Onimusha: Way of the Sword Looks To Be A Cinematic Action Ride That Has Me Curious

The Onimusha franchise has been around since the PlayStation 2 era and has gone through a few significant changes. However, at its core, it was always about being an incredibly powerful samurai, killing creepy and powerful oni. CAPCOM allowed us to check out the latest game in the franchise, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, where I played as Miyamoto Musashi, brandishing a special gauntlet that granted me abilities to fight the powerful Genma that threatened the land of Kyoto. As someone with a passing knowledge of the Onimusha franchise, this is definitely shaping up to be a solid action-adventure series from jump.

I played for roughly two hours. However, I wasn't allowed to fully take in the opening setup or initial story premise. I could piece certain things together, but I'm going to have to wait until the official game comes out for me to really sink my teeth into the narrative. From what I can tell, I appear to be playing as Miyamoto Musashi in an alternate fantasy timeline where demons and oni are real. Given context clues, it appears that my character was killed or on the verge of dying, and thus needed to be brandished with this special gauntlet to survive. This gauntlet is the main catalyst for all of my abilities throughout the game. Not only does it allow me to absorb special orbs called oni souls that spill out of enemies, but it also acts as a catalyst to communicate with a mysterious woman whose spirit resides within the gauntlet. Given the information provided, it appears that there's a clashing divide with different factions, including the Ganma, so it's up to me to take down the rampaging oni who are spreading their miasma to negatively affect regular citizens. There is also another mysterious samurai with a similar gauntlet, and I believe Mushashi is hunting him down for personal reasons, but I did not make it that far into the playthrough to see him pop up again outside of a brief initial cut scene.

The majority of this preview was focused on the gameplay, which does appear to be very standard. It is an over-the-shoulder third-person action RPG. I ran around dazzlingly rendered 3D graphics, which look amazing on the PlayStation 5 with very well-masked load times. While the game is very linear during certain segments, there are a few branching paths to take by keeping a discerning eye to find hidden treasures or save extra citizens. These hidden treasures can take the form of currency or items that can be crafted or utilized to augment my abilities. I wasn't able to augment my abilities much until towards the end of my two hour play through because the ability was tied to fulfilling specific story requirements. It seems like what I was allowed to unlock was limited to how much story progression or how many enemies I took down. For most of my playthrough, I was stuck with a lot of the basic mechanics.

The game didn't feel overly punishing. The difficulty balance seemed relatively solid, with the biggest hurdle being recognizing different attack patterns when it came to mini and large bosses. Fodder and basic enemies were relatively easy to take care of, with only a few taking on distinct forms that needed to be countered. I had a basic swing attack with my sword, and a basic bow to shoot from long distance, which was particularly helpful when there were some enemies shooting flaming arrows at me. There was a parry system that was a little difficult to immediately execute due to not fully understanding the timing, but the parry was probably the best way to execute finishers and diminish an opponent's stamina.

Every character, including myself, has both a health meter and a stamina meter. The gameplay reminded me a little bit of Dark Souls, where everyone would lose stamina by either having moves countered or breaking away from blocks. By getting rid of stamina, it's easier to deplete health in as few as one or two blows. The best way to get rid of oni stamina is to either counter or perform specific attack moves. However, the same goes for me. If I parried wrong or tried blocking too many times, I could deplete my own stamina and leave myself open. It's ultimately superfluous when it comes to the fodder enemies, because even just hacking away at them mindlessly takes them down in just a few seconds. Even if I ended up getting hurt by them, some orbs they dropped immediately heal me, some replenish my stamina, and some are held onto as a means of utilizing skills later on. I could also use held items mapped to the D-pad to replenish these meters in the middle of combat.

The parry definitely comes in handy when it comes to the boss fights, which is where I died the most. Boss fights had multiple stages at specific story points. Whether it was Daidara the massive tank or Rasho-gan, the crazy slasher, I love how cinematic they were. All of these boss fights had immense presence and tied into this narrative of destruction, feeding off of human pain. In fact, the final boss I ended up taking down actually warped the perceptions and emotions of humans in order to get them to commit atrocious actions. This game doesn't shy away from body horror or the implied violence. It leans into how deplorable some of these oni can be and how they view humans as a source of negative energy. This also leads to the designs for the oni being incredibly distinct, whether it's huge gaping mouths or contorted bodies that can morph into various weapons. The boss fights were a highlight because none of them felt similar, even if the way to take them down was straightforward.

The idea is to not only hack them with your sword, but to counter them at specific times to deplete their stamina so that you can diminish their health as quickly as possible. However, the bosses can move so quickly and so erratically that it was hard to do so in a way similar to taking down the basic oni. It's not that Musashi is slow, as there were some dash options that were also available. But the enemies definitely can move faster than him as their attack stages get progressively more intense. The boss fights even have specific quick time events in the finishers that I needed to pay attention to in order to make sure that those definitive blows do the most damage. Sometimes the bosses give off orbs after enough damage is dealt, so I was able to recover a little bit in between stages, but the bosses can ALSO absorb orbs, and if they do, they get even stronger. I took down about three boss fights in my two hours of gameplay, and I can say with confidence that they were exhilarating moments that left a definitive impact. If the idea is that there will be even stronger enemies later on that will force me to think critically about timing and moving, then I have a lot to look forward to when this game comes out.

However, what happens in between those boss fights? Musashi is tasked with investigating various different oni sightings and occurrences that are affecting people in Kyoto. This part feels a bit more open, as I was able to investigate parts at my own pace but the end result was the same, find oni and kill them. While taking down these basic enemies that are terrorizing citizens is easy, it's so easy that it borders on being tedious, especially when there isn't really a lot of mission variety. The boss fights almost feel like puzzles and there are even some side puzzles that can be carried out at my leisure. But the running around and investigating aspect of the game feel boring. There are some games that feel like they're just implementing filler content in between the major moments of the narrative and this game is certainly guilty of that. I'm thankful that these moments don't last too long but again, I was only playing two hours of the game. I don't know if this will be a prevailing issue after investing more hours into the game or if this is something that will streamline itself as the game goes on.

This preview only scratched the surface of what can be accomplished, and I mostly like what is here. While a lot of the foundation is pretty basic compared to other games in the genre, what is here is far from disappointing. There are a lot of great highs with the graphics and boss fights with some middling lows that could make things overstay their welcome. Consider me cautiously optimistic about this one.