Capcom Had to Improve RE Engine for Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s New Enemy Dismemberment System

The dismemberment system from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance did not fit the pace of Onimusha: Way of the Sword.

The developers of Onimusha: Way of the Sword have described the technology behind the game’s realistic sword-fight animation and dynamic enemy dismemberment. According to game director Satoru Nihei, Capcom had to do more than create a large number of animations. The studio also had to modify its in-house RE Engine.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Nihei said the team began work on the project six years ago and aimed from the start to make combat as spectacular as possible. One of the main goals was smooth transitions between animations, so that the movements of the protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, look natural when he deflects strikes from different directions.

To achieve this, the developers used an extensive animation library and motion capture technology. Programmers added physics calculations that allow smooth transitions from one animation to another. Nihei emphasized that the result was an achievement of the whole team, not only of the animation specialists.

Capcom gave particular attention to the dynamic dismemberment system. With certain attacks, it lets players cut enemies along the actual path of the sword.

Enemies keep moving during the death animation and fall only after the strike lands. In other games of this type, enemies often freeze at the moment of the cut and then fall apart. To avoid that, the programmers had to modify RE Engine specifically.

The team deliberately passed on fully free-form dismemberment, which appears in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, for example. According to Nihei, letting players choose the direction and location of each cut did not match the pace and style of Onimusha. Instead, the developers wanted dismemberment to respond dynamically to the player’s actions and underline the power of the attacks.