You play as the most famous swordfighter in Japanese history. You also play an idiot.
At Summer Game Fest, I got hands-on with Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Capcom’s big return to this nearly dead franchise drops on Sept. 25, breaking a twenty-year silence. The combat is exactly what fans want—brutal, skill-heavy swordplay, just like the brief teasers last year suggested. Good stuff.
But here is the better news.
Miyamoto Musashi, your protagonist, is weird. He’s funny. He matches the game’s comically bloody action-horrier tone much better than those stoic glimpses we saw before. Don’t get me wrong, I like a serious warrior burdened by his code. But we are drowning in those. Sekiro gave us that in 2019. Ghost of Tsushima did it in 2020, followed immediately by its sequel and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Everyone has been seeking honor or revenge lately. It is getting old.
Demon-killing is the plot. Straying from the crowd is the style.
During my hands-on session, I wandered into a village torn between demon soldiers (Genma) and a weird spiritual rift. Sunlight dappled brightly onto the spirits of locals who suffered bizarre, happy fates. One guy got half his leg amputated just to stop knee pain. Another couple turned themselves into dolls to stay together forever. Quiet. Permanent. Weird.
Musashi needs spirit statues to fight the cursed oni. He gets them by being incredibly rude.
To cross a river, he “borrows” a boat from Okuni—presumably Izumo no Okuni kabuki founder herself. Then he complains. “When would a swordsman need paddle a boat?” she asks while explaining how oars work. He doesn’t listen. She calls him an idiot. I loved it.
“A rude, oafish Musashi fits the chaos.”
Traditional samurai games trap you in social norms. Noble struggle feels restrictive after a while. Here, Musashi ignores bushido etiquette entirely. The setting is demons running amok in rural villages, so a disrespectful jerk works better than a polite noble. Even the Oni Gauntlet scolds him for bad manners. It adds comedy to the bloodletting.
Learning The Pain
Getting bloody was easy. Mastering Musashi was not.
There are several ways to fight here. A basic block drains stamina quickly. Parries need perfect timing to counter specific attacks or reflect ranged shots. Then there is the Issen technique. This looks cool, leaving a shadow afterimage before Musashi strikes back. The window? A few frames before the enemy connects. I never did it intentionally. YouTube guides exist for the demo. Probably need one of those.
Unlike Sekiro, you can hack through basic enemies with clumsy slashes. You do not have to parry to survive the trash mobs. Bosses are different though. They humiliate players who refuse to learn the counter mechanics.
I knew this from producer Koichi Shibata, who explained the design during a closed briefing. He intends for bosses to break your confidence unless you adapt.
I fumbled through the demo area. Basic swings worked fine. Then I hit the boss. He beat me up. Soundly.
I am not a parrying master. I got beat down, got mad, and then started locking in the rhythm. It is comprehensible. The telegraphs are clearer than the annoying, rapid-fire attacks in Elden Ring. And the theme? Fun.
Remember the villagers? This oni hypnotized them into letting him chop off their body parts with giant shears. His body is grotesquely long. He throws limbs at Musashi. Parrying them is incredibly satisfying. Early in the fight, my health was gone. By the end? Nearly untouchable. I beat him with a sliver of red on my HUD, adrenaline actually rushing in real life.
In the heat of battle, I forgot about my tools.
There are two daggers that slice golden orbs for healing. I ignored them. There is a bow. I only used it to interrupt the boss’s big wind-ups. Defense talismans existed too. Probably. When you are one with the blade, the UI fades away. Everything else is noise.
Capcom showed a little more after I finished. Shibata took control. He wall-ran. He saved villagers from demon snatches. He fought two bosses with names that sound like prayers—Byakue, the Hundred Defilements, and Dohatsu-ten, the Heaven’s Bane.
Previous previews felt too dark. Stiflingly serious. Tight combat, yes, but dead atmosphere.
This demo breathed.
Musashi walks with ego now. He struts. He guides a cursed village with his knuckles and his blade. It works. I want to lead a competitive knucklehead around a horror village. Not for duty. Not for honor. For the challenge.
Now if I can just get the timing down on that rad-looking Issen counter…
