Having been dormant for 20 years, Capcom finally pulled their finger out and delivered us the next mainline entry in the Onimusha game series. With its very first release way back in 2001 (and starting life as a potential spin-off for the Resident Evil series), Onimusha was seen as a dormant entry in Capcom’s back catalogue. I have to say, when this was first announced, I was THRILLED that we were getting a new mainline entry and considering Capcom’s recent run of absolute gems, it should have been a hit. Well, I’m proud to say that streak continues with “Way of the Sword”.
The gameplay takes a bit of a different approach to the latter Onimusha games, focusing instead on steady attacks and understanding an enemy’s attack patterns. Whereas Onimusha 4 seemed more of a button-mash approach to combat with it’s teaming of heroes. It was however very fluid with swift combat, easy movement, and a feeling of accomplishment when fighting the harder enemies that come towards the end of the game.
This is, however, where my first complaint could be: the gameplay can feel too easy at times. Now that’s not to say I want this to follow the how SoulsBorne/SoulsLike vibe, as games are just good action games. This just takes it a little bit too easy on your first foray into the world; it does ramp up toward the latter parts of the game to truly give the challenge that it feels like it should have had from the start. That being said, it is just fun to be able to take down the hordes of Genma with your sword and Oni armaments.
Which again brings me to another point which differs from previous games. You have essentially only one sword as your main weapon. In the previous entries, you could equip different weapons, which have different magical abilities and fighting styles. Even in the first game in the series, you had 4 swords you could eventually unlock; each felt different to fight with and had its own unique abilities and locks to unlock. In this entry, you unlock one-use-per-charge Oni Armaments that you can use when your magic is fully charged from soul absorption. It did make me miss finding new weapons which could change the flow of combat simply based on the sword at hand.
The controls in combat and exploration were fairly simple to begin with, but took a while to master, especially the critical strike Issen movements. To get the best of combat and your opponents (along with the most souls out of them), mastering the Issen strikes was critical. Attacking at the last possible moment as the enemy comes in to strike, later unlocking the ability to chain the Issen strikes to take down multiple lower-class Genma in a few strikes.
Some abilities, however, you’d have expected to have unlocked from the beginning, such as deflecting projectiles. This was maybe due to my experience with the demo; however, it could have just granted some different moves you could get, again akin to earlier entries in the series.
Now for the story, it was interesting to see a different timeline, in my opinion, as previous entries mostly focused on one warrior being granted the Oni Gauntlet to fight the Genma in times of strife, not post-death. The idea of one Onimusha guarding a gate to hell, while others fight Genma out in the wild, was odd to me as a fan of the series. This is especially true when the one Onimusha states they are over 700 years old, which would tie them into the time of the previous entries in the series, messing with the lore slightly. Maybe someone could clarify this in the comments, or share their thoughts on how this fits in with the previous entries in the series?
I spent a good amount of time in the game, completing all side quests, collectables and the story. I haven’t played through fully on the greater difficulty (that unlocks upon game completion), but it certainly ramps up the difficulty compared to the basic difficulty. I don’t however feel the need to play through on this difficulty as I find that the New Game Plus content isn’t special enough to have me replay through the game.
| Criteria | Scores | Our Score |
| Artistic Achievement | 1 – 5 | 4 |
| Gameplay | 1 – 5 | 4 |
| Value/Cost | 1 – 5 | 3 |
| Controls | 1 – 5 | 5 |
| Length | 1 – 5 | 4 |
Written By: Aaron Bird
Favourite Game – Resident Evil 2 || Favourite Film – Hercules
About: Aaron is the creator of Pending Plays, and when not running things in the background, he’s busy playing games. When not reviewing, he’s busy pestering his dog Kuro.
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