It’s secure to say we’re presently residing by a golden age for swordplay video games. Sekiro and Ghost of Tsushima lead a pack of achieved duelers the place each strike, lunge, and parry feels supremely satisfying. Hoping to seek out a place amongst them is Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Capcom’s long-awaited return to a sequence slumbering since the PS2 days. And, primarily based on a small pattern I’ve been capable of play at gamescom 2025, I’d say its chances are high trying superb certainly.
Set in a darkish fantasy reimagining of Kyoto throughout the Edo interval of Japan, Onimusha: Way of the Sword has you are taking up the sharpened blades of Miyamoto Musashi, a swordsman sporting each the face of the late legendary actor Toshiro Mifune and a speaking gauntlet that eats the souls of useless enemies. That second level is the extra pertinent one; fallen foes drop souls, represented by flames that float round the battlefield earlier than being sucked up by your hungry jewellery.
Proper, earlier than you get any flawed concepts, Onimusha might have souls however it’s completely not a Soulslike. On its default “motion” problem setting, Way of the Sword isn’t notably punishing, a minimum of not on this 30-minute demo (which, admittedly, does really feel plucked from very early in the story). It actually requires talent to get the most out of the enjoyably flashy fight, however beneficiant parry home windows, a block that protects from all angles, and cushioned enemy assaults imply Onimusha appears on monitor to be one for all motion followers, not simply the FromSoft fanatics. And whereas I might have appreciated to have confronted a steeper problem on this demo, the foes I confronted – particularly the end-of-level boss – felt well-judged.
I’m notably impressed by how fight is constructed on a basis of each well being and stamina. Enemies are, of course, defeated by bottoming out their well being bars, however every time you strike or deflect their assaults, you erode away their stamina bar. If that hits zero, the foe turns into exhausted, fairly actually pausing to catch their breath. That is, of course, the excellent time to strike – a single button press triggers a “Break Issen” transfer that violently dismembers your goal. The animations are gloriously extravagant and may be chained collectively if a couple of enemies have been exhausted at the similar time.
For normal enemies, breaking their stamina spells prompt dying. And since parries rapidly exhaust fodder, you’re rewarded for honing that talent – you are taking much less harm and get to witness cool kills. I’m deeply amused by how one can deflect arrows again at archers who then, winded by their very own projectile, stand round merely awaiting their destiny of single-click decapitation.
However issues change in relation to boss fights. The demo’s closing conflict towards the exuberant Sasaki Ganryu – a tall, gangly samurai powered up by his personal Oni gauntlet – is a a lot fiercer affair during which you’ll deplete his stamina bar a minimum of as soon as earlier than with the ability to deal the closing blow. On this state of affairs, another model of “Break Issen” plots two marks in your goal: strike the pink one and also you’ll be rewarded with a burst of further harm, hit the purple to generate a bonus batch of souls.
And that brings us again to souls. These flickering flames are color coded; pink souls are used to buy upgrades, whereas blue souls feed your Oni Energy Gauge, which when full can be utilized to unleash particular assaults. Yellow souls, in the meantime, are rarer and replenish your well being. All three are important, not simply for their particular person properties, however for how they kind a cycle.
As an illustration, in the demo Musashi was geared up with the Two Celestials, a twin-dagger particular weapon that reaps yellow souls from fallen enemies. It will possibly solely be used when the Oni Energy Gauge is topped off. Because it’s a highly effective assault that requires sources, it’s wise to make use of it towards more durable opponents who, naturally, deal extra harm. Killing such foes with the Two Celestials principally refunds harm you are taking due to the yellow souls the assault creates. And so there’s the cycle – you kill foes to realize blue souls, which powers up the means to make use of particular assaults, which trigger enemies to drop yellow souls, which immediately heal you from the wounds sustained throughout that combat. It maybe doesn’t really feel fairly that elegant in-game, however there’s a clear system upon which battle thrives.
There are different examples of that, too. Profitable parries generously construct a diamond-shaped meter that finally causes your blade to briefly erupt with damage-buffling blue sparks. Hitting that mark feels incredible – the animation alone makes it really feel as if the battle has been hit by a shot of adrenaline – however in the event you can proceed a profitable chain of deflects, you’ll be able to maintain that buff seemingly indefinitely. It’s one other good system that rewards constant talent along with your blade.
It’s solely after I got here to put in writing this preview that I realised that Onimusha could be very a lot a recreation about managing gauges and meters. You want to deplete well being bars and stamina meters, construct energy gauges, and preserve different buff-providing vessels topped up. On paper, which will sound uninteresting and overly mathematical for a recreation about supernatural samurai preventing by demon-infested feudal Japan, however in apply it really works nicely. That’s totally all the way down to the undeniable fact that the implement for juggling these meters – your sword – feels incredible to wield.
The parry window could also be large, however the ringing clang of a deflect is supremely satisfying, particularly as a result of the subsequent counter assault animation is so extravagantly slick. Slicing by the amusingly gross common “Genma” enemies, which vary from mutant swordsmen to what I can solely describe as demonic floating Furby heads, feels nice, but it surely’s the boss combat that actually offered me on Onimusha’s swordplay credentials. There’s nearly actually a secret science to nailing the really feel of when metal lands on metal, and Capcom has completely cracked it – there’s an lively movement every time the warrior’s blades meet and push one another away. And whereas the duel towards Ganryu doesn’t really feel destined to go down as an all-timer – it’s, finally, too straightforward to enter these halls – I feel it acts as a first rate sufficient promise that, additional into the marketing campaign, there can be one thing that stands as much as the absolute best of Ghost of Tsushima.
The gamescom demo might have been quick – little greater than some winding paths and a boss combat in a temple – but it surely’s greater than sufficient to persuade me that Onimusha: Way of the Sword is constructed on rock-solid swordplay fundamentals. I’m genuinely excited to grasp them and tackle its marketing campaign’s hardest challenges. However it’s additionally made me inquisitive about a number of different issues. As a tutorial-styled part, the demo had no actual exploration alternatives, so it’s presently unclear what form of scope the environments will work with. Then there’s the story, which caught me off-guard with its humour. There’s hints of an amusingly rocky relationship between Musashi and the voice inside his Oni gauntlet, and the pre-boss battle banter was simply on the proper aspect of goofy. I’m fascinated to see the place Capcom has drawn the line between a darkish samurai story and sparky anime humour. However even when that line finally finally ends up drawing an uneven stability, I’m assured Onimusha’s razor-sharp fight will greater than make up for a few unhealthy jokes.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Govt Editor of Options.