1.5 became Onimusha?

[Renard]

I found this photoset on tumblr, courtesy of newtypezaku. It's a GameCenter CX interview but I have no clue exactly who they're interviewing, if someone could identify them please.

Apparently 1.5 went on to become Onimusha, released on PS2 in 2001 by Capcom. I've never played Onimusha is but it doesn't look a thing like 1.5. I don't know what to think of this, it seems bogus. Is it possible they could've even mistaken 1.5 for that rumor game Biohazard DASH? I don't know. I'll let you people figure this one out.

[OfficerRedfield]

Well Onimusha was originally for the ps1 and i wouldn't be surprised if the original version used the 1.5 engine. Sadly I don't think we'll never know for sure.

[News Bot]

Sort of. Okamoto requested that he be allowed to use the 1.5 engine to create his own game. Onimusha began as an idea known as "Sengoku BIOHAZARD", a ninja game with monsters. Very similar to Devil May Cry.

[Rombie]

This was one of the first "spinoffs" I ever heard about, way back in 1997. There was an article in UGP magazine with quotes from Okamoto discussing the concept and the original thought of putting that on the N64. Obviously later this was put to the PS and refined into Onimusha before being delayed onto the PS2 as mentioned already in this thread.

There is plenty of footage of the PS1 Onimusha floating around out there. Externally if any code is in the wild though I'm not sure of because I never looked. If there was I would believe certain people in the community could tell from it if it was using parts of the earlier Bio engine.

Yama actually had a scan up of the page I remembered over at Biohaze. It's attached below.

[Sly]

The first guy is Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the second guy is Keiji Inafune. So, whose idea was it : Keiji Inafune or Yoshiki Okamoto ?

[Guest]

I always knew about this, although in recent times it has slipped my mind. So this presents me with a dilemma, because if the 1.5 engine became Onimusha, then what became BIO2? Did two different teams both use 1.5 as the base for their work? It's unlikely to ever see a build of Onimusha in the wild, but it would sure be interesting to see just how much it is like its predecessor on the inside.

[Carnivol]

It doesn't literally mean "1.5 became Onimusha", what's being said can basically be elaborated like this;

"Hello, I like the gameplay presentation and the tech you've developed for this game; I'd like to recycle some of these concepts and code for this for other idea I've got for a video game on one of them amusement devices for coded entertainment, so I may not have to reinvent the wheel. Sure is a good thing we're all working under the same roof of this here fine establishment, wouldn't you say, old chap?"

[Renard]

My English still isn't the greatest, sorry. I didn't exactly mean that it became Onimusha. So they used 1.5 to create Onimusha?

I really wish I knew more about the game while it was still on the PlayStation. There could've been elements of 1.5 still in it, obviously.

[Darkness]

1.5 wasn't that different from all the 1st gen RE titles. This seems unlikely

[Guest]

@ Carnivol - For sure. It just seems a bit of an odd statement to me given that most Biohazard games share similar characteristics and any of them could have been used as an inspirational platform for Onimusha at the time. Obviously Capcom's main focus was finishing Biohazard 2 so I don't get why "using 1.5 and making something new out of it" would be considered a rational thought on any other project other than Biohazard 2 its self, especially considering how much they were disappointed with what they had made. Does anyone know when development actually started on Onimusha and what team developed it? There doesn't seem anything interesting for recycling in 1.5 to me that can't be found in any survival horror game, other than the engine its self. I feel a bit of conflict with Biohazard 2's development. :/

[Rombie]

The first guy is Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the second guy is Keiji Inafune. So, whose idea was it : Keiji Inafune or Yoshiki Okamoto ?

Inafune was probably the guy who thought of it first, given he was always credited as the creator of the finished game/franchise.

The comment from Okamoto is either mistranslation in taking credit as the producer for getting the idea properly working as an actual title. It does say "his team" and so I suspect the "I have an idea" was just translated poorly.

[News Bot]

Inafune was probably the guy who thought of it first, given he was always credited as the creator of the finished game/franchise.

The comment from Okamoto is either mistranslation in taking credit as the producer for getting the idea properly working as an actual title. It does say "his team" and so I suspect the "I have an idea" was just translated poorly.

Japanese can be pretty vague in that regard since "I" or "Me" have to be specifically defined, which is sometimes not the case. You can be left to go by context alone.

1.5 wasn't that different from all the 1st gen RE titles. This seems unlikely

You know this... how? The engine may be similar but it's still different, and retail BIO2 is tweaked to an extent.

[Carnivol]

@ Carnivol - For sure. It just seems a bit of an odd statement to me given that most Biohazard games share similar characteristics and any of them could have been used as an inspirational platform for Onimusha at the time. Obviously Capcom's main focus was finishing Biohazard 2 so I don't get why "using 1.5 and making something new out of it" would be considered a rational thought on any other project other than Biohazard 2 its self, especially considering how much they were disappointed with what they had made. Does anyone know when development actually started on Onimusha and what team developed it? There doesn't seem anything interesting for recycling in 1.5 to me that can't be found in any survival horror game, other than the engine its self. I feel a bit of conflict with Biohazard 2's development. :/

Onimusha was in development for quite some time. Probably 97 or something, considering how quickly it was upported to PS2 its design was probably locked and only porting was done.

As for "why use 1.5", it's an indicator of when Onimusha's development was likely started + it's easier to recycle a less "closed down" engine for developing something new than utilizing a game engine that's stripped of all its bells and whistles and only really carries the bare essentials for the game it was originally utilized for. Consider it the difference between using the full Unreal 3 SDK vs. the codebase for Gears of War 3 when you want to develop a game with the U3 engine.

Sort of like working with a full framework of potential vs. a tool with a very specific purpose.

[Guest]

I loved the Onimusha games. I've not played them in years. I didn't want to part with them. But they're not games I normally play, being that they technically aren't horror, despite having demon samurais. The third one was totally awesome, yet Dawn of Dreams was a big let down. There's not been a fifth main entry since.