Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Preview (PS4)- A Cutting Edge Remaster?
Capcom et al return to Onimusha for the first time in over six years to bring us a remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. Originally released in 2002, a year after the first game Onimusha: Warlords, Samurai’s Destiny marches onward with a new protagonist Jubei Yagyu, as he seeks to bring down the reign of tyranny caused by Nobunaga Oda, and reclaim five hidden orbs that when combined, shield humans from the dangers and nefarious deeds of demons.
Much like the Onimusha: Warlords remaster from 2019, Samurai’s Destiny is a remaster that cleans up aesthetics for a modern video game audience, as well as adding quality of life improvements and a brand new Hell difficulty mode for the sadist types to dig into. On the surface, Way of the Samurai Remastered looks like a straight forward replenishment of a twenty-three year-old game, but the changes made look to give Onimusha players both new and old the most accessible and engrossing version of the game.
The new Hell Mode is nothing short of insanity, and is for the most careful-fingered players. The reason for this, is if you get struck once by an enemy, you’ll automatically be rendered useless and will have to start the game all over again. Mastery of the controls and your strikes is imperative here, so you cannot afford to make reckless movements, and you’ve got to ensure those fixed camera angles don’t jeopardize your run.
Hell Mode seems like it’s clutching for some ultra Soulslike madness, which is quite the welcome challenge for all of those who are ready to face many possible retries on their path to triumph-but this path towards triumph may come with fractured controllers and bursts of rage quitting.
On the other side of the hardcore coin, the easiness of this remaster is mostly seen through how everything is accessible right from the start. The batch of minigames that were once locked behind story completion, are now ready to play from the very beginning. These minigames aren’t particularly “fun” for lack of a better term, they’re challenging and they include swathes of the same few enemies trying to afflict you with failure and restarts courtesy of their predictable sword-strikes and claw swipes. Still, being able to select these minigames right from the off gives you bursts of non-story excitement, like exercises before you cut into the big juicy steak of the main story.
If you wanted those fixed camera angles to be fixed or disposed of entirely, then you’re not getting that here with this remaster. Capcom’s classic camera option has served to amplify dread and unpredictability in the Resident Evil franchise, and although they don’t translate as well in Onimusha, you still need to be aware of your surroundings, and ensure you adjust your inputs accordingly-because you don’t wanna be entering a frame, and then accidentally venture back to where you came from. The fixed cameras will become an annoyance at times definitely, but these inconveniences are representative of a game that is over two-decades old.
Respawning samey enemies are also in abundance. They’ll show up as road blocks you can either jog past, or you can conquer with the edge of your blade. Doing the latter will help you incur souls that replenish health and fill up your special meter, but the former is always welcome when you just haven’t got time for fodder. The excessive respawning does grate hard considering how far video game design has developed, so if you’re a new player don’t be dismayed by this, but do instead focus on how breezy it is to pull off killer combos against rank and file enemies, and embrace the simplicity of game that came out at a time when video games kept it simple and uncomplicated.
At the moment, this remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny looks like it’ll be exactly what fans crave from Onimusha, while adding in a brand new mode and accessible content right out of the gate. Don’t expect any proper evolution of the mechanics and the game design, but do expect a great reason to revisit a classic, one you’ll certainly be amped to play again if you’re a veteran, or curious about if you’re a newbie to the series. You’ll have to wait until May 23 to find out for yourselves if Samurai’s Destiny’s sword cuts deep into your video game time or not.
