The reason why the character models are not as detailed as in the first two was because this game contained fully 3D environments and ran at 60FPS. The extra details would have lowered the FPS down to 30.
Was released at the highest point of Takeshi Kaneshiro's popularity. Samanosuke is modeled after Takashi.
Samanosuke is in his late 40' or 50's but still looks young. This is because the Oni Gauntlet ages him at a slower pace.
Samanosuke speaks English even when the spirit Ako is not present. In reality Samanosuke should be speaking Japanese because that is his mother tongue.