Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s Developers Talk Miyamoto Musashi, a Haunted Kyoto, and Modernizing Combat

Having played a portion of it recently at Summer Game Fest: Play Days, and the free demo available on the XBOX Store, Way of the Sword feels more like a reinvention of the series – and it’s glorious. Instead of isometric views, now we follow closely behind the hero, like a third-person action-adventure game. The mystical horror elements remain strong, and genuinely creepy at times, but combat has evolved significantly with a variety of slick moves to pull off.

Musashi is fast, no doubt inspired by the actual legendary tales of his prowess with a sword, and can easily slice up supernatural beings with ease, utilizing a variety of parries and dodges to whittle down the most powerful of foes, and pulling off stunning finishing moves that leave them scattered across the ground.

Like previous games, the Oni Gaunlet is a centerpiece to Musashi’s power (even if he doesn’t want it). Able to absorb Genma souls from defeated enemies, Musashi is able to unleash tremendously flashy and powerful attacks, like The Two Celestials, a pair of large blades that strip souls from defeated foes, or the Wind-Whipper, a twin-blade that creates a devastating tornado around Musashi, leaving enemies quite literally in the dust.

This adventure is amplified by the cinematic storytelling on display to help us resonate with Musashi’s journey, with well-produced cutscenes, voice actors eating ham sandwiches, and larger-than-life bosses help bring us into this world. In one scene during our preview, Rasho-gan, a tremendous demonic entity covered in arms and hands, tricks a young lady to cut off her fingers to appease him. To suggest his delivery is over the top would be an understatement, and I loved how much scenery he chewed up along the way.

All of this is to say that Way of the Sword is feeling like a radical new entry in the series, and we had the pleasure to learn more about this long-awaited revival by speaking with Director Satoru Nihei and Producer Akihito Kadowaki about bringing Onimusha back, reimagining the legendary Musashi, and updating the series’ signature combat for today.

After nearly two decades away, what convinced you this was the right moment to bring Onimusha back?

Producer Akihito Kadowaki – “It’s been 20 years, and during that time many people internally have wanted to make a new one. It’s been one thing that we wanted to revisit, but just assembling the right people at the right time was quite difficult.

“During that time, we’ve put out numerous titles like Street Fighter, so it was very hard to get together as a team, especially when you consider that games take four to five years to make with hundreds of people. So that was quite a challenge. But around 2020 was when we managed to assemble all the pieces, and RE Engine was coming into its own. And that provided us with an opportunity to finally start this project.”

How did you decide that Miyamoto Musashi should lead this new story, and what made him the right fit for this darker vision of Edo-era Kyoto?

Director Satoru Nihei – “So there are a couple of elements that influenced it. One of them is that even though Musashi is quite a legendary figure and has appeared in a lot of media over time, we really wanted to give our own take – a Capcom take – and have our own unique version of Musashi to portray. But on top of that, in terms of the Kyoto setting, the real-life Musashi obviously gets to Kyoto as well on his journey as a swordsman. So that made him quite a good fit as a way to both explore and have this story set in Kyoto.

“As for the dark fantasy elements and twist on Kyoto, there’s obviously a lot of myths and legends that exist in Kyoto’s history. And we felt that it was a good match for the Onimusha world, having the Genma be essentially the cause of a lot of these myths. All of that came together to make Musashi a really good fit for the project.

“And for Musashi himself, obviously he’s a legendary swordsman and has quite a reputation, but we felt it would provide quite an interesting contrast where he wants to rise to the top through his own strength, but when he’s been given this Oni Gauntlet and this great power, he doesn’t want it. We thought that would create quite an interesting bit of tension to explore as part of the core of the story.”

The setting of Kyoto in Way of the Sword feels both historical and supernatural. What steps do you take to blend real Japanese history with dark fantasy in a way that still feels grounded?

Director Satoru Nihei – “In Kyoto, there’s a lot of myths and legends that come from there. And when researching and starting the project, a lot of yokai legends – the Japanese monsters – a lot of those legends originate from Kyoto. There are a lot of stories, so we felt like it was a good match. But having those dark fantasy elements, we also didn’t want to sacrifice some of the core elements of Kyoto. So, in terms of developing the world and the recreation we’ve made, we’ve tried to highlight a lot of the charm of Kyoto. Obviously, it’s a very famous tourist attraction. A lot of people come to visit. So, we wanted to keep the elements of nature and the beauty of the place alive but also blend it with a nice balance of eeriness and darkness.”

Producer Akihito Kadowaki – “Regarding those Kyoto legends, we’ve taken and given our own spin within Onimusha fiction and layered into the lore. We also had all those plans for the story and those connections looked over by historical experts to give their input on to know how accurate they are, and to make sure we didn’t diminish the actual real history there.”

Director Satoru Nihei – “To add one more point, in terms of Onimusha lore, there’s always been this relationship between hell and the oni. An interesting point of Kyoto, is Rokudo Chinno-ji Temple. Separate from Onimusha, it has this lore itself as being a connecting point between hell and the real world. So being able to have those real locations and tie them into that and having it connect so well with the world that we wanted to portray was an exciting thing.”

How did you approach modernizing classic Onimusha mechanics like Issen, parries, and soul absorption without losing what longtime fans loved about the series?

Director Satoru Nihei – “With the Issen, that’s obviously a very cool part of the Onimusha identity and something unchanged from the classic feel of it. At the core of that is the timing and the risk and reward of that mechanic. Obviously, you must pull it off just before you get hit. If you mess it up, you’re going to eat a lot of damage. So that tension is something we wanted to keep. So even though it has been updated in some ways, we wanted to make sure that classic element is kept.

“In terms of how we’ve changed it and still hope that it will come through in players’ hands, obviously the new technology that’s available to us now allows us to do things that we couldn’t do before with that Issen. So, one of the things that we’ve added is the dynamic dismemberment system – wherever the blade passes through, that’s where it severs. That’s a new angle that we’re going to introduce while maintaining the cool feel of it.

“For soul absorption, obviously, for a long time that’s also been a point of tension for the combat. Do you decide to take souls now? Do you keep them on hold for later? And that’s something we also didn’t want to really give up. But obviously the action is a bit faster now, much faster than the previous titles.

“In terms of balancing that tension with the faster-paced combat, we’ve obviously updated it so you can absorb souls while moving. So that’s how we’ve changed it in that sense, but while keeping the core identity of those mechanics.”

It has been stated that the game is not trying to chase the “impossibly difficult” action trend. How do you balance that challenge and satisfaction in combat?

Producer Akihito Kadowaki – “Trying to find that balance between satisfying gameplay and difficulty, rather than making a very difficult game, we are really focused on trying to make an action game that people are going to enjoy, and that a wide range of people can enjoy.

“So, we have two difficulty modes: we’ve got story mode and action mode. And while action mode is geared toward people more familiar with action games, even with that higher difficulty, for players who do want to finely tune the difficulty for themselves and lower the bar a little bit, you can start with that action difficulty with the action guide to really fine tune the challenge that people face there. So we’ve really put a lot of work into trying to create a lot of different difficulty options rather than just a binary choice – a way to fine tune that experience for a lot of people and make it accessible.

“We have put a lot of thought and other work into trying to make it accessible and also adjustable for the taste of a range of players. So, for instance, when switching between the Oni Armaments, it slows down so you don’t have that pressure of trying to change in real time. Things like that – we’ve put a lot of thought into it, trying to make it a scalable and accessible experience on the difficulty side.”

What makes a great rival or boss encounter in Way of the Sword, and do you have a favorite you can talk about (without spoilers)?

Director Satoru Nihei – “The boss battle with Ganryu, the main rival of Musashi, is one of my favorites. It was one of the first ones we really worked on and developed, and just that relationship with Musashi, the action on display there — it’s one of the little things I’m quite proud of, so I quite like that battle.

“When designing a boss or creating those encounters, we don’t want it to be solely like, you know, this is an obstacle. You get to this stage, this is an obstacle, and you don’t really have a reason to fight them other than just to progress. We feel that creating that motivation, that backstory, and tying that as well to the setting that you’re in, is really important when designing bosses. So that’s something we definitely have in mind when we’re making them.”

What have been the biggest challenges in designing an enemy so they feel unsettling and memorable, but still fun to fight repeatedly?

Director Satoru Nihei – “First, from the side of the action and combat, same as with bosses, we try to create unique attacks and unique actions that are very closely tied to that particular enemy to make them more memorable and engaging to fight. So that was something we really had in mind when designing each enemy.

“And in terms of appearance, obviously, we have the dark fantasy setting, but rather than just going straight into that angle, trying to incorporate elements of Japanese oral history with those elements is important for this particular title.”