An integral part of the Onimusha franchise, the Issen counter system is set to return in the upcoming Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny remaster. While veteran players may be worried that the remaster will make things more accessible to cater to a wider audience, the game’s developers reassure fans that they are not changing any of the Issen mechanics.
In a joint media interview with AUTOMATON, Motohide Eshiro, director of the original and remastered Onimusha 2, and producer Kosuke Tanaka revealed that while the development team considered making the Issen timings easier at one point, they ultimately decided to port the Issen counter system as is, strict timings and all.
“There were proposals to change the Issen counter system within the company. However, I wanted the remaster to be as faithful to the original as possible. Since part of the difficulty of Onimusha 2 is getting the Issen timings down, I decided not to change them. I’d been carefully adjusting the difficulty of this aspect at the time of the original game too, and it’s supposed to be at a level where you can’t get an Issen counter easily, but once you’ve practiced and are finally able to pull it off, it feels very rewarding.”
Issen is a gameplay element in the Onimusha franchise that allows players to counter enemy strikes quickly. By dodging an enemy attack at the last second, you can perform a counter hit that results in a white flash, almost guaranteed instant kill/s, and more Souls than you would normally get.
Speaking of Souls and Soulslikes, Tanaka understands that while there are more action games that have strict parry and dodge mechanics nowadays, he considers Onimusha to be one of the pioneers of the systems.
“In recent years, there have been more and more action games that have systems where you have to time your attacks to parry, but I think Onimusha was a game that was at the forefront of that. It’s a refined action game, so I think even modern players who don’t know the original game will enjoy it. I hope that they will pay attention to the feel of the action as they play.”
As a final note on the Issen counter system, Eshiro states that while the developers didn’t change any of the Issen timings, the increased 60 frames per second (FPS) refresh rate of the remaster might make it easier for players to keep track of enemy movements and press the associated counterattack inputs.
The Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny remaster is set to release on May 23, 2025, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows (Steam).
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