It’s arguably the perfect time for the return of Onimusha. If we’re discounting remasters and strange Japan-exclusive spin-offs, it’s been almost twenty years since the last entry in the series – and it does feel a lot like that time has seen the ground prepared for the return of Capcom’s demon-slaying samurai series.
For one, there has been a huge surge in the popularity of media set in and around feudal Japanese history. We’ve got the likes of Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh, and elsewhere Shōgun is the most gripping and moving TV drama in recent memory. In mechanical terms, Onimusha’s absence has encompassed the entirety of the crunchy melee action game revolution that’s been primarily led by FromSoftware.
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Basically, it feels like it’s the best possible time to revive Onimusha as a heavy action game with sword-to-sword and sword-to-demonic-beast combat. But predictably, the team at Capcom behind the game is coy about how much of that they’ve really paid attention to.
“The hardware capabilities,” replies Onimusha: Way of the Sword director Satoru Nihei when asked about what of the last twenty years has been most influential over the new vision of Onimusha. Which, fair enough: in the world of hardware, a hell of a lot has changed.
“There are things we couldn’t have possibly implemented, such as quite detailed sword clashing and physical animations. Things like that conceptually can let us drive the action in directions that are new.”
No mention, then, of other recent games in similar settings, or of the soulsy shadow that no doubt loomed large and was probably mentioned in a hundred development meetings. But some developers, especially from Japan, are reluctant to have the names of other company’s games in their mouths – even those behind a series that has been about absorbing enemy souls that now is recontextualised by that which has come since. I get that – and we don’t really need their admission to that influence.
In a hands-off demo of live gameplay, you can see the distinct contours of the modern age grafted to systems lifted from the Onimusha series right back to the 2001 original. There’s also a greater heft to combat, and gamers’ embracing of parry systems now means that there’s the ability to focus down more on that with impeccably stylish and beautifully animated results.