Hands-On: Onimusha: Way Of The Sword Is An Excellent Samurai Revival

Forbes

9 hours ago

Out of all the games that Capcom has on its upcoming slate, I'll be honest and admit that Onimusha: Way of the Sword was probably the least appealing to me personally. I don't have a ton of experience with the series, having just recently played a bit of the older games, and I'm a bit tired of grimdark sword bros fighting monsters and demons. Thankfully, despite my apprehension, I came away from this demo absolutely hungry for more.
Capcom recently invited me to their office in San Francisco to check out this and a few other games early and I'm definitely happy I took them up on that offer. Onimusha: Way of the Sword doesn't even have a definitive release date yet, but it's already shaping up to be an unbelievably smooth and effortlessly cool action game.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword—Hands-On Preview
I don't know much about the lore and timeline of the Onimusha series, but from what I've gathered, Way of the Sword serves as a sort of soft reboot. For longtime fans there will be plenty to dissect and sink their teeth into, but for newcomers like me you won't necessarily feel confused or out of place if you're just jumping right in.
Something I find interesting about Onimusha is that it blends fantastical elements and folklore with real world locations, figures, and elements. Like yes, there was a famous samurai named Miyamoto Musashi, but no, he probably didn't fight demons or have a magical energy gauntlet. Then again, we can never be too sure.
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In my demo, it seemed like the game was picking up perhaps a couple of hours into the main storyline. Clearly, lots of stuff had already happened, but it was also still relatively early on as basic mechanics were being explained and our main character, Musashi himself, seemed very confused about everything still.
This new Onimusha adventure takes place in Edo-era Kyoto, except its overrun and corrupted by some disgusting creatures and horrible, infected energy. Monsters roam around, zombie-like husks of humanoid bodies attack you on sight, and plenty of horrifying creatures are out for blood. It's a pretty dangerous world and the few innocent civilians I saw were only in frame long enough for me to witness their death before I had the chance to save them.
Onimusha is an extremely violent and gory game, but it's not gratuitous. The blood and visceral imagery plays an important role of not only setting the oppressive tone, but also in establishing your character as an absolute badass. Once you get the hang of combat, Musashi is able to literally slice enemies in half and dispatch basic foes with little more than a flick of his wrist.
This is absolutely a dark and dangerous world, don't get me wrong, but it's liberating to feel like a force to be feared and respected rather than like a bystander struggling to survive. It's a palpable juxtaposition and the flow of combat in this game is something that came to me very quickly.
For a brief 20-minute demo, I was exposed to a ton of depth in the at-first simple melee combat system. There are basic quick attacks with square, two-handed heavy attacks with triangle, and blocks with L1. You can sprint around and lock onto enemies, or use your special Oni gauntlet powers with R1. Plus, absorbing different colored souls from dead enemies will charge up different gauges or heal you as well.
But looking deeper than the basics is where things got really interesting. If I tapped L1 just as an attack is about to connect, I can parry the attack and redirect an enemy's momentum in a different direction, often exposing their backside, and powering up the Blaze Gauge for my sword. Once full, I can enter a Blazing State, dealing more sword damager and freeing me up to continue focusing on other threats.
Alternatively, I can hold L1 and press X to deflect an attack instead, redirecting it back at them, and depleting their stamina in a big way. This opens them up for finishing attacks once their stamina is depleted fully. It's a slightly riskier maneuver than a simple parry and has its own situational usefulness.
Pressing circle instead allows me to evade an attack and if timed perfectly, opens the enemy up for a quick follow-up attack. When surrounded, I found this especially useful as the window for a successful evasion is much larger than for other more offensive counters.And finally, the most difficult but rewarding maneuver, is the Issen. Just before an enemy attack lands—like, literally, just a millisecond before—you can choose to attack via square or triangle preemptively. While the timing has to be just right and missing it will obviously force you to take full damage, when you land it, the results are extremely satisfying.
The real magic is when you combine all of these elements together into a reactive, improvised ballet of carnage. Rather than feeling nervous and overwhelmed, I got excited if a group of enemies surrounded me because it finally meat combat would last longer than three seconds.
Instead of slicing a single enemy in half with two quick slashes, I could deflect one enemy into another, spin around behind the third to execute them from behind and evade into a slow-motion finisher for the rest. It feels like a mixture of the combo-laden intensity of modern Ninja Gaiden games with the rhythmic counter attacking fluidity of a Batman Arkham game.
The best part of the whole demo was undoubtedly the boss fight at the very end, as it finally presented a real challenge. The enemy was just as fast, fluid, and unrelenting as I was so I enjoyed that fight most of all. I don't think my health ever dropped below halfway the entire demo while playing on the normal 'Action' difficulty setting, so I'm eager to see what the rest of the game has in store.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is slated for release next year in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.