I’ve long waited, somewhat patiently, for the Onimusha series to make a formidable return. I was deeply invested in the original three entries on the PlayStation 2, something I share with WellPlayed co-founder and managing editor, Zach Jackson, so if there was one series that Capcom could revive that would sharpen my blade it’s this one (or Dino Crisis, but good luck with that). And here we are, with Onimusha: Way of the Sword, a sterling and confident new entry that I was recently lucky enough to sample at Tokyo Game Show 2025.
This particular preview, which ran for around 20-25 minutes, starts us on the outskirts of Kiyomizu-dera Temple – based on the real-world World Heritage site of the same name in eastern Kyoto. Here, new protagonist Miyamoto Musashi is tasked with purifying this crucial sanctuary from invading demons (or Genma), with guidance from a talking Oni Gauntlet that, at least at this point, he seems to still be getting acquainted with. The demo consists of a quick jaunt through the temple surrounds and grounds, populated with regular baddies to square off against and culminating in a boss fight spectacle.
Way of the Sword’s combat, at least against the fodder demons I ran across on my approach to the temple, certainly bears a lot of the hallmarks of a post-Souls action game. Musashi can lay down light and heavy attacks, guard, dodge and parry – including deflecting arrows back at enemies – and his Oni Gauntlet allows him to execute superpowered special attacks. Like the older Onimusha games, you’ll need to manually absorb souls left behind by defeated enemies, and the specific method in which you assail them can result in different colours of soul, which serve different functions.
Your Gauntlet also comes in handy in exploration, allowing you to glimpse into the invisible, ghostly fabric of the world and spy new paths or environmental details. In the demo, I had to employ its power to reveal spiritual seals blocking temple doorways as well as survey paranormal visions of past events that set the scene for Musashi’s current predicament. This was a fairly linear section of game, which is typical of something on demo at an event like TGS, but I’m keen to see how this spooky otherworld plays into exploration in the full game.
One thing that stood out to me throughout this short demo is the immense quality of character modelling and animation on display. If you’ve played just about any Capcom game running on the seemingly-infallible REach for the Moon Engine, this may not come as a surprise, but Way of the Sword is batting so much higher than I could have imagined. Musashi – whose face is modelled on the late, great Toshiro Mifune – moves with a hypnotic swagger and smirks as he eats up lines such as “Right, Gauntlet Lady. Enough of that.”
The demo’s closing encounter is a fight with a rival of Musashi’s, one Sasaki Ganryu, whose elaborate garb and long locks dance convincingly as he taunts and dances around his longstanding opponent. There’s an unhinged nature to this similarly Gauntlet-wielding swordsman’s disconcertingly lithe movements and twisted expressions that truly sells what you’re up against on both an intellectual and physical level, and sets the tone for the ensuing contest. It’s probably not healthy to glaze over graphical achievements in the AAA hellscape that we’re in, but this is a series with a legacy of pushing convincing character rendering to bring real-world actors to life (hello, Onimusha 3’s Jean Reno), and the torch has been well and truly passed to this new entry.
The actual fight with Ganryu is a tidy culmination of the 15 minutes or so that I’d played to that point and what I’d learned about Way of the Sword’s particular rhythm. This game wants you to move, and never stop pressing the attack. Your formidable foe certainly doesn’t let up, and your best options are a risky but devastating parry, or a forgiving dodge that opens up a window to wail on him for a precious few seconds. Breaking a boss’s stamina bar results in a moment where you’re able to select between individual parts to strike that’ll result in either extra damage or a bigger bounty of souls – a fun bit of risk vs reward.
If Onimusha: Way of Souls can keep up this cadence of action and digital tourism through an otherworldly vision of Edo period Japan, I reckon Capcom is onto a winner. What’s here, even in a microdose, feels like a fantastic balance between what made the PS2 titles so compelling and what players expect from a contemporary action game, and I’m so incredibly ready to see more.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches in 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
