Onimushais a legendary Capcom franchise from the early 2000s, and its impact can still be felt on many action and samurai-oriented games today. Unfortunately, outside the browser gameOnimusha: Soulin 2012, there hasn’t been a new release since 2006’sOnimusha: Dawn of Dreams. Like Oda Nobunaga, the franchise seemed to come back to life with a remaster ofOnimusha: Warlordsin 2018. Now, there’s another remaster inOnimusha 2coming this year beforeOnimusha: Way of the Swordreleases in 2026.
It remains to be seen if this is a proper “revival” of the franchise or not, but with a remaster and new game coming up, fans are right to be hopeful. Everything shown aboutOnimusha: Way of the Swordso far looks exciting, whileOnimusha 2: Samurai’s Destinyhas often been hailed as one of the best games in the franchise. Game Rant recently visited the Capcom office in San Francisco to speak(via translator)with Motohide Eshiro, who directed the original in 2002 and has again directed this remaster, about his work on it 20+ years ago, his more recent work on it, and the overall direction of the franchise.The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Past: Onimusha 2 First Came Out in 2002
Working on the Original Onimusha 2
Q: Onimusha began as a franchise 25 years ago. I was curious what you remember most from those early days of working on the first game and then directing Onimusha 2?
A:The original version has a really special place in his heart because that was the first title he actually directed. One memorable thing, that he can recall, is they used the lateYūsaku Matsudafor the face model of the protagonist, Jubei. When they were finalizing the face model, his wife Miyuki Matsuda came to the Capcom office and gave directions and instructions to them on how to make the face model closer to the real Yūsaku Matsuda. That was a really rare opportunity to have, so that is something really memorable about working on the original title.
Q: How does it feel to be working on Onimusha 2 again after all these years?
A:It’s a rare case to come back to the remastered version as a director again. It’s kind of fortunate and lucky, and he’s so happy that he was able to come back. He was happy to get this offer and come back to the series.
Q: Most of your game credits are on the production side of development. Can you talk a little bit about how you stepped into the role of director again and what that experience has been like?
A:Yeah, his main role atCapcomis still being a producer, but when the Onimusha 2 remaster project started, the team was wondering who they should have direct the Onimusha 2 remaster. They came to Eshiro-san, who was so happy to get the offer. He immediately said yes and that he would like to do it.
If it weren’t for Onimusha 2, he doesn’t believe that he would have directed another game, so it’s a precious thing for him to get this offer and work again as a director. He loves it, and he’s just having fun working as a director again.
What Makes The Onimusha IP
Q: In your mind, what makes an Onimusha game an Onimusha game? What gives the IP its identity?
A:He likes to say that the core aspects ofOnimusha gamesare how they blend real Japanese history with fictional aspects like demons. Of course, there weren’t demons in Japan, but they were able to blend them in with a fine balance. For gameplay, there’s a certain satisfying and exhilarating feeling when you beat enemies, which leads to a defining element of the Onimusha series: critical attacks. This lore and gameplay are the core aspects of Onimusha.
Q: How would you say Jubei Yagyu compares to Samanosuke Akechi as characters?
A:At least what he sees from Jubei is that he’s so passionate. Of course, Nobunaga destroyed his hometown, and he’s so focused on revenge. But you may also see him interacting with his allies and working alongside them to beat Nobunaga. Jubei is a really passionate person, which is kind of a difference between him and Samanosuke Akechi.
Q: Because Oda Nobunaga is so prominent in many video games, including Onimusha, I’ve always been curious: what makes this specific historical figure appealing to include in video games?
A:Oda Nobunaga, as a historical figure, is so compelling. He is often associated with cruelty in Japanese history, but he also did revolutionary things like governing Japan. He has so many enticing hooks to base his character on, with various other characteristics that make him interesting to put in a game.
Q: One thing I’ve always been curious about is the naming invention for the orbs. It’s charity, faith, honesty, respect, and strength. Why were those five aspects chosen?
A:That was the screenwriter for the original title, Noboru Sugimura. When they were discussing the storyline and overall game systems for the original title, he came up with those five kanjis because he really likes and respectsJapanese history. They just kind of sensed that those five kanjis would be good to have inside the game. He got that inspiration from real Japanese history because those Kanji show up in historical Japanese texts kind of frequently.
The Present: Onimusha Warlords and Onimusha 2 Get Remasters
Q: Onimusha: Warlords received a remaster in 2018, now Onimusha 2 in 2025. What has made the last few years the right time to begin this “reboot,” so to speak, of the franchise?
A:An Onimusha 2 remaster has always been in the lineup as the next project after the Onimusha: Warlords remaster, but it was a matter of circumstances and timing. The team broke up and moved to other projects after Onimusha: Warlords, but everyone came together around this time. We were able to announce Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the brand new entry in the series, and at that time, we just thought this wasgood timing for the Onimusha 2 remaster.
He also feels happy and lucky that he was able to work on this title at this time, while the new entry is coming, so people will get more interested in the series. And now players can play the classic titles on modern consoles, so he’s happy the series is returning now.
Working on the Onimusha 2 Remaster
Q: When you boot up the remaster of Onimusha 2, it mentions that the changes are minimal to retain the original experience. What drove the decision behind this sort of minimalist approach to the remaster?
A:The overall game design of the original Onimusha 2, he thinks, is really complete. It doesn’t feel like there are many things he should add or change. For the Onimusha 2 remaster, he just focused on recreating the gameplay of the original, but they also couldn’t just bring it to modern consoles as is. He played the game again before working on it, and he realized the tank controls are a bit outdated. He thinks players would find difficult with those controls, so he decided to add stock controls so that players can easily get into it. The original title is great as is, so he wanted to focus on making the game more comfortable and easy to get into.
Q: On that point, the mini-games are also immediately accessible upon starting the game. Is that sort of the same reason why the team wanted to make them playable much sooner?
A:As you know, they were unlocked after completing the original game, but for this remastered version, we decided to use the mini-games from the start because we made a great effort in making them. They’re really fun to play, so it’s kind of a waste if players can’t play them until after beating the game. We wanted to offer that choice to players. If they want to play immediately, please do. If they want to play them after completing the game, please do.
Q: There’s also the new Hell Mode. What did the team feel like including this brutal difficulty would add to the core experience of the game?
A:Hell Mode is not something for everyone; it’s an additional challenge for those who want it, so they can enjoy the intensity of battle.
Of course, if you are doing a sword fight in real life and get a single hit, that would be critical. He just wanted to make something to show that intensity. How we balanced that difficulty mode is that, even if one player can clear this mode, that would be okay. Eshiro-san himself hasn’t even been able to beat this mode yet, so it’s a challenge from Capcom and the Onimusha team to players. It doesn’t impact the core gameplay, but he hopes players will take the challenge and enjoy the intensity.
Q: Yeah, I remember you mentioning that in one of the trailers. Have you been able to make any progress since then?
A:Little. Very little since the interview trailer. At least you’re able to save the game multiple times to ensure you are progressing, but yeah, it has been very little.
In terms of gameplay that Eshiro-san does personally, he always wants to do the critical attack, so he waits for the enemy. And sometimes he just waits too much, gets hit, and gets the game over. Of course, players can choose to attack normally and not focus on the critical attack, but he enjoys focusing on critical. That’s why he hasn’t progressed too much.
Q: Another new feature is the character art in the Gallery mode. What do you hope plays can take from that regarding its history and development?
A:He especially wants to highlight thecharacter design of Onimusha 2. They focused on blending Japanese and Western tastes in the atmosphere. Keita Amemiya, the main character designer for Onimusha 2, really did a great job on those designers. He did also propose several designs for demons that, due to certain content limitations, couldn’t be added to Onimusha 2. They are really compelling though, so they were able to add them to the game this time as a Gallery Mode. He hopes people will see and imagine a ‘What If’ version of Onimusha 2 with this artwork. You can also zoom in on them to sense the care and dedication Keita Amemiya put into those pieces.
Q: Onimusha 2’s Gift system is an awesome way to interact with the support characters. I was curious if there were any changes at all made to how gifts work in the remaster?
A: He thinks the system design in the original game was pretty complete, so he never thought about making any changes to it. What he focused on when making this system for the original title was portraying the depths of humanity. You can see the reactions and facial expressions when you give gifts to highlight and see if they loved them or not. In more modern games, if they have a similar system, they might have some kind of affinity gauge, a thing on the screen that indicates how friendly you are with that character. He didn’t want to add that because it makes the game feel too game-like; rather, what he wanted was to make giving gifts feel like giving gifts in real life. You give someone a gift, you can get a reaction and comments from them, and you see if they like it or not.
Onimusha 2 is a Completely Rebuilt Remaster
Q: Did working on these characters again have any specific challenges with this remaster?
A:There were some things with rendering characters, but it was more about the overall porting process of this title fromthe PlayStation 2 versionto modern consoles. When they developed this game for PlayStation 2, they had to directly run the program on the PlayStation 2 system. They didn’t have the kind of game engines available today. For this remastered version, they decided to adopt the RE engine, which is used for most modern Capcom titles, but they had to rebuild the structure from scratch torun the game on RE Engine. They couldn’t just bring those characters from the original title to the modern console; they had to rebuild the entire structure. The team did a really great job, and after a lot of work, finally, eventually, the game runs smoothly at 60 FPS and in high resolution. He’s really happy that he can see all the characters and backgrounds in really high detail.
Q: We also see Gifu Castle in Warlords and in Onimusha 2 as well. Can you talk a little bit about designing the castle, and any challenges in making it in this remaster?
A:As you know, Onimusha 2 happened after Onimusha: Warlords, so Gifu Castle in both titles. They wanted to depict how much time passed through the game with this castle. It’s not completely the same, it has aged a bit, and the interior of Gifu castle has also changed. That was something they meticulously created and worked hard on. With this remastered version, players can now enjoy this game in high resolution. They did use multiple tools and techniques to upscale the graphics, but the assets they used for the original title were pretty detailed. It was held back by the hardware they had back in the day, so bringing out the details and really making them shine in the remastered version was a big challenge. However, the team is really happy with the results and think they did a great job on it.
Q: For this remaster, you wanted to keep to the original experience faithfully, but I did want to ask if there were any discussions on making this remaster a full remake. If so, how did those go?
A:There was no heated debate stage over whether they should have a remaster or remake version. The ultimate goal was clear: they just wanted to bring out the greatness of the original game and deliver that to more and more players. That is difficult to do if players have to play the original game. What was decided was to create a remastered version to share the origins of Onimusha 2, so players can learn about the Onimusha series, and learn more about the Onimusha world. They just wanted players to feel the greatness of the original title, so they just focused on remastering the game, faithfully recreating the gameplay from the original.
The Future: He Hopes to See the Onimusha World Grow
Q: There may be a lot of new fans coming into the franchise for the first time in a long time. Some may have even begun with Onimusha: Warlords remastered. What would you say to those looking to dive into Onimusha 2 for the first time?
A:For people getting into this series, he says that the Onimusha series is a mixture of real Japanese history and fantastical elements like demons and that he should mention the satisfying swordplay and experimental options in the game. He believes that people who love action games will enjoy playing Onimusha 2 remaster and hopes that as many people as possible will experience its exhilarating sword gameplay.
Q: There are also a lot of veterans who are, no doubt, excited about this remaster and just the general future of the franchise. What would you say to those who’ve been waiting a long time for more Onimusha to come out?
A:For classic fans, he’s really happy that he can deliver this great game for modern consoles. He believes more and more fans will enjoy revisiting this game again. Of course, it’ll be nostalgic to play this game, but it’ll also be kind of a fresh experience because of the modernized controls and graphics. It will be a nostalgic but fresh experience. He hopes that people who played the original game will revisit it again.
Q: Do you think remasters of Onimusha 3 and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams could happen some day?
A:Of course, he wasn’t the director of those games. He does personally hope thatthose titles will come back again some dayas a remaster or in any form, so that fans will be able to play the game again on modern consoles. He’d be happy to see them somewhere, someday in the future.
Q: When you look at the work you did 20 years ago on the original, you look at the work you’ve done on this remaster, and you look at what has been revealed about Way of the Sword so far, what do you think has been the franchise’s biggest overall growth across this time period?
A:Over this history of more than 20 years, it’s all been about expanding the world of Onimusha, adding fresh new gameplay, more action, and more features to the games, so that players can enjoy a variety of aspects of the Onimusha series.
There is going to be Onimusha: Way of the Sword released next year, but he personally hopes that if there are any more upcoming Onimusha games, there will be more and more expansion of the world. He wants more and more players to enjoy the game, so yeah, he hopes that the world of Onimusha will continue to expand more in the future.
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Game Rant was provided travel and lodging for the purposes of this interview.Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destinyrelease on May 23 for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
