Overall feels like a good port that runs well on my machine. But it lacks something critical and fundamental to the original. The pressure sensitive shoulder buttons of the ps2 controller allowed you to ready your weapon or charge it with the same button. It felt intuitive, precise and fun. You are missing a unique interactive feature that feels like gripping your sword tighter if you cant play that version.

The pressure sensitive buttons of the dualshock 2 controllers were completely non intrusive and comparatively indestructible when put against any other controllers. They should come back to gaming. It was an amazing feature we have regressed. I want to press A harder to accelerate my car faster again.

Unfortunately this game didn't age well at all.

I owned this back on the ps2, alongside the 1st game. and while I love the first game to death, and the Remaster even moreso, Onimusha 2 is....complicated.

To address some of the nostalgic elephants in the room, the Remastered does fix alot of the gameplay problems from it's PS2 counterpart, such as the new transformation state. Originally, it would automatically trigger after fulfilling the conditions, regardless of where or when. so, if you didn't like being an invincible one man army for 10 seconds or so but only AFTER you take out every enemy and wasting it all, the Remaster binds it to a button input, much like in Onimusha 3. unlike it however, it doesn't trigger when you die.

Weapon switching has been bound to button inputs in the remastered instead of the pause menu on PS2, Auto Saving is a thing now which, i personally was torn on for nostalgic reasons, but after dealing with this game on Hard Mode, i've been fine with it.

as for the story: The idea here was more focused on a major epic of sorts, like a play centered on being a Historical Fiction piece. alot more characters, dialogue, personalities & stories than the first, and every character having their own playstyle, opportunities to deepen Jubei's connection with them. the sequel is to me, a prime example of "it's not bad...but it could be better."

while this game does have all of that on paper, there's some drawbacks in practice. while it's neat they added more focus on characters as opposed to the original which was more straightforward in "storm the castle, slay demons, save the princess", most-all of the personalities are...one dimensional. occasionally there's a fun character, but overall they can tend to be forgettable. case in point: i forgot like 80% of what happens in this game since the PS2 version, and i can remember Oni 1 incredibly well, even Oni 3 i remember pretty well, and i haven't played that in over a decade, but i digress.

as for the main cast, they...can be enjoyable and interesting. but aside from Oyu for obvious reasons, the others essentially disappear after a point, especially if you play this like the first one. the game's focus on giving gifts to characters does bring up new content like cutscenes or even missions where you play as them.

BUT. it feels tedious. this all needs to be done within the first 3rd of the game. after a point, they just decide to stop caring about most of them and they disappear. and after realizing what this was trying to do and focus on it in the remaster, i forgot stuff like upgrades for each weapon were locked behind giving them gifts. (or maybe it never was in it till now, i'd have to go back and check.)

the combat is still like it has been, challenging and rewarding, even moreso than the first game in some areas. plenty of enemies are strong, and can absolutely surround you and overpower you if you aren't careful. the music & visuals are still pretty good. the fixed camera admittingly, is REALLY BAD at times in this. in the first, they managed it alright, but in this, you can really feel some of the issues with having a fixed camera.

overall? if you just want more Onimusha with more story & characters & killing demons & weapons & improvements to the original version, this might be up your alley. if you want a more engaging story than the first one, this definitely has that. but if you're expecting this to be similar to the first one and focused more on action instead of story, new features & content that can be miss=able if you don't know what to look for and do, and not a whole lot of dialogue, you might not enjoy this as much.

but for the most part, this is its own story and not a follow-up to the 1st game, so it's your call if you want to play this or not.