While Capcom had previously confirmed a September 25th release for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, it looks like the company might consider moving its release date to earlier in the month. Listings were discovered on Canadian retailer website PNP Games, which notes that pre-orders will ship on September 4th instead. However, Capcom hasn’t yet made any official announcement regarding the matter.
Interestingly, this new release date would move Onimusha: Way of the Sword further away from the dreaded release of Grand Theft Auto 6, which will likely end up entirely consuming video game discussions once it’s out on November 19th. It also happens to move the game away from other heavyweights, like Remedy’s Control Resonant and Konami’s Silent Hill: Townfall.
This wouldn’t be the first time Capcom has decided to release one of its games earlier than it had initially planned. Earlier this year, the company did the same with Pragmata, which was originally slated for release on April 24th before being moved up to April 17th.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The title will revolve around the story of a young Miyamoto Musashi who gets dragged into fantastical events thanks to demonic creatures, dubbed Genma, attacking Edo-era Kyoto. Musashi gets bound to an Oni Gauntlet, and must set out to destroy the Genma. The title currently has a free demo available that provides a taste of one of its earlier levels, culminating in a boss fight.
Interestingly, while the demo was positively received, many players noted that it was simply too easy. Producer Akihito Kadowaki acknowledged this feedback, and said that the full game will have tougher challenges. Director Saturo Nihei also pointed to the fact that the demo was made intentionally easier by giving Musashi access to more tools and abilities than he would typically have at the same point of the story in the full release.
“Both the demo and also the version you’ve tried here today are early on in the game. So, there is that kind of sense that a lot of basic enemies are going to be a bit easier just because of where it sits in the game,” said Nihei. “But on top of that, especially with the demo that we released, Musashi comes fitted with a lot of skills and abilities that are not going to be accessible at the beginning of the game.”
Ultimately, however, the director has expressed confidence about the difficulty curve of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, noting that players will start finding things more challenging when they get to dive into the title’s full progression.
“We’re quite confident that with the release version, especially with the progression, because abilities will be given gradually to Musashi and enemies will scale up in difficulty. For the [full] game, we feel more confident fans will be satisfied with the difficulty.”
In the meantime, check out the trailer for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which revealed platform-exclusive features like motion controls.
