Maximo Army of Zin - HELP

[Jonpachi]

I've been replaying the Maximo series lately. So far, I have finished the first game and have made my way to the final boss of Army of Zin. The trouble is that I'm playing Japanese versions, and I have no idea how to trigger the change into Death. Online FAQs I've read say it's R1, but it never works. I have bought extra meter for death, and the HUD lights up and pulses to show it's ready to be used... but I can never get it to go. Now I'm at this final boss who's really cheap, and in the youtube videos I've seen he can be taken out quickly with strikes from Death. It's super frustrating to tediously grind away at this encounter when I know that if I could just get this transformation to work I'd have it done with.

I know this game is ancient, but does anyone remember how to trigger the Death transformation?

[Obiwanshinobi]

No idea, but, YAY! - PS2 era Capcom games. Am I glad anyone keeps playing them seriously. Apologies for a filler post.

[BulletMagnet]

Found a scan of the US manual, and it says that R1 is the button to summon Grim; if you haven't done so already, have you tested the R1 button with other games to make sure it's not stuck or something? Or maybe it's different in the JP version, though I'd guess you've tested every button on the controller before now...

[Jonpachi]

So it turns out it's L1 + R1. The manual is wrong, as are most of the FAQs I've found. I was finally able to summon Death and beat the game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

MAYN - the English manual for Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny - clearly the inerpreter(s?) had no clue how it's like to play the game (as it SHOULD be played).

[BulletMagnet]

So it turns out it's L1 + R1. The manual is wrong, as are most of the FAQs I've found.

I actually have the US version of this, though it's currently separated from me by the pandemic; if it weren't I'd be curious to try the thing myself and see if the US version is different in this respect.

Congrats on the clear, btw.