Capcom's Onimusha series is one of the core franchises that helped define the developer as a major player during the 2000s era of gaming. As one of the PS2's early survival horror games, Onimusha: Warlords was an intriguing spin on Resident Evil-style gameplay with samurai action in Feudal Japan – and the games that followed would take the series into some fascinating new directions.
Today, the developers at Capcom have been on a tear in recent years with major successes like Monster Hunter Wilds and Resident Evil 4 Remake, while also revitalizing classic games with new entries or remasters. Currently, the Onimusha series is next in line for its comeback, and with the next core entry in the series coming up with Way of the Sword, Capcom is also preparing its remaster of one of its most beloved entries that marked a shift towards a large-scale adventure, role-playing experience.
Just ahead of the upcoming release of the remaster of the 2002 release of Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, we spoke with original game director Motohide Eshiro about revisiting the sequel after 23 years, what new updates are coming to the game, and what inspired the game's shift away from survival horror and more towards a larger adventure game.
While the original Onimusha felt more like a distant cousin to Resident Evil's more measured and tense action survival-horror experience, the sequel went more for a lighter, sweeping adventure spin for the series. Focusing on roaming samurai Jubei Yagyu, he seeks revenge against a demonic Nobunaga Oda who massacred his village. By amassing an arsenal of spiritual weapons, and assembling a party of allies with their own agendas, Jubei explores the wartorn, demon-infested Japan in his pursuit of vengeance.
The sequel expanded the setting behind an isolated castle into a cursed countryside that saw Jubei and his party remove demons and strengthen their bonds. Its flavor differs from its predecessor, but it's still undeniably an Onimusha game.
"This was the first game I directed, so when I heard that I could return to work on the remaster, I was so happy to revisit it after 20 years," said the game director. "What's interesting is that Onimusha 2's production started when the first game was still finishing its development, and during our concepting phase, we decided from the early stages that we wanted to make something completely new and expand the world of Onimusha."
"It was important for us to make the game more enticing to explore and for players to feel invested in the world, so we added more places to visit and characters to interact with," he said. "The setting of Imasho Village was a good example of us focusing on giving players a place to interact with allies and talk to villagers, which just makes the game more immersive. This wasn't us trying to move away from horror; we still think it has that taste of horror, but it was essential for us to open up the game and build a larger adventure with Jubei and the other cast of characters."
The upcoming remaster of Onimusha 2 follows in the footsteps of other Capcom remasters, such as Resident Evil HD Remaster and Onimusha: Warlords. The aim was to capture and modernize the original game experience, and much like the previously mentioned games, Samurai's Destiny preserves the original pre-rendered background graphics but upgrades the resolution and asset quality to a higher level. Along with touched-up character models, left-stick control scheme to go along with classic tank-style controls, and a new difficulty called Hell mode – with players dying in only one hit – that adds an additional layer of challenge.
According to the director, it was vital for him to preserve the original experience, which meant abstaining from substantially upgrading the original game. The core intent of modern updates to visuals and gameplay was to preserve the original experience while making it more interesting for newcomers.
"Some of the things we learned from the remaster of Onimusha: Warlords were the different ways to improve pre-rendered graphics, and that's something we wanted to improve upon for this game," said the director. "The background assets for the game still look very detailed and hold up well, but those original assets also had to be designed around consoles and CRT television sets from the early 2000s. The technology was limited back then, and they didn't always provide the true details of the assets that we made."
"So for the remaster, we wanted to show more details in the game now that we don't have those limitations," he said. "We learned some new techniques on how to improve the resolution and clarity of the existing images, and we also improved the camera positioning to allow players to have the camera follow their movement while exploring, instead of just the static cameras of the original. We've gotten so much better with improving classic games, and that's something we've learned a lot from with the previous remasters."
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny was a notable turning point for the series. It introduced a new tone and approach to storytelling and RPG-style progression that its sequels, Onimusha 3 and Dawn of Dreams, continued with. According to Eshiro, Onimusha 2 was always on Capcom's slate for new remasters following the 2019 remaster of Onimusha: Warlords. Still, it was pushed back because teams were whisked away on other projects. With the recent announcement of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the series is taking the spotlight once again, and the game director is pleased to see the series
"I think this series has a way of presenting the Sengoku-era Japan setting with its fantasy and horror tones and meld them together satisfyingly and compellingly that just fits Capcom's style," said Eshiro on the lasting appeal of Onimusha. "There are many games that have samurai and the familiar settings, but as a Capcom game, we present an atmosphere that is so different and unique from others, and it's something that only this developer can make because it has that strong focus on strong action gameplay with the horror and fantasy elements. And seeing the games that came after that shows that this series is unique for Capcom."
"The series has been very active in recent years, and even though I don't work on the upcoming Way of the Sword, it is very satisfying to see the series become relevant again, and I am very excited to see players revisit Onimusha 2 and see what's coming next with the series."
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