Onimusha 2 is what you obtain when you have to do the sequel, which imply you have to keep elements from the first game as well as the experienced team whom did it, of a dying genre (at the time) which is the survival horror in a studio that counts a lot on survival horror games to survive.

You obtain a bumpy, rough, bizarre, not enough polished game. Yet, because of many smart decision, a strong theme and a dedicated team, you also obtain a flavourful game.

Onimusha 2 is way less oriented towards horror than its prequel. In opposition, the game is much about action and light RPG decision making. The experience system now includes armor, which means you have to choose between having better weaponery or protection. Weapons use their own mana, yet, every mana bar is incremented simultaneously when you gather mana orbs, which lessened the "ammo managment" aspect of the first game in favor of dynamic weapon switch during fights. The onimusha transformation acts as a joker card, which makes you invincible for a short ammount of time, but is a reward you have to pick or loose at the time it shows up, considering picking it might be very very slow and can make you over vulnerable to enemy attacks.

Rythm and pace are by far the weirdeist aspects of Onimusha 2. Characters, friends or foes, are much more developped, but in a sequential way. First, the game developps its friendly NPCs, then its opponents, then again its NPCs. A money system is introduced : it is unfortunately abandonned after the first third of the adventure. It allows buying better equipment for your friends (whom'll fight with you or under certain circumstances, you'll even controll them) as well as obtaining rewards in exchange of an item. I must confess I really like this system : you never really know who desire what, which is a good transcription of what human relations might be : a giant pile of supositions and guess which eventually lead to a strong friendship. And, as in the real life, people might not be interested in you. For instance, there is a ninja in the game. I spoke to him once. He never showed up again. When the game ends, it shows you how much interaction you had with each character. I had 4% of total interactions possible with him.

The theme is really original. It takes place in the late feudal Japan, but it features biomechanical systems run by both technology and demonic magic. Still, it is very strange to encounter giant aquariums, fans or even a TV in a game of swords and magic. It is strange unless like me, you have a strange feeling you've already been there... Hum...
Ok, let's take a look at my PS2 games... What game did Capcom in the early 2000s?... No! Is it possible? No they wouldn't would they?
Yes they would. They used entire parts of Resident Evil Code Veronica, simply paint over to partly fetch the medieval theme of Onimusha 2. It works, and I'm sure if you didn't played Code Veronica before Onimusha 2, you wouldn't even notice.

But yeah, this added to entire parts of Onimusha 1's castle, added to a global structure in a first time based on force come back to a central hub, which eventually is simply forgotten by the game, added to a pace that has HUGE difficulty spikes Capcom decided to """"fix"""" by giving you, at this precise moment, the opportunity to switch to easy mode (which I did, and honestly considering the amount of bosses situated just one after the other at this point of the game, seems fair to do)... This all, I get it, might feel a lot confusing and might eventually lead to frustration. This is what I liked the most in Onimusha 2 : the game tries a lot of things, sometimes it fails, but it always tries to make its ideas work the best he can, and he uses unpretty tool (like difficulty switch) only as a last resort. IMHO, it is much more interessting, enjoyable and even fair than what can do a modern From Software for instance, which is simply and purely stupidly unfair, difficult, incomprehensible and specially do not even try to make things appealing and/or usable for its player. Onimusha 2 isn't like this. Onimusha 2 is, indeed, strange and bumpy, but at its core, it has a ton of ideas thought around, about, and for the player. This is something I liked, this why I recommand you playing this if you can.

PS : I like Oyu chara design. I am aboslutely unable to explain why. It looks like a chara design from a bad erotic game or that kind of things, featuring suspender belts used to hold "western armors" up (which I am really not sure are actually western) and a shiny hole showing breasts.
Yet I like it. I don't know why. This is disturbing.

I definitely have a soft spot for this kind of gameplay, a big fan of the first and third game in the series, Samurai's Destiny somehow slipped my fingers. Visiting it almost twenty years after its release date, I was still able to become absorbed in the characters and settings, following a new plot line that strangely takes a completely different path following an unknown protagonist. It's pretty much more of the same as with Warlords, except with a new gifting system which is fun to play around with. It doesn't really feel like an epic sequel, except for its last boss fight which really stepped itself up on. However, a quick game with addictive gameplay and immersive setting.

Uma decepção enorme, principalmente depois de jogar o primeiro jogo. O gameplay divertido é sabotado pois ao contrário do castelo interessante do primeiro jogo, temos um hub world chato e um sistema confuso e desnecessário de presentear NPCs com itens, que em sua maioria precisam ser comprados com ouro obtido através de GRIND. Por trás desses presentinhos para os NPCs estão a maioria dos itens e upgrades importantes pro personagem principal, tornando sua participação nele inevitável.
Eu estava procurando um jogo linear de ação, não um "dating sim" bizarro japonês!

The best Onimusha title.

Great story and characters.

Please Capcom, port this in HD to the PC, please!

Pelo amor de deus que jogo chato, a história é uma tranqueira absurda, os personagens são uma merda, o protagonista é uma porta, quando eu abri um walkthrough e vi que ainda tava na metade me bateu uma vontade enorme de desistir, única coisa que melhorou em relação ao primeiro foi o combate. O level design do jogo é absurdamente ruim, o mapa é feio e desinteressante, os ângulos de câmera disso aqui são horrendos, o sistema de rpg é extremamente mal explorado e o lance de dar presente pros personagens é a porcaria mais inútil de todos os tempos, as lutas contra chefe são uma merda descomunal, destaque pro último chefe que é top 3 piores lutas contra chefe que eu já vi em um videogame. Por algum motivo também o jogo é extremamente fácil, o 1 tinha uma dificuldade bem balanceada, mas o 2 é literalmente bater, bater e bater em inimigos insuportáveis que parecem uma esponja de golpes, eu realmente fico descrente de como isso é uma sequência.

Na reta final eu já tava assim jogando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0n7ZWeKWV0

The opening cutscene is so sick good lord.

Onimusha 2 has such a unique combination of flavors; the crispy digital hack and slashery is supplemented with so many tasty rpg treats, especially your quaint little town and tavern and your new group of funky buddies. The character models and animations are probably the best on the PS2. One of my absolute favorite things to do in a video game is trading items, and the Gift system is at the core of how you progress this game’s story and achieve alternate endings. Really great stuff here from Capcom.

The first few hours are really fun then it starts having the most annoying enemy encounters in the tiniest rooms with the worst camera angles while enemies don't dither so you are completely blind. You are fighting the auto targeting more than the enemies in this game. The final hours are a complete slog. The game reveals at the very end it has branching paths which is why half the cast just dispears half way through the game depending on what you do and why some plot points are left completely unanswered. It seems you have to play the game 4 times to see it all, fuck that

I love how Onimusha 2 begins. Showing the Yagyu village getting decimated and then having you traverse through the foggy aftermath as an eerie voice repeatedly calls out Jubei's name, it leaves such a strong first impression.

It's also during the opening that Onimusha 2 shows off its improved combat. Not only is it much faster here, there's also plenty of new additions like running attacks, charge attacks and even unlockable secret techniques. Because of this, the combat is much more varied here compared to Onimusha 1. Onimusha 2 also adds purple souls and collecting 5 of them transforms Jubei into an Oni and when in this state, he is invincible. It's neat when it works but I wish you could choose when you could trigger it. The moment you get the 5th soul you're forced to transform. So, if you want to save the transformation for bosses, you have to avoid the 5th soul which just gets cumbersome.

Even with that said, the additions to the combat are all welcome, but the biggest addition Onimusha 2 has is the gift system. Once in Imasho, you'll get a bunch of random items that you can give to other characters to befriend them. Befriending different characters leads to them showing up to help you at different points in the game. This is where Onimusha 2 gets it replayability factor from, since it's impossible to acquire every scenario on a single playthrough. This is cool in concept, but honestly, this system is handled really poorly. Firstly, the game doesn't explain how this system works at all. It gives you a few hints, like saying Ekei likes drinks and Magoichi likes books, but when it comes to items like Parrots, Coins, Fork etc, you just have to guess or follow a guide. Another issue is that if you want to give as many gifts as possible, it requires a lot of early game grinding since you get the items by buying them for gold. My final issue with this system is that it just feels so artificial and shallow. I never felt like I earned the trusts of the characters I befriended because all I did was shower them with useless presents. Because of this, later in the game when the game is trying to get an emotional reaction from the player, it completely fails because I don't really feel like I bonded with the cast of characters. As a whole, the story doesn't do much for me, it retreads old ground only with a less likeable protagonist.

Atleast the reward for having friendships is cool. If your friendship with someone is high enough, they'll save Jubei at different points in the story. In these segments, you'll control the characters you befriended and they're handled way better than the Kaede sections in Onimusha 1. The characters feel distinct from Jubei (except Oyu) from Kotaro's shadow clones to Magoichi's emphasis on long range combat and the sections are short enough to not overstay their welcome.

Onimusha 2 is twice the length of the first game, which is welcome, but a large chunk of the game is simply you revisiting the castle from Warlords. The game as a whole is much more linear, and yet I got lost here a few times near the endgame since the Gifu Castle just isn't as well designed as it was in the first game, where I never got lost.

Onimusha 2 does have things going for it, like the improved combat, its immense replayability and the character of Gogandantess who is always fun to watch. However, I'd say I prefer Onimusha 1 due to its superior OST and it feels like a very complete package, whereas 2 feels a little undercooked in many areas.

Should be much better than it is

A step down from the quality found in Onimusha Warlords. This time, the levels are much more linear with less exploration and puzzle solving focus. The combat is still fun, the Issen is still the most satisfying attack in all of gaming, but that’s pretty much it. The new gift system is half baked, ideas are dropped at the halfway point, and the “choose your own adventure” scenario is underutilized and poorly explained to the player. However, it does make for a great chunk of extra content. Pretty much all the changes from the first are bad, but it’s still a good video game.

6/10