Onimusha: Way of the Sword – The Final Preview

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is, connected 1 hand, a demanding enactment crippled built astir aggravated brag fights. On the other, it's amazingly forgiving erstwhile it comes to mowing down regular enemies, letting you dispatch them astir nevertheless you like. Those 2 seemingly contradictory philosophies coexist passim the game, often overlapping successful ways that marque it casual to misunderstand astatine first—but they besides signifier 1 of its top strengths.

After the nationalist demo featuring Kiyomizu-dera Temple, galore players came distant saying the crippled felt excessively easy—at slightest until they reached Sasaki Ganryu, the brag waiting connected the celebrated signifier of Kiyomizu's main hall.

I've ever felt that enactment games built astir combat mostly connection 1 of 2 kinds of satisfaction. The archetypal is the thrill of overcoming seemingly intolerable opponents done persistence and mastery. The 2nd is the joyousness of defeating enemies with style—making each brushwood look arsenic chill arsenic possible.

Most enactment games thin heavy toward 1 oregon the other, but Onimusha: Way of the Sword whitethorn beryllium 1 of the uncommon exceptions that embraces some equally.

Style implicit substance?

Much similar Sifu, Onimusha: Way of the Sword dynamically changes combat animations depending connected the positioning of some the subordinate and the enemy. Purposely guarding portion your backmost is turned oregon luring enemies adjacent to a partition triggers unsocial contextual animations that marque each brushwood consciousness cinematic.

Unlike Sifu, positioning isn't a halfway strategical mechanic, but it does springiness players singular state to choreograph stylish sword fights.“

Unlike Sifu, positioning isn't a halfway strategical mechanic, but it does springiness players singular state to choreograph stylish sword fights. As Miyamoto Musashi, you tin elegantly deflect attacks from virtually immoderate direction, creating the content of a superhuman swordsman effortlessly handling each threat.

The game's one-handed and two-handed attacks fundamentally relation arsenic airy and dense attacks. When some combatants onslaught simultaneously, they clash successful a mechanic called Blade Barrage. Switching from a one-handed onslaught to a two-handed one—or vice versa—allows you to triumph the exchange, resulting successful different satisfyingly cinematic sequence.

Parries person go a staple of modern enactment games, but Onimusha: Way of the Sword features 2 chiseled antiaircraft mechanics: Deflect and Parry.

Parry works akin to different enactment games. Use the defender fastener with precise timing, and you'll stagger your opponent, creating an opening for a counterattack.

Deflect, however, works differently. By holding the defender fastener and pressing the DualSense controller's X fastener astatine the infinitesimal an force attacks, you tin safely intercept incoming blows portion dramatically reducing the enemy's Stamina gauge. This gauge functions overmuch similar the Posture metre successful Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: erstwhile it's wholly depleted, you'll person an accidental to unleash a devastating attack.

That creates an absorbing determination during each fight. Do you prioritize creating an contiguous opening done Parry, oregon absorption connected breaking the enemy's Stamina gauge with Deflect?

The 2 mechanics don't conscionable deepen combat—they besides marque each brushwood look spectacular. According to manager Satoru Nihei, Parry and Deflect diagnostic implicit 300 unsocial animations, changing depending connected the enemy's size and type.

And past there's Issen, the mechanic that has ever defined Onimusha.

Issen is simply a devastating counterattack triggered by striking astatine the nonstop infinitesimal an force attacks. It's flashy, immensely satisfying to propulsion off, and instantly kills astir modular enemies. The drawback is that its timing model is choky and a failed effort volition enactment the subordinate astatine a precocious risk. More than thing else, Issen encapsulates some the brilliance and the trouble of Onimusha: Way of the Sword. It represents the series' unsocial equilibrium betwixt risk, reward, and style.

Issen is the precise explanation of precocious risk, precocious reward. Yet against mean enemies, there's small applicable crushed to effort it, arsenic they're casual capable to decision done accepted attacks, truthful players focused purely connected ratio tin simply disregard the mechanic here.

Boss fights however, marque the hazard of utilizing Issen adjacent greater. Missing the timing often results successful taking monolithic damage, and since the bosses themselves are already challenging, I seldom felt I had the luxury of attempting an Issen during my hands-on session. Other journalists astatine the lawsuit shared akin experiences, with respective telling maine they had simply "given up trying to usage Issen against bosses."

So if it's unnecessary against regular enemies and often excessively risky against bosses, what intent does Issen truly serve?

The answer, I think, is simple: it looks bad-ass.

Most of the time, attempting an Issen isn't the astir businesslike strategy. But erstwhile you propulsion it off, the payoff is immensely satisfying—not lone due to the fact that it feels stylish, but due to the fact that there's ever the anticipation of a immense reward. At archetypal glance, Issen seems designed chiefly for players who privation to amusement off, yet mastering it yet becomes 1 of the game's top challenges.

A Little Smarter Than the Genma

During this hands-on session, I explored a brand-new country called the Oni Refuge. While the connection Oni itself is Japanese for demon oregon ogre, successful Onimusha, the Oni are depicted arsenic an ancient, supernatural contention of spiritual beings successful warfare with the evil Genma faction. The Oni Refuge is simply a spot created by the Oni to hunt the Genma.

The country begins wrong a cave repaired with kintsugi - a Japanese method of repairing breached pottery with powdered golden - earlier opening into a surreal scenery wherever monolithic rocks and fragments of ruined shrines and temples interval done the sky. Unlike stages based connected real-world locations, this is unapologetically fantasy. It's unsettling, mysterious, and possesses a uniquely Japanese consciousness of beauty.

The level plan besides takes vantage of the mounting successful ways that simply wouldn't beryllium imaginable successful a realistic environment.

Early successful the stage, Musashi acquires the Oni Bow, a magical bow with an unlimited proviso of arrows. From that constituent on, it becomes the centerpiece of the area's design. Simple biology puzzles person you shooting monolithic boulders conscionable arsenic enemies locomotion underneath them, oregon firing astatine elephantine cubes blocking your way to wide the mode forward.

At 1 point, Musashi quips, "There's nary mode a Genma encephalon could lick a puzzle similar this."

I was relieved to observe that I'm astatine slightest somewhat smarter than a Genma. That said, anyone hoping for elaborate puzzle-solving whitethorn travel distant disappointed. Compared to Capcom's different caller releases, Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, Onimusha: Way of the Sword feels overmuch person to a axenic enactment game. Exploration exists, but it's astir apt champion viewed arsenic a complement to the combat alternatively than a defining feature.

Combat wrong the Oni Refuge is mostly designed astir originative uses of the Oni Bow, making its biology interactions consciousness similar a earthy hold of the enactment alternatively than a interruption from it.

Boss Battles Reinvent Soul Absorption

At the extremity of the Oni Refuge awaits Daidara, a gigantic man-eating Genma. Unlike Sasaki Ganryu, the humanoid brag featured successful the demo, Daidara is simply a towering monster. Its sweeping nine attacks and charging assaults are comparatively casual to read, but getting caught by 1 deals tremendous damage.

The astir absorbing facet of the fight, however, isn't the monster itself—it's however it transforms 1 of Onimusha's oldest mechanics. Soul Absorption has ever been 1 of the defining features of the series. After defeating enemies, Musashi tin sorb the souls they permission down utilizing his Oni Gauntlet by pressing L2. Different-colored souls reconstruct health, capable peculiar onslaught gauges, oregon assistance acquisition points. To beryllium honest, it's a strategy that has remained mostly unchanged since the PlayStation 2 era, and by modern standards it doesn’t consciousness peculiarly interesting.

Daidara changes that entirely. The gluttonous beast tin sorb souls arsenic well. If it manages to devour them earlier you do, its tummy swells and it powers up, turning Soul Absorption into a frantic contention betwixt subordinate and boss.

Because Daidara seldom lets up its violative pressure, you're perpetually forced to dodge and support portion simultaneously trying to sorb souls earlier it can. Even if it does win successful powering up, though, each isn't lost. By relentlessly attacking its enlarged stomach, you tin retrieve a immense fig of the souls it consumed.

It's a clever improvement of a classical mechanic. Soul Absorption inactive feels unmistakably Onimusha, but it besides gains a level of interactivity that makes it consciousness amazingly caller successful 2026. Previous games featured enemies similar Gyaran that could bargain souls from the player, but ne'er successful a mode that created specified a meaningful back-and-forth during a large brag fight.

According to manager Satoru Nihei, Daidara isn't the lone brag that gives Soul Absorption its ain unsocial twist, which has maine looking guardant to discovering what the remainder of the crippled has successful store.

Action Over Exploration

After the Oni Refuge stage, I returned to the Rokudo-chinnoji Temple, the player's cardinal hub. Ringing the temple doorbell transports you to a abstracted magnitude wherever you tin revisit combat tutorials and rematch antecedently defeated bosses. It's besides a convenient spot to signifier techniques you've conscionable learned. Interestingly, Deflect—which was disposable from the commencement successful the demo—is really unlocked aboriginal successful the afloat game.

From Rokudo-chinnoji, I ventured into Kyoto, a wide-linear country that serves arsenic the game's superior exploration zone, completing respective main quests on the way. Most of the regular enemies present weren't peculiarly threatening, making these sections consciousness similar a invited breather betwixt the much demanding brag encounters. Before long, I recovered myself attempting Issen again—not due to the fact that I had to, but simply due to the fact that it was amusive to combat stylishly.

I had already fought Rasho-gan backmost astatine Summer Game Fest successful June, wherever my demo ended with the frustrating feeling that I had been conscionable 1 measurement distant from victory. As it turns out, I wasn't adjacent astatine all, arsenic Rasho-gan has a 2nd phase.“

Random events wherever villagers are attacked by Genma tin besides hap here. Saving them rewards you with items, portion failing means they truly bash die. These events are beauteous straightforward, and I person to admit it already began feeling repetitive during my three-hour hands-on session.

There are different optional exploration elements arsenic well, including hidden items scattered passim the world. One reward I peculiarly appreciated was the quality to unlock further outfits for Musashi, though that's not exclusive to the wide-linear areas.

Even so, I wouldn't accidental exploring Kyoto itself was particularly exciting. What stayed with maine wasn't the exploration, but the brag combat against Rasho-gan, whom I encountered astatine the Yasui Konpiragu Shrine wrong the area.

Cutting Ties

I had already fought Rasho-gan backmost astatine Summer Game Fest successful June, wherever my demo ended with the frustrating feeling that I had been conscionable 1 measurement distant from victory.

As it turns out, I wasn't adjacent astatine all, arsenic Rasho-gan has a 2nd phase. In fact, each brag I've fought successful Onimusha: Way of the Sword seems to person a 2nd phase. As it should beryllium successful a well-crafted enactment game, each brag dramatically changes its onslaught patterns arsenic the combat progresses. Once Rasho-gan enters its 2nd phase, it begins utilizing a troublesome drawback onslaught that caught maine implicit and implicit again.

What I besides admit is that, overmuch similar Daidara's Soul Absorption battle, each brag introduces its ain unsocial gameplay twist. Rasho-gan masquerades arsenic a deity of matchmaking and breached relationships, and its assemblage is bound unneurotic by mystical threads. By virtually cutting those bonds, you tin temporarily weaken the boss.

Rasho-gan proved to beryllium a formidable opponent, taking maine rather a fewer attempts to defeat. Little by little, I learned its wide assortment of onslaught patterns and yet realized that relying connected Deflect was acold much effectual than trying to Parry. It was the benignant of satisfying triumph that lone comes from a well-designed brag fight—one wherever you tin genuinely consciousness yourself improving with each attempt.

After yet bringing Rasho-gan down, I returned to carving done regular enemies with ease, and that's erstwhile I realized what makes Onimusha: Way of the Sword consciousness truthful antithetic from its peers.

Its bosses are each spot arsenic demanding arsenic those recovered successful a Soulslike, but the travel betwixt them isn't built astir changeless punishment. Onimusha: Way of the Sword is simply a crippled that manages to situation the subordinate without becoming exhausting, allowing the crippled to displacement people betwixt moments of aggravated attraction and opportunities to simply bask stylish swordplay.

Esra Krabbe is an exertion astatine IGN Japan.