When the Onimusha 1 port dropped on PS4, I was beyond excited to pick up 2 & 3 after. Its a damn shame to learn it didnt sell well enough to keep porting the rest. They're such underrated games!! Forever glad this is one of those series I randomly picked off the shelf from a local resale shop as a child, they really deserve more attention than they get
I figured that was the reason why there wasn’t a 2&3. I don’t understand why they didn’t just port all 3 in a collection like they did with Devil May Cry. It probably would have sold better that way.
Maybe it's also because of the rights for the faces of the protagonists. They didn't want to pay for those rights maybe. Jubei of Onimusha 2 got the face of deceased japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda and in Onimusha 3 we got french actor Jean Reno. In the first game it's japanese/taiwanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro
For Capcom to say "it didn't sell well enough" is far easier to do than saying "there's actors and things we need to reclaim the rights for and we can't be assed to spend money" because the former tosses the blame on someone else. Besides the PC port is kinda lacking. Nothing done to unskippable cutscenes placed after checkpoints and they completely neglected what Onimusha Genma brought to the table... Also there's an Onimusha Netflix anime coming ... so there is clearly some interest.
The best in the series, by far. Also, both this game and the trilogy itself are a testament on why you DONT put celebrities in vídeo games, because we are never getting remasters of them.
I'm actually in shock that this video has finally been made. This is my favourite game ever made; a true masterpiece. It has a combat skill ceiling that is damn near infinite (chain issening bosses separated the masters from the good players). It also has incredible replay value. I just watched the whole video and was a little disappointed you didn't mention issening at all, it really does add to the already amazing game.
While I really do love Onimusha 2, I do think they dropped the ball a little with it's tone and polish. O1 had this more threatening, even frightening atmosphere, that almost never lets up. The goofier robots you mentioned are most likely a result of the new staff coming from Tokusatsu background and definitely feels like that. A cool style for sure but makes this one a little cheap and silly looking. Because the scale is so much larger and there's this new style it gets tough to keep it all consistent. By comparison the prerenders in 01 are always classy and since there's less of the rooms with a panning camera, almost every fight is framed in a way to show off the enemies and player in a cool way (the best being the boss fight on the roof) The point of no return is something that also seems more sloppy. Gives me Code Veronica flashbacks, it doesn't feel as well thought out as the first. I feel like the 3rd game does a better job shaking things up without sacrificing the polish (Woah this was a long comment. Great vid Charlie)
@@Jose-se9pu in terms of tone, that's fair. Like I said, I do love them both. I just think this one's a little sloppy in it's design like the point of no return and it being harder to see enemies n stuff
I think Onimusha 1 is a little too relentless. Healing items are limited but enemies generally are not, so it’s possible to screw yourself over and run out of healing items. Then the only way to heal yourself is by entering Oni mode.
@@TheCrewExpendable Issening enemies guarantees yellow orbs for health. Would have been cool if it was explained in 1 and 2. Thankfully in 3 we got a training course.
The pre rendered Onimusha 2 backgrounds look crazy good, especially that beach with the almost lifelike waves. It's kinda funny that we wouldn't get reflections up to par until fairly recently
I was hoping after the success of Sekiro and Ghosts of Tsushima, action games with a heavy Japanese flair, that Capcom would try something with Onimusha. And they very well might be doing it behind the scenes. Even if nothing manifests, I'm glad I was able to experience this series as it happened. It's a good series of games that struck a fun middle ground, and something I'd like to see more of from the indie scene.
Capcom spent quite a bit of money to get the rights to use Kenshiro's face and remaster the first game in 2018...it sold like crap. Capcom DID try to revive the franchise, sadly, there was no interest in it :/
@@Jose-se9pu It sold like crap because of several reasons (imo). It's barely a remaster, they decided to not advertise it as much as they should have, its missing content, and to top it off, they released it in January. It's a D- fair all around.
@@vholst That Is also true, but most of the budget went to get the rights back, and they also had to make a new OST because the original one was made by a..."controversial" figure. A shame, but fact Is, Capcom did try, and it just didnt work.
@@Jose-se9pu Mhm wasn't the original composer not only allegedly deaf (except not really) but also so inept, he'd thoroughly make use of ghostwriters? If so, discovering and crediting those could provide a positive publicity, such a missed opportunity. Sometimes you can go too far with trying to avoid controversy, you might as well take it and turn it around.
I just actually added the Onimusha trilogy to steam deck, if the upcoming Netflix anime is anything to go by, here’s hoping for a DMCV style revival for Onimusha. It needs to come back.
onimusha 2 is already on steam? I know warlord was remastered and demon seige was ported to pc. Though they gave up bringing 2 to steam due to the poor sales on warlord.
@@hotstinkytaco Only 1 is on Stream, the 2018 remaster, that Is. And there are some fan patches to make the PC port of 3 working on current hardware. But there is no way to play 2 outside emulation.
I love Charlie because he tells us nothing about his personal life ever. Other than that he lifts. It makes me happy that there's no parasocial shit on this channel.
I just finished this game lately, I liked it but I always found it odd how fan’s criticized Onimusha 3 and 4 for being more action heavy and downplaying the horror when this game already did that compared to Oni 1. Just compare the bosses of Oni 1 to the whacky and goofy ones in this game especially Gogandantess and this is coming from someone who loves that guy
Yeah it seems weird to me the whole tone of the series changed by the second. I imagine it didn't feel as big of a shift because this one starts off kinda dark and gradually goes off the rails (in a very fun way), while the others are bombastic action from jump
@@tomsantos9448 probably bc it started off as a resident evil game and gradually they moved away from the survival horror to make it more unique. I agree tho that the first one had by far the best atmosphere.
@@BlackangelKatakuri Apparently the remaster of the first one didn't sell anywhere near what Capcom had hoped, so I doubt they'll bother remastering the others unfortunately.
It's real funny looking back on all the games that talk about the Evil conqueror Nobunaga now that I know the actual history. That there was more than a dozen clan leaders as bad or worse than him.
This was a great retrospective, it's great to see you still making videos every few months. I agree with you completely, it's such a beautiful game and I'm a sucker for games taking place in feudal Japan. The SMT Raidou games and the Great Ace Attorney have great environments too. I played Onimusha 2 when I was young but I barely remember the nuance of the affection system, I'm surprised the game can change so much from giving gifts.... I've never seen affection done in as game that plays like old Resident Evil or Devil May Cry either. Now that I think about it I'm surprised Devil May Cry didn't have routes, though I suppose the later games had character selection and I guess old Resident Evils let you choose the order of protagonists, changing the playthrough as a whole.
Onimusha 2’s a good game but it’s definitely my least favorite of the trilogy. I think the addition of more adventure game elements like the town and other characters tagging along with you is interesting, and in some cases can be cool, but it loses a lot of the first game’s more threatening nature where Samanosuke was alone against the Genma army. The way you get items and upgrades through the gifts you give to the other characters is also really annoying and kills the pace of the game. If you want a fully upgraded Jubei you’ll be spending a lot of time slashing up Genma in the mines or outside town for money, then buying items, saving, hoping you get the best results and reloading if not. Compared to how the first just put upgrades in the way and gave them out more evenly throughout the game made it flow better. I also miss the first game’s structure, as 2’s is far more linear and there’s some pretty nasty points where you won’t be able to go back to previous areas which you’d really want to do with how the other aspects of 2 are. If it was more open like 1, or preferably in this case just a purely linear action game it might be better. Combat is a definite improvement. It builds off what Genma Onimusha on the Xbox introduced pretty well and makes a number of changes that just make combat a lot more cathartic. I like how the Onimusha mode is handled here too better than Genma’s, as the tug of war aspect while cool on paper kinda messed with the first game’s combat in ways that probably wasn’t thought out as well. The new weapons are also a treat, they’re far more diverse than a few swords. Finally, the voice acting is even worse than the first game’s and I kinda love it for that. Every cutscene I know I should be taking seriously but the dub just makes it damn near impossible, and when you add in stuff like the robot horse that just appears and other scenes that were probably goofy no matter what language it’s in, you get a weirdly comedic spin on what generally views itself as a mostly serious samurai game.
The Onimusha trilogy on the PS2 was one of the best gaming experiences I ever had growing up and sealed Capcom as my all time favorite developer, Sadly the dark times of Capcom will come not long after Onimusha 3 was release (and I didn't knew about Monster hunter)
Have you ever played Nioh? I loved Onimusha as a kid, and Nioh was the first game that really captured that feeling of it again. It isn't nearly as charming, but almost every other flavor is there.
"It's fair to say this isn't the most compelling plot in the world" In a Capcom game? Surely you jest Also, fixed camera wouldn't be that much divisive if the character movement wasn't "tanky". Something like Genji as an example.
This one is the best in the series, IMO. The story, the characters, the improved gameplay elements and the branching plots were all vast improvements over the linear dulness of the first and the third titles.
I got bored with this game. I recently played through Onimusha 1 then moved on to 2 and just kind of lost interest in it after a few hours, ended up skipping to 3 which I liked. Haven't decided if I'll play Dawn of Dreams
With the release of the Netflix Show this may be capcom's hint at something for the future. But they need to gauge the fanbase's interest this is our chance to be loud & show them
i don't understand capcom's logic of basically selling remasters piece by piece instead of the complete package. Maybe they are just too poor to waste any sort of money on a hopeful release, why not let some basic chinese company do it, with so much tech any dev team can do it
There is not even one parry throughout this entire review making it completely invalid I am just exaggerating, but I am baffled you haven't even mentioned it when Onimusha has the most satisfying (though overpowered) parry system of any game, specially if we are talking about the PS2 era
I just don't understand why isn't Capcom either Remaking the Onimusha franchise or making a new one. These games were amazing besides the last one, but the first 3 🔥🔥
The reason is, and always will be money. Like they're remaking RE4, a game that I think doesn't need a remake, just because it's most likely to make a lot of money. Onimusha is kinda niche and the 1 remaster didn't sell all that well.
Was In tears back then with this game. The baby scene with ekei and jubei clutching gogandantes saying no YOU are gogandantes the greatest demon swordsman. Such an underrated sequel!
I don't find the arguments in favor of the prerendered fixed angles particularly convincing, so I'm happy you acknowledged them at the end. Personally I don't think running around on jpegs is particularly immersive no matter how you frame it, and I'd say any graphical advantages were already dubious around the time RE4 came around three years after this. Certainly not something worth sacrificing the gameplay for as far as I'm concerned at least. I appreciate you being so into the mood and vibe you get from these games, though.
In the context of a game this age though? Gamecube RE games pulled off highly cohesive lighting between character and backgrounds and very impressive looking environments. There was no way to accomplish that otherwise. Even something like Syberia or The Longest Journey make prerendered backgrounds absolutely count, there's no way they could have realised their vision otherwise even close. That being said of course it's more suitable to some games than others, there's a very strong case to be made for a point and click adventures and a fairly strong one for horror games, perhaps less so for a slash-em-up.
I've own Onimusha 2 for years, but have yet to play it. 😅 Got it and 3 cheap at a GameStop, and bought them because I really enjoyed 1 and because the CG trailers for both games where amazing. Now I feel the need to dig them out and actually play them. Its interesting how 2 seems to emulate Sentai-shows in a way 1 didn't as much, what with the expanded team, and more over-the-top villains.
Amazing video! Oni 2 is probably one of my favorite games from ps2 era, still, i think Oni 3 is still the best one of the series. Thanks for covering this game, not much people talk about Onimusha series anymore lol.
Gogandantes is one of the best things about Onimusha 2, I wish he had more scenes in the game, and became a recurring character in the franchise, but unfortunately he wasn’t 😔. I remember when I first bought Onimusha 2 back when it was first released on PS2, everything was easy for me in the beginning of the game and I felt like a bad ass demon killing warrior, especially after playing and beating the first Onimusha game. Then I finally get to Gogandantes and he totally stopped me on my tracks and wrecked the hell out of me, I had to figure out a good way to beat him, and it took a while for me, and when I finally did beat him in the very first encounter with him, I felt like a greater swordsman and went through the game feeling more stronger and kinda hoping that I would run into Gogandantes again and luckily there is more encounters with him, and yes, he would kick my ass like he did in the first encounter lol, until I finally would defeat him and continue on to beat the game. Ahhh, Great Times 🤔🫠.
Love the way you just jump straight into the action. It’s confident and familiar, and gives your channel a distinct texture to the way videos are structured, which makes your content very memorable.
kingly takes as ever! video games as a medium are obviously just more interesting the less homogenized they all are. there's enough room in the world for more 'weird' styles of play and presentation like from good ol onimusha
I played Onimusha 3 on my PS2 back in the day and I played 1 on PS4 recently. I'd really like to play 2 at some point. Ideally I'd like them to remaster 2 and 3
My first introduction to Onimusha was with Onimusha 2 Samurai's Destiny and it is still my favourite PS2 game to speedrun. This game is so much fun I take pleasure in the issen kills and needless to say the risk vs reward element is stong here which means if you kill demons normally you will get a few red souls and a few blue souls but if executed perfectly the demons releases more red souls and even yellow souls to get your health back. However the Ultimate mode is the true test of Onimusha 2's Mastery and it requires issen kills only. So you can slash away for hours and the demons will not die even if you use magic on them. You have to issen them to kill them and currently I am not skilled enough to tackle Ultimate mode. but never the less Onimusha 2 and Onimusha 3 were my go to games when coming home from school and I enjoyed the both of them. Onimusha 1 to me felt rough and even though I can play it I prefer the other 2 games in the Trilogy. Onimusha Dawn of Dreams on the other hand is it's own seperate experience so I hope that others will be kind to the game if they haven't played it yet.
Onimusha 2's camera framing only really gets bad in a few instances, boss fights being one of them. The first and final battle with Gingamphats, and the final boss since dodging backwards would change the camera angle. The worst part is being hit from off-screen by something you can't dodge or block. Had the camera moved with the player, I think those problems could have been alleviated.
Capcom just kinda giving up on Onimusha will always be a tragedy. Even the new ports of warlords sold a couple hundred thousand units despite being just a simple straight forward remaster, and yet Capcom was like "...nah." As much as I love DoD, I will always be left wondering what a more tense and weighty RE4/REmake 2 style over the shoulder Onimusha would play like.
Onimusha is criminally underrated. Playing the first game made me feel like I was in fucking Ninja Scroll. The only other game I can think of with such a perfect samurai vibe is Bushido Blade, which is basically an endless string of Akira Kurosawa duel scenes.
I really hated every character in this game, it's like they're competing who's the most obnoxious. Except for Jubei, he's too boring to evoke any emotions. Story is trash, but thankfully, gameplay was still good.
When I was younger I always thought the companion missions and them appearing in boss battles were pre scripted I’m just finding out now that it all depended on your relationship with them lol makes me wish the whole series was backwards backwards compatible right now I miss it so much.
The gameplay, combat , level design, amazing pre rendered backgrounds soundtrack, story , is soo 👍.. It makes u wonder why we didn't get RE 2 and 3 remakes on this graphical engine.. a long time ago..
Great video but i'm really just here to tell you that if you haven't played Metroid Dread yet then you're robbing yourself of the best Metroid game since the Prime series. Gameplay and especially Story considered. Go play and do a video so i can watch you gush over what they did.
I started streaming this and had to stop because the gift exchange is so complicated and slows gameplay to a crawl. You literally have to make a spreadsheet for and pray to the RNG gods for certain items. Still love it though!
After playing the ever living shit out of onimusha 1, 3, and dawn of dreams, trying onimusha 2 was a chore. But on its own it was certainly a fine, charming little game
I'm down with fixed cameras for action games, I'll take an awkward camera change over having to wrestle the camera to get a good view of the action. I even have some docs about a game I wanted to make, a DMC1 like with fixed cameras, a semi open world without levels and a souls like check point system as well as resource management.
modern 3d action camera control has had over two decades to refine itself yet fixed cameras barely even got one and was completely abandoned but is judged like what was made is all it could be
