Onimusha: Way Of The Sword feels like if Platinum Games made a Sekiro sequel

It’s hard to picture a more beautiful city than Kyoto. Nestled in the Kansai region of Japan, the sprawling landmass is populated with ancient Buddhist temples, gardens, and imperial palaces. Its unrivalled scenic beauty even has the power to make would-be attackers think twice. In 1945, the then US Secretary of War demanded that American forces drop the atom bomb elsewhere in Japan, so struck was he by Kyoto’s beauty after honeymooning there.

Unfortunately for its Edo-era inhabitants, however, it appears that ancient demons are immune to Kyoto’s charms. For Capcom’s first Onimusha in decades, its creators turn back the clock to the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, where I find the former Japanese capital overrun by a horde of nightmarish creatures.

Luckily for its terrorised denizens, there’s a legendary samurai on hand to sort things out – Miyamoto Musashi. Put in the wooden clogs of the famous real-world swordsman – and protagonist of Netflix’s recent Onimusha anime adaptation- it’s up to players to live up to Mushashi’s considerable legend. No pressure, then.

My demo begins with Musashi roaming this once idyllic region as it’s engulfed in darkness. Infested with demons crawling out of the underworld – known as Genma – it’s up to poor old Musashi, a katana, and his talking glove to cleanse the evil from this land.

As I take my first steps onto its eerie streets, I see its citizens running helplessly away from Genma into the night, before being struck down and emitting one last blood-curdling scream. Armed with the Oni gauntlet – enabling the rugged ronin to slay demons where others can’t – Musashi can kill the unkillable, using said gauntlet to absorb the genma’s souls, restoring his life and stamina in the process.

As you run around a grey environment, cleaving enemies and accruing souls, the From Soft comparisons write themselves. Yet where Miyazaki embraces masochism, Way of the Sword already feels like a more fun-loving beast. As I sprint across cursed Buddhist temples, combat is fast, fluid, and fun.

There’s a distinctly PS2-era quality to Way Of The Sword’s satisfying sword play – modern enough to feel precise, silly enough to feel nostalgic. Sword blows strike flesh with a pleasingly Soul Calibur-esque KSCH!. Flurries of attacks land with the smooth buttery cadence of Devil May Cry. Even the expected addition of a parry feels welcomingly overpowered, with each successful block sending foes flying.

There’s a charming anime-esque goofiness to combat lurking under the game’s grim-dark demonic exterior, despite the foes you face all looking pleasingly macabre. Taking inspiration from Japanese folklore, enemy designs are uniquely horrifying, looking unlike anything I’ve faced before in a video game. From floating boar heads that snarl as they rush at you, to armour-clad demonic zebras, each new eyebrow-raising monstrosity is a welcome surprise.

There’s a pleasingly cartoonish violence permeating through encounters, and witnessing how each new foe will fall to my blade becomes an elicit, blood-soaked delight. Skulls split in two, severed wrists fall limply from their arms, and enemies’ torsos cleave in half as you carve up the plethora of wonderfully weird demonic forces seething towards you.

“There’s a charming anime-esque goofiness to combat lurking under the game’s grim-dark demonic exterior, despite the foes you face all looking pleasingly macabre.”

Much like in the classic Devil May Cry games, progression in my demo is incredibly linear, seeing me carve and stab my way across a series of straight paths before exploring demon-infested temples and burning villages. Outside of the core combat, gameplay is broken up by light puzzle elements courtesy of that ancient gauntlet. Miyamoto has a detective-esque Oni Vision, using the mythical Ono Gauntlet to guide him to hidden objects and points of ethereal interest littered throughout the world.

While the story specifics are hard to parse in this out-of-context demo, throughout my demon-carving journey, Musashi is dragged into Eerie spirit-filled flashbacks to the traumatic events that befell the land. Onimusha has long been a horror-infused take on history, taking pivotal figures from Japan’s past and chucking them into a samurai-led ghost story. While this enigmatic demo gave little away about the wider plot threads, I’m looking forward to seeing which other historical figures end up inevitably battling the undead.

My demo culminates in a reflex-testing, anime-esque samurai showdown with a legendary historical figure – Sasaki Ganryu. Facing off against this cackling long haired samurai, it’s in this tense encounter that Way of the sword strays closest to being soul-like.

As the master sword man flies at you from across the stage, perfect parrying and careful stamina management become essential to survival. Yet where From Soft’s equivalent would feel weighty and tktk, even in a challenging 1v1 setting, combat remains refreshingly nimble. With healing items on hand and the chance to absorb health and special-move restoring ‘souls’, there’s a uniquely flowing cadence to this boss fight that sets it apart from its soulslike peers.

The key to defeating Ganryu lies in carefully reading his moves. As he glides across the crumbling temple veranda towards you, his attacks, dodges, and guard-breaking blows flow with impressive grace. These are some of the most impressive combat animations I’ve seen in recent memory, allowing you to read his patterns with ease as he moves with convincingly human elegance.

There are several Monster Hunter veterans on Way Of The Sword’s dev team, and it’s in this final showdown that I see the beast-slaying DNA coursing through Onimusha’s veins – each carefully-telegraphed tell feeling just as readable as a Rathalos fight in Capcom’s monster-slaying epic.

All in all, I left my first Onimusha experience eager for more. From what I’ve played so far, there’s an unexpected b movie schlock to Way Of The Sword, a refreshingly maximalist goofiness to its samurai action that feels akin to what might happen if Platinum were allowed to make a Sekiro sequel. It’s Devil May Cry meets Resident Evil, with a sprinkling of Miyazaki magic. While Soulslike fatigue is undoubtedly setting in for many, Way Of The Sword looks to borrow From Soft’s sense of challenge and satisfaction while still keeping a welcomingly arcadey spirit. Welcome back, Onimusha.