There are only a few publishers who can declare to have had fairly as affluent a decade as Capcom. The corporate’s 10 best-selling video games all launched throughout the previous 10 years, a sequence of excellent fortune that started with 2017’s Resident Evil 7. Capcom’s reimagining of gaming’s most vital survival horror collection turned one thing of a system for its wider success, and that template may be seen in motion as soon as once more with this yr’s Onimusha: Way of the Sword.
Except for a few remasters and spin-off initiatives, Onimusha has lain dormant for 20 years. The complete unique four-part collection was launched through the PS2 period, and so there have been almost three entire console generations of progress for the reason that final entry, 2006’s Dawn of Dreams. That mission launched what was, till Means of the Sword, Onimusha’s most “fashionable” thought: a completely 3D digicam. For its earlier entries, Onimusha used fastened digicam views and pre-rendered backdrops, very like the unique Resident Evils.
There is a good cause for that: Onimusha mainly was Resident Evil. Set predominantly throughout the grounds of a single fort, 2001’s Onimusha: Warlords is a recreation of fixing puzzles, unlocking doorways, and consuming herbs to remain alive. Shinji Mikami, co-creator of Resident Evil, even suggested on the mission. The collection shed extra of that survival horror blood with every successive entry, however with regards to a model new Onimusha for the 2020s, it might not have been shocking to see Capcom return to these roots and basically clone its Resident Evil 2 remake however fill it with samurai and demons. Afterall, a lot of Resident Evil 7’s success is because of revitalising the previous, the Baker Property being a Southern Gothic variant of the Spencer Mansion.
However Onimusha: Means of the Sword shouldn’t be Resident Evil with samurai. If something, it’s Capcom’s reply to Sony Santa Monica Studio’s fashionable God of Struggle video games. It options livid melee fight with an array of flashy skills. You face monstrous bosses, a few of which repeat a number of occasions. Treasures are hidden behind knotty environmental puzzles. Your protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, squeezes by gaps, and is accompanied by a disembodied advisor who is far too talkative.
That is nonetheless Capcom’s system in motion, although, only a totally different facet of it. Resident Evil 7’s success is as a lot about wider influences as it’s refocusing on roots. To place Resident Evil again on monitor after the much-too-bombastic RE6, Capcom studied the horror panorama. It noticed the success of initiatives like Frictional Video games’ totally terrifying Amnesia: The Darkish Descent, and the way the restricted imaginative and prescient enforced by a first-person perspective may create an oppressive environment – an strategy that turned the easy corridors of Hideo Kojima’s PT right into a looping nightmare. Mixed with the labyrinthine stage design the corporate had perfected again within the Nineteen Nineties, it might make for the perfect collection reboot. Resident Evil 7 was born. The same strategy may be seen in Capcom’s different landmark recreation of the last decade – by adopting the open world format so standard within the West, Monster Hunter: World reworked a distinct segment concern into Capcom’s best-selling recreation by over 10 million copies.
In Means of the Sword, you may see how Capcom has studied the success of God of Struggle and related fashionable action-adventure video games to be able to discover a new identification for Onimusha. These learnings are usually not simply echoed in stage design and particular person options, but additionally in tone: Means of the Sword is surprisingly humorous. Like Nathan Drake, Musashi adventures by Kyoto armed with a thousand one-liners. His face, modelled on legendary actor and Kurosawa collaborator, Toshiro Mifune, is extremely expressive, typically for comedic impact.
The unique video games have been campy, however extra so as a result of that was merely the best way video games have been written on the time – like the unique Resident Evil, there’s a number of unintentional comedy in Warlords’ script. However, as with the trendy period of Resident Evil, Capcom made a deliberate selection. With Resi, it pushed apart the camp and doubled down on the horror. The remakes are a lot grimier than their dad or mum video games, whereas RE7 has the form of filthy fears that’ll provide you with tetanus, and RE8 incorporates the collection’ most terrifying scares in Home Beneviento. For Onimusha, Capcom has pushed the opposite means, turning the Energy Rangers camp of the unique video games right into a deliberate flavour. Whereas many will understandably go for the Japanese VO for a extra “genuine” expertise, I believe the weird Britishness of Means of the Sword’s English dub is intentional – not simply in making Musashi extra amusing, however turning his Genma adversaries into the Kyoto equal of London-accented orcs (a “Seems like samurai’s again on the menu, boys!” would slot in completely). Whereas Means of the Sword does have its fair proportion of darkness and terror to mirror the survival horror leanings of the unique video games, there’s a lot to snort at right here, and Capcom desires you to chuckle.
However Capcom additionally desires you to sweat, and that’s the place Means of the Sword’s best achievement is available in. As enjoyable as the unique video games are, Onimusha has by no means supplied any vital depth in its swordplay. If it have been to reside as much as its new subtitle, the newest entry completely wanted a brand new strategy. It took that strategy from FromSoftware’s masterpiece, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and it well did so with out turning Onimusha right into a soulslike.
There’s already some debate as to how Souls-y Means of the Sword is, and for essentially the most half the reply is “by no means.” However with regards to Onimusha’s bosses, the Sekiro similarity is plain. The parry is your best weapon, and matching the rhythmic patterns of your enemy’s blade is the first means of opening up assault home windows. Like Sekiro, this can be a recreation of carrying down an enemy’s stamina earlier than inflicting large bursts of harm, after which resetting the lethal dance to do it yet again. A fragile stability of offence and defence is demanded, as giving your enemy house permits them to regain stamina, the very factor you might want to erode away to inflict essentially the most extreme punishment. You possibly can’t merely spam assaults to burn by the enemy’s healthbar, or chug consumables to permit a barrage of your flashiest harm sellers – you could combat utilizing a really exact set of instruments, picked in response to a really explicit set of assault patterns. Alongside restricted heals, multi-phase fights, and the fight’s frenetic move, it’s exhausting to disclaim that Onimusha’s new strategy to bosses isn’t following in FromSoftware’s shinobi footsteps.
However Capcom wouldn’t have loved its decade of success if it simply pilfered from standard video games with little care for the way these concepts have been carried out. Once more, Means of the Sword is not a soulslike, and you’ll see that in its wider design. Style guidelines like bonfires, world resets, and lack of XP assets are absent. Common enemies are, if something, too straightforward. And there’s not a poison swamp in sight. Whereas all this does contribute to the sensation of the bosses being substantial issue spikes alongside the marketing campaign’s route, it additionally ensures that Onimusha shouldn’t be a grueling expertise in the best way that FromSoftware’s video games may be – even while you’re in your sixth try at a boss, there’s no infuriating run-back to deal with, and that goes a protracted technique to guaranteeing you don’t lose your persistence when confronted with a very difficult roadblock.
It’s this elegant adaptation of concepts from past Capcom’s partitions that ensured each Monster Hunter and Resident Evil turned the trendy juggernauts they’re. Whereas MH: World expanded its literal horizons to permit for a extra expansive surroundings, it was cautious to not tackle the bloat of up to date open world video games. It was nonetheless centered on the hunt. Resident Evil 7 might have adopted the attitude of Amnesia, PT, and Alien: Isolation, nevertheless it rejected their combatless approaches and put a gun in your hand – precisely as Resident Evil must be. In all these examples, it’s clear that Capcom understands each every pattern’s mass enchantment and tips on how to reinterpret that pattern in a means that’s applicable to the IP in query.
Whereas it stays to be seen if Capcom’s resurrection of its long-dormant samurai recreation might be fairly as financially profitable as its Resident Evil and Monster Hunter revitalisations, it’s clear that the Capcom system has labored superbly for Onimusha: Means of the Sword. It has launched to near-universal critical adoration, and its spectacular pre-release demo rapidly earned it a legion of keen followers. With a bit of luck, Onimusha is again, and its subsequent recreation will function regardless of the swordplay equal to Home Beneviento is.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Government Editor of Options.