Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny
Capcom once again supplies the only cure for that undead-slashing itch.
Published: September 25, 2002
The original Onimusha was something of a surprise for me. I expected a feudal Japan Resident Evil knockoff in most respects and was completely wrong on nearly all counts. It ended up going down as one my favorite games for the early PlayStation 2 library, and offered something few games have been able to match: a purely visceral and gratifying sensation of just slicing the crap out of everything that moves. What's more, it managed to mix real-time characters and pre-rendered backgrounds in such a natural and convincing way that I hardly remembered why developers didn't stick with this technique for adding detail when it just wasn't possible with the current hardware. Then I got a nice, deep gash from a sword slicing me in the back. From an enemy off-screen. An enemy I couldn't have possibly had the slightest idea was there because of the locked camera. Then I remembered why I loved all real-time environments and a controllable camera so much.
Onimusha 2 sticks with the same formula, tossing out a backdrop of uber-detailed, pre-rendered environments through which a real-time hero traipses around. And you can still get hit by enemies that are essentially invisible. I bring this up from the start because it is really the only thing I can find significant fault with for the sequel, since nearly everything that was good about the first game has been made better, and very little was bad to begin with. So there, I've gotten it out of the way. The core game design is still fundamentally busted in a way, but I can live with it, cause brother, the rest of the game rocks.
Onimusha 2 takes place an unlucky 13 years after the events of the first game, where Nobunaga Oda, the human-turned-demon-lord has risen from the grave so violently carved for him by Samanosuke Akechi, and has quickly set about ransacking the countryside with an army of demon soldiers. While Nobunaga's back, Samanosuke isn't, but in his place is the equally skilled (and possibly more bad-ass?) Jubei Yagyu, who returns home to his village to find it utterly decimated by one of Nobunaga's rampages. Swearing vengeance, Jubei takes up his sword and heads off to send the attackers off to the same long dirt nap that the victims are now taking.
Just as in the first game, Jubei quickly gains the ability to absorb the souls from slain enemies, and then apply them to his weapons (each of which naturally carries a magical slant; the Buratiou is a lightning sword, the Hyojinyari an ice spear, the Senpumaru, a twin wind blade, and the Dokousui a earth hammer), bullets or arrows imbuing them with more powerful attacks. Unlike the previous game, however, he can now upgrade his armor as well, which should help stem the tide and ease the blows of endless baddies just dying to shake hands with the sharp pointy ends of his weapons. In addition to absorbing souls, you'll be able to loot cash off the demonic corpses to buy items both for healing and stat boosts, but also for exchanging, which brings me to the most significant part of Onimusha 2: your help.
Jubei, as much as he might want to be, is not alone in his quest for vengeance; he's joined by four other warriors itching to throw down and poke, slice, swat and blast the crap out of Nobunaga's armies. Odaini no Oyu is a cute, spunky (and enjoyably nude in her CG intro at the beginning of the game) female swordsman with a bit of hidden familial luggage; Kotaro Fuma is a young knife-wielding ninja oddly concerned with Oyu and Jubei's relationship; Magoichi Saiga, an expert marksman with a mean set of flitlock-looking pistols; and Ekei Ankokuji, a rotund axeman out for revenge for this slain baby girl and wife. What's interesting about these warriors is that you can trade with them, and often to help build relationships (whoever you trade with most will come to your aid if you start getting your ass handed to you) or get important items to boost your life or magic or even other relationships. It adds an interesting dynamic to the mix, since each warrior lends a different style of attack, and all can be upgraded with weapons if you buy them for them.
Otherwise, Onimusha 2 feels like a chip off the ol' undead slicin' and dicin' block. The controls feel just as responsive (albeit in that still-annoying sit-n-spin Resident Evil-style configuration, which should've been killed long ago), and the mix of different weapons (and their particular strengths) helps keep things fresh - especially as each one is slowly handed to you throughout the game. With such a simple and satisfying backdrop, there's little mystery as to why the game is so damned enjoyable, even a couple times through as you seek to unlock the many, many extras available.
As much as the first game wowed me with some of the pre-rendered backdrops (the moving water in the levels about halfway through the game especially), the sequel absolutely blows it away. On nearly every screen there's whopping eyefuls of detail, with little touches like muddy streets trampled by hoofprints or the absolutely gorgeous streams of running water that loop seamlessly. The real-time models for everything from the characters to the enemies are incredibly detailed, and help blur the whole line between pre-rendered and real-time elements into near indistinction. Every once in a while the engine will chock for a bit when a copious amount of souls are released at one time or a particularly large patch of enemies gets hit with a special attack, but it doesn't really affect the game itself.
The animations, likewise are picture perfect, especially during the cutscenes where the motion-captured sequences unfold with vibrancy that belongs in a CG movie (and indeed the CG that's in the game uses the very same motion capture techniques). The models are nearly indistinguishable from pre-rendered versions when viewed up-close, eclipsing even The Bouncer's impressive bodies without the need for a cheap motion-blur trick.
The effects work is also spot-on from the windy zzzzip-thock of arrows singing past your face to the metal-on-metal clangs of swordplay on blocks. Everything resounds with plenty of vibrato, and I honestly can't think of a single effect that stood out as anything but perfect. Onimusha 2's sound track also delights, with alternating ambient tracks of simple string plucks and winds and absolutely stirring orchestral movements that absolutely belong on a soundtrack CD or a feature film somewhere. The voices are good as well, though not absolutely perfect. There's more dialogue this time around, and subsequently plenty more opportunities to screw things up, but I'd put the voice acting on par with Capcom's pre-Gamecube-remake Resident Evil games. Good, but not astounding.
Onimusha 2 probably won't have the same impact that the first game had, simply because it's more of the same fantastic stuff that made the original so damned fun. Luckily, thanks to an interesting trading system and the promise of literally hours and hours of extra gameplay-unlocked goodies, an improved system for absorbing and applying souls and perfectly executed graphical and aural treats as so few developers in this industry can really deliver, the game is simply too good to miss. Tack on another notch for Capcom, and head out and pick up a copy yesterday.
Onimusha 2 sticks with the same formula, tossing out a backdrop of uber-detailed, pre-rendered environments through which a real-time hero traipses around. And you can still get hit by enemies that are essentially invisible. I bring this up from the start because it is really the only thing I can find significant fault with for the sequel, since nearly everything that was good about the first game has been made better, and very little was bad to begin with. So there, I've gotten it out of the way. The core game design is still fundamentally busted in a way, but I can live with it, cause brother, the rest of the game rocks.
Onimusha 2 takes place an unlucky 13 years after the events of the first game, where Nobunaga Oda, the human-turned-demon-lord has risen from the grave so violently carved for him by Samanosuke Akechi, and has quickly set about ransacking the countryside with an army of demon soldiers. While Nobunaga's back, Samanosuke isn't, but in his place is the equally skilled (and possibly more bad-ass?) Jubei Yagyu, who returns home to his village to find it utterly decimated by one of Nobunaga's rampages. Swearing vengeance, Jubei takes up his sword and heads off to send the attackers off to the same long dirt nap that the victims are now taking.
Just as in the first game, Jubei quickly gains the ability to absorb the souls from slain enemies, and then apply them to his weapons (each of which naturally carries a magical slant; the Buratiou is a lightning sword, the Hyojinyari an ice spear, the Senpumaru, a twin wind blade, and the Dokousui a earth hammer), bullets or arrows imbuing them with more powerful attacks. Unlike the previous game, however, he can now upgrade his armor as well, which should help stem the tide and ease the blows of endless baddies just dying to shake hands with the sharp pointy ends of his weapons. In addition to absorbing souls, you'll be able to loot cash off the demonic corpses to buy items both for healing and stat boosts, but also for exchanging, which brings me to the most significant part of Onimusha 2: your help.
Jubei, as much as he might want to be, is not alone in his quest for vengeance; he's joined by four other warriors itching to throw down and poke, slice, swat and blast the crap out of Nobunaga's armies. Odaini no Oyu is a cute, spunky (and enjoyably nude in her CG intro at the beginning of the game) female swordsman with a bit of hidden familial luggage; Kotaro Fuma is a young knife-wielding ninja oddly concerned with Oyu and Jubei's relationship; Magoichi Saiga, an expert marksman with a mean set of flitlock-looking pistols; and Ekei Ankokuji, a rotund axeman out for revenge for this slain baby girl and wife. What's interesting about these warriors is that you can trade with them, and often to help build relationships (whoever you trade with most will come to your aid if you start getting your ass handed to you) or get important items to boost your life or magic or even other relationships. It adds an interesting dynamic to the mix, since each warrior lends a different style of attack, and all can be upgraded with weapons if you buy them for them.
Otherwise, Onimusha 2 feels like a chip off the ol' undead slicin' and dicin' block. The controls feel just as responsive (albeit in that still-annoying sit-n-spin Resident Evil-style configuration, which should've been killed long ago), and the mix of different weapons (and their particular strengths) helps keep things fresh - especially as each one is slowly handed to you throughout the game. With such a simple and satisfying backdrop, there's little mystery as to why the game is so damned enjoyable, even a couple times through as you seek to unlock the many, many extras available.
As much as the first game wowed me with some of the pre-rendered backdrops (the moving water in the levels about halfway through the game especially), the sequel absolutely blows it away. On nearly every screen there's whopping eyefuls of detail, with little touches like muddy streets trampled by hoofprints or the absolutely gorgeous streams of running water that loop seamlessly. The real-time models for everything from the characters to the enemies are incredibly detailed, and help blur the whole line between pre-rendered and real-time elements into near indistinction. Every once in a while the engine will chock for a bit when a copious amount of souls are released at one time or a particularly large patch of enemies gets hit with a special attack, but it doesn't really affect the game itself.
The animations, likewise are picture perfect, especially during the cutscenes where the motion-captured sequences unfold with vibrancy that belongs in a CG movie (and indeed the CG that's in the game uses the very same motion capture techniques). The models are nearly indistinguishable from pre-rendered versions when viewed up-close, eclipsing even The Bouncer's impressive bodies without the need for a cheap motion-blur trick.
The effects work is also spot-on from the windy zzzzip-thock of arrows singing past your face to the metal-on-metal clangs of swordplay on blocks. Everything resounds with plenty of vibrato, and I honestly can't think of a single effect that stood out as anything but perfect. Onimusha 2's sound track also delights, with alternating ambient tracks of simple string plucks and winds and absolutely stirring orchestral movements that absolutely belong on a soundtrack CD or a feature film somewhere. The voices are good as well, though not absolutely perfect. There's more dialogue this time around, and subsequently plenty more opportunities to screw things up, but I'd put the voice acting on par with Capcom's pre-Gamecube-remake Resident Evil games. Good, but not astounding.
Onimusha 2 probably won't have the same impact that the first game had, simply because it's more of the same fantastic stuff that made the original so damned fun. Luckily, thanks to an interesting trading system and the promise of literally hours and hours of extra gameplay-unlocked goodies, an improved system for absorbing and applying souls and perfectly executed graphical and aural treats as so few developers in this industry can really deliver, the game is simply too good to miss. Tack on another notch for Capcom, and head out and pick up a copy yesterday.
