After talking to Capcom, I'm a lot more optimistic about Onimusha 3 getting a remaster

Capcom now makes the majority of its money on PC and "expects this ratio to continue increasing," it said in a report earlier this year—a shift that's been in the works ever since 2018's release of Monster Hunter: World sold approximately three trillion copies. These days Capcom releases a healthy mix of new big budget games and remasters from its back catalog that have never been on PC, like Dead Rising and both Onimusha and Onimusha 2. The third game in the PlayStation 2 samurai series, co-starring French actor Jean Reno, has always seemed like a bit of a longshot for a remaster given the likely licensing costs and complications around his likeness. But now I have a feeling it's going to happen.

At the end of an interview focused on the series' first new entry in decades, Way of the Sword, I asked Capcom if its sales success has led to new discussions internally about rereleasing 2004's Onimusha 3 or 2006's Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. And I got a more straightforward answer than I was expecting.

"As series producer, from my position, seeing the reaction to the game and the excitement around it, definitely makes me feel that it would be great to release remasters of Onimusha 3 and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams," said producer Akihito Kadowaki.

That's not a commitment, of course. Maybe it means nothing at all! But in my experience interviewing Japanese developers, they are usually cautious, caveating statements about unannounced projects with phrases like 'while we can't say anything officially at this time…' or 'I can't speak for the company's future plans, but I personally…' Those sorts of responses usually aren't outright dodging the question, but they remove any real chance that someone would interpret the answer as a promise or even a hint about what the company has coming down the pike.

Kadowaki did frame the answer from his role as the Onimusha series producer, but I still expected a much more circumspect response. Or at least that's what I would expect if remasters weren't already in development. Last year Jean Reno also said he'd be "pleased to reprise his role", though at what price remains an important question.

But with Capcom's success on PC this decade—heck, even its ancient PC ports like Dino Crisis seem to sell decent numbers—and the clear desire to make Onimusha a going concern again, remastering the rest of the series seems like an obvious way to fill the gap between Way of the Sword and whatever comes next. Maybe we'll be seeing more Onimusha again sooner rather than later.

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