I was already in love with Capcom’s new Onimusha game after playing it last summer. After an extended look at Onimusha: Way of the Sword at Summer Game Fest this weekend, I’m now going to be extra annoying about the game: I will not shut up about this being the best thing I’ve played recently.
Capcom has already released a demo on consoles and PC for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, so you can try the game out for yourself. But at SGF, I played more areas of the game that aren’t in that demo, including a new horror-filled level set in an open area, and watched an Onimusha expert show off what new protagonist Miyamoto Musashi is fully capable of in battle. Watching high-level Onimusha: Way of the Sword play looked more like a well-choreographed dance than just video game swordplay. Way of the Sword looks absolutely stunning in skilled hands.
Then there’s me, a pretty average player when it comes to action games. But stepping back into the sandals of the game’s protagonist, I found my bearings pretty quickly, relishing in the game’s deep and satisfying combat.
In the chapter I played, “Careful What You Wish For,” Musashi visits a village that has been cursed by one of the game’s Genma, the Onimusha series’ immortal demons. There, Musashi encounters a woman with bandages over her eyes who explains that she has found relief from her vanity thanks to a presence at Yasui Konpiragu Shrine. On the way, Musashi encounters an elderly man who expresses delight at finding relief from his knee pain.
The twist is that both villagers have been “treated” by the demon Rasho-gan, who plucked out the eyes of the vain woman and took the man’s affected leg from the knee down. An infection called Malice has overtaken the town, causing its suffering denizens to hallucinate a more joyous existence.
Musashi and his living-gauntlet ally Shizuka seek help from a local power source, the Eight Stout Pillars, to cure the town of its blight. These tiny but portly stone men have a request for Musashi: recover three of the missing Stout Pillars who have been scattered about town by Rasho-gan’s servants. After some exploration and plenty of battles with low-level Genma, and reuniting all Eight Stout Pillars, Musashi sees what Rasho-gan is capable of.
In a cutscene, Musashi watches as a young woman begs for relief from Rasho-gan, who is shown only in shadow. The woman says that she is a student of the shamisen, a Japanese lute, and that her mistress is cruel to her. She begs Rasho-gan to relieve her of the pain in her hands that comes from endless play… which the Genma happily obliges by chomping off her fingers.
Rasho-gan is then revealed to be a disgusting demon covered in extracted human body parts, and maniacally goes after Musashi, seeking to relieve the samurai of his cursed gauntlet arm. What follows is a spectacular, multi-stage boss battle against Rasho-gan, in which the demon jumps to and fro, throws projectiles at Musashi, and uses his extra limbs in deadly and creative ways.
At this point in the game, Musashi has his sword, a bow and arrow, and multiple Oni Armaments to employ in battle. Musashi’s most powerful and magical armaments include the Twin Celestials, a pair of daggers that call forth healing spirits when used on a foe. Other Oni Armaments shown at Summer Game Fest include:
- Earth Shakers, a pair of hammers that smash away an enemy’s stamina
- Firebird Flute, which Musashi plays to summon fiery birds that set enemies on fire
- Wind-Whipper, a double-bladed polearm that does area-of-effect damage and pushes enemies away
Suffice it to say, Onimusha: Way of the Sword offers a deep bench of weapons and combat techniques, and presents compelling bad guys to beat them up with. And after seeing some high-level gameplay in Way of the Sword, where all of Musashi’s techniques were utilized, I know that they’re all crucial to success.
During a hands-off look at Onimusha: Way of the Sword, we got to see more of the game’s enemies and environments. One section included an encounter with Ningyo, a fish-like yokai that mimics the appearance of a beautiful woman floating on the water. As it emerged, though, it revealed itself to be a terrifying sea creature hungry for human flesh. This particular section showed that many of the monsters Musashi will face aren’t just undead swordsmen or hovering demon heads; Capcom is plumbing Japanese folklore for some truly terrible creatures.
The hands-off section culminated with a pair of thrilling boss battles, including one against Byakue, the Hundred Defilements (a Genma covered in paper talismans that become blood-soaked over time), and Dohatsu-ten, Heaven’s Bane (a winged Genma whose featured limbs become more immense as the battle progresses). Both battles looked like the kind of intense encounters seen in both Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s public demo and its private one. There’s a good chance that this year’s Onimusha features some of the most impressive boss fights of 2026.
These demos also offered some more color into Musashi as a character. He’s a brave and capable samurai, but also kind of an oafish goofball. Based on my experience, this characterization comes through better with Japanese dialogue, as the British-accented English-language dub feels out of place and off-putting.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword offers a satisfying challenge, based on what I’ve played thus far. It’s certainly not FromSoftware-hard on standard settings, and Capcom is offering multiple difficulty options and accessibility features to make the game enjoyable by players of varying skill levels. But I’m going to relish the challenge and make the most of Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s deep combat design when it comes out this fall.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is bound for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Sept. 25, during a very crowded month for games.
Capcom is again using the likeness of a long-dead actor in Onimusha: Way of the Sword
No more resting in peace
