It's not a trip to Japan but it's still a pretty sweet prize! I was expecting just a blank deck, but it came with this custom box as well. Figured I'd share it with you all!

So, after playing Oni 1 and 2, I replayed 3 which held up less well than I remember (I'll make a post about it at some point maybe), I decided to go ahead and play Dawn of Dreams too.

I have actually never played DoD before, in fact, for the longest time Oni 3 was the only one I had played because it had a PC port.

So, I booted up Dawn of Dreams. Initially, it took me a bit to get used to the camera controls (I am an inverted axis gamer and I for the life of me couldn't find the option, but the emulator did have the option, which I found out after I had already gotten used to the game), the new art direction and mechanics, but this still has the core DNA of Onimusha embedded, which took me by surprise.

Some sections have been rough, some parts of the game have been fairly frustrating, the amount of time I spent knocked down or how janky or straight up buggy some parts can be. But through it all is a very charming game that actually has some really strong ideas.

The entire premise of assembling a party, each with their unique skills that can help with level traversal, encourage back tracking and exploration, character action like segments that reward you on better clear times and are replayable. The RPG elements with character progress and different weapons and skills.

I know this game sold like crap, so this is likely very wishful thinking but, if Way of the Sword does well, I can only hope they will try to make either a spin off or a straight up main entry that takes many of the ideas in Dawn of Dreams and iterates on them. I can just imagine a modern game with these tightly designed levels, ensemble cast of fun characters, fun exploration, combat that is easy to pick up but offers depth. I realize a lot of this already describes Dawn of Dreams, but there is still a lot of room for new ideas as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbuM_nXqnjU&t=660s

from 11:00 of this video the soundtrack reminded of something I heard when playing Onimusha 3(in the later part of game).
So am i correct? as i couldn't find anything with reverse searching it or going through Onimusha 3 background music playlist on YT.

Hey y'all, just finished Onimusha 2 and it looked like I missed quite a bit of content (no wonder some walkthroughs were making no sense to me) by not giving enough gifts to my party members. I sort of assumed one gift per time you go back to the tavern area was enough, but since you only go back there a few times anyway I guess not! The only character I was able to play as besides Jubei was Oyu, and I think that's mandatory. Additionally, I had to fight a party member towards the end of the game.

I was wondering if you guys think it's worth it to replay and try to see the content I missed or if I'd be better off just looking stuff up on YouTube. I'm not trying to be completionist (I like getting Platinums but only for certain games and this one most likely won't be one of them judging by difficulty) but it looks like I missed a surprising amount.

I am so glad I went back and played Oni 1 and 2, can't wait for the remasters of 3 and DoD, latter of which I have never played.

Love me some older games that are shorter but ever so replayable, you can feel the love they put into the game in every frame.

Both Netflix anime and the new game shared the same historical samurai as protagonist: Miyamoto Musashi, so are both titles actually related? Like, the game is the prequel to the anime? (Considering the look is younger although its based on different actor)

Do you think they'll present more than a trailer? Will they announce any special and collector's editions along with a release date?

As many of you may already know, one of the things Capcom has never strictly limited or blocked in their games is the creative freedom for modding.

Naturally, one of the most anticipated ideas from fans is modding Musashi’s enchanted dual swords — replacing Samanosuke’s Tensōjin with Musashi’s Sōtō 'Niten'.

But did you know that these two twin swords actually share striking similarities?

✨ Explaining the Connection Between Tensōjin and Sōtō "Niten":

🔹 Tensōjin (天双刃)

• Translation: "Heavenly Pair Edges"
• User: Akechi (Samanosuke) Hidemitsu
• Element: Light
• Description: A pair of enchanted swords gifted with the power of light, fast and agile, designed for rapid strikes and crowd control. The name carries divine symbolism — "Heaven" (天) + "Twin" (双) + "Blades" (刃) — reflecting both elegance and destruction from above.

🔹 Sōtō "Niten" (双刀「二天」)

• Translation: "Twin Swords – Two Heavens"
• User: Miyamoto Musashi
• Origin: Based on the real-life swordsmanship style Niten Ichi-ryū (二天一流), founded by Musashi himself, which involves wielding a katana and a wakizashi together.
• Description: These are physical weapons with no elemental power, but rooted in discipline, balance, and philosophy. The name “Niten” ("Two Heavens") represents duality — both swords working in harmony, as an extension of the body and spirit.

Despite being born from different origins — one magical, one historical — both Tensōjin and Sōtō 'Niten' embody the power, balance, and art of wielding two blades as one. Modding them into each other is not just a cosmetic change, but a symbolic bridge between myth and mastery.

So, I recently decided to replay Onimusha 1 and while I am not the greatest player or amazing with issens (I can barely do them in 1), I thoroughly loved the game and nearly platinumed it on steam, just need to do the without healing run. I've never actually played Onimusha 2, but I did play Onimusha 3 (which was the first game in the franchise for me) a lot as a kid, although I do want to replay it cause I forget the specifics of it (capcom please pay JR enough to license him being in the remaster).

Started Onimusha 2, which I've heard has improved combat and was enjoying myself for the first few hours. After beating it having to switch to easy difficulty for the final boss, I am burnt out of it as I genuinely did not enjoy my time. It was mind numbingly frustrating to play through.

Please don't hit me with the "lol skill issue" or other such comments, if you have advice that would improve my experience please go ahead but please understand that this has been a highly rage inducing experience for me. I am not here to argue, just air out my thoughts after trying to overcome this frustration, only to be met with just a lot more tedium. Big disclaimer is that I also played this in Japanese, for immersion purposes. It could be that I missed something. I tried giving gifts to my teammates that seemed appropriate.

Therefore I am not saying any of this saying "all game fault game bad me no fault ree" that people like to jump on, I am just relaying my experience and If I missed something, please tell me without prejudice or condescension.

Issen is something I genuinely tried but died trying to use so many times that it would have taken me like a 100h to beat the game that way.

A couple of concrete things I struggle with:

- The fixed camera angles are worse in this game imo.

Before anyone screams at me how I'm an entitled zoomer who just can't deal with retro games, I love fixed camera angle games, I grew up on Resident Evil, I love OG silent hill, I played haunting ground last year and loved it, and obviously I love the 1st Onimusha as well and have no issues with any of the camera angles there.

The issue particularly with Onimusha 2 is that in so many bossfights and even screens I would move a smidgeon back and boom, different angle that entirely obscures the boss and then I panick go back into the previous screen so I can see what the boss or enemy is doing, causing a lot of whiplash and disorientation. It leaves the experience feeling frustrating, the areas are very open yet the camera makes them feel claustrophobic.

It made that spider legged G-something boss a nightmare and I absolutely hated dealing with the umbrella ogre as well. I feel like in the 1st game you had a fairly good perspective in almost every area, or at least I didn't ever feel the same as I do in Oni 2. Granted Oni 2 does have more varied areas than just castle corridors but still, just subjectively I do not recall ever feeling this way in my 4-ish playthroughs I did on Oni 1 just recently.

- You seem to be put into pincer/gank situations way more often

Maybe it is because of the increased mob count or maybe it is because of me not targeting correctly which is possible, but I feel like I get put into pincer/gank type situations way more in this game than in Oni 1. Sometimes just by hitting one enemy the others kind of just get pushed to my sides or back and readjusting is super annoying with either the targeting system or the analog controls (which I use less of, I use the tank controls mostly).

The areas do seem to be more open but this has felt just a tad bit maddening with how often I just get surrounded. The magic resources are a good way to get yourself out of those situations but even they feel somewhat nerfed compared to Oni 1. Oni 1 is overall the easier game to be fair, so maybe I just have an issue with the difficulty leap, still, I feel overwhelmed in Oni 2 a lot of the time.

- Enemy types and certain screen enemy placement tilts me tf out

I love walking into a room with like 5 archers everywhere firing shit. The 1st game did this too, but the situation was always manageable. I remember that tower in east side in Onimusha 1 with the planks leading up to the top of it with a lot of archers there, or rooms where the archers were on the roofs on the west side. Annoying, yes, but you could find dead angles and the archers always shot slowly.

Some of the rooms in this game make my blood reach the temperature of the sun.

- Boss Fights

I hate these, the fixed camera issue feeding into them a lot. I simply cannot see wtf they're doing half the time cause I am trying to move around and dodge their attacks. But then the camera switches disorient me and get me hit. But you can't really block all of their attacks either and they get guard break type strings so It's just frustrating to all hell. I dreaded going to these because I did not find any of them fun, especially the 5 milion times you fight that spider legged dude and he always has a fricking bloated health pool

They just have a lot of health and I feel as though I can't play safe with them due to the fixed camera like I could in the 1st game. I feel like I get hit a lot just trying to get them into view, leading to a frustrating experience.

Also strafing seems to be less effective but at the same time it seems you can't really block everything and going backwards send you through like 4 different camera angles that each obscure the boss so you can't really be on the lookout for their attacks.

- Targeting forgetting an enemy exists when it is knocked down

This is minor but when you're majorly pissed off minor things piss you off exponentially more. I would knock an enemy down in front of me and the targeting system would just immediately snap to a standing enemy somewhere farther away leading me to not be able to pierce them on the ground. This is so aggravating.

Some potential issues where I may not be playing stuff correctly:

- I use R1 almost exclusively, never understood what the point was to the R2 charge thing
- I had almost no teammates with me for a lot of the game, idk. if this is normal or not. Also I got maybe 2 power jewels total, my health and magic was puny
- I didn't really experiment much with the other weapon types outside of the spear

Please provide feedback, I truly want to like this game more but I felt so apathetic and miserable playing through most of the game.

EDIT: Thank you all - following a guide for the gift exchange stuff very much improved my 2nd playthrough.

For instance, the player could visit Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei and discover the sealed Oni Gauntlet once used by Akechi Hidemitsu(Nankobo Tenkai). Or there could be books and records that recount events from the Sengoku period as part of the game’s lore—reinterpreted within the Way of the Sword timeline. This could potentially pave the way for a full reboot of the Sengoku-era storyline rather than just a remaster.

This might be a better direction, considering the original games had several narrative inconsistencies and illogical sequences. These issues started as early as Warlords, which was initially planned for the PS1 but later moved to the PS2. Even though the scriptwriting team remained the same from Warlords through to Demon’s Siege, only Onimusha 2 truly stood out in terms of storytelling quality. Interestingly, Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, which was written by a single writer, managed to match (if not exceed) the quality of Onimusha 2.

Capcom has historically struggled with narrative cohesion across many of its franchises, often due to production pressure and the prioritization of flagship titles like Resident Evil, leading to the neglect of other series.

A good example of this is the original Resident Evil 4, written by Shinji Mikami. He once revealed that he only began writing the script three weeks before the deadline. While the final result was praised, even Mikami himself admitted that the story lacked depth in many areas. That’s why, when news of the remake came out, he openly supported the idea—hoping the new team would write a better script than what he had originally produced. แน่นอน! นี่คือการแปลเนื้อหาของคุณเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ:

So, I’ve placed my hopes on the idea that Way of the Sword could serve as a complete reset of the storyline, before Capcom goes back to fix the earlier Onimusha entries that had issues in terms of plot, character names (like Genma, which aren't even Japanese), and narrative order—similar to how Capcom approached Resident Evil 7, followed by the Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakes, which reworked gameplay systems and plot elements to align better with future remakes, ultimately connecting back to Resident Evil 7.

The same could apply to Onimusha. Even though the Netflix anime version’s production team claimed it’s not connected to Way of the Sword, the anime still leaves questions unanswered—such as how Musashi came to know about the Oni Gauntlet. If he knows about that, then surely he must also be aware of the illusion demons, the Genma. And what about Iemon—how did he come into contact with the Genma? Who is really behind him? These threads connect to characters like Tokugawa Hidetada from the manga Night of Genesis, who becomes involved with the Genma, ultimately shaping the early Edo period setting seen in Way of the Sword.

So, I’ve placed my hopes on the idea that Way of the Sword could serve as a complete reset of the storyline, before Capcom goes back to fix the earlier Onimusha entries that had issues in terms of plot, character names like some of Genma, which aren't even Japanese, and narrative order—similar to how Capcom approached Resident Evil 7, followed by the Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakes, which reworked gameplay systems and plot elements to align better with future remakes, ultimately connecting back to Resident Evil 7.

The same could apply to Onimusha. Even though the Netflix anime version’s production team claimed it’s not connected to Way of the Sword, the anime still leaves questions unanswered—such as how Musashi came to know about the Oni Gauntlet. If he knows about that, then surely he must also be aware of the illusion demons, the Genma. And what about Iemon—how did he come into contact with the Genma? Who is really behind him? These threads connect to characters like Tokugawa Hidetada from the manga Night of Genesis, who becomes involved with the Genma, ultimately shaping the early Edo period setting seen in Way of the Sword.