Onimusha: The Way of the Sword was not exactly what I'd expected as a birthday gift. I was both the sender and the recipient, but my opinion is still the same. When the game was first revealed, I'd not even realized that the franchise had been dormant for nearly two decades. I thought the initial reveals looked awesome, and by the time Summer Game Fest 2026 rolled around, a demo was made available to try.

I gave the demo a shot and found myself thoroughly enjoying the game, with one major exception. The combat system gave me a LOT of trouble early on. I'm a gamer liable to mash buttons at the best of times, and taking time to carefully defend, parry, and dodge has been a struggle for me. This was the case in Expedition 33, and it continued into this game as well.

I've given Souls a few college tries, ultimately ending up frustrated and taking often extended breaks from the games; some of which are still ongoing (I'm looking at you, Bloodborne and Lies of P.) So imagine my surprise when I realized that Onimusha TWOTS was actually less Souls-like than I'd assumed. This new entry into the decades-long franchise hits closer to the old series than it does the modern FromSoftware formula.

The gameplay is action-focused, but defensive tactics and carefully anticipating your opponents' moves will pay dividends in your progress against the forces of the Genma. The exhilaration of pulling off an Issen against a powerful foe and taking out a collection of gross baddies is addicting. The variety of tools on offer and abilities acquired actually provide the player with options and opportunities in which to engage in player expression. You have a goal to defeat a particular enemy, but you have the autonomy to choose whether you engage with them or not.

Your primary weapon is the proverbial katana you'd expect from a Samurai game, but the Oni Weapons you acquire during the course of the story take both mythological and practical forms. You start with a pair of daggers to dice your foes; you get a double-bladed staff that would put a smile on Maul's face, then you get a pair of hammers that shatter reality and armor alike, and even a spear that shocks foes into submission. One of my favorites, however, is the bird flute, which summons a ring and fiery projectiles that launch toward locked targets and apply a burning DoT (damage over time) effect on them.

Some of the weapons will deal damage directly to the health of the enemy, but others will instead focus on the stamina bar of said enemy. In a reversal from most games, red is your stamina/block gauge, and yellow/gold is actually your health bar. The closest to Souls-likes you get are the stagger effects against your enemies. As you attack, break defenses, and parry, you will wear down their stamina gauge. If you break their gauge, you open them up to a significant attack that allows you to choose a weak point, which either inflicts massive damage or provides you with a boon of spirits.

As I mentioned before, there is a combat system called Issen. An Issen is an attack that deals massive damage and often negates an enemy attack simultaneously. The trade-off here is all in the timing of the attack. Onimusha rewards players who are patient and study their opponents. Basically, they ensure that my button-mashing self runs headlong into death unless I stop and let myself read the situation.

This reached a boiling point when I ran into the "Wish Warper", an enemy so punishing to my reckless playstyle that it nearly made me rage quit on the spot, forcing me to take a necessary cool-off break from the game.

Each enemy type has its own moveset, attacks, and combos, which you can glean rather thoroughly due to the lack of variety in enemy types. Yes, that is my one complaint about an otherwise top-tier game; there are too many repeated enemies to the point that it does, in fact, feel repetitive.

On their own, the enemies of Onimusha are fantastic—a mixture of weapon wielders, melee-focused enemies, a couple of flying foes, and of course, ranged fighters. I heard it said in one review that you see 90% of the enemy types within the first hour. I can push back on that only slightly, as they do introduce two or three additional enemy types after the one-hour point, but that will vary depending on your skill level. I wish I could say that the bosses were an exception to this rule, but in at least one case, it is the most glaring offender of all.

Byakue, the Hundred Defilements, is the most appropriate name for a boss that appears just as many times. Again and again, he shows up, sometimes red, other times white. It was happening so many times that even the writers poked fun at it, having Musashi call it out. The irony is that he will keep calling it out every single time, to the point where even stating the obvious for comedic effect becomes yet another layer of tedium on top of a joke that has already gone stale.

The remaining bosses fare little better, appearing at least twice across two distinct phases and forms. While each boss is unique in both design and moveset, their repeated appearances mean the only real benefit is that you'll know their every move by heart. Which begs the question of why a rematch mode would be included, seeing as you'll be fighting each of the bosses close to three times during the story anyway.

That's enough about the enemies for a bit; let's instead focus on our protagonists. Miyamoto Musashi (yes, that one) is our main character, portrayed visually by the late Toshiro Mifune of Kurosawa fame. This is not the first time an Onimusha protagonist has been played by a late actor from Japanese cinema, but the choice of model bleeds over into how the character is written and presented.

For the uninitiated, Mifune is famous for his roles in Akira Kurosawa's Samurai filmography, most notably Yojimbo and Sanjuro. These films are some of my favorites, and Mifune's performance is a standout reason why I find them so appealing. I saw some initial complaints about how "silly" the character of Musashi appeared and acted during the opening act of the story, and my own opinion was distinctly the opposite. Mifune is famous for his comedic portrayal of his characters across Kurosawa's works, often playing a trickster with sarcastic reactions to authority and chaotic situations. I was very happy to see this tone included in the game, as it gave me the sense that I was playing an authentic Kurosawa film. Ghost of Tsushima included a Kurosawa mode, but that game was far more somber.

I feel it is appropriate now to finally address the story. Seemingly set in a new continuity disconnected from the events of the original entries, our story follows the historical samurai Miyamoto Musashi engaging in one of the most notable duels of his life. Musashi follows the Way of the Sword, fighting for the sake of the fight, fun, and glory. He bests his foe in the opening duel but spares his life, though history says he fatally wounds his adversary. He manages to escape his fallen foe's students, only to come face to face with an enemy unlike any he'd faced before: the Genma.

Genma are a semi-immortal race of chaos demons. They consume flesh and souls, and they've begun to overrun East Kyoto. The Genma turn to Musashi and kill him with little trouble. One brief trip to the edge of hell and an unwanted gift later, Musashi is given a second chance to eliminate his assassins.

The gift is the Oni Gauntlet, an artifact from the Oni Race—demons from Hell that once held power and technology beyond the ken of mortal men. They're all dead now, save for a pair of Oni spirits held within a pair of gauntlets. The man bequeathing these "gifts" is yet another historical figure, Minamoto no Yoshitsune. He has a plan that will see him become a supreme being, but he needs emissaries to do his bidding in the mortal realm.

Musashi meets Takemura, a fellow gauntlet-wielding hero who protects the Oni Gate that keeps Hell and Yoshitsune from crossing over to reality. Musashi begrudgingly helps Takemura by fighting off Genma and purging the corruption rampant across Kyoto. He's joined by Okuni, a young girl who popularized Kabuki Dancing and wishes to become an Onimusha.

Very quickly, Musashi and Co. discover that Sasaki Ganryu, Musashi’s persistent rival, is not only alive but has been granted his own Oni Gauntlet by Yoshitsune. Ganryu begins collecting human souls to fuel their master's power, leading to several clashes between the two rivals across the story until their ultimate, epic final struggle.

Musashi fights off all manner of monsters, slowly discovering more about the Oni, himself, and Gauntlet Lady—also known as Shizuka, the former wife of Yoshitsune, forced to live inside Musashi's gauntlet. What starts as a forced partnership driven purely by Musashi's desire for a rematch gradually shifts into a genuinely engaging dynamic. Shizuka acts as the straight-laced foil to Musashi’s often reckless, swagger-filled demeanor. Their banter anchors the narrative through its wilder supernatural twists, ensuring that even when the Genma plot dips into standard demon-slaying tropes, the personal stakes remain grounded.

Visually, the game leans hard into its cinematic inspirations. Beyond the Mifune likeness, the environmental design captures a stylized, atmospheric feudal Japan under siege. Corrupted shrines, misty bamboo forests, and fire-lit ruins give every area a distinct sense of place, even if you are fighting familiar faces within them. The sound design deserves a nod as well—the visceral clack of steel, the boom of heavy Oni hammers, and the unmistakable, sharp shing of a perfectly executed Issen make every engagement feel physically impactful.

When you step back and look at the total package, Onimusha: The Way of the Sword lands in an interesting spot. It isn't trying to be the next Elden Ring, nor is it merely a nostalgic cash-grab hiding behind a classic IP. It’s an unapologetic, arcade-adjacent action game that demands you respect its rhythm. The heavy enemy reuse and repetitive boss encounters are undeniable blemishes—and at times, genuinely frustrating padding—but the moment-to-moment combat is so crisp, and the Kurosawa-esque flair so charming, that I ultimately couldn't keep away from it for long.

If you can stomach seeing Byakue one too many times, survive a grueling encounter with the Wish Warper, and are willing to trade button-mashing for precise timing, this non-gift to myself ended up being one of the most satisfying surprises of the year. It’s a triumphant return for a series many of us forgot we missed, and a sharp reminder that sometimes, the old way of doing things still cuts the deepest.