I traveled to Osaka, Japan, again in June to go to Capcom’s HQ and study extra about Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer. You’ll be able to learn that cowl story proper here if you happen to’re a subscriber, however alongside that characteristic, I’m posting unique tales for the subsequent couple of weeks based mostly on my varied interviews with the leads behind Capcom’s return to the Onimusha collection after a 20-year hiatus.
A type of interviews was with Method of the Sword animation workforce lead Hiroshi Yugen, who defined how the studio created its personal model of Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary samurai in Japanese historical past and the sport’s protagonist. He says the fables, legends, and actual tales about Musashi influenced a whole lot of the sport’s tackle the swordsman.
“There’s undoubtedly a whole lot of affect from these actual tales that went into creating the motion [Musashi] makes use of within the recreation, each by way of his fame as a sword grasp and him being very expert with a number of weapons,” Yugen says. Musashi gained’t be using his well-known dual-wielding model as he’s nonetheless early in his journey – in his 20s – and hasn’t but found/created it at this level of his life in Method of the Sword. “The place Musashi is about on this recreation is earlier than he’s actually mastered that, so there’s extra give attention to that one-sword motion, however we did wish to embody parts of his familiarity with different weapons, which is why now we have the Oni Armament abilities that come into play.”
Throughout my time enjoying Method of the Sword, I used two completely different Oni Armaments. The Two Celestials are small blades that deal straight harm, whereas the Earth-Shaker hammers I later unlock in my playtime inflict heavy stagger harm. Equipping completely different Oni Armaments based mostly on the enemies earlier than you is an important a part of Musashi’s fight package. Throughout a struggle with the Nue, which consisted of two Chimera, legendary beasts impressed by varied animals, utilizing the Earth-Shaker hammers was key to my (eventual) victory towards them.
Yugen says tales about Musashi inform of how he used no matter means mandatory to realize victory, which is why his package consists of greater than only a sword. You’ll be able to parry enemies into torches, setting them on hearth because of this, or flip tables to make use of as massive shields – after you’re executed utilizing it as a defend, you may throw it into enemies, too, knocking them off stability. “These are all parts that have been type of impressed by the actual tales of Musashi,” Yugen says.
Some tales of Musashi, who is known for an undefeated report of 62 sword duels and touring round Japan particularly to achieve that quantity, inform of an perspective someplace between assured and cocky. That’s obvious in Method of the Sword’s Musashi, who can also be looking for the subsequent duel – in reality, he desires to eliminate the Oni Gauntlet on his arm as a result of he appears like utilizing it’s dishonest in these duels, a far cry from the likes of Samanosuke or Jubei, who wish to use their Oni powers to avoid wasting the world in Onimusha: Warlords and Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, respectively.
Yugen says he and the workforce pressured this confidence/cockiness to the movement seize artists Capcom employed to carry out the actions of Musashi and his enemies. However, given how early in Musashi’s journey Method of the Sword takes place, in addition they took nice care to make his motion “somewhat tough across the edges” and “not fairly as outlined,” in line with Yugen.
One factor that helped was to think about every struggle within the varied situations Musashi finds himself in as a Road Fighter bout. Leaning on one in all Capcom’s different franchises, Yugen says the Road Fighter angle helped them outline what Musashi could be occupied with as every struggle begins, how he would stroll as much as enemies and method them with sword in hand, and extra. “It was in direction of the tip of the challenge that we actually began introducing these parts to flesh out the distinctiveness of him, even all the way down to the way in which he walks,” Yugen provides. “We didn’t need him to stroll with this rigidity; he has a little bit of swagger to him, and that’s one thing we actually paid consideration to in design.”
Persevering with, Yugen says, “Musashi doesn’t actually disguise his emotions. He’s very blunt, he’s very direct, and when one thing is a ache within the ass, he’ll say, ‘God, this can be a ache within the ass.’”
A few of that’s obvious within the Method of the Sword demo you can play proper now, and a whole lot of that was obvious in my prolonged hands-on time with the sport. I sit up for seeing how Musashi grows as a swordsman and a person within the recreation when it launches subsequent month.
I’ll proceed diving deeper into Capcom’s return to Onimusha as a part of Recreation Informer’s month of Method of the Sword protection. We’ll be publishing unique gameplay and behind-the-scenes movies (together with a Speedy-Fireplace Interview) on the Game Informer YouTube channel as properly. Control the Onimusha: Way of the Sword coverage hub so that you don’t miss any of it.
Within the meantime, right here’s some further Onimusha: Method of the Sword studying for you:
Do you will have a favourite Musashi iteration or a narrative concerning the samurai? Tell us within the feedback under!