the graphics of this almost 25-year-old PS2 recreation.
Onimusha: Warlords, the unique recreation within the collection from 2001, obtained a remaster in 2019. It is kind of the identical age as its sequel, but the remastered visuals within the unique aren’t fairly as much as snuff if you examine the 2.
Onimusha 2’s enhanced visuals are crystal clear. The backgrounds are exceptionally nicely finished, respiration new life into an growing older title. Textures look fantastic on greater resolutions. The varied Japanese castles, dense forests, and supernatural, demonic environments are very nicely finished right here. Having a set digital camera assures that each angle appears to be like fairly spectacular.
The one factor it is lacking is help for greater body charges, however like its predecessor, it is locked to 60 FPS. It isn’t the top of the world, however it might have been good to see. Apart from that, the remaster ran flawlessly on PC.
When it comes to controls, Onimusha 2 interprets nicely over to trendy controllers. I like the choice of utilizing the d-pad for tank controls (because it was within the base model), however utilizing a joystick is a much-needed and welcome quality-of-life enchancment.
One extra quality-of-life characteristic, which wasn’t within the remaster of the primary recreation nor within the unique model of this title, is auto-save. There are fastened save factors, like Resident Evil’s typewriters, so with the brand new auto-save, when you have an influence outage or simply must go at any given second, you will not lose as a lot progress.
What is not included that I might have loved, aside from help for greater body charges, is New Recreation +. The story is structured in such a manner that you’ve got branching paths. Going again and filling within the blanks so as to see the entire story this recreation has to supply, nicely, you may simply have to start out from sq. one. Which means all of your upgrades are for naught for those who begin a brand new recreation.
The meant plan of action after beating the marketing campaign is to up the issue — and there’s a new, brutal issue referred to as Hell Mode, right here — however I might a lot relatively have a neater manner of seeing all of the story whereas retaining my well being, magic, armor, and weapon upgrades from earlier runs.
A Facet Word on the Campiness of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future
Since we’re on the subject of story, let’s discuss simply how insane this recreation is. In the event you thought Resident Evil was campy, you ain’t seen nothin’ but. Onimusha 2 is so unabashedly goofy that it makes Chris Redfield punching a boulder look severe.
It is the interpretation and dub that make it what it’s. It isn’t a top quality translation, from what I’ve heard, and the voice appearing is so unhealthy that it turns into good. Jubei’s dude-bro voice and simply how nonchalant he’s, regardless of going by means of literal hell to get his revenge, is endearing.
The draw back to all of that is, for those who’re searching for a severe, Sengoku-era motion flick, this is not it. It is bizarre, it is zany, and the story is virtually non-existent. One of the simplest ways to take pleasure in it’s by relishing within the weirdness and appreciating it for what it’s, relatively than what it is not. I am going to go away it at that. Go in blind, and you will have a blast.
Sengoku Swordplay, with Magic!
For no matter cause, I used to be working underneath the belief that Onimusha 2 performed extra like a Satan Might Cry or Ninja Gaiden recreation. I used to be happy to seek out it is extra akin to Resident Evil than the rest, and that Onimusha intentionally borrowed many components from it.
Mounted digital camera angles, restricted assets, gentle puzzle fixing, and extra. In the event you just like the older Resident Evil video games, you may undoubtedly take pleasure in this. Onimusha 2 is, nonetheless, extra fast-paced with hack-and-slash fight, that means you do not have to determine whether or not you must preserve bullets or not; nicely, for essentially the most half.
There are 4 separate weapons on this recreation, every behaving otherwise from each other. There is a sword, spear, double-blade, and an enormous hammer. They’ve a component hooked up to them and have separate magic assaults. Having the ability to swap these on the fly makes fight easy, and magic packs a much-needed punch on stronger enemies and executives.
You even have a bow and rifle, which will not be used as a lot since they’ve restricted ammo. The principle supply of harm is thru your melee weapons, although, and do not you neglect it: This is not Resident Evil!
Enemy corpses drop souls, which you’ll take in by means of your hand. These orbs are used to improve weapons and armor to grow to be stronger, so there is a first rate quantity of development out there all through the story. Some orbs additionally heal or regain your mana, so utilizing this in the midst of fight when a bunch of foes encompass you could be a bit tense.
Whereas weapon movesets are fairly commonplace, principally using simply the joystick and one assault button, ass nicely as a cost assault, you could have some nuance to the gameplay with the Issen system. The Issen is a counter to enemy assaults. Proper earlier than they hit, Jubei can counter by doing a important strike.
For a lot of enemies, the Issen kills them in a single hit or, on the very least, depletes their well being by loads. Getting the timing of this technique down could be very difficult and takes apply, as every enemy assault has completely different timings. Intentionally ready for an enemy to strike, then countering with one highly effective hit, is immensely satisfying.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future Evaluate | Ultimate Ideas
General, fight is enjoyable, however it’s additionally a product of its time. The enemy selection is not too spectacular, and so they additionally spawn to an absurd diploma. Like a hydra head, minimize one down, and two extra will pop up. The unique Onimusha bought it down with enemy selection, because it wasn’t overwhelming however nonetheless sufficient to be a problem. Ominusha 2 is relentless. Relax, Nobunaga.
Nicely, Capcom, you’ll be able to rely me in as an Onimusha fan. With the subsequent entry within the collection dropping in, hopefully, 2026, I will be very to see how Capcom modernizes the collection’ method. And hey, it would not damage to have the third or fourth recreation remastered, too. Simply sayin’!
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future was reviewed over roughly 10 hours of gameplay on PC with a key offered by the developer. All screenshots had been taken in the course of the overview course of.
