10 Video Game Moments You'll Never See Again
8. The Original Soundtrack - Onimusha
This is a peculiar entry for a list with this title because you don’t see music unless you’ve got synesthesia or a really good dealer. All the same, it’s something that is certain to never return.
In 2001, Capcom released Onimusha, an interesting combination of samurais and survival horror that made it a bit of a cult classic. The game’s 2018 remaster was reviewed fairly as a pretty straightforward update with not many new additions. One major alteration, however, was the soundtrack.
Memorably, the composer for Onimusha was “the Japanese Beethoven” Mamoru Samuragochi, named so because he was deaf. Except he probably wasn’t, and he didn’t write a note of music in his life.
In 2014, after decades of being celebrated for his work amidst his struggles with his disability, Samuragochi was outed as a fraud. His work was crafted by that of ghostwriter Takashi Niigaki who claimed Samuragochi wasn’t even deaf. It was a huge scandal in Japan, a country not usually known for airing dirty laundry.
With the legal disputes that followed it’s hard to know who owns the rights to Onimusha’s original OST. Regardless of ownership, Capcom likely deliberately avoided it and made something new to move on from their history with the fraudulent Samuragochi.
As such, if Onimusha ever gets ported forwards again it’ll be the HD remaster and it will certainly be the replacement soundtrack.