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REVIEW: Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny

Arriving in spring 2001, the original Onimusha had been one of the more talked-about titles of the first wave of PS2 games — aside from the obvious ones like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Final Fantasy X.

Unlike those games, Onimusha arrived in the US about six months earlier and was an all-new, PS2-original franchise rather than a sequel of a PSone or other earlier platform hit.

Expanding on the base formula that made the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis series such hits, Capcom went a little Koei on us and relied on Chinese history and the legendary Nobunaga Odi for its setting of the newest “kill the undead” titles.

While the game still relied on the occasionally-clunky 2D control system that marred the enjoyability of Resident Evil and Dino Crisis and despite its relatively short length, Onimusha emerged as an early standard-setter of what gamers should expect from a PS2 title.

Now, over a year later and in the wake of a highly successful second original franchise from Capcom, Devil May Cry, comes the first PS2 sequel of a Capcom “survival horror” game, Onimuaha 2: Samurai’s Destiny (O2). And O2 is a true sequel, taking place 10 years after the escapades of the first title’s hero, Samanosuke.

A new warrior takes his place, Jubei Yagyu, and that’s where the game begins.

The first thing you’ll notice about O2 is the graphics. That’s partly because the opening sequence when you select “New Game” last almost 20 minutes before setting you free the start interacting with the game.

That’s okay, though, because Capcom’s artists have been honing their craft and their growing mastery of the subtleties of the PS2 system is apparent.

Utilizing particle effects in the most atmospheric extent to date, the first in-game graphics work on display is a rainy scene in which tens of thousands of raindrops are falling and splattering on literally everything in sight, and within the physics of the object they’re splashing on. It’s a sight that’s so amazing you must see it to truly appreciate it.

What’s impressive is the level of detail that is maintained not only in opening sequences but within the game itself; some games pack their best work in the 15 minutes to impress gamers and game reviewers but then the work gets more pedestrian a few hours into the title; that’s not the case here as O2 keeps the quality of design consistent throughout.

Capcom could have followed in the footstep of many developers and simply tweaked the original Onimusha game engine and called it good enough; thankfully, their ambitions were aimed a bit higher and the result makes for good eye candy.

The sharp look is achieved by a similar process to that used in the original Onimusha; the backgrounds are prerendered, freeing up a lot of power to really deliver sharp, detailed character models and using atmospheric effects to make the backdrops seem less flat and more 3D than they actually are. So, it’s the same trick as last time; it’s just that Capcom grew a whole lot better at it since the last outing. A ton of motion-capture was performed on the title and the realistic character movements show off that handiwork.

While Final Fantasy X was last Christmas’ standard-bearer for how good a PS2 title could look, O2 steals that crown — at least for now; with a flood of Christmas titles about to begin come September, the bar is sure to be raised even further between now and the end of the year. All the better for us gamers.

Tired of hearing Nintendo-holics brag about Super Mario Sunshine and how they stole the Resident Evil series from Sony? Sick of those Xbox-loving freaks calling PS2’s graphics “played out?”

The solution is simple: make them sit down and shut up as you play through the first couple hours of O2 and they’ll probably shut up. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the excellence of O2 leaves most of them quivering, shivering, tear-stained masses of flesh on your living room floor — so maybe only let them watch the first hour instead of two hours; after all, you don’t want to clean up a mess like that.

Sound is important to a game and Onimusha has sound. That’s the good part.

What’s not so wonderful is the quality of the voice acting. While the actors are certainly competent, the game suffers from an often-awkward localization.

Phrases like “…should not be fighting over such triffle things,” and “You have now got…” are not the classic blunders that Square served up in 1998’s classic, Final Fantasy Tactics. Nope, these mistakes are just plain annoying and will drive at least the English majors among us to distraction.

(For the English class dropouts, better phrasings of those two examples would be “should not be fighting over such trifles” or “…such trifling matters,” while “You now have…” would fix the other example.”)

To complicate matters, the voice actors often wait for the subtitles to change before saying the next word in a sentence, leading to awkward pauses where there ought to be none.

While these may seem like “triffle things,” they do distract the gamer and break the otherwise wonderful illusion of a realistic game wold.

For music and sound effects, O2 delivers a far less flawed performance with a “just right” score and exactly the sounds you’d expect to hear when a sword clashes with rock, for example.

Of course, gameplay is the heart of any game and Onimusha 2 has plenty to offer. Over twice as long as the original, Onimusha 2 begins to feel more like Tomb Raider or Soul Reaver than a coin op game on a home console — and that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing!

Adding to the experience are RPGish elements the first title lacked, such as a much deeper storyline, the ability to buy items and locations filled with people to interact with, offering clues to you on your journey.

Whereas the first Onimusha offered rewards for finishing fast, O2’s rewards are in a richer, deeper, longer gaming experience.

Many of the gameplay elements that made the first Onimusha enjoyable return; like Samanosuke, Jubei quickly gains a Soul Reaver-style soul-sucking ability that allows you to, among other things, power up for special attacks, heal without the need for healing herbs and store souls you can use to upgrade your weapons and armor into more powerful versions of themselves.

While the controls are still that stupid “don’t take advantage of the PS2’s analog sticks” 2D control scheme, at least it’s less clunky than it was in most PSone games, meaning that only on the most critical, intense battles are you likely to die because of the clunky controls. Die against “common” enemies on O2 and most likely it’s your own dang fault.

There are more areas, more bosses and more story; what more could you ask for? Well, a friggin’ 3D control scheme would be one thing … didn’t Capcom learn anything from the praise it received for Devil May Cry’s 3D controls?

O2 is a yummy bit of eye candy that last longer than its predecessor and plays will. If Onimusha were a Cream Soda Dum-Dum sucker — tasty but tiny, then O2 is at least a Green Apple Blow-Pop — bigger, tastier and with a bubblegum surprise at the center.

Okay, maybe I stretched that analogy a little far but you get the point; lots of reviewers call every new game they play, “the best PS2 title yet.” I’m not quite so given to tossing out gushing praise.

However, I will say that Onimusha 2 is the kind of title you can show off to your GameCube and Xbox-owning friends (if you can find any of those rare but mouthy creatures) and make them envious of your slim black box. It looks as good or better as any GB or XB title out there — and it’s a PS2 exclusive to boot! (At least for now … Capcom has not yet indicated whether they’ll port it to other platforms a few months down the road, as they did with the original Onimusha.)

Besides, who wants to wait six months or more for a possible Xbox or GameCube port when you can play the PS2 version right here, right now? Hmm, not many hands going up, eh?

I suspected as much.

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Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Aug 3rd, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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