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IN ONIMUSHA 2: SAMURAI'S Destiny, the player takes the role of Jubei Yagyu, who is seeking revenge for the wipeout of his village at the hands of Lord Nobunaga Oda. Yes, it's all about revenge, and as cliched as that plot may seem, it all fits in nicely with the overall B-movie samurai film feel of the game. The combat has been improved upon, but probably could have been better (the control system this game uses isn't really suited to free-flowing combat). This time around the RPG element is much stronger too.

If you have played the original Onimusha you will feel immediately at home with Onimusha 2. The game uses a similar control system to Resident Evil but is far more oriented towards action rather than adventuring. Some players will be somewhat annoyed by the lack of analog control though. Another slightly frustrating aspect of the fighting control system is the auto-targeting. Once you've knocked an opponent down you have a small window of opportunity to drive your sword through them, but the auto-target feature can quite often swing your character around away from your downed opponent, giving it ample time to recover. After some practice you can avoid this happening by positioning yourself right over a prone opponent and releasing the targeting button before attempting a finishing blow.

A nice feature is the ability to find secret battle techniques inside hidden scrolls, that will allow you to perform far more deadly attacks against your enemy through various buttons combos. An original concept the developers have opted for is the gold/gift system, in which your character can find gold in his journeys, and buy gifts for the other characters within the game. In return for these gifts you can receive other items, which will vary in importance depending how much the recipient liked your gift. The other puzzles that round out the gameplay are the same sliding block and lever puzzles that has become common in this type of game from Capcom. Throughout the game the main character will be helped by other prominent characters you meet along the way, and if you manage to perform certain duties correctly then you even get to control these other characters.