Capcom's New Onimusha Game Tells A Story Ghost of Tsushima Never Could

Director Satoru Nihei breaks down the people, cinema, and myths that inspired Onimusha When Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches on Sept. 4, it will bring a lot of history with it. Capcom’s samurai action game is a long-awaited revival of a PlayStation 2 series that, at one time, felt as though it was poised to become a franchise as storied as Resident Evil. Instead, the series quietly faded away after 2006, and an aura of mystique formed in its absence. 20 years later, amid a wave of samurai action games that may never have existed without Onimusha’s influence, Way of the Sword arrives like a rediscovered legend. It’s fitting, then, that Way of the Sword itself is so indebted to Japanese history. It draws on real people and locations. It plays with myths to craft its demonic enemies. It even pays respects to a long tradition of samurai cinema. In a video interview with Polygon, director Satoru Nihei explained how all of those elements came together to inspire a new vision of Onimusha that exists as part of a broader cultural heritage, rather than in its own digital world. At a glance, Way of the Sword sure doesn’t look all too grounded. The action game sees you slaying invented mon