Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a wonderfully demanding action game with some of the best boss battles since Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I can precisely pinpoint the moment Onimusha: Way of the Sword won me over. During one of the game’s many boss battles, I was being repeatedly crushed. I died so often that the “game over” screen even asked me if I wanted to lower the difficulty. Undeterred, I persisted. Eventually, when I did defeat the boss, I needed only one of my six available healing items.

It was a hard-fought victory, coming after around 30 minutes of repeated defeat, and by the end I had memorized the boss's moveset and knew how to counter each attack. It was a deeply rewarding encounter. It gave me the sort of satisfaction that makes Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice one of my favorite video games. Onimusha offers those same intoxicating highs.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is at its best in these epic moments. When it’s just you and an imposing foe clashing steel, timing your parries perfectly to deflect a blow that might have been fatal. While it struggles to maintain a consistent difficulty level and lacks enemy variety, the highs in this new Onimusha game make up for most of its shortcomings.

With Resident Evil: Requiem and Pragmata already under its belt in 2026, Capcom is having an incredible year, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword is another winner that keeps the Japanese company’s “Golden Era” going.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword: The Basics

• What is it? The first new Onimusha game in 20 years, Way of the Sword is a third-person action game that casts you as a samurai trying to stop malice spreading throughout Kyoto.
• Who is it for? Long-time Onimusha fans will surely flock to this new installment, but action game fans, particularly those with a passion for parry-based combat, will greatly enjoy Way of the Sword.
• What’s the price? Onimusha: Way of the Sword costs $69 at Amazon. Collectors will want to grab the Steelbook Edition for $74, which includes a steelbook with striking artwork.
• What other games has the developer made? Onimusha: Way of the Sword comes from Capcom, whose stable includes Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, Dead Rising and plenty more.
• What games is it similar to? Players familiar with games like Sekiro and Nioh, or who love a parry-based combat system, will feel at home. However, it should be said that Way of the Sword is not a Soulslike.

Onimusha for a new generation

The last mainline installment in the Onimusha series was 2006’s Dawn of Dreams, so Capcom has smartly opted for a reboot approach. Way of the Sword does have some connective tissue with the franchise’s legacy, but it’s designed to be approachable for newcomers.

You play Miyamoto Musashi, a samurai in Japan’s Edo period, who, after a deadly encounter with otherworldly foes, is reborn with a powerful gauntlet welded to his arm. With darkness spreading across the land and rapidly taking hold in Kyoto, it’s up to Musashi to become a reluctant protector, battling against hellish hordes to push back the swarming blight.

It’s a conventional tale, with even games released earlier this year (like Nioh 3) offering a very similar yarn. Where Onimusha: Way of the Sword attempts to stand out a little more is with a surprisingly comedic tone. Musashi doesn’t always take his quest seriously, and at least at first, seems more annoyed about having to save the land and its inhabitants.

Unfortunately, the English VO isn’t the strongest, and early on, I found Musashi’s quirks becoming tiresome. However, after switching to the Japanese voice track, not only did the game feel more authentic, but I enjoyed most dialogue exchanges significantly more.

The heroes of this tale might range from bland to irritating, but the villains sure aren’t. One foe, a sadistic Genma (think immortal demons), is genuinely unsettling, and Musashi even gets a rival, a corrupted samurai named Sasaki Ganryu who reappears throughout the game.

Even if the story never surpasses serviceable, I was always compelled to push through because Way of the Sword shines where it really matters.

You'd better learn to parry

Onimusha’s combat system is fantastic. Instead of focusing on numerous weapons, you’re equipped with a sharp samurai sword for the whole journey. It’s all very similar to Sekiro!

This has allowed the developers to really refine combat. Like many action games, fighting enemies is largely about deploying the right move at the right time. You have your standard light and heavy attacks, but responding to your enemies with the right counter is crucial.

If they take a swipe at you, parry it to avoid damage and carve out an opening, or if they charge at you with a grab attack, dodge out of the way. Timing these right will allow you to strike back and deal huge damage of your own. In these moments, the numerous combat animations are particularly impressive, including some very visceral finishing moves.

Which isn’t to say you have your sword and that’s it. Musashi has access to a bow, which is great for picking off pesky rooftop archers, and thanks to his magical gauntlet, he can enter a powered-up state to deal extra damage. When a meter is filled, you can unleash one of several special weapon attacks. One that allows you to spin in a circle and send a whirlwind at your enemies was such a favorite of mine that I largely neglected the other options.

Another wrinkle to skirmishes is that enemies drop colored orbs when killed (bosses drop them when damaged). At the press of a button, these can be sucked up, with different orbs offering different effects: yellow ones heal you, blue fill your meter, and red are a currency that can be spent on upgrades and abilities. It’s a simple system but adds an extra layer.

Bringing down the big guys

The unequivocal best moments of Onimusha: Way of the Sword are when you get to face off against a boss, and fortunately, it seems Capcom knows this, because there are quite a lot of them; some story quests will literally pit you against back-to-back bosses with little pause.

On the default difficulty (named “Action”), bosses put up a real fight, and each one requires you to make use of all your abilities and, most importantly, learn the boss’s moveset to deploy the right counter at the right time. A few even require use of your bow, just to keep you on your toes. Most bosses have two full health bars, so victory doesn’t come easy.

Outside of boss encounters, Way of the Sword is quite a forgiving game. The combat is tightly designed, but regular enemy mobs pose little threat. You can get by with button-mashing and sloppy parries. This creates an imbalanced difficulty curve, where levels feel a bit too straightforward and don’t suitably prepare you for the bosses. I suspect some players will find the stark differences in difficulty between levels and bosses frustrating.

By the late game, fending off a pack of regular enemies started to feel like filler, a bland barrier you must pass through to get to the really good stuff: the bosses. The lack of enemy variation further compounds this issue. You constantly face the same generic enemy types throughout the quest, and a couple of mini-bosses are recycled to a near-comical degree.

Open but not endless

Onimusha: Way of the Sword isn’t fully open-world, but it’s not strictly linear either. The roughly 20-hour main campaign is split between story levels and a Kyoto hub, which you can explore at your leisure.

Kyoto isn’t an overwhelming region, stuffed with endless map markers; instead, it’s quite manageable, and while it does open up further as you progress, it never reaches the size of the vast worlds found in something like Assassin’s Creed Shadow. In a sea of games that demand dozens upon dozens of hours, I found Way of the Sword’s smaller size quite refreshing.

Of course, there is optional side content to complete. Most of these distractions are simple, but they give you valuable upgrade resources and currency, which you’ll want because you will get stomped by bosses if your gear is underpowered. Plus, you’ll need specific items to upgrade the two skill trees, both of which unlock useful, if slightly situational, abilities.

Nevertheless, it’s the story levels that take you to the best locations, from grand palaces to an underground laboratory where one of the main antagonists has been experimenting on victims. This sequence is almost as chilling as anything found in Resident Evil. It’s a high point, and a rare example where the level itself is better than the boss at the very end.

Way of the Sword does have Soulslike elements, such as checkpoint shrines that refill your healing items. Plus, stamina management is key to combat (both maintaining your own and depleting your enemies). But it’s not a full-fledged Souls experience. You don’t lose your currency upon death, bosses can be instantly restarted, and build-crafting isn’t a factor.

The game strikes a solid balance, taking some of the genre’s best ideas but remaining accessible. You can even lower the difficulty without penalty if you find a boss or a section a little too challenging for your tastes. But I encourage you to play on the standard setting, as the feeling of victory that comes with defeating a boss is most potent after some struggle.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword review: Verdict

Capcom has already had a phenomenal year, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword is another fantastic experience from a company on a remarkable hot streak. Played on the PS5 Pro, the game looks and runs great (the 60 fps framerate never let me down), and it includes some of my favorite boss battles, not just of 2026, but the last several years as a whole.

Though I wish the buildup to the bosses were stronger, the impressive combat animations and fantastic parrying mechanics kept me engaged even when I was facing the same enemy types hours into the game.

Despite its flaws, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a satisfying action game and a brilliant return of one of Capcom’s most beloved franchises.