Without a doubt, Capcom is the king of the Survival Horror genre in gaming today. Though a few companies may try and fight them with the Silent Hill series and Fatal Frame, Capcom has the games to back it up. Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny is certainly the best Survival Horror game out for the PS2 today. With graphics, though pre-rendered stills, that still look amazing, and gameplay that has been refined greatly compared to the first, Oni 2 has it all. But remember, it still has the same style of a Survival Horror game, and that could lead many people to think that it has no replay value. This reviewer begs to differ.
Onimusha 2 starts off 10 years after the first Onimusha. The evil undead Lord Nobunaga Oda has brought the vast demon underworld on to Earth's surface, and he begins by trying to take over the landmass of Japan. For most of the game, you play as Jubei Yagyu, leader of the Yagyu Clan. However, anyone for him to lead becomes a scare commodity, as his entire village was slain by Nobunaga, who was not really such a bad guy as they play him out be in the game. Jubei now tries to stop Nobunaga from taking over the world at any cost, along with Jubei's stereotype friends that he finds along the way; the Fat one, Ekei, Angsty one, Kotaro, the Wise one, Magoichi, and the Hot one, Oyu. Though the story is loosely based off of the real military genius of Nobunaga, I do not think demons were really involved in any way with his rise to power.
If someone was to think that Onimusha 2 plays just like a Resident Evil game, they would be greatly mistaken. Though the walking battle tank controls, meaning you can only move forward or backward, and need to stop to turn, are still in place, it is much less of a bother, thanks to: SWORDS. Because Jubei and pals automatically attack the closest person, there is less of a need to swerve around to shoot someone. After a few quick slices with your sword or any other weapon you come across, they demon melts away, and if you have been a good little boy, you may get a Soul. There are four different kinds of Souls that can help you in different ways. Yellow Souls gain health. Blue Souls gain ogre power, which can be used for magical attacks depending on the weapon Jubei carries (meaning your friends do not have these Ogre powers.) Red Souls give you spending points to update your weapons and armor, which gives Oni 2 almost an RPG like experience point system. The large Purple Souls help you transform into an Onimusha, a demon like warrior who is invincible and can do multiple Ogre magic attacks in a row. However, it only lasts for twenty seconds, so Jubei needs to kill as many undead warriors as possible in that amount of time. Though only a few red Souls come out if you kill a demon one at a time, Jubei and company can Issen, which is a way of counter attacking, multiple enemies at once to gain a hefty amount of Souls. If you do not learn to Issen quickly in the game, it could be a while before all weapons and armor is maxed out.
Along with the RPG leveling up system, Jubei can use gold that he finds to buy new items. Though many of these items seem quite useless, Ekei, Oyu, Kotaro, or Magoichi may absolutely love or hate them. If you were to give a parrot to Magoichi, he may be slightly interested, but if that same parrot is given to Kotaro, he will go wild and may give you something to help you on the quest to defeat Nobunaga. Jubei can learn about their personalities by talking to them or sometimes people around you. Depending on how much a character likes you, when you end up in a sticky situation, like a bunch of katana wielding lizards are trying to reap the flesh off of your bones, he/she may show up give a sharp implement beat down. Each environment is filled with strange puzzles that Jubei, in classic survival horror game style, must solve to continue. While challenging to beginners, many of these puzzles have been seen before, and easy to recognize. Capcom tested, gamer approved.
Onimusha 2 features highly detailed character models, and are possibly the best looking people seem on the PS2 outside of CG. The way hair moves, the different types of weapons and armor can be clearly seen, all while at sixty frames per second, make everything look new and vibrant. With in-game cut scenes, they removed what few jaggies are to be seen in the game, making the numerous sequences (they really are scattered heavily through the game) look visibly stunning, and is still one of the best looking PS2 games to date. Along with the in-game models themselves, there is plenty of original artwork to look at, ranging from feudal Japan and character concept art. The pre-rendered "flat" backgrounds, single out the characters almost, because they look much better than the polygon characters themselves. Each background picture, though stoic in nature, is in remarkably high detail, and little touches show up in them, like lines of wood-grain being able to be seen, and rippling water that flows and moves realistically. Though Onimusha 2 is not a good example of developers taxing a system to it's full potential, it proves that is might be better to use a loophole to look great now and then. The developers win because it is easier to get the game run at optimum speed, and the consumer wins because you can almost count all the hairs on Jubei's head. Yay for pretty games!
Mood is not set by what a gamer sees on the screen, it is set on what the gamer hears coming from it (or around them, if you have Dolby Digital 5.1, which Oni 2 sadly does not support.) With survival horror games, the slurp and slosh of the ravenous undead makes the hair stand up on the back your neck, a cold sweat break out from your pores, and even something as cute an unassuming as a cute kitty could scare you. Onimusha 2 does all of these things. The scream of samurai lizards, the grumphs of large demons, and the death yell of Jubei or others flesh out the atmosphere during battle. However, while not in battle, music is quite plain, though is fitted with the time period.
Characters that actually speak during cut scenes, to put it plainly, are horrid. English is translated poorly, and many phrases may be rushed at one moment, yet stop curiously, like a few anime television shows that are brought over from Japan. You have the option of the Japanese voices, and though still sub-par, get pieced together coherently and fit better with the character's mouths. If you do not feel like reading hordes of text, then the English voices are acceptable.
A first run through of Onimusha 2 would take around nine or ten hours on normal mode, possibly halved if played by a person experienced in Survival Horror games. Featuring dozens of cinemas laden, you may not get even a third one time. Depending on which character likes you, a cinema what show up with them, while the others must be done in another time. It could take you around four or five full games to see all of them. Along with two small mini-games that are pretty fun, movies and sneak previews to unlock, and a large amount of artwork to look at, it could take over thirty hours to get everything, or more. Though not as time consuming as a full length RPG, the fun the Oni 2 comes from playing over the game to unlock secrets. Each time played through is different from the last time, so the feeling of "been here, done that" takes a while to settle in. Survival Horror games could learn a lesson from what Onimusha 2 brings to the table.
Inside Onimusha 2 lies a game that many people could enjoy, and still it has not been bested in it's genre. The tale of Jubei Yagyu is a great one, and still the ending is left open ended, so a sequel could blossom out of the tale of Nobunaga Oda, the evil demon king. No matter how tired you think the genre of Survival Horror game are, it seems that Onimusha 2 gets the luster back again.
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