“They don’t make them like they used to.”
As a film buff, no phrase within the English language will get my eyes rolling greater than this. For many years, I’ve needed to hear that phrase repeated to bemoan the state of cinema. I’ve at all times discovered it to be a foolish assertion. For one: Of course they don’t. Art, and the instruments we use to make it, adjustments. What will get me extra is when the phrase is used to tear down fashionable movie. The implication that the artwork we grew up with is inherently higher than what’s round now at all times looks like a hard-headed snap take that solely reveals how resistant we’re to alter.
But after taking part in — of all issues — Capcom’s new Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny remaster, I discover myself coming again to that phrase. Returning to the PS2 traditional in 2025 is like digging up an historical artifact. It’s a hypnotic time capsule that feels in contrast to any new launch I’ve performed this 12 months. Its cinematic ambitions, paired with the constraints of video video games on the time, creates an unmistakable texture that may’t simply be replicated. In this case, they honestly don’t make them like they used to.
Back to 2002
Before diving into the remaster, my relationship to the Onimusha has at all times been at a distance. I didn’t have a PlayStation 2 rising up, however I used to be an avid reader of magazines like EGM and knew about each huge sport on the system. From that perspective, Onimusha at all times felt bigger than life. It had the texture of a status sport, proper alongside works of the period like Shadow of the Colossus. Magazine screenshots left me to think about a darkish, critical motion sport that most likely regarded rather a lot like Elden Ring does to me now.
I used to be in for an adjustment as quickly as I began Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. An opening story explainer comes out the gate swinging as I’m instructed that Nobunaga Oda is a.) useless and b.) commanding a military of demons. That element is delivered so straight-faced in a dramatic voice over that I couldn’t assist however crack up. It’s completely absurd, a B-movie premise handled with the gravity of a historic epic.
That angle continued all through my playthrough. Capcom’s ambitions had been lofty for 2002, aiming to create a really cinematic expertise almost a decade earlier than tech allowed for it. If this had been a film, you’d possible label it as “amateur.” The script is crammed with hacky jokes as characters consistently “hubba hubba!” over ladies. Cutscenes are shot via stiff digicam placements that by no means fairly really feel like they’re in the precise place. The voice solid has huge highschool theater vitality.
And to be very clear: It’s positively superior.
Capcom
Like many video games of its period, Onimusha 2 feels otherworldly. It’s simply off-kilter sufficient in each respect that it approaches surrealism. A fierce demon will pop up out of nowhere, give a hammy monologue, after which begin sprinting out and in of bushes like a Scooby Doo villain. It’s purely comedic on paper, however there’s a critical reverence for the lore and world that Capcom created. It’s a tone that’s at all times oscillating between wacky and critical, two emotions that many fashionable video games are inclined to maintain separate. It’s not a tone that’s distinctive to Onimusha both; it’s a working theme of the period. I’ve the identical feeling after I play Capcom’s early Resident Evil video games. They’re stuffed with stilted performing and awkward one-liners, and but, I’m capable of take that world critically immediately. Games like this had been distinctive at crafting unusual languages and making gamers fluent in them as shortly as attainable.
That thought doesn’t simply apply to cutscenes, however gameplay too. It’s very clear that Onimusha got here within the wake of Resident Evil’s success. It has mounted digicam angles that construct pressure by hiding what’s round each nook. Rooms are lined with random puzzle containers that I want to unravel to disclose hidden ladders. I be taught in regards to the world via plain textual content merchandise descriptions that flatly pop up on display screen. All of these design touchstones of the period create a texture that’s each hyper particular and onerous to place to phrases. It’s remarkably atmospheric, claustrophobic and eerie even in its silliest moments. I’m not escaping into one other world that’s below my full management; I’ve fallen right into a mysterious place dictated by the legal guidelines of a creator, and I need to learn to abide by them to make it out alive. It’s the identical feeling as getting into a hedge maze on a foggy night.
Video video games don’t really feel like this anymore — at the very least not the largest ones. Developers have lastly cracked tips on how to truly make a sport really feel “cinematic,” with the bar raised for performing, writing, and cinematography. That results in digital worlds that really feel extra acquainted, grounded in a visible language that’s recognizably human. Even this 12 months’s Dynasty Warriors: Origins trades the sequence’ oddball performing and head-scratching wackiness for one thing that feels comparatively grounded. Playing Onimusha 2 looks like watching a 1930s Hollywood drama that offers in stage performing and larger-than-life gestures.
Ca
That’s maybe why I’m so bullish in regards to the present remake and remaster craze. Onimusha 2 is particular as a result of it’s a product of its time. It is outlined by the bizarre quirks that redos like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered so typically try to flatten. Capcom is fortunately gentle with its adjustment right here, giving it a clear decision bump, reworked controls, and auto-save. The latter is extra hassle than it’s price, as dying masses the auto save. If that has left you in a nasty place, you’ll must give up and reload your correct save from the primary menu. The remainder of the package deal is crammed with extras like at galleries that depart the primary sport untouched in all its glory, giving me loads of house to understand it for what it’s — a wierd journey that’s nonetheless swimming round my mind whereas so many new video games go in a single ear and out the opposite.
This doesn’t make Onimusha 2 higher than immediately’s status video games, simply as I reject the concept that no fashionable film may go toe to toe with Gone With the Wind. Playing its remaster now extra simply highlights how totally different sport design is 20 years after its authentic launch. The medium is extra outlined, with established design rulebooks that prioritize immersion and emergent storytelling over hermetic path. I really feel like I do know precisely what Capcom’s upcoming Onimusha revival will appear to be, taking the type of a conventional third-person performing sport with blockbuster manufacturing worth. It’ll be a product of its personal time simply as Onimusha 2 is now. Maybe immediately’s younger adults will reminisce on it in 20 years and say that 2045’s video games simply aren’t the identical as those that launched within the now fabled PS5 period.
I hope that occurs, as a result of that will probably be a sign that the medium has moved. They shouldn’t maintain making them like they used to; yesterday’s video games ought to at all times really feel like historic paperwork that inform us one thing in regards to the inventive panorama of the time. Onimusha 2’s remaster is an ideal alternative to journey again to 2002 and soak in all of the oddball vitality of a medium in an experimental artistic peak.
The Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny remaster launches on May 23 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.