(Played on Switch 2 with Basic button mapping, Japanese text and voice-over. “26:07:11” on the clear save file in Story difficulty. All side quests completed but one weapon missing.)
In September, 2026, I caved in and bought a Nintendo Switch 2. Guess Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave receiving a 10 from Imagine Games Network simply aroused that “drinker’s thirst” in me. But for my ritual of seeing credits roll on the first game with this newly purchased hardware, the “equally loved by IGN” (Different reviewers and all that.) Onimusha: Way of the Sword seems more fitting for the spooky month. This franchise had been dormant for 2 decades and almost 3 console generations, and it’s so back.
Ironically enough, this photo real action game actually shares a lot of similarities with Nintendo’s anime-looking Simulation Role-Playing Game. The fantasy settings of both have science fictional after tase. Both are about fighting the hordes of hell. Both begin like 1987’s Robocop.
Stick it to Sony
In 1605, young and still illiterate Miyamoto Musashi had a very bad day. After he won a duel in less-than-lethal fashion, students of the defeated decided that dead Musashi tells no tale. Just as the wandering swordman got out of that frying pan, he was thrown in the fire of hell, literally. No rest for the wicked, a strange old man attached a gauntlet of Onimusha onto Musashi and sent him back to land of the living. As hell is about to be let loose in Kyoto, Musashi was tasked to protect the city from Kenma threat.
Sony Computer Entertainment had “stolen” from this franchise known for providing the first million seller on PS2 after its first trilogy. “Playstation’s” dead-after-two Genji series was compared to Onimusha upon the mid-aughts launches. So, a certain cattiness can be felt when Capcom based Way of the Sword’s final boss on the same bloke as Genji series’ player character…
Then there are the digital sock puppets. Onimusha’s first trilogy, released between 2001 and 2004, had based the appearances of their player characters on well-known actors. If we are honest with ourselves, this is still a gimmick in the roaring twenties we live in. Even Sony Interactive Entertainment only truly allowed Kojima Production to go amok on this front. To counter “all-star casts” like that, Capcom spared no expense to secure the likeness of the late and great Mifune Toshiro.
Mr. Mifune just is the origin of cinematic coolness in this post-World-War-Two world we live in. Steve McQueen, Charles Buronson and Clint Eastwood all made their movie stardom by mimicking just one aspect from Mifune, while the Japanese actor had played more than one kind of idealized or otherwise masculinity in his career. In Way of Sword, he “is reprising” the role in a trilogy of Easter-colored Japanese films made in the 1950s. Now with a Scott Eastwood like voice in Japanese and dark fantasy element of course.
Way of the Sword feels like a harder reboot than even Resident Evil 4. Except one line before the game’s final level locking the setting in very early 17th century, the late 16th century happening of them PS2 games are not mentioned. Also, the western cultural aspect of underworld before is not present either, this game’s hell is rooted in Japanese folklore and Buddhism. The 2 warring factions from hell get to stay Oni and Kenma in the English translation rather than the Ogre and Demon.
With this good versus evil tale themed after “grow up is good and stay childish is evil”, the rouge galley members are very fun to watch before the fights. Musashi takes side quests from a variety of people, with the appearances of his weapon tied to a quest line of bloody “saving the cat”. While he states that he is in the fight for fun, he does fight to help others as well.
Spaghetti Samurai
Biohazard/Resident Evil series’ reign of terror has last for 3 full decades with no end in sight. No, I am not talking about the creatively designed abominations players got to fight, though this one is not lacking on that front. I am talking the invisible wall segmented no jump level design rooted in PS1 days’ pre-rendered background. Such design makes this game’s main hub and 4 dungeons all into plates of Spaghetti with meatballs. “Spaghetti” being the entangled corridors and “meatballs” being the combat arenas.
Miyamoto Musashi is a man of commitment to the blows he deals. During my playthroughs, I had lost hit points fast because I went to town on a boss thus could not defend nor evade when enemy hit back. Guess the lack of comb is a hint that I should not have gone to town on any enemy. The light hit and heavy hit here are contextualized as one-handed swing and two-handed swing of the sword. Both have a late game upgrade of hold and release, but no thrust on command in the heat of battle.
From’s Sekiro is an obvious inspiration for this one, with red stance meters under them golden life bars. Regular enemies with no stance provide instant kill for player while bosses only take off part of their life bar. The Basic button mapping has left bumper as block and the default parry. Other parries include a well-timed strike clash with enemies’ blow and an upgrade of holding left bumper then time a deflect. A best-timed strike would trigger the Issen instant kill, but it’s “Thank hell for that” rare occurrences,
What separates this one from what little I’ve played of Sekiro are 2 things. One being Capcom’s games always having difficulty selection while From would not be caught dead with one. Another being the game’s combat arenas occasionally contain environmental elements Musashi can take advantage of, usually accessible through the face button. This feature renders the fights as life and death struggle in spaces people live in, adding to that wandering swordman experience.
Legend has it that 2004’s Onimusha 3’s fixed camera felt long in the teeth pushed Shinji Mikami into establishing the orthodoxy church of over-the-shoulder with Biohazard/Resident Evil 4. Now Way of the Sword is an acolyte of it with hold and release the right trigger to shoot arrows, no cap.
Musashi’s single-edged sword is his only main arm while there are other special weapons mapped to the right bumper. Like many things such as recover life during battle, the gage to use those weapons require players to go on the offensive and collect souls with left trigger. With the run time past the 20 hours mark, the restrained movement and side quests, Way of the Sword can be catalogued as an Action Role-playing Game, though stats going up requires player to put resource gathered into different slots.
Companion piece to Supergiant’s Hades II
While Way of the Sword’s Musashi does not fall out of the God Ornated Champion archetype, he does give mortals affected by “hell let loose on earth” a voice denied by Hades II. To be fair to the Supergiant game, its player character’s appearance drives mortals mad in the Hym she appears in. Capcom’s Onimusha franchise combines Japanese Cinema’s period action with super hero elements started on television and horror into a very refined mixture.
For those in the know of this game’s historical background, there is an extra layer of living through an epoch change without knowing it. Another thing Hades II tells yet never shows within its rouge-like format. Way of the Sword does not show it either with the relatively short time span it works with, but it might be hinted at swordmen not wearing armors like they are march to war, they look like cops now.