Capcom has been on a hell of a roll the last few years. Even just looking at this year, they’ve had two huge hits with Pragmata and Resident Evil: Requiem. With how successfully they’ve been remaking and modernizing the Resident Evil franchise, it felt like it was only a matter of time before they started looking at some of their dormant properties to see what was worth bringing back. Given the popularity of games like Sekiro and Ghosts of Tsushima/Yotei, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve resurrected the supernatural samurai series Onimusha, which hasn’t seen a proper new console game since 2006’s Dawn of Dreams on the PlayStation 2.
I remember playing Onimusha, but given that I haven’t replayed it since release, I couldn’t tell you much about it. For me, it’s most notable for the fact that a bug during the development of the game gave them the idea for Dante’s signature air juggle in Devil May Cry. To me, it was another in the long line of games that tried to do the Resident Evil-style gameplay in a different setting, though it shifted the focus to action.
So while I was excited to see them revisit the franchise, it’s not one that I hold in the same regard as other dormant franchises like Dino Crisis or Viewtiful Joe. Even so, initial trailers showed extremely well, letting the hype build for this new release.
Fortunately, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is not a direct sequel to any of the previous games, requiring no knowledge of other entries to understand what’s going on. You play as samurai Miyamoto Musashi, visually modeled after the likeness of legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, who ends up being killed and sent to Hell where he’s given a gauntlet that grants him the power of the Oni, which he absolutely does not want.
This gets him caught up in a war against the demonic Genma forces that are menacing Edo period Kyoto, which he reluctantly agrees to help out with as a means to remove the gauntlet from his arm and his life. Matters are further complicated when his rival ends up with a gauntlet as well, adding to his list of troubles.
Combat That Demands Precision
While this setup is all well and good, the real thing that brings you to the game is the combat. Not only is it incredible to look at, but it feels great in the hands, providing encounters that are both sufficiently challenging and extremely satisfying. Enemies have both a life and a stamina bar, and attacks will deplete either or both depending on if the enemy is blocking. If you drain their stamina bar, you’ll be able to use a Break Issen move, which dismembers and kills standard creatures. To defend yourself from enemy attacks, you have a dodge and a block, which becomes a stamina-damaging parry when timed just right.
None of this is new, in fact Sekiro made its name doing the same combat mode so elegantly, but the presentation of everything in Onimusha makes it feel incredible. A successful parry is accompanied by a satisfying animation of Musashi twirling his sword to push the enemy away, sparks flying as time slows down to put an exclamation mark on the moment. Attacks are expertly telegraphed with crisp animations that are easy to read, but still require precise timing to pull off.
When you do it feels like magic. During most encounters, button mashing will get you nowhere, requiring you to take a beat and carefully watch enemies as they attack you to time your parry perfectly.
Not everything in the game can be parried, so you have to be careful in how you react to attacks. In general, unarmed attacks and grabs need to be dodged for maximum effect, with a Reflex Dodge that slows time for a moment when you get the timing perfect. It creates an interesting rhythm to combat, never allowing you to spam block or dodge to feel untouchable. While I did often have trouble getting the timing of the grab attack animations, it’s another piece of the puzzle to its amazing combat.
Because stamina will start to recharge after a certain amount of time without being hit or parried, you need to stay on top of enemies if you want to hit them with an Issen attack. This creates a drive to be aggressively defensive, constantly pushing toward the enemy, if only to bait them into attacking so you can parry their strikes. It gives fights the feel of a real duel, playing right into the samurai fantasy perfectly.
As you battle enemies, various colors of souls will pop out of them, and these need to be absorbed into your gauntlet to gain their power. For most of the game, this action cannot be done while attacking, forcing you to find a specific lull in the fight where you can take a beat to stop. Red souls act as a currency, while yellow souls heal you a bit. Blue and purple souls fill different meters that power stronger attacks, so absorbing any of these at the right time can help swing the battle in your favor, meaning it’s always worth the time.
In addition to your standard healing item, which can be replenished by picking up a plant as you explore, you’ll have access to various items that can aid you in the heat of the moment. These didn’t end up being as integral to my strategy, as it took me a while to remember which ones were which in the moment. While the game does slow down time as you open up the wheel to select them, I had trouble parsing the information and figuring out if it was better to enhance my attack or defense or fire resistance at any given moment. The most useful item to me released a burst of various souls for me to absorb, which was helpful in filling up the last bit of my meters or giving me a few more HP when I was out of healing items. It was nice to have them there, but thinking about stat buffs and resistances wasn’t always top of mind in the middle of a sword barrage.
Mastering Musashi’s Moves
This might have been a me problem, but it did take me a while to get used to the controls for Onimusha when starting it. There are two control options in the game, and both of which put your attack standard attack buttons on the face buttons, which was a shift from most games that put your attacks on the shoulder buttons. I definitely found my rhythm pretty quickly, but there were times when muscle memory would take over and I would unleash a poorly timed special move because I mistook it for the attack button. Your mileage may vary on if it gets in your way, but for a game that’s so dependent on quick reflexes, it did trip me up at a few key moments, causing frustration.
Another thing I noticed that was a slight hang up for combat was that recovery animations seemed to take a little bit longer than I thought they should, which often got in the way of me healing. After taking a huge hit, I would try to hit the heal button as soon as possible, but occasionally it wouldn’t activate when it felt like it should based on the animation I was looking at. Every moment counts in a boss fight, so having that timing be a little too long or unclear was something that caused more deaths than I would like to admit.
As the game goes on, you’ll upgrade Musashi’s abilities using souls and items, but it’s more along the lines of linearly unlocking new skills and perks rather than actually crafting any sort of specific build. This gives you a satisfying power curve, allowing for that moment of excitement when you see a boss drop the right material that you’ve been waiting for. The most meaningful choice you’ll make when fighting is which of the Oni Weapons you want to equip. These are one of the elements of your arsenal that’s fueled by souls, and they allow you to do powerful attacks that have different effects. For example, one does massive damage and releases healing yellow souls, while another does huge stamina damage. These can be changed in the moment, and knowing which one is the most useful when your meter is filled will be crucial to surviving encounters.
Throughout the narrative, you unlock various abilities that are given to you from people that you’ve helped out, and these add some much needed variety to getting around. This makes navigation a little more dynamic, adding in little twists that make traversal more fun. One of my favorite abilities is a starter one, Oni Vision, which allows you to see the invisible threads that are attached to walls blocking your way. In order to get the wall to come down, you need to follow these threads and kill the spider hanging on the end of each of them. It’s a fun way to lead you through areas, and it builds nicely in complexity as your abilities unlock.
Boss Fights Worth Dying For
While normal fights with enemies are still fun, the real highlight of the game is the boss fights. Not only are they the most creative visually, presenting some horrific demonic creatures that tower over you, but they’re also intricate challenges that require keen pattern recognition and quick reflexes. They can almost feel like rhythm games, requiring you to know which attacks you need to parry and which to dodge, mixing it up within the same combo. These can be massive skill checks that can block progress for a while, but are the most exciting and satisfying encounters in the game. It’s such a treat any time you run into a new one, as they often are introduced with an epic cutscene that shows off their massive scale and clever design.
Unfortunately, the game reuses bosses a few too many times throughout in a way that robs the later act of the novelty. As far as I could tell, most fights remained pretty similar to their original iteration, with maybe an extra combo or an increase in stats. There’s a stretch at the end of the game that’s all repeated bosses, and that felt like a slog instead of a climactic test of my skills.
Bosses also have attacks where if they land, they can power up the boss and make them stronger, which feels like a bad feedback loop that overly punishes you for mistakes. If I got hit by one of these strikes within the first 30 seconds of the fight, I would just let them kill me because I knew I was going to be at a disadvantage for the rest of the battle. It’s a smart way to encourage the type of perfection the game’s parry system demands, but it often felt a little too punishing.
I loved that the boss fights felt epic, but occasionally they went on for too long, which became exhausting due to the precision required. Most fights took over five minutes, with many bosses having two phases, each with their own health bar. It’s really fun when it goes your way, making it feel like the type of encounter between great warriors that the game is going for, but failing at the last moment always feels like such a time sink.
Near the end of the game, one boss took me over twelve minutes to defeat, and the multiple attempts it took me to achieve that victory added up to hours of time. This is definitely a game for boss fight sickos, and even the Story Mode difficulty level doesn’t completely make them a walk in the park.
The irritation from some of the boss fights was enhanced by the game’s extremely chatty companion Shizuka, the woman who resides in your gauntlet. She acts as the game hint system, constantly reminding you of your attack options during fights. If you miss a dodge, she’ll remind you that you need to evade attacks. If a character is vulnerable to a shot from your bow at this moment, she’ll be sure to let you know, even if you’re already in the process of drawing an arrow. Musashi himself will also give the player reminders of what they need to do, saying quotes along the lines of “that’s right, if I keep parrying your attacks it will eventually drain your stamina, then we’ll see who’s laughing.”
For a game that is very demanding of you, it feels strangely like it’s holding your hand, in a way that felt like it was taunting me when I wasn’t doing things correctly, even though I know that wasn’t the intent.
When The Story Loses Its Edge
In addition to making the action look incredible while you’re playing, Onimusha’s cutscenes also feature expertly choreographed violence. Right off the bat, you’re treated to a breathtaking escape sequence where Musashi is running from a swarm of fighters all trying to kill him as he slashes his way to his retreat. Not only is the animation amazing, but the overall level of graphic fidelity is in line with other Capcom games that use the RE Engine, which are some of the best in the business.
One part that didn’t sit with me super well was the fact that the character of Musashi used the likeness of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune, who was known for his work in films like Seven Samurai and Hidden Fortress. While he’s obviously recognizable for his contributions to samurai fiction, it felt a little weird to me having him be put into the game so long after his death. It wasn’t something that got in the way of my enjoyment of the game, but I don’t think the game would have lost anything if they hadn’t used his face, since they obviously had a different voice actor playing the part.
The quality of the cutscenes, from acting to choreography to overall graphics, was phenomenal, but I wish the narrative was strong enough to match its heights. After Musashi gets the gauntlet, a lot of the story of the game is him talking to people who send him to various places to close rifts that are allowing the Genma to break into our world. About half the time, this would lead to an interesting little short story, with my favorite being an excursion into a horrific laboratory that has a tragic yet beautiful ending, but for the most part it’s just “go to this place and close the rift.”
It takes a while for the game to give you recurring antagonists that drive the overarching plot forward, and it takes even longer for their plans to become concrete enough to feel like they matter. It eventually leads to an epic showdown that acts as a strong climax for the game, but the 25+ hour runtime makes it feel like it takes a bit too long to get there.
Given Musashi’s desire to get rid of the gauntlet and be free of this quest, a lot of the story feels lackluster as he’s complaining about what he has to do. While he has a goofy demeanor that brings charm to his performance, it felt like his surrounding cast of characters had more of a story arc than he did. This makes the story lack a strong driving force outside of how fun it is to get into fights, giving more of the emotional moments to NPCs.
This aimless structure to the narrative bled into the quest design, which featured a hub area that felt like a mini-open world, littered with things to collect and side quests to complete. The side quests were rarely satisfying, often just involving someone asking you to do something that ends up being either clearing out some monsters or closing a rift, and the collectibles were rarely well-hidden, making acquiring them just an exercise in going to a marked location on a map. Many of the more traditional levels you go to had interesting layouts and light puzzle solving that showed some of its Resident Evil-inspired roots, but going through the open world was never quite as compelling.
A Worthy Return For Onimusha
Even with complaints about the narrative, the massive level of polish applied to every part of the presentation makes it hard not to get drawn in by the end. The sweeping adventure music brings so much life to sequences, making boss fights and cutscenes more exciting. The great voice acting brings fairly stereotypical characters to life with loads of personality. It all looks sharp and runs buttery smooth, even on a base PS5.
The best of all is the polish on combat, which is brought to life by amazing visual and sound effects that make every sword clash and perfect dodge feel rewarding. After 25 hours, I would triumphantly whisper “hell yeah” to myself under my breath when I nailed a parry as the scrape of the swords blasted out of my speakers, sparks flying everywhere.
At one point in the game, a character tells Musashi that “detours are part of any journey,” and that’s a bit how I felt during my time with Onimusha. As much as the story took turns that felt uninteresting or uninspired, getting there still felt satisfying thanks to the precise and exhilarating combat. The game would have benefited from trimming some fat, cutting out some of the repeated boss fights and rift cleansing busy work, but if you enjoy the moment-to-moment samurai swordplay as much as I do, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a journey that’s well worth the detours.
Code provided by publisher. Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches September 4 for PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series, the Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.