Onimusha is lastly returning to the motion house subsequent month after a 20-year hiatus at developer-publisher Capcom. Although plenty of the sequence’ emblems are returning, like an intense give attention to swordplay motion, hordes of demons, a samurai protagonist, and the Oni Gauntlet, there’s loads of new, too. There’s an “open-town” part of Kyoto, which is where this early Edo-period adventure takes place; there’s historic Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi because the protagonist this time, using the likeness of the late Toshirō Mifune; and there may be additionally a mysterious lady residing inside Musashi’s Oni Gauntlet.
That mysterious lady is called Shizuka, and regardless of her ethereal look, she usually speaks with Musashi throughout this journey. In case you missed it, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer, and for my cowl story (which subscribers can learn proper here), I traveled to Capcom’s Osaka HQ to play hours of the sport and interview the crew making it. Naturally, I requested about Shizuka and her position within the story.
Earlier Onimusha heroes like Samanosuke Akechi and Jūbei Yagyu welcomed the powers of the Oni on their quests in Onimusha: Warlords and Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future, respectively. Musashi, a warrior via and thru who needs to grow to be the best swordsman in Japan on talent alone, despises the extra power the Oni Gauntlet caught on his arm yields to him. “Musashi is a hero who desires to rise to the highest on his personal strengths, so him being paired with the gauntlet – this energy that he doesn’t need – we thought, supplies an attention-grabbing distinction to the earlier heroes we’ve had,” Approach of the Sword director Satoru Nihei tells me.
Although I don’t precisely know the way Musashi comes upon the Oni Gauntlet, it’s very clear he desires it off and believes killing extra Genma and accumulating their souls will make that occur. “However, because the story progresses, and as he strikes on, we type of see some development, and he begins to alter his opinions on the gauntlet,” Nihei provides.
Shizuka, in some way caught contained in the Oni Gauntlet, possible has one thing to do with that. I study little of her motivations throughout my time enjoying the sport, however I do be aware the mushy simmering of one thing between them. Maybe camaraderie, maybe romance, maybe one thing else fully, however I think the widely solo-minded Musashi will come to understand her presence. And for what it’s value, she’s sorry to have introduced him into this mess, regardless of needing him to someday be free of the gauntlet’s confines.
As for the way the thought of Shizuka got here to be, Approach of the Sword lead author Hiroshi Yamashita tells me she’s there to assist the worldwide viewers Capcom intends for the sport to have. “On a sport design degree, with the setting of Kyoto, not everyone seems to be aware of the setting, particularly a world viewers,” Yamashita tells me. “So, once we have been making the sport, with Musashi coming to Kyoto on his personal, we type of puzzled, ‘How are we going to convey plenty of that data to gamers?’ We thought we may simply have Musashi stroll within the streets, speaking and mumbling to himself, […] however that may be very unnatural and unusual. In order that’s the place the thought of getting a help character […] like Shizuka got here from, to clarify to him what’s occurring, inform him in regards to the Genma, and educate this stuff.”
The crew didn’t simply need a companion contained in the Oni Gauntlet there for practical sport design causes, although, so the story crew built-in her into the narrative. “There may be really a motive,” Yamashita continues. “One thing occurs to her and he or she finally ends up escaping to the gauntlet, so she is on this place the place she has one thing that she desires to attain, she has a aim, however she doesn’t have a bodily kind, she will’t battle for herself, and so she’s having to entrust Musashi with this responsibility.”
Yamashita says Musashi and Shizuka are fairly distant with one another to start with of Approach of the Sword, butting heads usually, however notes that “because the story progresses, we see that relationship change a bit as she is kind of key to the story itself.”
I did ask Yamashita about making certain Shizuka doesn’t fall into the annoying companion entice, and he says the crew was cautious about this, different sport companions to see the place they go proper and the place they go flawed. I’ll need to take his phrase on her for now, however in my three hours of enjoying the sport at Capcom HQ, she wasn’t annoying as a presence within the slightest.
We’ll all quickly study extra about her, although, as a result of Approach of the Sword launches in only a few weeks on September 4.
I’ll proceed diving deeper into Capcom’s return to Onimusha as a part of Sport Informer’s month of Approach of the Sword protection. We’ll be publishing unique gameplay and behind-the-scenes movies (together with a Fast-Fireplace Interview) on the Game Informer YouTube channel as nicely. Regulate the Onimusha: Way of the Sword coverage hub so that you don’t miss any of it.
Within the meantime, right here’s some extra Onimusha: Approach of the Sword studying for you:
What do you suppose Shizuka’s position is in Onimusha: Approach of the Sword? Tell us within the feedback beneath!