Onimusha: Way of the Sword Review

Can you believe that twenty years ago we saw the launch of the Nintendo Wii, Pluto got declassified as a planet, and we witnessed Troy Bolton break the status quo in High School Musical? Wild times! It’s also been TWENTY whole years since we’ve gotten the last mainline release in the Onimusha franchise. 

Onimusha: Way of the Sword doesn’t pick things back up or revisit any of the previous characters from the original games. There is no Jean Reno! The big things that Way of the Sword shares with its predecessors is action adventure combat centered around fighting demons and wielding a soul sucking Oni gauntlet. Other than that, it’s a brand new adventure with a whole new cast of characters. And for someone that’s always been familiar with the series but has never participated, this has been a great jumping on point. 

We follow the “fallen samurai” Miyamoto Musashi (an actual swordsman in Japanese history), as he heads to Kyoto searching for answers to remove the Oni gauntlet that has been fastened to his arm. There we meet and befriend the tall and beefy Ono no Takamura and the plucky Ino no Okuni. Takamura reminded me of a cross between wrestler Mick Foley and Uncle Iroh from Avatar the Last Airbender, while Okuni reminded me of Scrappy Doo (surprisingly positive).

Right off the bat, I was taken off guard by the writing and tone of the game overall. Where I was expecting Musashi and the game to be gritty and dark, I was instead met with a playful everyman with exceptional sword skills that was kind of a doofus. Musashi feels like he comes from the Goku school of thought. He likes to fight. LOVES to fight. Doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s annoyed with responsibilities and will occasionally say the wrong thing, but he still has a heart of gold. He doesn’t quite have the cool aura of Leon S. Kennedy or the swagger of Dante from Devil May Cry, but he handily carves out his own spot. 

This works incredibly well in conjunction with the over the top and theatrical rogues gallery. The primary antagonists in this game may be some of my favorites of the year. There are several memorable characters that have a commanding presence that genuinely do inspire fear. There are some fun horror inspired moments in the game as well, which is neat because the game uses the RE Engine.

When the story does get serious, you feel how heavy the stakes are. The story does a good job at spacing out progression and dropping emotional bombs on you. But there’s also a good chunk of humor sprinkled throughout the game. It never becomes too heavy handed that it crosses the line into becoming annoying and that levity is welcomed with the depths that the story will have you fight through. 

Let’s talk about the fighting. While there is some inspiration from Souls games, this is an action adventure game. You got a good ol’ light and heavy attack. The combos are fairly simplistic and you’ll still be mashing on the square or triangle button ‘til late in the game. But don’t expect to simply mash your way through regular enemy and boss encounters. The combat is further padded out with an upgradable Estus Flask equivalent, alongside some status boosting items. 

The Souls inspiration for the parrying, deflecting, and dodging is where the combat really sings. While you can whittle away at an enemy’s health, you can also hack away at their stamina bars with successful parries to deliver a final blow. There is a generous window for parrying and it feels so rewarding to parry a gigantic sword with yours and then finish off an enemy or deflect an arrow back at an archer. 

One of the more challenging mechanics is a counter system called isshin attacks, where if you hit an attack button right as you’re about to get hit, you will deliver a devastating blow to your enemy. I often found myself getting booped trying to nail the timing of it. But if you’re worried about knowing when to parry or dodge, there is an accessibility option to flash a button prompt as to what attacks can be parried or dodged. 

This can get a little clumsy when you’re facing multiple enemies. You’ll often be dumped into encounters with multiple enemies of differing types and the combat isn’t well suited for zipping around. Musashi isn’t Batman where you can bop an enemy and then switch up your focus on another, he’s a swordsman. The combat feels better suited when you’re in a one-on-one situation, but you’re still able to hang in there and parry or dodge successfully in those big groups. 

Those one-on-one battles are some of the most fun and satisfying fights that I’ve had this year. My heart was pounding during a lot of the boss battles where you had to nail a fast and specific sequence of parries and dodges to survive the battle. And these boss battles can be challenging if you start to lose your cool and mash away versus keeping calm and looking out for openings. I would often walk away feeling like a badass after vanquishing a boss, even after a couple tries sometimes. 

But this is an Onimusha game, so you do have to slurp up souls from felled demons with your gauntlet. Yellow souls refill your health, red acts as your currency, and blue souls power up your Oni weapons. The Oni weapons are a big attack that you can unleash after filling your meter. The weapon effects vary from heavily damaging an enemy’s stamina to rapid attacks that draw out yellow souls. Your gauntlet, sword, and your health can all be upgraded by materials you collect throughout the world and as quest rewards. On top of that, there is a skill tree for your Oni weapons and your other abilities you unlock as you progress. 

One of the bigger surprises was the overall structure of the game. I was expecting to be dumped into stages or levels, but instead you have a semi- open zone for Musashi to explore. You have the option to continue the story objectives or go and pursue a variety of side quests. 

The general flow and story progression follows a variety of miscellaneous tasks. Musashi will have to investigate a part of the map and clear enemies from a location. Other times you will have to fight waves of enemies and use your gauntlet to “seal” a rift to prevent more from coming. Then there will be times where you have to purify a portion of Kyoto and clear out the “malice” so you can safely travel the area. 

This is where the game starts to feel a bit routine. The bigger set pieces and story progression are sandwiched between running around Kyoto doing busy work. While the busy work will slowly open up parts of the map and give you upgrade materials, it does start to feel slightly monotonous.

However, to break up the pattern of sealing rifts, ridding parts of Kyoto from Malice, and continuing the story, you can choose to engage with a wide variety of other quests. There are various points of interest that your oni gauntlet will reveal to you. There, you’ll have to engage in some light puzzle solving and platforming. 

As you rid the malice plaguing Kyoto, the villagers slowly start to repopulate the area and they need stuff!  These requests will yield you rewards and add some additional flavor text to Kyoto. Additionally, you can help a member of the supporting cast solve assorted mysteries around the world that’ll have you revisit previous stages to further flesh out the world. But perhaps the BEST sidequest available to participate in while you’re running around Kyoto is finding missing mystical dogs. 

Yes. You do pet the puppies. 

While you’re not required to participate in any of these sidequests other than the first time they’re introduced in the game, it does behoove you to take part in some of them as essential upgrades are locked behind them. 

You’re not always going to be stuck running around the streets of Kyoto, certain parts of the story will transport you to other locations to switch up the environment. While these portions are fairly linear, you are encouraged to occasionally deviate from the beaten path for more upgrade materials and other essential items. 

I wound up enjoying these excursions outside of Kyoto the most. The game looks gorgeous and the other environments you explore really show off that beauty. The cinematography in the game is also very well done. There were multiple points in the game where I’d pause a cinematic because of how much I wanted to bask in the moment. The facial capture adds another layer of characterization that helps out the writing of the characters. Perhaps the biggest shock for me personally was that all of the characters have English accents in the English VO. I didn’t have a problem with it at all, it just took some adjusting to get used to. 

Onimusha: Way of the Sword cuts open a new direction for the series. The combination of engaging and satisfying combat, rich and lush visuals, and entertaining characters kept me sucked in for the entire ride.