Onimusha 2 Remaster Preview: Demon King’s Souls

Or Devil Might Cry?

For all my love of Capcom’s Resident Evil on the original PlayStation, I’ve barely even heard of its Onimusha franchise. I guess some of that makes sense – for all the (unsuccessful) begging I forced upon my parents to secure a GameCube in order to play the Resident Evil 2 remake in 2002, I certainly wasn’t attempting to divert any energy to get a PlayStation 2. It’s there and then that Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny was first released.

While the first Onimusha title was remastered back in late 2018, Capcom’s attempting to go all-in on the franchises, remastering Onimusha 2 at the same time it’s developing a new entry in the series, Onimusha Way of the Sword, for next year. Talk about “re-activating dormant IPs,” eh?

Very much unfamiliar with Onimusha, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a remastered sequel when I sat down to preview Samurai’s Destiny. I should have known better, as this is peak Capcom from the time: over-the-top and complete with cheesy dialogue, but nonetheless great fun.

If you’re as out of the loop as I was, let’s take it back a second: Onimusha 2 is a remaster and not a full-blown remake like Resident Evil 2 was (or Resident Evil, or Resident Evil 3, or Resident Evil 4 for that matter…). This is the same ol’ PS2 guts with a modern-day facelift.

In the case of this sequel, it means crisp character models and textures over pre-rendered backgrounds that look fantastic… but maybe not as good as what Capcom was outputting for that aforementioned Resident Evil remake (though I could be biased).

While pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles had me first thinking I was playing some type of Resident Evil reskin – after all, I’m sure we all know that Devil May Cry started out as a Resident Evil 4 prototype – I quickly learned this was an incorrect comparison. Combat is key in Onimusha 2, albeit a teeny bit clunky compared to modern day titles, and tied to systems that level up your character after absorbing the souls of your defeated enemies. Eat your heart out, Demon’s Souls.

While you’ll certainly benefit from playing through the first entry in the series, you’ll also be okay jumping in right here. Just like new players, protagonist Jubei Yagyu is new to things as well, and immediately starts off on a revenge plot against the very evil – and very literally demonic — Nobunaga Oda.

In the couple hours that I had with Onimusha 2 for the purposes of this preview, I found things very easy to pick up. Combat rewards positioning and strategy rather than over-the-top flashy moves like Devil May Cry. Button mashing won’t help you either, though it needs to be said that you’re not going to need perfect timing as in a Souls entry. That said, if you are spot on with your timing, you’ll be able to perform one-hit Issens, extremely useful for crowd control.

Also useful are scrolls found in the world; once obtained, they’ll provide you access to a Street Fighter style button combo that lets you pull off a corresponding special move.

As engaging as combat is, I found myself far more interested in Jubei’s newfound friends, a group of four leaders from other clans. They’ll occasionally jump in and help you with fights (including boss battles), but really just hang around so you can befriend them and give them gifts that you find in your own travels.

In addition to actual gifts that you discover, you can trade in hard-earned gold at the main hub town for additional gifts. Your friends will return the favour with any gifts received and provide you with goodies too — including health – that can go a long way.

I spent far too long with my preview time grinding for gold like I would Souls in the likes of Elden Ring, but even then my time with Onimusha 2 went extremely quickly. From hokey dialogue to pretty questionable voice actors, I was instantly transported back to a simpler time in gaming, and I’m kinda jonesing to head back there again at the remaster’s full release. I’ll likely need to get (re-)used to tank controls again by then.

Expect Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny on Windows PC via Steam, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. The title’s also backwards compatible to play on Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5.