Onimusha: Way of the Sword Is a Goofy Gorefest for Samurai Sickos

In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, you don’t just play as one of the most famous master swordsmen in history. You also play as kind of an idiot.

At Summer Game Fest, I sat down for about an hour of hands-on time with Capcom’s triumphant return to the Onimusha franchise, which will break nearly two decades of dormancy when Way of the Sword releases on Sept. 25. The good news is that the section of the game I played was more of the same brutal, skillful swordplay combat I briefly saw last year.

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The great news is that your protagonist, Japanese legend Miyamoto Musashi, is more fun and odd than previous glimpses of the game suggested, better matching the game’s comically bloody action-horror tone. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good stoic warrior burdened by the code he lives for, but we’ve had a slew of games featuring samurai seeking to restore their honor or enact revenge, from 2019’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima to its sequel Ghost of Yotei and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (both released last year).

Demon-killing aside, it wasn’t until this hands-on that I felt that Way of the Sword might meaningfully stray from the path walked by those other titles. In this chunk of the game, I entered a town partially overcome by demon soldiers (called Genma), but wandered through a rift of sorts into a brightly sun-dappled area in the village, finding spirits of locals who had all happily suffered bizarre fates, like having half a leg amputated to cure an aching knee or a couple turned into dolls to stay silently together forever. Hmm!

To confront the oni demon cursing the villagers, Musashi must recover some missing statues of spirits, and he’s pretty rude about it. To get across a river, he borrows a boat from dancer Okuni (presumably Izumo no Okuni, the historic founder of kabuki), and then complains that he doesn’t know how it works: “When would a swordsman need to paddle a boat?” She tries to explain how oars function and calls him an idiot. It’s great.

In more traditional samurai games, it’s pleasant to see the noble struggle of being locked in social hierarchies and norms, but that can feel rote and restrictive after a while. A rude, oafish Musashi unmoored from bushido’s code of respect and duty fits the game’s chaotic setting of demons running amok through rural villages. The franchise’s iconic Oni Gauntlet speaks to him, trying to curb his poor manners. There’s comedy amid slick sword slashing.

And yes, my sword got very bloody — though mastering Musashi’s moves was harder than I expected.

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Slowly, painfully learning Onimusha’s many parries

As fans have seen in various trailers Capcom has released, Way of the Sword has several different ways to deal with incoming enemy attacks from up close or afar.

There’s a basic block that drains stamina. There’s a standard parry that requires good timing and is required to counter some attacks, while dodging works for others. You can parry ranged attacks as well to reflect them back. Finally, there’s the Issen technique, which looks badass when you pull it off, leaving a shadow form of Musashi for the enemy to cut through before he strikes back — you have to attack in mere frames before the enemy hits you. I never consciously pulled it off, but there’s already YouTube guides of the technique for folks playing the free Way of the Sword demo available now.

Unlike in the seminal Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, one doesn’t explicitly need to master counters to beat basic enemies, which can be clumsily hacked through in Way of the Sword, but bosses will quickly humble players who don’t. That’s intentional, Way of the Sword producer Koichi Shibata told media in a behind-closed-doors briefing ahead of our preview with the game.

I fumbled through most of the section with simple sword slashes, but when I reached the boss at the end of the demo, I was soundly smacked around until I locked in. By no means am I a parrying master, but I slowly got the timing down over the course of the fight. The rhythm is comprehensible, the boss’s moves more easily telegraphed than some of the more annoyingly rapid attacks of Elden Ring and other Soulsborne bosses.

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And it’s quite a thematically fun boss. Remember the delusionally maimed villagers I mentioned? This oni hypnotically convinced them to let him chop away body parts with massive shears — and it’s so, so satisfying to parry them as his grotesquely elongated body hurls them at Musashi. Worn down early in the fight, I nonetheless became nearly untouchable by the end after locking in with parries, beating him with a sliver of health left on screen and blood rushing in my veins.

In my focus on the blade, I ignored my preselected special weapon — two daggers that slice out golden orbs, which can be absorbed to restore health — and my bow, which I only used to cancel certain big wind-up attacks from the boss. There’s plenty of other items I likewise forgot existed, like defense talismans, that probably would’ve helped. When you’re one with the sword, there is nothing else.

After my victory and the end of the demo, Capcom showed us a bit more in hands-off gameplay, where producer Shibata played a different section of the game. Aside from some well-timed Issen counters and grab reversals, Shibata showed off other gameplay mechanics, including wall-running and saving villagers from demons as short encounters. The Onimusha producer fought two as-yet unseen bosses with incredible names like Byakue, The Hundred Defilements and Dohatsu-ten, Heaven’s Bane.

Prior previews had a dark, demon-infested Japanese historical fantasy tone, which felt stiflingly serious alongside its tight combat. But I saw the game breathe in this demo, showing Musashi’s rough personality and ego with a strut that fits his elite swordsmanship. You’re right — I do want to guide a knucklehead with a competitive streak around cursed villages, killing demons for the challenge rather than a tired sense of duty. Now if I could just get the timing down for his rad-looking Issen counters…