Ōkami 2 Development Confirmed Using RE Engine

The announcement of a sequel to the beloved game Ōkami at last year's Game Awards sparked excitement among fans, who speculated about the use of Capcom's RE Engine due to Capcom's involvement as the publisher. IGN has now confirmed these speculations through exclusive interviews with key project leads.

Kiyohiko Sakata, a producer at Machine Head Works, affirmed the use of RE Engine during a detailed interview. He elucidated Machine Head Works' pivotal role in the project, stating:

The way that Machine Head Works is involved now, working together with Capcom and Clovers, is that of course we have Capcom as the major IP holder of Ōkami, deciding the major direction of the games. And we have Clovers as this development lead for this project. Machine Head Works comes in by having the experience of both working with Capcom previously on several titles, so we know what Capcom needs to create the game. That's something that Machine Head Works has the experience and knowledge of. We also have the experience of working with Kamiya-san before as well. So we have both experience of Capcom and Clovers, and we're acting sort of like a bridge between Clovers and Capcom.

In addition to this, we also have the experience of working with the game engine that we are using for this project, RE Engine. So Clovers' developers haven't had any experiences with using this engine, but Machine Head Works have experience of using it. So we're aiding them. Also under us, Machine Head Works, we have people who have actually had experience of working with the original Ōkami game and also will be aiding us with the development of this title.

When asked about the benefits of using RE Engine for the Ōkami sequel, Capcom producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi responded affirmatively:

"Yes."

He further explained:

"However, of course we cannot go into much detail at this point in time. But we from Capcom, we believe that without RE Engine at this point we wouldn't be able to realize [director Hideki] Kamiya-san's artistic dreams for this project."

Director Hideki Kamiya added:

"So RE Engine is of course famous for showing the best of the games that they have. Very, very good expressively. And so we believe people are also expecting and awaiting the RE Engine level of quality now for this game."

The leads also hinted at the capabilities of RE Engine, with Sakata suggesting that it could allow the team to achieve goals they had for the original Ōkami but were unable to reach at the time:

"With today's technology, we are able to achieve all of this that we were trying to achieve back in the days and perhaps even greater now, now than what we have the RE Engine as well working with us."

RE Engine, known as Reach for the Moon Engine, was initially developed for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and has since been utilized in numerous Capcom titles, including the Resident Evil series, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, and Dragon's Dogma. While most games using RE Engine exhibit a realistic art style, the potential application of this engine to Ōkami's unique visual style is particularly intriguing. Additionally, Capcom is developing a new engine, REX, which is gradually being integrated into RE Engine, suggesting that elements of REX may also feature in the Ōkami sequel.

For a comprehensive overview of our discussion with the leads of the upcoming Ōkami sequel, you can access the full Q&A here.