Onimusha: Way of the Sword Goofy Gorefest for Samurai Sickos

In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, you don’t just play as one of the most famous swordsmen in history. You also play like 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 is released on Sept. 25. The good news is that the stage of the game I played was very similar to last year’s brutal, skilled sword fighting.

The good news is that your character, Japanese legend Miyamoto Musashi, is much funnier and weirder than previous teasers for the game suggested, better matching the game’s bloody-horror tone. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good stoic hero burdened by the code he lives for, but we’ve had plenty of games featuring samurai looking to reclaim honor or revenge, from 2019’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Double and 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima to Yotesas Creative’s Samurai: Samurai and Ghost of Yotessas. (both released last year).

Demon slaying aside, it wasn’t until I worked with my hands that I felt that the Way of the Sword might deviate from the path traveled by those other degrees. In this episode of the game, I entered the city by slightly defeating the demon soldiers (called Genma), but I wandered somewhere in the sunny part of the village, finding the spirits of the locals who had faced strange problems, such as amputating a leg to cure a sore knee or a couple who turned into dolls forever to stay together. Hmm!

In order to deal with the oni demon that is cursing the villagers, Musashi must find the missing spirit images, and he is defiant about it. To cross the river, he borrows a boat from the dancer Okuni (presumably Izumo no Okuni, the historical founder of kabuki), and complains that he doesn’t know how it works: “When will a skater have to row a boat?” He tries to explain how the oars work and calls him an idiot. Good.

In many traditional samurai games, it’s nice to see a good fight against being locked into social classes and rituals, but that can feel self-indulgent and restrictive after a while. The defiant, oafish Musashi stripped of the code of honor and duty of bushido equals the chaos of a game of demons running amok in the countryside. Franchise star Oni Gauntlet talks to him, trying to stop his bad behavior. There are jokes in between the slick sword slashing.

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

Read more: Onimusha: Interview with the Sword Maker: Reviving the Series After 20 Years

Little by little, it is painful to read many parishes of Onimusha

As fans have seen in the various trailers that Capcom has released, Path of the Sword has several different ways to deal with incoming enemy attacks from near or far.

There is a basic block that draws power. There is a standard parry that requires good timing and is needed to counter certain attacks, while dodging works for others. You can counter various attacks as well to reflect back. Finally, there’s the Issen method, which looks awful when you pull it off, leaving a sort of Musashi shadow for the enemy to cut off before they can retaliate — you have to attack just frames before the enemy hits you. I haven’t released it rashly, but there are YouTube strategy guides for people playing the free Way of the Sword demo available now.

Unlike the title Sekiro: Shadows Die Double, one is not clear the need master the counters to defeat basic enemies, which can be hacked with the sword method, but bosses will quickly humiliate players who don’t. That’s on purpose, Way of the Sword producer Koichi Shibata told the media in a closed press conference before our preview of the game.

I fumbled through most of the part with the light sword, but when I got to the boss at the end of the demo, I was soundly beaten to a halt. I am by no means a champion, but I slowly gained time on the ground during the fight. The rhythm is comprehensible, the boss’s movements are more easily telegraphed than the annoying offensive attacks of Elden Ring and other Soulsborne bosses.

And very nice boss. Do you remember the disabled villagers I mentioned? The oni convinced them to let him chop off body parts with giant tails — and of course, it’s very satisfying to join in as his incredibly long body flings itself at Musashi. Exhausted to the ground at the start of the fight, yet I was out of touch at the end after closing in between parries, hitting him with a health wound left on the screen with blood rushing through my veins.

In my focus on the ken, I ignored my special weapon of choice earlier — two knives that cut golden orbs, which can be absorbed to restore health — and my bow, which I only used to cancel out some massive wind blasts from the bosses. There are a lot of other things that I also forgot existed, like defense talismans, that might have helped. If you are one with the sword, there is nothing else.

After my victory and the end of the demo, Capcom showed us more of the gameplay, where producer Shibata played a different part of the game. In addition to some well-timed Issen counters and delayed effects, Shibata demonstrated other gameplay mechanics, including wall running and saving villagers from demons as short encounters. The Onimusha developer fought two never-before-seen bosses with amazing names like Byakue, The Hundred Defilements and Dohatsu-ten, Heaven’s Bane.

The preview had the tone of a dark, demon-filled Japanese historical fiction, which felt as serious as its strong combat. But I saw the game breathe in this demo, showing off Musashi’s fierce personality and pride with a strut equal to his exceptional swordsmanship. You’re right — I want to guide a knucklehead racing around cursed villages, killing demons for the challenge rather than a tired sense of duty. Now if only I could get a timeline for his Issen-looking counters…