In 2018, Capcom decided to revive the long dormant Onimusha IP via a remaster of the original game for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. After what we thought was a one and done affair, the sequel to the first game was announced earlier and it features a lot of new changes that are also present in the original game, allowing you to enjoy the story from the first game with greater ease than gamers did back in 2002.
Story
You play as Jubei Yagyu - the leader of the Yagyu clan. After his village and clan are attacked by Nobunaga Oda and his demon army, he sets out on a journey of revenge to find Nobunaga and bring justice.
Fortunately, if you are new to the series, or just don’t want to reinstall the first game to do a quick playthrough, you can easily watch a quick summary of the first game on YouTube to understand a little bit of context for this game. The story, setting, and everything else is for the most part its own affair, and you don’t have to worry about missing out any key story details because you did not play the first game.
Along his journey, Jubei meets some friends and depending on how you maintain your relationship with them via affinity by giving them gifts that you know they will like, it can also lead to branching events in the story which can easily be close to a 100 if they are using the original game.
Each companion has their own backstory, unique weapon, and they fight alongside you in battle. This makes them valuable additions to your team and the game encourages you to find gifts for them, thus furthering your efforts for finding gifts for them to make the game easier for yourself.
Aside from the companions, Jubei also picks up an assortment of elemental weapons that help him, master various magics, and even tap into his inner Onimusha once he has a full meter to bring out the demon inside of him to fight really tough enemies.
The story lasts roughly 10 hours with light exploration, and maybe a couple more if you are looking to max out your affinity.
Gameplay
The game is an absolute legend of a remaster. It offers much stronger visuals compared to the original version, adds the ability to move with the analog stick versus tank controls on the PS2, and right off the bat, Jubei has a lot of costumes to choose from for himself and his companions.
One thing I do not enjoy was the fixed-camera perspective that was a stape for the early Resident Evil games. In a lot of scenarios you have to play guess the pixel when you are doing fights in more open spaces and this can lead to you missing attacks or getting hit when you know you dodged the attack.
The game is not as hard or punishing as Dark Souls by any means, but thats where the optional Hell or Critical Mode come in. Hell Mode is a new game mode where similar to Dante Must Die difficulty in the Devil May Cry games, Jubei can die in one hit.
The combat, even on easy difficulty still takes some getting used to, so I encourage you to play on the standard difficulty on launch if you would like to have a slightly challenging experience.
With a wide variety of weapons, magic, abilities, combos, and more, the game feels like a real remaster which encourages newcomers to the series. With the newly announced Onimusha: Way of the Sword announced earlier this year, Capcom will have to speed up releasing the other entries in the series if they want fans fully caught up to the series for that title when it does eventually release.
I do not want to compare this game to Devil May Cry as it would be in the same league of comparing a Dark Souls game to Ninja Gaiden. They both have their own aspects that make them appealing to gamers, and my personal opinion is that this game is definitely very beginner friendly if you are looking to enter the Dark Fantasy of the series and enjoy hack and slash games.
Conclusion
Remastering a game that is now old enough to walk into a bar and buy a drink is no easy feat when you compare how these games play completely diffrerent. With the ommision of tank controls while still keeping the fixed camera perspective, there are some draws that even were beyond Capcom’s capability.
However, this is still a solid game that is worth buying if you are either a fan of the series, or a fan of hack and slash games and are looking for a new IP to lose yourself into.
