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.

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