Death and taxes may be the only certainties in life, but the video game world has its own rules - such as for every successful game, there will be successive games. Thus the sequel, Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny. Like a new year's line of automobiles, Onimusha 2 has a sleeker look, more bells and whistles, and improved standard features over its predecessor model, Warlords. Onimusha 2 takes place some time after the first game, and it introduces a new samurai, Jubei Yagyu. Jubei initially begins a mission of revenge to destroy the slime that trashed his village, but his quest is quickly interrupted when he's swept up in a supernatural plot and crosses paths with four other characters - a female gladiator, a rifleman, a ninja, and a spearsman - that possess various skills. Much of Onimusha 2's strength comes from these four souls: Your interaction with each of them affects how - or if - they'll assist you later in the game. For instance, if you give a sub-character an item to his liking, he'll provide valuable assistance in the form of a return gift or make himself available as a playable character later in the game. Conversely, if you give things they dislike, you'll be ignored. Furthermore, select sub-characters can reach only certain areas; since you can't keep everyone happy all the time, the only way to explore everything is to repeatedly play the game, which guarantees Onimusha 2's replay value. Samurai's Destiny retains the action theme of the first Onimusha adventure. As a lone samurai, you hack-n-slash monsters and other supernatural beings, and then absorb released soul energies that, in turn, allow you to execute more powerful attacks, including magic spells. Onimusha 2 brings back most of the good stuff from the first game - swords imbued with wind and lightning - and adds them to an arsenal of new weapons, such as a spear and giant hammer. Solid and simple controls keep Jubei's various abilities in check, and they carry over to the other diverse characters that have their own distinct abilities. Onimusha 2 becomes increasingly difficult - especially as you approach the climax. If you don't conserve health items for the end of the game, you may have to re-play entire sections in order to restock your inventory, so you'll need to save your game often. The final battle is an anti-climatic war of attrition but nevertheless worth winning in order to access mini-games and other goodies that become available upon finishing the game. Onimusha 2's razor-sharp visuals are dulled by a few imperfections. The pre-rendered background scheme continues to serve the series well, but drawbacks - enemy attacks from offscreen and the slight pause as you move between rendered areas - are still present; although scrolling within some screens helps alleviate the problem. There's an abundance of realistic special and environmental effects, too (such as rain, fire, and lightning). Yet pretty as the sights are, some sour eye candy seeps in - most notably horrendous slowdown when the screen is crowded with characters and activity. Eye-popping rendered cinema sequences are worth noting as they provide an entertaining break from the action. A strong audio track joins the visuals. Stirring music pieces are matched with atmospheric sound effects. As you interact with different characters, you also get a variety of spoken audio that ranges from fitting to annoying. Yet these quibbles almost vanish when the metal starts flying and the blood starts flowing. Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny is a worthy successor to the first game as it features enough new elements and excellent replay value. Here's another Onimusha that does the PlayStation 2 justice.
