While Capcom only released the Onimusha: Warlords remaster back in 2019, the wait for Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny HD Remaster has felt like an eternity—far longer than just six years. That’s because I love the Onimusha series as much as I do Resident Evil and, yes, Dino Crisis. Maybe even a little more, if I’m honest. So waiting for Capcom to bring the rest of the series out of retirement, even if only as remasters, has been nothing short of nail-biting.
Finally, though, the Onimusha series continues on modern machines with Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny HD Remaster. Does this bona fide classic still slice and dice in 2025?
Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny HD Remaster continues the story begun in Onimusha: Warlords, pitting sword-master Jubei Yagyu against the supernaturally resurrected Oda Nobunaga. Jubei’s journey begins after Nobunaga’s demonic forces obliterate the Yagyu clan, themselves related to Oni and tasked with exterminating demons. Along his journey, Jubei will team-up with four other warriors to stop Nobunaga from taking over Japan.
Across his journey, Jubei will learn long concealed secrets of his origins, find unlikely friendships and encounter a whole bunch of awesome weirdness that is sadly missing from many games these days.
With the Onimusha series were diving back into the wonderful world of pre-rendered graphics and fixed camera angles. Where Resident Evil delighted in the jump scare, Onimusha favours swift, tactical, sword swinging action with light puzzle solving and environmental hazards. The design template may be the same, but the gameplay couldn’t be more different.
As Jubei you’re going to cut through an army of demons and their bosses with style, grace and brutality. You can swing your sword as wildly as you want, but Onimusha favours a more tactical approach to combat as you’re generally overwhelmed by enemies.
You can block attacks and sidestep enemies to deliver your blows but the most useful move in your arsenal that you will need to master is a counter attack that can instantly kill most enemies. It’s activated if you attack at the moment they do and if they’re grouped together, one smooth move can slice through everyone. Why do you want to do this beyond making fights shorter? Because enemies killed drop souls that are used to upgrade your gear.
Kill enemies in this fashion and they drop double the amount of souls along with valuable health restoring energy. Healing items aren’t plentiful so the best way to stay topped up is to master this critical strike. It’s also the games most satisfying combat mechanic, worthy of the master swordsman that Jubei Yagyu is meant to be.
Jubei’s armour can be upgraded with souls along with three of the magic weapons you’ll pick up along the way. While the upgrade numbers are hidden behind the scenes, each piece of equipment undergoes a visual change to highlight their increased attributes, while the weapons basic strikes and magic attacks all become more powerful. You do need a healthy dose of souls though as each piece of equipment is quite greedy.
Capcom have some fancy story tricks that make Onimusha more than a one and done playthrough. For starters there are mini-games which are already unlocked and available from the main menu for this remaster, along with companion side-quests and a gifting system that adds a fair amount of replayibility to the game.
Each of the four warriors that joins your crusade has their own backstory which can only be experienced properly by giving them gifts. Gifts determine who helps you out in combat which changes both the gameplay and the cut-scenes and determines whose side-story you’ll uncover. At the very least you’re looking at five playthroughs to see everything.
The story itself is still fantastic with the same sort of voice acting that Resident Evil helped to make Capcom famous for. There are some great performances and some hilarious ones, but it’s never anything other than enthralling and fun. Of course the gameplay is what you’re here for and after all this time, Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny HD Remaster still delivers expertly. Yes, in 2025 it still cuts deep and fast and is completely addictive.
What you’re looking at from this remaster, beyond those unlocked mini-games at the beginning, are the usual visual enhancements and modern platform support, along with quality of life fixes.
First off, you’re looking at full modern analog controller support for movement which is, of course, a blessing. Sorry purists, but tank controls are truly frustrating today. The game runs at 60fps and you have the option to play in widescreen or the original screen ratio.
Further quality of life changes have to do with weapon switching, which you can now do during combat by holding down the L2 button and pushing the left or right D-pad. In the original game, you had to jump into the inventory every time you wanted to switch weapons. Transforming into Jubei’s Oni form is also handled manually now when you have enough orbs picked up versus the original where you’d automatically transform every time the orb slot was full.
There’s a gallery as well now to let you view artwork and listen to the games soundtrack and a difficulty selection along with a brand new “Hell” difficulty.
Visually, the game and its assets have been given a visual upgrade. The most notable changes are to the games pre-rendered locations and all the games textures. The bulk of the work looks fantastic, especially on the pre-rendered scenery though some of the reworked assets don’t always gel together well and there are moments when camera close-ups show off stretched textures on character meshes. All in all, this is an HD remaster rather than a remake and checks the requisite visual boxes. Those small moments of disconnect aside, I think the game looks fantastic.
With the HD remaster of Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny HD Remaster, Capcom have brought a classic game onto modern consoles in a format that honors it’s heritage without sacrificing it’s spirit and gameplay, good and bad. This is the same game that I adored in 2002, fixed camera blind-spots and all, and that I’ve adored replaying through now. It’s an essential purchase for anyone that loves action games, especially those with great stories and characters.
Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny HD Remaster Trailer
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