Ōkami 2 Confirmed: Developed in RE Engine

Following the exciting announcement of a sequel to the cult classic Ōkami at last year's The Game Awards, fans speculated that the game would utilize Capcom's RE Engine. IGN can now exclusively confirm this speculation after conducting an in-depth interview with key project leads.

In the interview, Machine Head Works producer Kiyohiko Sakata confirmed the use of RE Engine for the upcoming sequel. He detailed Machine Head Works' 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 appeal of RE Engine for the Ōkami sequel, Capcom producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi was succinct: "Yes." He elaborated slightly, saying, "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 his perspective on the engine's capabilities: "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 teased that RE Engine could enable them to achieve things in the sequel that they couldn't in the original Ōkami. Sakata explained, "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, also known as Reach for the Moon Engine, is Capcom's proprietary engine initially developed for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. It has since been used in major Capcom titles like the Resident Evil series, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, and Dragon's Dogma. Most games made with RE Engine have a realistic art style, making the application to Ōkami's unique aesthetic particularly intriguing. Capcom is currently developing a new successor engine called REX, which is being slowly integrated into the existing RE Engine, suggesting that elements of REX might also appear in the Ōkami sequel.

For more details from our interview with the leads of the upcoming Ōkami sequel, you can read the full Q&A here.