Sept. 2, 2026, 6:02 a.m. PT
“Onimusha: Way of the Sword” is a treatise on confidence.
Like a finely polished blade, it reflects the confidence of its wielder — the player — in bending the game’s mechanics to one’s will in the face of an overwhelming enemy threat.
It also reflects Capcom’s ongoing confidence in resurrecting dormant franchises from its storied past after suffering through its own lost decade in the 2010s.
It’s a journey with many twists and turns.
Two decades ago, “Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams” bowed out with lower than expected sales compared to previous games in the series. The poor performance raised questions of franchise fatigue, ultimately ringing what appeared to be the death knell for the once popular series.
And for some time, the franchise was indeed dead.
With the exception of the card game “Onimusha Soul” in 2012, all hope for a new entry in the main series seemed lost.
In 2017, however, Capcom started to regain its mojo.
The release of the highly lauded “Resident Evil 7: Biohazard” signaled the return of a re-energized and more focused Capcom. The following year, “Monster Hunter World” finally broke through outside of Japan, transforming from a niche action franchise to a global phenomenon.
It was the release of Devil May Cry 7 in 2019however, that really fueled newfound hope for a new Onimusha game. Like Onimusha, Devil May Cry was a once popular franchise that was languishing in Capcom’s dustbin of games after the failed “DmC: Devil May Cry” reboot in 2013.
The success of Devil May Cry 7, however, signaled that demand was still there for those older franchises.
There was one condition, however, and that is painstaking polish.
You can’t expect to wheel out the decayed carcass of an old game and see success. For an old dragon to rise again, it needed to have that same fierce fire burning inside.
An old soul rises again in ‘Onimusha: Way of the Sword’
For Onimusha’s return to the major leagues, the brains behind “Way of the Sword” opted to bring in not just something new but something old as well.
The approach includes reverting back to the franchise’s use of the face of actual actors for the main protagonist once more. The decision to stray from this Onimusha tradition with “Dawn of Dreams” was cited as one of the potential reasons why the game didn’t do as well as its predecessors.
To play protagonist Musashi Miyamoto in the latest Onimusha game, Capcom brought in one of the big guns — or swords — of Japanese cinema. The late actor Toshiro Mifune built a reputation as a favorite casting choice by director Akira Kurosawa for his movies, including the rambunctious Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai. Further lending to Mifune’s chops is the fact that he also played the legendary ronin Musashi Miyamoto in a movie trilogy helmed by director Hiroshi Inagaki.
Onimusha’s rendition of Miyamoto incorporates several of the traits that Mifune imbued in his movie roles. Those traits include balancing quiet gravitas with loud wildness and a disarming goofiness that contrasts with the more serious portrayal often seen in protagonists for these types of games. In that sense, this version of Miyamoto shares some common ground with another Capcom protagonist, Dante, of the Devil May Cry series.
This penchant for levity is seen early in the game when Miyamoto challenges the head of a martial clan and finds himself facing a literal mob of swordsmen on the way out.
Normally, this would be followed by a cool, overpowered protagonist taking everyone down. Onimusha’s Miyamoto, however, does exactly what you and I would do in that same exact situation, which is to run like hell.
Granted, the skilled Miyamoto manages to get his licks in — and quite impressively, I might add — against the dishonorable group of swordsmen. But there is something to be said about someone who knows the importance of literally living to fight another day and doesn’t have delusions of taking on an angry horde dead set on keeping your quiet so they can save face.
Onimusha doesn’t take long to take a serious turn, however.
While Miyamoto is a strong and talented warrior against humans, even he is but a man who’s way out of his league against the demonic Genma who serve as the main antagonists of the game. In fact, the early fates of Miyamoto and his main rival Sasaki Ganryu are one of the more sobering parts of Onimusha, especially after how superhuman he looked against other warriors.
Like a cockroach, however, Miyamoto manages to soldier on somehow while also receiving an unwanted gift. Miyamoto’s demonic Oni Gauntlet gives him the power to go toe to toe against the Genma and even suck their souls like a late Sengoku-era arm vacuum.
The gauntlet also serves as one of the foundations to Onimusha’s gameplay — its combat.
‘Tis but a scratch, I’ve had worse’
At the heart of the combat in “Onimusha: Way of the Sword,” is the game’s take on the familiar action game template that balances risk vs. reward.
It all ties back to that confidence I mentioned earlier.
You have your standard mix of light one-handed slashes and heavy two-handed strikes to deal damage against your foes. You can also block enemy attacks at the cost of Musashi’s stamina.
What truly brings the combat alive, though, are Musashi’s arsenal of advanced tricks that take the fight to the enemy, albeit with some risk if you happen to botch your timing.
By blocking at the last second, for example, Musashi can pull off a parry that breaks a foe’s balance and grants an opening to counterattack. One of the neat things about parrying is it can be performed when facing a different direction, allowing Musashi to do actions like a back parry that makes him look as cool as a pickled cucumber. It can also be used to send enemies toward obstacles like walls and carts.
Successfully perform multiple parries and Musashi enters his blazing state, granting him extra power and the ability to extract more souls to replenish his power. Parries also eat up your enemy’s stamina, which eventually puts them in an exhausted state that leaves them vulnerable.
Sometimes, a parry can trigger a blade clash where Musashi and his foe lock weapons. When this happens, you will need to do the required button inputs to come out on top.
If you press a direction while parrying, you can also perform a variation on parrying known as a deflection. This breaks an opponent’s stance, providing a big opening for you to exploit. It can even be used to send back projectiles such as arrows back toward the enemy. Think of it as introducing enemy archers to the principle of karma.
Sometimes, it’s better to avoid enemy attacks altogether.
Musashi is capable of evading enemy attacks by pressing dash at the last second. Evading is especially effective against enemy attacks that don’t involve weapons such as grapples that can’t be parried. Do it with perfect timing and Musashi will do a reflex dodge. A reflex dodge can be followed up with a sword attack or reflex combo that greatly reduces a foe’s stamina. It can also lead to a grab reversal, where Musashi does a grapple counter. By the way, grapple counters can be done against monsters as well, which looks pretty slick.
The riskiest move in Musashi’s advanced arsenal is a weapon counter known as an “issen.” This is performed by responding to an enemy attack at the last moment with either a light or heavy attack of your own instead of parrying or dodging.
Whiff the timing and you pretty much eat all the damage without the luxury of a fallback block or dodge. Pull it off, however, and you can initiate a truly damaging counter or even a blade barrage. A blade barrage, by the way, requires you to follow up with an alternate attack depending on what move initiated the barrage. If you started the barrage with a light attack, then you need to follow that up with a heavy attack to successfully finish it.
Musashi’s “issen” moves also have variations such as chained versions that can be linked against multiple foes and a “break” version that leaves foes and even bosses extremely vulnerable.
Bosses, by the way, are the highlight of this “Onimusha: Way of the Sword.”
In addition to sporting impressive designs, bosses also possess a great array of moves and mechanics that make battles extremely fun once you figure them out. These include targeting specific body parts to take out armor pieces and expose vulnerabilities. You can also counter normally devastating forward rushes, and turn them into opportunities to launch an attack of your own.
The combat is easily one of the best parts of Onimusha and essentially rewards you based on the effort that you put into it. There will be times when things go really well and you nail every parry, dodge and “issen.” Then there will be times when nothing seems to work the way you want it to and your confidence plummets. Sometimes, both things happen within the same boss fight.
During my first fight against Sasaki Ganryu, for example, I started out really well and got him down to his last chunk of health without suffering any damage. Naturally, I started messing up after that and soon found myself just one hit away from eating dirt. Somehow, I managed to string together one perfect sequence of parries and “issen” counters at the last minute to snatch victory from the jaws of near-certain defeat.
It’s an experience that happened more than once and, each time, I came away feeling like a million bucks. Or yen. Or whatever currency applies.
Onimusha’s open world opens up some familiar issues
Of course, combat is just one aspect of “Onimusha: Way of the Sword.”
As you open up Kyoto, you also unlock the ability to explore and start undertaking quests while also upgrading Musashi’s gears and skills.
Although interesting, this is also where the pacing of the game starts to get a bit uneven after the game’s compelling opening. Open-world exploration is always a double-edged sword and Onimusha is not exempt from its pitfalls.
The quests that come with a story are the ones that I enjoyed more as they add to the narrative in their own little way. Other activities, however, can feel akin to busy work, which I’m not a fan of.
The extra content is great for folks who want to squeeze every drop of juice from the Onimusha orange and find stuff to do. For folks who want a more curated experience, however, it can be distracting to the overall action experience.
Onimusha also has a tendency of recycling enemy encounters. Granted, each return by a boss-type character isn’t exactly the same. But it still feels like treading the same ground and stretching the content at times.
Despite its faults, Onimusha provides a great canvas for the experiences it provides.
The game is a visual treat that boasts fantastic and, at times, eerie locales for you to travel through. The character designs for its cast and even the foes you face along the way are also memorable, giving the Onimusha plenty of personality.
Add a soundtrack that deftly switches between haunting melodies to pulse-pounding orchestral scores to set the mood and it’s clear that the people behind the game put in a good amount of effort in crafting it.
It isn’t perfect.
Sometimes, though, you just need a stepping stone to get back on the right track after losing your way. In that sense, I feel quite confident that Onimusha is back on solid ground.
Jason Hidalgo covers business and technology for the Reno Gazette Journal. He also reviews the latest video games and writes about pop culture trends in his Technobubble features. Like this content? Support local journalism with an RGJ digital subscription.
