Onimusha 2, A Sequel To A Great Game
 For The Playstation 2!

Written By Jesse Delgado

Last year, Capcom brought to us a little game that we all got to know and love called Onimusha: Warlords. This year on January 22, 2002 Capcom announced plans to release Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, a sequel to last year’s Playstation 2 People’s Choice award for PS2 Game of the Year. Some improvements to the game have been promised like larger environments to explore, new character interactions, enhanced sword action and over twice the number of computer graphic movies. To make things even better Capcom has hired some big guns to help make this sequel even better. As the main character, Jubei Yagyu, developers chose the features of the late, famous Japanese actor, Yusaki Matsuda, from the motion picture Black Rain. Famed Japanese film director Keita Amemiya provides character design to add cinematic realism to the worlds of Onimusha 2.

In this new chapter Capcom will reintroduce the historical time period of 16^th century Japan. It takes place ten years after the events that occurred in Onimusha: Warlords and after the brutal pillage of a village by Nobunaga. Players take the role of a Yagyuu Shinkage sword master named Jubei who wants to seek revenge against Nobunaga and unravel his destiny.

Onimusha 2 will possess some revolutionary features. First, the developers have created new and diverse environments. This means that players will enjoy the diversity of settings and enjoy exploring the Town of Imashou, a lively old gold rush town, and the mysterious Ogre Island. This island is no ordinary island. It is overrun by demons and has foggy canyons, hidden forests, a gold mine, caves and more. Second, the development of enhanced sword action will enable players to simply execute a set of moves called "Ohgi" or "esoteric fighting" to execute powerful combos using a simplistic control scheme. Enemy reactions are new and a multitude of action sequences have been added. Onimusha 2 will feature twice the amount of CG storyline movies and offer a new battle system.

Like I stated earlier Capcom has employed the services of Keita Amemiya to design the characters, direct the game and illustrate some of the scenery. But he is not the only talent recruited for the development of this game. Late actor Yusaki Matsuda has donated his features and his movements, Keiji Inafune will once again produce the game, scriptwriter Noburu Sugimara has been recruited, both Mikitaka Kurasawa and Ryu Kaneda will return to work on the CG movies, and the game’s music will be handled by Taro Iwasharo, who has composed music for Japanese movies and television shows.

Capcom appears to have a would be winner here. Early screenshots show how great the graphics are going to be. It will definitely be a must have video game for the Onimusha fan and novice alike. I personally can’t wait to see the final product.