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As you can see in the above video, I recently travelled to Osaka, Japan, to go inside Capcom’s headquarters and play its upcoming action game, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, as well as talk to many of the lead devs who have worked on it.
And, as part of my developer interviews, I spoke with Art Director Hiroyuki Nara about the character design of Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s bad guy, Sasaki Ganryu, who made a memorable appearance in the game’s publicly released demo.
Sasaki Ganryu, like the game’s hero, Miyamoto Musashi, is based on a real-world Japanese sword master who fought during Japan’s Edo period. However, as with Musashi, Capcom has put its own spin on these fierce rivals. But how did the devs go about designing them?
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When it came to designing Sasaki, Nara explains, “there’s been some depictions of him in other fiction, but it’s not something that we really consciously thought of when designing him [in Way of the Sword]. In this case, it was more a case that we wanted to create a character that would be a very strong contrast to Miyamoto Musashi. They both come into this game in this world with the same goal. They both want to be the best they ever was in terms of swordsmanship, but their way of thinking and their way of approaching life and things are very, very different.
“So that’s something that’s depicted very clearly in the way that they dress quite differently. Sasaki is very conscious of style and of people, how people see him and perceive him, whereas obviously Musashi is not quite on that wavelength. So we wanted to depict that clearly in the way that they dress, and he does have these elements of being quite cocky. [Sasaki] thinks that he’s this naturally gifted swordsman. He’s better than Musashi, so that’s something as well that we wanted to kind of give away and kind of flashy nature.”
As anyone who has played the Way of the Sword demo will know, Sasaki is very much Musashi’s direct opposite in terms of looks, movements, and combat style. Whereas Musashi looks rough around the edges, dressed in humble, raggedy garb, Sasaki has the air of an aristocrat about him, with fancy, bright clothes and accessories. And whereas Musashi’s combat style is based on power, with strong, wild swings of his katana, Sasaki’s is very smooth and elegant, with slick, snake-like movements. I ask Nara about Sasaki’s movements, and I get a surprising but, in retrospect, spot-on response in how the devs went about designing them.
“We want to have a really clear contrast between the way he moves and the way Musashi moves. So whereas Musashi’s movements are quite wild and kind of rough and kind of powerful, Ganyu’s movements are quite refined, but also they have an edge of eroticism to them. They’re very alluring in the way that he moves. So that’s definitely something that we were thinking about when they cast the motion actor for the role, and seeing those auditions and the person that was on screen and the way they were moving.”
Want to see just how erotic Sasaki’s movements and combat style are? The demo for Onimusha: Way of the Sword is available to download now (you can grab it on Steam). And, for a world-exclusive hands-on preview of the game, be sure to pick up the next issue of PC Gamer magazine, which also comes with an awesome A1 Onimusha: Way of the Sword poster.
