Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny
North American box art
Developer(s)	Capcom Production Studio 2[1]
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Director(s)	Motohide Eshiro
Producer(s)	Keiji Inafune
Designer(s)	Hayato Tsuru[2]
Programmer(s)	Masaru Ijuin[3]
Artist(s)	Keita Amemiya
Writer(s)	Noboru Sugimura Hirohisa Soda Shin Yoshida Kishiko Miyagi
Composer(s)	Taro Iwashiro Hideki Okugawa Toshihiko Horiyama
Series	Onimusha
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release	JP: March 7, 2002 NA: August 27, 2002 PAL: October 4, 2002
Genre(s)	Action role-playing, hack and slash
Mode(s)	Single-player

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, released in Japan as Onimusha 2 (鬼武者2, Onimusha Tsū), is a 2002 action role-playing game developed and released by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. It is the second installment in the Onimusha series of video games released in March 2002. Set in medieval Japan, the plot revolves around a new protagonist, Jubei Yagyu, who is on a quest of revenge as he battles a demon army led by Nobunaga Oda, a sinister warlord who eliminated the Yagyu clan. Across his quest, Jubei learns of his oni heritage which grants him powers to slay the demons and meets new allies who also wish to defeat Nobunaga and his army of Genma.

The game retains the action elements from its predecessor such as the use of multiple special weapons that can be upgraded by defeating enemies. Apart from the main character, the game features four playable sub-characters, each of whom shares a part in the story. The player's actions determine which characters will decide to help Jubei in his quest. These characters were added by the Capcom staff to give a bigger depth to the game and expand the game's feeling of adventure. Each character that the player befriends will have different cutscenes as well as personal story arcs that Jubei gets to experience, although the main narrative will largely remain the same. There are certain characters or cutscenes that cannot be experienced on the same playthrough, due to plot reasons.

Publications for video games generally praised Onimusha 2 for its branching storyline paths, music, re-playability, and for keeping the action elements from its predecessor and adding new gameplay elements, although the game was criticized for abandoning its RPG element about 40% of the way through and becoming a little bit too similar to the original. Also, the American release did not contain the Japanese audio unlike the first game. On another note, the graphics and the CGI intro were highly praised.^[4]