A successful game, when it tries to break through itself, a big gamble ensues. This big gamble may become a legend, but it may also bury hidden worries. "Onimusha" came out, and its birth was a key transformation move for Capcom at the turn of the century. It not only captured opportunities, but also witnessed the struggle and end of classic gameplay in the new era.
Inspired by the pain of transformation
In the late 1990s, Capcom achieved great success in the horror adventure field with "Resident Evil". The company's executives want to continue this successful model and also want to find new breakthroughs in themes. Producer Yoshiki Okamoto and others came up with a bold idea: to combine similar gameplay with the history of Japan's Warring States Period. The idea eventually fell to Keiji Inafune, who was responsible for turning the concept into reality. The core challenge facing the team is how to create a completely different experience within a familiar framework.
Project lifecycles are long and stressful. The biggest point of contention is platform choice. At that time, the PS console was at its peak, with a mature development environment and a huge user base. However, the development team has set its sights on the new generation of console PS2, which has not yet fully demonstrated its capabilities. This decision meant giving up the current stable market situation and embracing an unknown future prospect, which caused a lot of doubts from all sides within the company.
Bet on future platform choices
Capcom withstood the pressure and made the decision to make "Onimusha" an exclusive work for the PS2 platform. This choice seemed risky, but in fact it was very far-sighted. The more powerful performance of the PS2 allowed the game to display more refined character modeling, as well as a grander Warring States scene and smoother combat special effects. On January 25, 2001, the game was officially launched less than a year after the PS2 was released. This platform change brought the game's audio-visual experience to the top level at the time, laying the hardware foundation for its success.
If the PS platform was chosen at the time, the game graphics and system would definitely be subject to greater restrictions. Switching to PS2, this allows the expressiveness of core combat systems such as "One Flash" to be fully released, and the immersion of the scene is also greatly enhanced. This decision not only benefited "Onimusha" itself, but also boosted the appeal of PS2's early software lineup, becoming a typical example of the mutual success of consoles and games.
An actual experience that defies expectations
The publicity campaign carried out before the game was released led many players to think that this was just a Sengoku version of "Resident Evil" that replaced guns with Japanese swords. However, after actually getting started, players realized that this was a work with a completely new concept. It retains the fixed perspective and "tank-style" movement operation method, and old players can get started with the operation relatively easily, but the core gameplay has changed to a high-speed attack and defense gameplay mode that emphasizes timing judgment. It is this kind of innovation based on inheritance that successfully distinguishes old and new fans.
Takeshi Kaneshiro, who was invited by the game to serve as the face model for the protagonist Akechi Zomasuke, also participated in the dubbing. At the time, this was quite a rare cross-border marketing. With exquisite cutscenes and a solid plot, the story of the warring states and the invasion of phantoms is particularly attractive. It was the combined effect of these elements that completely changed players' initial impression, causing its reputation to spread quickly.
The first in a series that created an era
After the release of "Onmusha", it quickly became an early benchmark for PS2 with its unique charm. The game's global sales finally reached 2.7 million units, with 1.09 million units in Japan alone. This result confirmed the global appeal of the "Warring States Period Demon Slayer" theme. In China, many players also used this game to get to know the movie star Takeshi Kaneshiro for the first time.
The success of the game does not only depend on sales, but more importantly on the series genes it has established, that is, the combination of history and fantasy, the "one-dodge" system that defeats the enemy with one move, rich hidden elements and high-difficulty challenges. It set a high standard for subsequent works, and also marked the birth of another ace IP for Capcom after "Resident Evil".
The enhancement and peak of the sequel
In 2002, a game called "Onmusha 2" was launched. It comprehensively and thoroughly enhanced the original game. The game abandoned real-life face models and used completely original character designs. The late movie star Matsuda Yusaku provided image reference to create a more samurai-style protagonist Yagyu Jubei. The depth of the script, system completion and level design of this game are regarded as the highest peak of the series.
"Onimusha 2" has sold 2.25 million units, continuing the strong performance of the series. It has a multi-line plot, an item exchange system, and a more stringent flash judgment, giving the game extremely high replayability. For many old players, the second generation represents the unsurpassed glory of the series and is one of the most precious memories of the PS2 era.
The pain of change and the series of silence
However, the fate of the series changed in 2006. "New Onimusha" launched at the end of the PS2 tried to make major innovations. Its style was closer to "Devil May Cry", focusing on gorgeous combos, and also introduced a multi-character switching system. Although it retained the "flash", its core experience was far away from the traditional tension and strategy of the series, and the game sales dropped sharply to 640,000 units.
Since then, there has been no canonical follow-up to the series. During this period, the spin-off work "Onimusha Rascal" tried to be launched, but it adopted a fighting gameplay. Its sales volume was only 120,000 units, and it failed to create any splash in the end. Changes in market tastes, coupled with rising development costs and the exhaustion of core creativity, have combined to cause this classic series to fall into a state of silence. In the end, the images of warriors created by superstars can only remain in the memories of players.
Until now, there are still many players looking forward to the return of "Onimusha" in a new look. In your heart, do you prefer that it follow the classic serious and tense style, or do you boldly innovate to adapt to the fast pace of modern action games?
