Some of the biggest praises garnered by the demo for Onimusha: Way of the Sword have revolved around its fluid swordfighting animations. In an interview with PCGamer, animation director Hiroshi Yugen discussed how the studio worked to make sure that the in-game animations give players the ideal level of feedback. Since the upcoming title is going for a more grounded style of action, he also said that the team had to conduct heavy research into real-world sword fighting.
“When we get to making action in our games, the first step is always kind of self-study and learning about how to do these things and how to use these things,” said Yugen. “And then we proceed to the stages of design and motion capture. [So, I] sat down and spoke with the director, and we [decided we] really wanted to focus on creating this very realistic, grounded sword action for the game, and so from the very beginning, the main goal was first to research the depths of swordplay and how to do that.”
This research also involved contacting swordfighting experts, which in turn led the team to meet Katsugekiza Motion Capture Studio, which specialized in this kind of action.
“We figured it was best to speak to experts in the field, and so we were introduced to motion capture artists and action stunt coordinators at a studio called Katsugekiza Motion Capture Studio. So we were paired together with an expert who knows about sword fight choreography and has provided that kind of service for a lot of different famous movies and dramas.”
To properly capture protagonist Miyamoto Musashi’s swordfighting acumen, the team had to make use of Capcom’s Osaka-based motion capture studio, which features 150 high-tech cameras used for tracking and recording actors’ motions, which can then be animated in the game itself. Upgrades made to the company’s in-house RE Engine have also proved vital in accurately recording motion capture artists.
“With the rehearsal takes, we can take those and iterate until we get to a form of it where we’re quite happy with the creation of the action that we’ve captured. And as with what we saw before with the rehearsal take, once we’ve recorded that, we can see it instantly within the engine. We can review the motion there.”
While Yugen has plenty of responsibilities when it comes to recording animations for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, he explained that the final say still lies with the game’s director. Despite this, however, there is still plenty of back-and-forth. Yugen recalled moments where, while the animators have been happy with the performance capture, the actors themselves weren’t satisfied.
“So ultimately the decisions all come down to the game’s director. He’s the one that gets the final sign-off. But even from the actors, there are cases where we’ve been happy with the performance, but the actors themselves are not satisfied. They’re like, ‘No, no, no, that wasn’t right. I’ve got to do this again.’ And so there are many cases where they will keep doing more and more takes until everyone is satisfied.”
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, and is slated for release on September 4th. For more details, check out how its world is being designed from a gameplay standpoint, and how some of its enemies are based on previous games in the franchise.
