Well, did you hear about Onimusha 2 remaster? Because that is also available.

If you are talking about Onimusha not selling well recently, I think the 1 and 2 remasters were mostly made for us old fans, and to remind people that Onimusha existed. I think they sold fine back in the day, it was one of so many PS2 franchises that would fade out.

So Dino Crisis and Onimusha would waste away, with Resident Evil being the franchise that Capcom kept alive. But all is not lost, there is a new Onimusha coming out next year.

I remember back then, we used to say it was resident evil with samurais. That's why I loved it so much, I was, and still am, a big RE fan.

Man, this was a weird read. My memory of Onimusha was that it was one of the first "killer apps" on the PS2 and probably the most impressive PS2 game of its time. Also, as someone else mentioned, it was the first PS2 game to sell a million, so I wouldn't say the marketing failed at all. It filled such a vacuum that I remember dudebros who had never given Japan a second thought and couldn't even pronounce the title talking about it. There were three major sequels with what at the time felt like exorbitant production value, and even a Game Boy Advance spinoff (edit: AND an arena fighter spinoff! That's six games in about a five-year period). The first game even got ported to Xbox because of its popularity.

I think what happened is that Devil May Cry ended up being the more popular hack-n-slash riff on Resident Evil, and then everyone riffed on DMC for the rest of the generation, so there was only a brief window where Onimusha really stood out as exceptional. But I mean, there's even a brand new title on the way, so it's not exactly a hidden gem or something.

Capcom just had more popular franchises. Onimusha was always a red-headed step-child. It did well enough to get 4 games before they shelved the franchise for almost 20 years.

As others said, Capcom was leaning heavily into Resident Evil at that point in time. Onimusha was more of a side project. I feel like I can recall the first one being advertised pretty heavily in game magazines, but since it didn't sell nearly as much as RE, the sequels were sort of thrown out there for a niche market.

If they had just slapped RE on the title back then, since it was a very similar game made in the same engine by the same team, it would be way more popular, but I like that it's its own thing.

Dude if you like the first one then you’ll love onimusha dawn of dreams. It’s the 4th game in the series and I’m replaying it after like 7 yrs on my pc using an emulator with enhanced graphics. It’s so nostalgic and great imo

The first 3 were well known at the time of release, I too my shame only just found out there was a fourth.

Hopefully before Way Of The Samurai comes out or if it sells well they well re-release 3&4 as bundle like 1&2

kinda crazy to think, but onimusha1 was the first one million selling PS2 game back in the day

They’re also making another game sometime next year called onimusha the way of the sword. So hyped!

Onimusha is that one niche game you play as a kid a fall in love with that failed to properly catch on.

The second game in particular is one of my all time favorites. Devil May Cry was a similar situation, but that game luckily caught on.

Do you live in Japan? Otherwise you probs haven't heard of onimusha

It’s niche, but it’s a multi million unit selling game with sequels, so it ain’t that niche…I used to buy them day one growing up. You might just be young

It's more of an Indie game ... Onimusha 1 HD Remaster was available on Disc and Download

If you think about it narratively it makes sense. There were articles that talked about Onimusha being a trilogy, about the defeat of Nobunaga’s. Dawn of Dream wrapped up loose ends with Fortinbras and Hideyoshi, and so it was shelved because the story was concluded. They were all narratively limited because it loosely based on real world events.

With RE, they can literally create any setting for their characters, then add the zombies and boom, new entry.

I just wished they wouldve created different IP projects but with the formula of Onimusha and treat it as a spiritual successor, while people who want to see the same game but defeat Nobunaga’s conquest, they can return to Onimusha.

Onimusha Warlords was the first PS2 game to sell over a million copies.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-playstation-2-game-to-sell-over-1-million-units

Truth is every Onimusha game sold less then the one before. Samurai games in general don’t sell all too well. There are people who think otherwise because of Tsushima and maybe Nioh. But compared to most other settings ? Even Samurai Manga don’t sell as well as other Settings. Anyways, the Series is dope. If you Like the first than go down that beautiful road. Oh man, I wish I could play these games again for the first time….♥️

I used to play these all the time, and loved them. As far as I know, they were popular, but got overshadowed by other franchises.

I am of similar age but i played all onimusha games on release.

We discussed this alot among our community and gaming journalists and the main point that stuck out is onimusha was lost between appealing to east and west audiences. At that time, capcom and japanese companies in general were experimenting with making their games appeal to the west. And wanted to reach outside of japan. Onimusha was stuck in the middle. The first one was a test to make a feudal japan RE style. While it did good sales, it wasnt a smash hit by any means. in an attempt to take it to the next level, they placed a japanese icon likeness in the second one in an attempt to solidifiy it as a japanese title but gameplay didnt stike much with japanese player since the gameplay was more catering to simplistic western style. The third game tried to pull the franchise to the west by changing the set up to modern france and including a european movie star. The 4th game attempted to start over by placing multiple protagonists with different backgrounds to make it more inclusive by then it was little too late and it had too many ideas that are not fully utilized or implemented fully to be fun and innovative.

So in their attempt to split the appeal between east and west, they ended up appealing to a minority of both.

Personal note. The new remake i saw from my prospective is not appealing to me as of now from the trailers. It feels slow paced and more soulslike than true hack and slash combo the original was which is another thing they will attempt to find the game identity and their audience.

From my understanding, Onimusha 1 and 3 were advertised and received quite well in yhe U.S. and Japan, but the games weren't really a hit in Europe, which is why Capcom added french actor Jean Reno's likeness and voice acting in the third game - it was Capcom's attempt to appeal to European gamers. Part 4 was the game where the series started to get limited advertisements in America.

Warlords was one of the first hits for the PS2. I'm not sure why you didn't hear about it in the 90s. I remember Game Informer covering it, musing they were channeling Keanu Reeves for the hero (with the cover and Keanu pic side by side.) The irony was Sam was channeling a movie star, just not that one. ;)

Considering it was a rated "M" game, I'm not sure how much advertising there would have been outside game spaces. Video games were super niche still at the PS2 release.

Did you read PS2 magazines in the 2000s? If not, then that must be the reason you didn't know about the game back then.

It's a well-made game that sold very well and spawned three sequels and a upcoming reboot, but Capcom doesn't seem to have invested much in advertising to promote it. I always saw it in deals guides and reviews in magazines, but I don't remember seeing any promotion of it. I only recall them releasing a global trailer for Onimusha 3 but nothing more. It seems that's a case of a game that became known through word of mouth.

It's funny, because my parents bought me the game a few months after it came out.

It was AAA on PS2 era

Even back then it was a bit obscure. I only had one other friend who had played it. Good times