Isn’t it nice to see long-dormant IPs getting revived? Capcom is bringing back Onimusha with Onimusha: Way Of The Sword. This title carries the themes and aesthetics of the series: a samurai (or a Jean Reno) whose been entrusted in the Oni Gauntlet must fight monsters and absorb their souls using the Gauntlet, in a medieval Japan overrun by these monsters that upend the world into chaos.
What Way Of The Sword brings to the table, based on my impressions of the recently released demo, is that it’s not just a nostalgic, safe revival. Capcom cooked up a combat system that is own its own league that entrusts players to wield the sword in a manner that rewards skill, without resorting to pure button mashing while allowing self-expression. I thought “Way Of The Sword” was a rather unmemorable subtitle, but I stand corrected.
I’ve heard some hands-on impressions comparing Onimusha: Way Of The Sword to a soulslike. I don’t think that’s true, the series never was about that style of punishing gameplay, yet I now see how they they got there. You can see little inspos seeped through here and there—locked doors that only open on one side, paths that spiral and loop back, the way items and a soul counter may look superficially like Dark Souls (it’s not). Pegging Way Of The Sword as a soulslike is a disservice to inspiring design choices Capcom took with this. But, framing it from a soulslike point of view does help in explaining why the combat here has the sauce.
Onimusha: Way Of The Sword has really interesting default control scheme. The two attack buttons are map to (using PlayStation signage here) triangle and circle, rather than the traditional square and triangle respectively. Square is reserved for blocks, parries and deflects. You can opt for a more traditional control scheme where the block button is on L1 with the face button mapping attacks to square and triangle, but this default option, marked as Aggressive as compared to the alternate scheme’s Defensive, tells a lot about what the game expects you to do.
But before you jump in joy or roll your eyes, no, Onimusha: Way Of The Sword is not a parry-or-die game. It’s not a parry-driven game. You can do it, it looks rad as all hell when you pull it off. But there’s more to it.
Way Of The Sword’s tempo is the most fascinating. There’s no stamina meter, so you can press buttons, but the way our hero Musashi swings his swords, either a light attack with one hand, or a heavier one with two, has a heft to it. Long start-up time, but very quick to end and linkable to more attacks as combos. You need to commit to each sword swing. The enemies, at least in the demo, are not interested in just having at it and attacking on sight. They take their time to make the first move. This alone makes encounters with 5+ enemies less overwhelming that it would appear. Enough time to adjust the camera if you need to. There is a lock-on system, but you can totally play the game without using it, but you’ll need to nudge the right stick here and there to properly frame the action, the camera isn’t good enough to ensure you get the optimal view, so the action not being so hectic works in the game’s favour.
Should they do attack, you can time your blocks correctly to perform a parry. Parries in recent video games—whether that be from character action games, fast-paced soulslike, or an RPG inspired by these two genres—usually are a one-note affair, in that all you need to do is press the button within the acceptable timing window. Repeatedly. Some games play around with making the timing of each parriable hit less predictable. But more or less, once you learn the pattern, it’s one-note in that so long as you remember the timing, you’re good. It becomes a rhythm game.
Parries in Way Of The Sword operates in a different paradigm. Rather than having you keep parrying multiple hits, what it does is reward players when they nail the timing perfectly. You know when you got that parry right when Musashi does it so cool that the camera frames it just nice so you can see the extra sparks fly. There are specific animations for perfect parries and they are immensely satisfying when pulled off. It’s not exactly an on-off thing either, there’s a gradience to it, with multiple sets of parry animation. Crazy.
The way The Way Of The Sword expresses the clash of two swords is technically an anti-button mash mechanism. If you press the same attack button over and over, the sword-wielding enemy could also match your attack and just clash swords over and over in a game of chicken. Change the attack button on the next hit to get the one over. Stupidly mash buttons and they get you for that. And the game isn’t afraid to be punishing. A few hits and it’s over, and health items don’t necessarily top you up good enough to power through many mistakes, at least in the demo here. That said, seeing the swords clash is cool as hell, just like the parries.
The combat system culminates elegantly in the boss fight against fellow Oni gauntlet user and rival Ganryu. He doesn’t begin with going aggressive, letting you take time to compose yourself, maybe heal up or absorb those souls floating around after a few swings of the swords. But when he’s on it, you better know when to hit, block or dodge as he hits hard. Thankfully, one mistake isn’t punished by a big full combo of uninterrupted hits, Musashi can roll out of dodge safely and have enough time to block/parry the next attack if Ganryu lands a blow.
What transpires out of the various systems is that the combat flows, where the protagonist isn’t infallible, and can mess up but recover. The good fights I have feels like watching a combat scene in a movie with good choreography. There’s an ebb and flow. And it’s not unrelenting, it’s paced well. Onimusha doesn’t have the single goal of making you see its variant of “You Died” on the screen as often. It does challenge you to get good with all the different systems (I haven’t mention grab reversals, there’s throw tech!) but all of them exist harmoniously to make you feel like an expert swordsman who has no problems carving your path, but when you do, have enough tools to make up from the setbacks.
There is an objective reason to get good and actually never fumble, as you get more souls (which is likely used as currency for upgrades in the full game) from playing well. You can even opt to get more souls rather than do more damage to a boss if you’re confident enough with your way of the sword.
The cherry on top that makes Onimusha: Way Of The Sword feels good in general is the animation work. Musashi is incredibly expressive with a lot of body language tics that gives him so much rizz. The little shoulder motion to cover his Oni Gauntlet arm after sheathing his blade. Checking and glancing on opposite side of the AAA game wall crawl when he has to squeeze through cracks. Making faces by expanding his face cheeks. The cool, lackadaisical idle stance.
On top of all that, you feel the heft of the sword swings, the aura of those perfect parries and the hero pose he does when absorbing the loose souls from the gauntlet. The AAA budget spent in realising Musashi is money and effort that bores fruit. This game, even on performance mode where most of the visual flourishes are neutered, looks fire. Shutterbugs will have so much fun with Photo Mode, which interestingly is already included in the demo.
Onimusha: Way Of The Sword has set the stage to be an action game experience unlike any other this year. The combat feels fresh and inventive without being too overwhelming or hard to learn. At least the demo presents it as such. We’ll have to see how the combat stacks up when the game gets tougher, and the player has access to more tools to master the way of the sword.
Onimusha: Way Of The Sword releases on September 25 for the PS5, PC (Steam) and Xbox Series X|S.
Played on PS5.