Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

"Better than the original !"

Onimusha 2 is the sequel to the earlier PS2 game, Onimusha: Warlords. Onimusha 2 followed up greatly from the original Onimusha, packing in more weapons, more moves, more powerful forms, better bosses, more enemies, allies system, gifts system. That’s only the beginning of all it offers!

Story 9/10
10 years have past since the lone swordsman; Samanosuke Akechi went against the demons and claimed victory. Suddenly, Nobunaga returns with vengeance and begins to burn down towns, and take over the country. Yagyu village is burned down, the home of our hero, Jubei Yagyu. Jubei swears revenge on Nobunaga, and will take down the demons. Allies are needed to go against the strong army of Nobunaga, but allies are not easily earned, they expect kindness, and kindness is gifts.

Game Play 10/10
The game play has improved 10 fold since Onimusha. This time around, you are not always fighting in one area. You usually are constantly switching areas. As well as you can learn special moves for your swords that were not in Onimusha. The soul system still remains intact to upgrade your weapons. There is TONS more enemies, if you leave a room, come back, there will be demons. You can do this repeatedly, and they will always come back. This is for 2 reasons.... #1 - at first, when you enter towns, you'll need gold to buy gifts to earn your allies trust. You can get as much gold as you want, so demons just keep coming. #2 - You need much more souls this time around, there is tons of things to upgrade, since there is about 1-2 more weapons this time around, and you can upgrade your armor, leg armor, and arm armor. Now we can move to the gift system. The gift system is used to help gain a friend of your choices trust. You can give gifts to as many as 4 characters, yet you can only have one primary friend throughout the game. Once you make a primary friend, this person will help you on boss fights, and harder demon fights. It's important to use this system, or you will have no allies, and will always have to fight on your own, which is very hard in this game. Enemies get much more aggressive in this game as you progress. Bosses also have much more health, so allies are great to have. Better yet, they cannot die in battle, so it's great to use them to distract a boss, and then back attack them.

Graphics 9/10
Graphics use the same graphical engine as Onimusha. I don't notice any major improvement, or deduction in graphics. They may be just a bit smoother than Onimusha. This game still uses pre-rendered backgrounds, so that’s a disappointment. FMV's are more frequent, and cooler than seen in Onimusha.

Sounds/Music 9/10
The sounds as well share the same engine as Onimusha. Sword slashes and attack sounds are heard the same as the first game, as well as footsteps are the same. Music is also similar to the first one, it sounds like traditional Japanese music, and it suits pretty well in the game. Voice acting is kind of lame...the emotion in the voices is kind of dull; it's all right, but dull. Like when something horrible is happening, Jubei says 'Damn' in a calm voice...eerie...

Replay Ability 10/10
Another 10 fold strength over Onimusha. After you beat the game, you unlock new modes for the game, and tons of little mini-games to play. Some that allows new modes to be unlocked after you beat the mini-game. There is probably over 10 different things to unlock if I recall, which is a HUGE difference over the 3-4 secret things in Onimusha.

Rent Or Buy?
Any fans of the Onimusha series should 100% consider buying this game, because it's a real worthy sequel. I also recommend veteran's of Devil May Cry to play this game, since it's also like Devil May Cry in a few ways...(changing into a demon like form). A buy overall is great, but if you feel you want to test drive it first, then give it a rent.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/29/02, Updated 08/29/02