The year may firmly be 2025, but it certainly feels like we’re in 2005, what withCapcomannouncingthe next entry in the Resident Evilfranchise,Resident Evil Requiem, plusits ongoing revival of the long-dormant Onimusha seriesviaOnimusha: Way of the Sword.
But unlikeResident Evil, whichcontinued to see entries well past 2005, why exactly did it take nearly two decades for fans to get a new Onimusha game? Well, it apparently wasn’t that high of a priority.
Things Have Finally Lined Up For A New Onimusha Game To Be Made
In speaking to GameSpot at Summer Game Fest, producer Akihito Kadowaki shared the circumstances that helped leave Onimusha on the sidelines for as long as it was.
“There [were] actually a lot of people within Capcom who wanted to make a new Onimusha title,” Kadowaki said. “However, as you probably know, Capcom makes a lot of titles every year, and it requires a lot of manpower to do that.
“So, unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out because getting the right people and also the right amount of people to create the game just never worked out because we had other titles we needed to work on as well.”
Eventually, the right group of people did come together, and a new title was greenlit. It also helps that Capcom had firmly established its proprietary RE Engine, which has been used in a variety of studio-exclusive games and could be used for Onimusha without any issues.
“It all came together at the beginning of 2020,” Kadowaki added. “We were able to get the right team together to create Way of the Sword. Around that time, we finished development on the RE Engine, so it was in a place where we could use it most effectively for the new title.”
It may have taken longer than it should’ve but the Onimusha revival is in full-swing. Way of the Sword is set to release next year,while earlier this year, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was remastered and re-released on current-gen hardware. Onimusha fans, we are so back.
