First look: Onimusha 2

Although Capcom hinted at the possibility of a sequel at the conclusion of Onimusha, Capcom Japan today unveiled Onimusha 2 for the Sony PlayStation 2. The story takes place in 1573, 10 years after the first game. This time, players will assume the role of samurai legend Yagyuu Juubei, who is modeled after the now-deceased Yusaku Matsuda, a renowned actor in Japan. Matsuda is mostly recognized among Western audiences from the motion picture Black Rain. The voice talent for the lead character will be selected through auditions. Along with supporting characters Oyu and Magoichi, players must once again fight against the Genma creatures led by Nobunaga Oda.

Most of the members of Onimusha's development team will return for the sequel, with producer Keiji Inafune, script writer Noboru Sugimura (from Flagship), and both Mikitaka Kurasawa and Ryu Kaneda (who worked on the CG movies in the game) coming back to work on Onimusha 2. The character design for the main characters and Genma creatures will be done by Keita Amemiya, who is primarily known for his live-action work in Zeram and Kikaider. The game's music will be handled by Taro Iwashiro, who has composed music for several Japanese samurai drama series and television ads. On the visual front, there will be an incredible number of motion-captured animations in the game, as even a man riding a horse will be captured for use in the game. Although the game will continue to use prerendered backgrounds, its overall detail has been improved with the usage of full-motion videos in certain scenes--such as ones used to render rain.

Onimusha 2 for the PlayStation 2 is currently 30 percent complete, and it is scheduled for a Japanese release on March 7, 2002. Capcom plans to sell 3 million copies of the game worldwide. Expect an official announcement pertaining to the North American and European releases of the title in the coming months. Versions for other console platforms have not been announced at this time. However, Capcom did confirm at E3 that it will release Genma Onimusha, an updated version of the first game, for the Microsoft Xbox.

The screenshots shown are from Capcom's Japanese Web site.