Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

"A warlord, a man out for revenge, one kick ass game."

It has been at least one year since Onimusha made it's debut on the Playstation 2. Granted, it was a hit. Brought to you by Capcom, the creators of Resident Evil have brought you the intense sequel to Onimusha: Onimusha 2 - Samurai's Destiny. One of the best looking, poorly dubbed games of the year.

Onimusha 2 - Samurai’s Destiny takes place 10 years after the first Onimusha. You play Jubie Yagu, a lone survivor after his village is brutally slaughtered by the evil warlord, Nobunaga Oda's demon army. Soon after Jubie embarks on a quest for vengeance against the evil warlord in feudal Japan. But in order to do that, Jubie must first collect five orbs containing special powers. Gee, nothing is simple anymore.

Visually, Capcom does not disappoint. Beautifully crafted 2-d backgrounds with some of the best details the PS2 has given us to date. From the dust rolling by your feet, to the ripples in the water, even the rain fall looks convincing. True craftsmen ship is at hand. If you look real close at certain in-jokes the creators threw in. (Find these on your own) The characters look and move flawlessly. Moving from one locale to the next. But one of them really caught my eye, Jubie. Capcom modeled him after the late Yusaku Matsuda who was best known for his role in the popular Japanese TV show Detective Story. The game is not without it's minor flaws, thou. With 2-d pre-rendered backgrounds happen to come across multiple camera angles. This can be a real nuisance, especially during a boss fight.

Sound wise, we're treated to a nice heaping help of Capcom's trademark, horrible voice-acting. That's right. I'd expected to hear some thick Japanese accents, rather than an almost one dimensional, stoic, pulled right off the streets American. Well, the only half-decent sounding one was Jubie. Although the music score is dead on and provides a good amount of tension for when you're in a boss fight. But for the love of me, why do they have such rotten voice actors. Why do they allow these kinds of things to happen?

As for gampeplay, the game really shines when you're hacking away at demons and other ungodly creatures. This is the survival/horror game where you can just hack away and deliver them their last rights by impaling them with your sharp pointy object. Not only that, but you're given a bunch different weapons from a simple sword to an old fashion rifle. But of course, ALL the characters move like tanks. Ya think that Capcom would do something a little different instead of recycling the same friggin control scheme over and over.

As far as replay value is concerned, Capcom has spared no expense in bringing in alternate costumes for the different characters, mini-games, different FMVs to alternate paths chosen. It's almost endless. In addition, they have woven in an interesting trade system within the game amongst the 5 main characters and other non-important supporting characters. You can literally spend hours trying to figure out which character likes what. You'll spend hours figuring out which character likes what.

Graphics: 9

Hands down this game has some of the finest visuals on the PS2 to date. Beautifully rendered 2-d backgrounds. Top notch quality from Capcom. Only bad thing is that there is one camera angle too many.

Sounds: 6

Capcom brings out a nice musical score but what kills the over all score of the game is the horrendous voice acting. One-dimensional each way through. The only good aspect of the voice acting are the ones who act all drunk.

Gameplay: 8

Nothing is better then hacking and slashing demons. Using different magic attacks to kill Think of it as Resident Evil with swords. Too bad that Capcom did not do more with the control scheme.

Replay Value: 10

You can just go on and on with the trades. It's endless to what you can get. Then trade off to another member of the group for something more useful to you. The extra costumes, mini-games, sketches and making of are really something to be hold. All the things keep giving you plenty of reasons for repeat visits.

Final Thoughts: Onimusha 2 - Samurai’s Destiny is one of the best looking and playing games for the Playstation 2. The final chapter is not yet known. Onimusha 3 will be the final chapter in the series. I guess this is where all the characters from the first and second will meet up for the final confrontation with Nobunaga and his army. But one question still remains: Where is Samonosuke?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/02, Updated 12/27/02