Onimusha 2 – A Remastered Master

Returning after two decades with a fresh coat of paint, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny remaster arrives in time to build hype for the newest entry in the series next year – Way of the Sword. The first Onimusha remaster released in 2019, more focused on bringing the series back to the attention of gamers than changing the direction of the wheel. This review process included revisiting Onimusha 1, ensuring the series can be analysed in terms of its remaster process now that the franchise has clear plans for its future. Onimusha 2 is the better remaster overall, which may also be due to its stronger original narrative, better gameplay sequences, more memorable characters and interesting locales full of secrets. 

The game starts off with a cinematic introducing Japanese folklore as Nobunaga wreaks havoc on a town. Our hero, Jubai, talks to surviving villagers and soon embarks on a revenge journey to slay the leader – learning much about his family and friends along the way. The first instalment – Warlords – is a survival-horror that includes a different protagonist but the same antagonist. Therefore, 2 has room to play with its characters and is much better for it (longer, also). The cut scenes by 2025 standards are dated, but the fresh gloss in 2’s remaster does make interactions and short clips much more entertaining and immersive. Gameplay soon follows, with greater functionality on the ability to dodge and parry compared to the initial PS2 version. The range of elemental weapons (four) adds experimentation to gameplay, with my favourite being the hammer near the latter stages of the game that just pulverises all manner of weird and wacky foes. The roster of enemies is impressive despite repetition eventually setting in, as each really needs to be tackled based on a move set, speed and types of attacks. One of the bosses, a larger-than-life woman with a voice capable of stripping paint, ramps up the difficulty about three hours in as it is really the first time that the strafing function is needed. Another is a foe that can’t be hurt until a certain weapon is found, which requires all the buttons to be mastered. I was reminded of my early Dark Souls playthroughs in initial attempts – while Onimusha 2 is never as unforgiving, the player needs to be aware of all gameplay options and camera angles when tackling bosses. This adds a layer to fights and really makes new discoveries/enemies enjoyable in challenge.

The fixed camera positioning ensures all areas are worth exploring when uncovered, often requiring a rapid click around all corners to find prizes or boxes that test your patience. This is borrowed from Resident Evil. Some camera angles in boss fights add greater difficulty, such as the early spider-like boss that uses multiple camera locations in his movement and sometimes confused me, but doing so avoids having to manage the camera yourself on a dated style of combat. This also provides greater opportunity in a remaster, adding detail and new textures to trees, buildings and water. The end result is impressive, whether in dungeons, castles or moving through forests. While playing, rarely did I think I was stuck in the past. 

One aspect of gameplay that is a great feature but not well communicated in a tutorial is the party system. In town sequences, there is opportunity to give gifts to certain characters based on their asks and interests. In my playthrough, one character kept popping up in battles to aid while another never did outside of scripted cut-scenes. I gave them equal share of presents, but my gifts to one character must have been more compatible than the other. There are areas when you swap from Jubai to another character, and doing so adds refreshed combat and mechanics to gameplay. There is enough here to ensure progression is full of changing scenery, options, enemies and secrets – but in general, Jubai will be your rock in a hard place.

The developers noted that parrying and blocking were emphasised to make the combat more in tune to 2025. The rest is about striking true and choosing between different attacks. Gain enough souls and you’ll be able to ‘summon’ – if it sounds Souls-like, perhaps this was an influence on the Souls genre before it was established. Being able to swap between all weapons without navigating a menu is a great feature. Be it a bow, gun, katana, hammer or other elemental weapon, I made sure to try all options and found the variety impressive in how it both looks and feels. I leaned more on the melee weapons as the projectiles could be hard to judge based on the camera. Overall, most will find their own method here and the game ensures options are littered in gameplay.

Onimusha 2 took me approximately 8 hours to complete. The preview article covers much of my first thoughts, and little changed in terms of my feel and enjoyment of the game over the next 6 hours. I found the story solid, gameplay tight and changing environments spaced at just the right length. My hype for the new entry in 2026 is much higher having played through the two remasters. In reviewing Onimusha 1, I found the first instalment to be much more representative of early PlayStation games in its style, play and look. It’s still improvement over the original and its short runtime means all players should play through both games to really grasp the series. Onimusha really helped put 3D action games on the map despite being more popular overall in Japan. The first game leans on the ‘save the princess’ trope and requires the player to be a bit more selective in use of items, but weapons feel unique and gameplay transfers quite well. If these games are available as a bundle, my option would be to purchase both rather than the individual.

There are other Onimusha games ripe for the remaster, but now we look forward to the new game in 2026. Revisiting these classics was not built on nostalgia alone, as they provide short strolls through well-crafted Japanese tales doused in folklore. With a focus on revenge such a staple in recent Japanese games, it is fair to say that Onimusha is a godfather to many action games of today.

Pros

• Good selection of weapons and mechanics
• The remaster has done well in updating graphics

Cons

• Short in terms of 2025
• Camera angles can provide challenge