Easily the best of the Onimusha series. Best story, best characters (even w/o samanosuke).
The additional playable characters coupled with the strange-but-effective gift system make every adventure new and different offering oodles of replay value.
The addition of a real historical protagonist in jubei yagyuu was a nice perk for those of us who study japanese history. the storyline does become a bit disjointed halfway thru, but that has been a problem that's plagued the entire series, so no real complaints, or rather no new complaints there.
it's too bad many of the real innovations of this title didn't transition to Oni 3 but somehow that isn't very surprising. Capcom has a habit of finding a working formula and then sticking to it like a barnacle. they make my head hurt. heheh.
bottom line, track down Oni 2. It's worth the whopping 10$ that it retails for these days.