Capcom goes 4 for 4 in 2026.
Onimusha Way of the Sword is a reboot of the PS2 Onimusha franchise, It serves as a new point of entry for the franchise to new fans like myself, and brings in fantastic samurai combat combined with a story that completely surprised me with its quality of writing and tone.
Gameplay
The combat in Onimusha can be best described as a hack and slash style that is heavily focused on looking cool, parrying attacks and manipulating the environment while also incorporating a couple Soulslike elements without being an actual soulslike game. because Onimusha is much faster, more aggressive, and more focused on making the player feel like a highly skilled samurai rather than being forced into the more slow-paced Souls style of gameplay. The combat mechanics are easily the best part of the game, Parrying, for example, goes beyond just blocking damage as the environment can actively become part of the fight depending on where and how you deflect an enemy. One of my favorite examples happens when you parry a Genma toward certain objects in the environment. You can knock one into a kimono display, causing the kimono to cover its face. They then start stumbling around helplessly, allowing you to quickly finish them off or let them run around until they collide with another enemy, causing them both to get staggered. Small interactions like this are everywhere in Onimusha, and they give combat encounters a huge amount of personality. They also make experimentation worthwhile because you're constantly discovering new interactions between Musashi, the enemies, and the environment. The entire system is designed around creating the fantasy of an incredibly talented swordsman and reminded me in many ways of the stylish dance in Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei while being far more hardcore and nowhere is that more obvious than during the bosses.
The boss and mini-boss fights in this game are genuinely some of the best fights I've had in an action game. They are extremely well designed to the point where finishing certain fights made me immediately want to fight those bosses again simply because of how enjoyable they were mechanically. They don't just feel like larger enemies with more health. Many have unique attack patterns, mechanics, transformations, and interactions that force you to actually understand the combat system. My favorite boss fights were against the Genma brothers Ifuu and Burai, who carry the aesthetic of Japanese 1970s–1980s Banchō and Bōsōzoku gangs. Even though they have the same general theme, their fights are completely different which makes their encounters extremely fun.
Unfortunately, I can't give the same level of praise to the normal enemies, especially their AI. Most enemies just point their back to you with no real thought or tactics to counter Musashi, It made most random fights while fun due to the combat system's depth, be far too easy and simplistic. Instead of chaotic fights against groups of enemies, many encounters become a sequence of individual 1v1 fights as enemies just wait by while you handle them one by one. This becomes especially noticeable when you're fighting groups containing a mini-boss. You would expect the smaller enemies to start attacking while the boss distracts you but most of them just stand-by and do nothing. The major exception is ranged enemies as they can actually attack while you are taking on another enemy, allowing these 1v1 fights to become more like 1v2 or 1v3s. Because of how mechanically strong the combat system already is, I felt often that the lack of enemy aggression made the game far too easy and didn't encourage the usage of all the special tools that you get throughout the game. I really hope they adjust this in a future patch one day as a bit more aggression would go a long way in making Onimusha's combat encounters shine more.
Exploration & Open World
Onimusha takes place in a semi-open world, think more hub-like rather than a completely unrestricted open world. You gradually unlock, revisit, and cleanse different regions of Eastern Kyoto as the story progresses. The land is corrupted by malice, and exploring areas usually involves destroying rifts, removing malice flowers, fighting different forms of Genma, helping residents, completing side activities, and discovering hidden secrets scattered throughout the open world. This structure works really well as the areas are large enough to reward exploration without feeling like giant empty spaces filled with meaningless objectives. Also, returning to older regions is consistently rewarding because with story progression, new enemies and stronger variants begin appearing in previously explored locations.
It is a pretty solid open world that is always fun to explore and see how it progresses after each story encounter, returning to old areas was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the game just to see how they changed and what new enemies have emerged.
Story
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a reboot of the original Onimusha franchise, featuring new characters and a new story that, as far as I know, is completely separate from the narratives of the older games while retaining the core concept and several familiar enemies from previous titles. As someone who entered this game with zero knowledge of the original Onimusha games, I had absolutely no difficulty understanding the story or lore because it is largely disconnected from those games and serves as a great entry point to the franchise.
During the events of the prologue, Musashi gets his hands on the Oni Gauntlet, beginning his involvement in the conflict against the Genma. He is also introduced to the Spirit Mirror, which functions somewhat similarly to bonfires in Souls games, acting as an important location for progression and recovery. This is where Musashi's journey truly begins.
What surprised me most about the story was its tone. I expected something considerably more serious considering the dark setting and demon threat in Onimusha. Instead, the tone is frequently hilarious. Musashi himself contributes heavily to that tone. The prologue does a fantastic job at setting up this tone as Musashi confronts a samurai and his gang, leading to a hilarious chase scene that keeps amping up in ridiculousness before paying off with an actual serious moment that shows the story can be dramatic when it needs to be. Musashi is a hot headed guy but with a kind heart that shows throughout the game when it comes to helping those around him. There are some fantastic emotional pay-offs throughout the story. Overall, I came away extremely satisfied with the story and I have become quite a fan of the lore and world of Onimusha, and of Musashi himself.
FINAL VERDICT
Rather than relying entirely on nostalgia for an audience that already loves this franchise, Onimusha: Way of the Sword manages to stand on its own and deliver a brand new storyline and work as a brand-new entry point for new fans of the franchise to get into it, like myself.
Its combat is phenomenal, with strong focus on parries, counters, sword locks, environmental interactions, executions, Oni Weapons, and the rest of Musashi's toolkit come together to create a combat system that remains satisfying throughout the game. Especially in the amazing boss fights where all the mechanics come together to create some incredible battles.
The story managed to surprise me in a massive way with how well-told and paced it is, making Musashi a character that I felt genuinely connected to, and Onimusha's world be something that I really want to get more into by checking out the older games. Aside from overall minor flaws such as the enemy AI being a bit too dumb for my taste, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a fantastic game.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword - 9/10 - MUST-BUY