Onimusha 2 Remaster is a MASSIVE DISASTER: Launch Fails Miserably Due to Censorship & DRM!

Capcom... You had ONE job: Bring back a beloved classic in better shape than it left the PS2... But no - instead, you've managed to make Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Remastered worse than the original in nearly every single way.

...And fans aren’t just disappointed... they’re furious. Why do game companies KEEP doing this!?

Let’s start with the basics. On top of the ridiculously unnecessary censorship, this remaster of a 23-year-old PlayStation 2 game has also been saddled with Denuvo DRM, the anti-piracy software notorious for degrading performance, locking players out of their own purchases, and punishing paying customers instead of the actual pirates it seeks to stop in the first place. The irony? This is a remaster of a game from 2002... a game that runs better on a PS2 emulator. Peep the replies on their X post below for a glance of the community sentiment:

Denuvo has long been hated in PC circles for its impact on performance: With slower loading times, increased CPU usage, and restrictions on modding, to name just a few massive drawbacks. But for whatever reason...

Capcom decided to slap it on anyways, reportedly at a cost of up to $25,000 a month, $300k a year, according to an amazon listing (via Reddit) (above), despite the game peaking at only 1,631 players on Steam during the launch weekend of the game (below):

That’s not just a bad decision - it’s a financial disaster waiting to happen... But if you thought this was bad, just you wait...

It gets worse. Far worse...

The Censorship Backlash

What really set off fans is how Capcom thought it would be a fantastic idea to censor content ...in a freakin M-rated game, specifically by changing a female character’s outfit to something more "conservative." The change might seem minor to most at a glance, but that’s not the point here and it's something I've harped on for ages.

The outrage many including myself are feeling stems from the principle of the matter: if devs are willing to retroactively censor content in a game made for adults, what else might they change next time..? And better yet... WHY do they even do it in the first place?

Fans took to social media to voice their disappointment:

“From must-buy to no-buy.” “Unnecessary censorship is really annoying. Do better.” “It’s fine now like it was fine then—this is pathetic.”

One user summed it up best:

Oh, and Capcom didn’t offer a censorship toggle either, something as simple as what Call of Duty: Black Ops III had with its "graphic content" setting. The technology and precedent exist... but Capcom didn’t bother. Clearly, they have an ideology to follow here...

A Remaster That’s Worse Than the Original

This isn’t a case of a broken or buggy release, Onimusha 2 Remastered is fundamentally inferior to its PS2 version. Between the performance-killing DRM and the completely unnecessary censorship, there’s literally ZERO reason to play this version over the original. Why wouldn't you just sail the high seas for the PS2 ROM on PC instead of participating in a company hell bent on pushing an agenda? It’s a textbook case of a developer missing the point of a remaster: to improve, not erase.

Capcom’s decision to do this here reflects a broader issue in the gaming industry: a fear of offending modern sensibilities, even when remastering games that were never meant to be politically sanitized in the first place. And now, the fans who begged for Onimusha’s return are left broken, with a soulless shell of what made the original so great.

If this is the future of remasters: censored, bloated with DRM, and underwhelming... then maybe some classics are better left untouched. Hate to say it... But its the reality...

Not that I ever want to tell you what to do with your money, but based on what I've seen, if you love Onimusha 2, unfortunately, after all this came to light... stick to the PS2 version. The remaster isn't just a downgrade - more so, it's a warning sign that NO gamer should support if they're looking to rid the industry of this slop. Speaking with your wallet is the only way these companies will learn... But my goodness. Some of them really are stubborn. Too bad too... This one could have been special.

~Smash