Onimusha Way of the Sword Review: The Legend has Returned

To say that Capcom is on a generational run might be gaming’s biggest understatement of the decade.

After navigating rough waters in the late 2000s to early 2010s, the renowned developer rebounded and recovered its public image in a way that’s hard to describe otherwise. With the advent of the RE Engine, games that reinvented the wheel like Monster Hunter World and Resident Evil 7, and modern-day institutions like Street Fighter 6, Capcom has managed to regain the trust of the gaming community at large in the span of a decade, and has stayed a top-of-mind brand in the industry since.

That said, 2026 may very well be the best calendar year yet for the acclaimed developer. Resident Evil Requiem is a celebration of 30 years of its premiere survival horror series while pushing its story towards the future. Monster Hunter Stories 3 proved that the spinoff continues to successfully waltz to the beat of its own drum, all while building its own fanbase. And Pragmata, a brand new IP that touts a unique combat system and a story that touches on all the right emotional beats, reached significant sales milestones for the company, proof that there is always room for fresh new ideas in an industry that tends to rely on proven formulas to keep afloat.

With all of this talk of success, it’s crazy to believe that Capcom has one more feather in its cap before the year ends: releasing a current-generation game based on a long-dormant IP that’s been begging for a release for decades.

This brings us to Onimusha: Way of the Sword, a game that tries to answer the question:

“What does an Onimusha game in 2026 look like?”

On paper, it’s a question that feels simple enough to answer. However, to put things into perspective, the last time a mainline Onimusha game came out was in 2006 with Dawn of Dreams, a time when the PlayStation 2 was the dominant console. In the 20 years since, the series skipped through 2 console generations, missed out on a majority of the current console generation, and Steam wasn’t even a thing at the time. And for those who played the first games (or even the Remasters), the game feels somewhat similar to early-day Resident Evil’s camera, movement, and mechanics, a far cry from how today’s action games operate.

Short of saying, Onimusha in 2026 has a lot to prove when it comes to making it into the modern gaming zeitgeist. But with Onimusha’s strong foundation and long history, that should not be a problem.

Instead of running it back with previous protagonists in Samanosuke, Jubei, Jacques, and Soki, the story decides to focus on a brand new protagonist, another well-known historical figure, Musashi Miyamoto. After a wild and violent prologue that involves Musashi crippling the arm of a master swordsman in a duel, running away from the swordsman’s angry students, and getting murdered by a swarm of Genma (the familiar antagonists of the Onimusha series), he ends up in Hell, where he meets a suspicious white-dressed man who forcibly installs an oni gauntlet and brings Musashi back to the world of the living, seemingly with his own intentions. With the gauntlet in hand, our protagonist manages to fight back against the Genma, leading him into a chain of events that involve him trying to save Japan from an impending Genma apocalypse.

For a series that hasn’t made its presence felt for a long time, the story quickly establishes the tone of the classic games in the context of modern times, all with a grittier feel thanks to enhancements in today’s game design. If anything, Way of the Sword is more reminiscent of classic samurai cinema than any Onimusha game before it, and having Musashi as the new protagonist represents that newfound energy, wit, humor, and heart that delivers on that experience to the players. Admittedly, I was curious to see if a recognizable figure like Musashi would translate well in this universe, and thankfully, he delivers on every possible metric, to the point that if Musashi becomes the face of Onimusha moving forward, I would honestly be fine with it. In fact, it might not even be a hot take to say that of all the protagonists that debuted this year, Musashi might be the most complete under the Capcom banner, and arguably even in all of gaming.

And then there’s its strong supporting cast, which includes the stern guiding figure in Takamura, his young apprentice in Izumo-no-Okuni, and the spirit guide and constant presence within the gauntlet in Shizuka Gozen, whose voice will guide you throughout the game. For how integral Musashi is in the story, it is the supporting cast that helps provide further emotional depth, with their own tales and struggles that Musashi slowly learns to empathize with. During my playthrough, I cannot help but be engaged in the story arcs of these characters, and it actually made me want to root for them even more. It’s amazing to see how much value they bring, not just to the service of the story, but for Musashi’s character building overall.

The scale of Way of the Sword is undisputedly bigger than all of the games that came before it, and part of the reason is because of how they structured Kyoto in a sandbox format, which allows for wide-scale exploration that slowly opens up further the more you finish the main story scenarios.

And as you would probably expect with this kind of setup, there’s plenty of side quests and activities to do in the service of strengthening Musashi in the long run, from helping out villagers to fulfilling requests from Murasaki Shikibu, which serve as short tales that further expand the world’s mythologies. Sometimes, you can even save random individuals from Genma while exploring, and end up being rewarded with various items.

While this kind of gameplay structure can feel like it can drag on most of the time, I didn’t find the experience of exploring to be that way during my playthrough. In fact, it felt more rewarding the more you progress through the game’s open world setting, especially when you know you will get rewarded with the promise of better items and upgrades. As a game that carries the premise of a samurai power fantasy, it feels par for the course to have these expectations fulfilled, and thankfully, Way of the Sword has proven to pull this off in spades.

The core gameplay and main selling point revolve around Musashi’s expert use of his sword, ranging from aggressive offense to timely counters. At its core, it’s what you would expect from games of this nature, mixing up light strikes into combos, and nailing enemies with stronger strikes when the time arises. But where the game really shines is rewarding players who utilize the right defensive maneuvers at the right time, switching between deflections and evasions depending on the situation. And if you’ve gotten offensive enemy timings to a tee, you can even pull off Onimusha’s signature Issen mechanic by pressing the attack button before the enemy can damage you, nailing lightning-speed strikes that usually lead to an instant kill. And in boss encounters that usually are battles of attrition, you can slowly break away the enemy’s stamina gauge through deflections and constant attacks, which rewards you with new critical strikes in the series called Break Issen, taking out a huge amount of their health, if not outright defeating a weakened enemy on the spot.

Aside from your sword, this game allows you to switch between different weapons called Oni Armaments, which deal significant damage to either a single enemy or a group of enemies. These deal different effects to enemies, like restoring health or dealing huge stamina damage, all of which can be very useful in a pinch. And later in the game, you’ll be able to unleash Oni Awakenings, which make Musashi extremely powerful for a limited time, ending with an attack to all enemies on screen. I personally found myself using these different skills many times during the game, especially when things get overwhelming, be it from either a horde of enemies or challenging one-on-one encounters that demand a lot of my attention.

Way of the Sword is a game that celebrates Onimusha’s history by emphasizing gameplay elements that brought it to the dance, all while pushing for gameplay that is heavily influenced by modern action games, which I found they managed to execute well. If anything, the game felt like a balanced infusion of Onimusha’s foundations with modern Soulslike inspirations, more akin to titles like Nioh and Sekiro, which are fast-paced in nature. It can be challenging, but it can also be very fulfilling. And if you are a person who gets nuts over combat, then this game is going to give you reasons to keep playing and probably lose track of time. As the old saying goes, easy to learn but challenging to master, and I really could not have it any other way.

Also making its return is the soul system, which lets you absorb different souls from fallen enemies for various incentives, with red souls serving as one of the game’s primary currencies, yellow souls for health, and blue and purple souls to increase your gauges for Oni Armaments and Oni Awakenings, respectively. You can’t say it’s an Onimusha game unless you involve soul absorption, and it’s a good thing they kept this mechanic in.

You can’t say it’s a Capcom game without mentioning the fact that it makes full use of its signature in-house engine, the RE Engine, and the same can be said with Way of the Sword. And considering the gap between Dawn of Dreams and Way of the Sword, you can definitely see the difference in graphical fidelity and frame rates, a game that’s meant to highlight Capcom’s move towards a future with an IP that’s untouched for decades. I really like how you can tell that they made full use of their engine to show everything that the game should be known for, from the intense battles and the accurate presentation of its historical setting to the portrayal of visceral images and gore that the story is meant to reflect. Having initially thought about how Onimusha would translate in the modern day, they really nailed the presentation right. I also played the game with its Japanese language settings for maximum immersion, so I cannot comment on the English performances myself. But at least when it comes to the voice acting, between the action and the humorous moments to even the more intense emotional moments, the acting really hit all the right notes.

At this point, there’s just no denying the fact that anything Capcom touches nowadays is pretty much golden, and you can add Onimusha: Way of the Sword to their growing list of achievements. Considering the portfolio they have, including the renowned Devil May Cry series, it was interesting to see if they could revitalize the interest of many curious fans in another action title like Onimusha many years later. The result of this exercise was a revitalized and reinvigorated resurrection of a classic that managed to strike a very strong interest among nostalgic fans who want to see a new take on its world, as well as those who love action games that reward patience and skill. Way of the Sword pretty much is the best way to end Capcom’s amazing 2026, and short of saying so, this game deserves its perfect 5/5 score.

It’s scary, if you think about it. If this is how good Capcom is in 2026, imagine what 2027 has in store for its fanbase.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword was reviewed on the PlayStation 5; the game is also available on the Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series consoles and PC. Special thanks to Capcom for providing a review copy.

Facebook Comments