Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

"Ahhhh There's really nothing like gutting a fresh demon in the morning...."

More guts, blood, gore, gun and swords from the masters of decapitation at Capcom. Onimusha 2 serves true to the formula set out by Capcom to bringing to you yet another adventure where limb-cutting and blood-spilling of undead/demons is everyday life. This time around, you take control of a young member of the Yagyu clan who seeks revenge against Oda Nobunaga who destroyed his village. Of course, he's not going to let a few hundred demons get in his path of vengeance. He's got allies to help him...

Graphics: 9/10

For some reason, Capcom still decided to use prerendered backdrop style like the first game, and like its PSone survival games. This style doesn't showcase a good deal of graphical power, though they do look a bit higher-rez than previous efforts. The character models, however, are very nicely done. They show emotions very well, almost reaching the level of FFX. However, voice acting still somewhat doesn't match the lip movement, but that's a minor concern. The spell effects are also quite nice and don't disorient you from the slashing job at hand. To compensate for the prerendered screens Capcom incorporated a lot of on screen effects like flowing water, blowing trees and rain to give more life to the still shots, and these are done excellently.

Control: 9/10

This game uses the same control scheme found in Resident Evil games. This can make fighting quite hard as you may have difficulty facing where you need to, especially in the heat of combat and when you're running away like a sissy. But LIKE Resident Evil games, they included a 180 degree turn and auto-aim feature to help us. While this makes fighting much less tedious, I'd personally rather have a control style like that of Metal Gear Solid. Those who've played RE will get in fast, while those who haven't may need a little time to get used to it.

Gameplay: 10/10

Hack and slash. That's all there is. The special feature here is the fact that you can absorb the souls of the demons you beat. When you kill opponents, you can suck their souls to replenish your health, magic, Onimusha bar and you can even store points to upgrade your weapons. Onimusha mode is just like the Devil Trigger in Devil May Cry where you can turn into a different, more powerful form that gives you incredible strength. The only difference is that you cannot control when you want to go into this mode. You automatically go into this mode when the orbs fill up. It's a god-send when this comes out in hairy situations, otherwise it seems like a complete waste of power since the souls that replenish the orbs are quite rare.

This game also uses a ''gift system'' (No, not Santa Claus). Here you can give your allies items you buy or find, and they will give you items who's usefulness depends how they like it. Heck, sometimes they'll even reject it. From my experience, this is the only way to get curative items outside boxes and defeated enemies. Each character has their own like/dislikes, so finding it out is the key.

Audio: 9/10

There's actually not much sound effects aside from your usual hacking sound and blood gush, but what there is is done realistically. There isn't much music as well, but they don't really detract the game in any way. As with Capcom games, one must take into review the voice. Yup, this is the only game company I know that has the games with best voice acting and worst voice acting under its wing. So how does it fair? Pretty well actually. Unlike most RE games they actually hired people who can say their lines PROPERLY. Most of the voice acting won't make you wonder if Russians (no offense) can speak better straight English, but in some cases the villagers repetitive terrified screams and ''NNNNNNOOOOO don't kill me!'' cries actually sound better.

Okay, it's a game where blood 'n guts run rampant. The game itself isn't very long, around 10 hours, but it's some of the best sword-slashing action games around. People with weak stomachs might want to stay away. Fans of medieval adventure games, or basically anyone who likes to hack down those mean demonic baddies will surely want to give this a try.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/02, Updated 09/05/02