Onimusha: Way of the Sword Review

Twenty years after the last mainline entry, Capcom returns to Onimusha with a Kyoto smothered in miasma and Miyamoto Musashi walking into it, built on the likeness of Toshiro Mifune. Everything good here runs through one input. The Issen is a counter thrown in the instant before a blow lands, and it either kills a common enemy outright or cracks a boss open, which makes the combat a conversation about timing rather than damage.

Block, deflect, break a guard, or wait and take the head. Reviewers landed on that almost unanimously, and the boss encounters are where it is loudest, each one a rhythm you learn rather than a health bar you outlast. The demon arm supplies the other half, a set of Oni weapons and a soul draw that keeps you pressing forward instead of retreating between fights.

Structure is where it gives points back. Kyoto is semi open rather than linear, and the space between the good fights fills with errands, mini bosses that repeat until you know their openings by accident, and a difficulty step in the back half that reads as imposed rather than earned. Nobody is arguing about the swordplay. The argument is about how much walking sits between it, and there is enough of that to keep this a very strong return rather than a perfect one.