“The game’s unique visual style greatly benefits from an improved HD resolution and 60FPS performance, making the swordplay feel more responsive than ever,” says Director Motohide Eshiro. “Since TV screens have moved onto the widescreen format in the intervening years, we’ve also updated the game’s output to fill a wide display, which zooms the image in, and I think makes the battle scenes feel even more immersive and exciting.”
I agree. Swordplay is extremely responsive – I’m able to effectively strike and block, while the battles feel intimate. That’s especially true within temple corridors, as I slash away at an onslaught of demons, trying to master an issen hit (a powerful counterattack), and absorbing the souls of my enemies to gain XP.
“A new player picking up this remaster in 2025 should feel the same exhilaration as someone did in 2002,” adds Eshiro. “This meant retaining the game’s core features and charm, while bringing certain elements up to the modern standards gamers expect. We had access to the original game’s assets, and to be honest even in 2002 the original team had made them very high quality. If anything, the standard-definition CRT display technology of the time was holding these assets back from being appreciated in their original quality, so we have used a variety of modern upscaling and uprezzing techniques to bring out all their detail on modern HD displays. This includes the moving video elements of backgrounds, so areas such as flowing rivers look better than ever.”
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