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- Onimusha 3: Demon Siege
Onimusha 3 Developer Interview
- January 29, 2004 10:31 AM PST
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Keiji Inafune talks gameplay, plot and Jean Reno for Onimusha 3
We recently went down to Capcom's office in Sunnyvale to talk with Keiji Inafune, Officer and General manager of research and development for the upcoming Onimusha 3 game.Q: Why bring Jean Reno to the game? Did you have a fear of the actors overpowering other characters?
A: We didn't suddenly include a big actor into the series, although Americans may feel this way. In Japan, we had Kaneshiro Takeshi (a famous Chinese-Japanese movie/TV actor who portayed Samanosuke in Onimusha 1) featured in the first Onimusha, so this wasn't anything new. The reason why we did this was to give a broad appeal, especially to those who aren't gamers. If you tell people who don't play games "this is a great action game," that wouldn't register to them. But by using a famous actor like Kaneshiro Takeshi, it makes it easier for non-gamers to get into the game. And because of this, Onimusha 1 & 2 was much more successful in Japan than in North America or Europe. For Onimusha 3, we wanted follow the same strategy and appeal to European and North American audiences. For Onimusha 1 & 2 there wasn't any problems with Kaneshiro Takeshi overshadowing other characters, so we're not worried of that happening with this game.
Q: In addition to Jean Reno who else was considered for that part?
A: There were, but the negotiations didn't go well, but we cannot say specific names. (laughs) Americans [actors] are difficult to deal with.
Q: Do you know why Onimusha 2 wasn't successful in the US?
A: The view system, graphics, controls, were the same as Onimusha 1. Onimusha 2 was a solid, quality game, but the fundamental gameplay didn't change, which probably didn't appeal to the North American audience. The third game has been revamped, though not significantly, and should be the easiest to control of the whole series. The first game had an appeal as a samurai game, but when you make a game with the same "samurai game" appeal, it gets old. There had to have been something appealing other than the fact that it has samurais. Realizing this, we created Onimusha 3, which has more than a samurai appeal.
Q: How much of a challenge was it merging two distinct fighting styles, with Samanosuke having a sword and Jean Reno having a gun?
A: It wasn't that difficult, as the basic controls don't change. You don't have to rememorize how to control each character - for example, if you just memorize that you can wrap around objects and climb walls with a whip then controlling either characters isn't an issue. The button mapping is the same so it doesn't present a problem. However, there definitely will be a different style in playing each character.
Q: In making a move to the futuristic setting, did that change the theme of the game?
A: Although the setting has changed, the theme hasn't. Of course the feel changes with a different setting, when you fight soldiers as opposed to just battling samurais. But the theme of the series has always been more than just a samurai action flick. Our main goal has always been to create a high quality action game.
Q: In some of the cinema scenes, there is a blonde haired woman, how does she play into the story, and who is she?
A: She is Jack's fiance, a member of the army who fights with Samanosuke after Jack disappears back in time. The samurai appears in place of Jack, and so she joins up with Samanosuke in search for her love.
Q: Why the focus on Samanosuke from Onimusha 1 and not Yagyu Jubei from Onimusha 2 for Onimusha 3?
A: In Japanese history, Akechi Mitsuhide killed Oda Nobunaga. Akechi Samanosuke in Onimusha 1 is Akechi Mitsuhide's nephew, and everybody in Japan knows that the Akechi clan killed Oda Nobunaga. Given that connection between Samanosuke and Oda Nobunaga, it was only logical that Samanosuke takes on Oda Nobunaga to complete the trilogy in Onimusha 3. Onimusha 2 was sort of a side story, so it didn't follow the same plot line or have the same main character as 1 or 3.
Q: Is this game linear as the first one was, or will it be like the second one, which allowed you to choose different paths?
A: In Onimusha 2, the ability to choose different paths detracted from the action, so Onimusha 3 will follow Onimusha 1 in that it will be more focused on the action.
Q: Overall how many distinct environments will the game have?
A: There are 12-13 different environments, with 4 ancient Japanese stages, 4 Paris stages, 4-5 Genma stages that are the demon worlds sharing Japanese and European environments.
Q: How many usable weapons are there for each character?
A: In the beginning you have 3 weapons from the original Onimusha for Samanosuke, and you will get 3 new weapons. Jack will also have about the same number of weapons, and the girl character has 3 to 4 different weapons.
Q: Is there anything else you wanted to add about the game that we didn't talk about?
A: The biggest difference between Japan and America is the demand in complexity of a game. People mentioned Onimusha 1 was short, but the shortness of Onimusha 2 was heavily criticized in North America, while the Japanese didn't take notice of that at all. So we took that in consideration for this game and made the game longer, which might turn off some casual Japanese gamers. The North American version is a bit longer and harder than the Japanese version. It took an average of 12-13 hours to play the game through not counting deaths, and 20 hours counting deaths.
