Pushing for a 2006 release, Koei Tecmo showed a teaser trailer at E3 2005, revealing a much more traditional, Dynasty Warriors-esque take on Japanese lore. The only concepts from the original script that remained after this first massive shake-up were the setting, general aesthetic and the concept of a Caucasian protagonist who looks more than a little like a surly Edgar Winter.īased upon the exploits of real life Samurai William Adams, who left his home of England to serve under Leyasu, the storyline for Nioh takes a liberal but authentic feeling inspiration from actual events and people… Demonic Yokai and Oni notwithstanding. The original intention was to release the game as part of a cross-media promotion with a live action film to be directed by Kurosawa’s son, but, after the film failed to materialise, the title was quickly changed to Nioh and most of the original elements of the game that had been derived from the script were dropped in favour of an all new story.

The genesis of Nioh starts with an unfinished script titled ONI by legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

Often, Koei Tecmo would elect to start again from scratch with an entirely new development team, rather than continue with a game that wasn’t conforming with their vision. The protracted thirteen year development period behind Nioh was one fraught with design and gameplay issues, with the game undergoing a complete overhaul on more than one occasion. After initially starting development in 2004, a year where both Lindsey Lohan and Steven Seagal inexplicably released albums, Action-RPG Nioh is finally here and, by all accounts, it’s Goddamn glorious.

Onimusha ps4 oni spirits is hard