Capcom is continuing their trend of throwing a fresh coat of paint on some of their old classics like releasing the Ace Attorney trilogy which originally came out on the Nintendo DS, the Mega Man collection and the Resident evil collection to name a few. Yesterday however Capcom announced a remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny.
The Onimusha Series
A month ago a brand new Onimusha was announced called Onimusha: Way of the Sword finally awakening the long dormant series. The Onimusha franchise started off in the early 200s with Onimusha: Warlords on the playstation 2 it quickly rose to the top of the charts with over 2 million sales. Thus with the success of the predecessor, Onimusha 2 was released in 2002.
Onimusha 2 featured a brand new protagonist Jubei whose village gets attacked and ravaged leaving him the sole survivor. Jubei then sets off on his journey of revenge gaining all sorts of powers and weapons to help him fulfill his journey of redemption.
Onimusha 2 also quickly rose up the charts selling an impressive 1 million plus copies in Japan during its release thus making it the 3rd best selling game of the country that year. Critics praised the game’s combat mechanics and action as one its core strengths for its high praise.
The Remaster Of The Second Title
Capcom did release a remaster of the first game in early 2018 but there were rumors that it did not reach expectations in terms of sales. This made many sure that there isn’t likely to be a new entry in the series or a remaster and yet Capcom announced it for a release this year on all platforms but has not announced a date.
This is no doubt a surprise as younger audiences can now experience the amazing action and story of the Onimusha series which lay dormant for so long. Capcom has not announced what this remaster could feature, but we can assume the obvious about an upgrade to visuals increase and performance.
Other notable additions may include quality of life improvements such a revised menu, better controls. It is also imperative that the gameplay mechanics overall remain the same as changes to those might not get received well by fans of the original.
A Welcome Directive
It seems Capcom is understanding the point of remastering some of their classics as a faithful remaster almost sells as much as the original. What remains to be seen is if Capcom is willing to remaster other notable titles from this legendary series.
For example, the sequel to Onimusha 2 was Onimusha 3 : Demon Siege which was one the most critically acclaimed games during the PS2’s era, the game even debuted at number one in the Japanese Market as stated by Famitsu.
If Capcom decides to continue with this we may see a parallel release cycle of Onimusha titles being released along with the reboot that is set to arrive next year. This trend of giving some old classics a fresh coat of paint is nevertheless a welcome sight to see as the 2010s has some of the most innovative games of that era.
Conclusion
The Onimusha series was one of the most iconic series of the PS2 era, featuring a captivating story and innovative gameplay along with impressive visuals for its time. It’s great to see Capcom trying to reintroduce this dormant series to a newer generation while also addressing some of its known issues or bugs with the remaster.
Capcom has too many iconics titles that it can try to reintroduce to a modern audience such as Viewtiful Joe, Okami or Steel Battalion. Hopefully Capcom will continue to remaster these masterpieces to make sure that these games truly remain as timeless as possible.
