New Onimusha Discussions "Happening at High Levels," Says Yoshinori Ono

Capcom's Yoshinori Ono has said an Onimusha revival is in the discussion phase, noting the Japanese company is aware of the popularity of the franchise and wants to bring back old favourites for fans.

Speaking in an interview with The Daily Star, Ono--who served as producer on the samurai-versus-demons action game series--indicated returning to the property was something he's interested in. He added that he'd discussed a potential revival with members of the series' development team.

"Capcom as a company know we have many brands, IPs and series that are beloved by players around the world, and we always have fans asking when is this or that coming back," he said. "I've spoken internally with people who made Onimusha with me originally and talked about maybe how interesting it would be to revisit that series."

Ono emphasised that, currently, a new Onimusha project had not progressed past the early discussion phase, as he was too busy with Street Fighter V to have the battles necessary to get the ball rolling.

"Right now, I'm so focused on Street Fighter V that I'm not really in a position to start that same level of battle that I had [to have to get] Street Fighter IV made.

"All I can do for now is reassure fans that conversations are happening at high levels. We realise the need for different series to maybe come back into the forefront and although there's nothing to talk about right now, I'm sure in the future there will be news on a variety of series that will keep the fans happy."

He added: "[Fan] favourites are going to come back."

In December 2015, Capcom registered a new trademark for Onimusha. The trademark was not a renewal, but an entirely new registration, sparking speculation the PlayStation 2-era action game series may be making a comeback.

The first game in the Onimusha series was Onimusha: Warlords, a game released for the PS2 in 2001. It followed Samanosuke, a Sengoku era Japanese samurai that faced the forces of Nobunaga Oda, who had aligned himself with demons.

The series' gameplay was very similar to Resident Evil, but instead of shooting zombies players used a sword for melee combat and special magical skills. Solving puzzles was also a key pillar of gameplay.

The first game was followed by Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege--which starred French actor Jean Reno--and Onimusha 4: Dawn of Dreams.