The developers of Onimusha: Way of the Sword spoke about the technologies that allowed the game to achieve realistic sword combat animations and dynamic enemy dismemberment. According to game director Satoru Nihei, Capcom had to not only create many animations but also refine its own RE Engine.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Nihei explained that the team began work on the project six years ago and from the very beginning aimed to make battles as spectacular as possible. One of the main tasks was to achieve smooth transitions between animations so that the movements of the main character, Miyamoto Musashi, looked natural when parrying attacks from different directions.
To do this, the developers used an extensive library of animations and motion capture technologies, and programmers supplemented them with physical calculations that allow for smooth transitions from one animation to another. Nihei emphasized that the result was an achievement of the entire team, not just animation specialists.
Capcom paid special attention to the dynamic dismemberment system. It allows enemies to be cut along the actual trajectory of the sword's movement when using certain attacks.
Enemies continue to move during the death animation and fall only after the blow is struck. In other games of this type, enemies often freeze at the moment of dismemberment and then fall apart. To avoid this, programmers had to specifically refine the RE Engine.
The team deliberately abandoned completely free dismemberment, which is found, for example, in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. According to Nihei, the ability to independently choose the direction and location of each cut did not match the pace and style of Onimusha. Instead, the developers wanted dismemberment to dynamically depend on the player's actions and emphasize the power of attacks.