Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny hands-on preview: Cult classic action Resident Evil

I’m massively excited to play 2026’s Onimusha: Way of the Sword, but since we’ve got a while to wait, I was happy to pick up and play the new remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. I’m a complete Onimusha newbie, and wasn’t sure what to expect from the PS2 cult classic. I definitely didn’t expect action Resident Evil before Resident Evil turned action.

Like those legendary early Resident Evil games, Onimusha 2 uses a fixed camera perspective, and has a surprising focus on puzzles, while being far more linear than those early RE titles. Instead of a focus on managing your inventory and carefully planning your routes around the area available to you, Onimusha 2 is a bit closer to what you’d expect from an action game today. 

Jubei Yagyu is a skilled swordsman, able to lock onto and strafe around slow-moving foes with ease. You won’t be counting your shots while aiming at a zombie, you’ll be slashing down groups of demonic monsters as they endlessly spawn, making each search for a key item tense. You don’t have many opportunities to slow down, and that’s what keeps the stakes feeling high, even if the combat is relatively simple on the standard difficulty setting.

The pre-rendered backgrounds have been upscaled, and while they’re certainly noticeable in 2025, it makes for a nostalgic aesthetic which mostly looks good. Only a few odd spots – like 3D smoke rising from a 2D bonfire – look truly distracting. 

There’s a huge amount of charm in the older game design here. Interacting with something that requires a key item won’t just use the item automatically, you have to open your inventory, use the item, and will only see the results once you back out. It’s a simple action, but one that means you have to think about what you’re interacting with, and how the items in your inventory can effect it. A key and a lock is simple enough, but how about a ring with an emblem, or a hidden rope ladder and a hole in the castle wall? You don’t have to be a genius to put these items together, but being asked to do it manually is satisfying.

We’ve still got much more to see and do in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, but if you’re eager to refresh your Onimusha memory ahead of 2026’s Way of the Sword, or you just want a truly retro action game to enjoy, Samurai’s Destiny might be for you.