Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s Boss Battles And Solid Story Elevate The Standard Samurai Adventure [Review]

After a twenty-year gap between releases, Onimusha is finally back. After a trilogy of challenging and engrossing grim samurai fantasy epics in the 2000s for the PS2, the series has largely lain dormant. That’s changing with Way of the Sword, a game that benefits (and suffers) from modern touches and elements of the action-adventure genre.

When the game is able to focus, such as during epic boss battles or in compelling story moments, Way of the Sword shines. The problem is the repetitive gameplay in between, which is refined well enough to be good even as it becomes a bit too dull for its own good. A solid return for Onimusha, the overall execution is a good showcase for Capcom that can’t quite always match its own highs.

Score: 4/5

Pros:	Cons:
Strong storytelling and memorable characters elevate the narrative.	Gameplay both in and out of combat becomes repetitive.
Inventive boss battles genuinely challenge the player.	Exploration becomes dull after a point.
Strong visuals do a good job of creating a compelling experience.	Poor pacing leaves frustrating stretches between plot progression and boss battles.

Onimusha’s Gameplay Loop Might Stagger Some Players

Onimusha: The Way of the Sword has moments of genuinely transcendent action gameplay, with the deadly bosses and unexpected challenges that come as a result. These moments are the highlight of a polished, if repetitive, gameplay loop. After finding himself with an Oni Gauntlet forced onto his arm to keep him alive, Miyamoto Musashi embarks on a mission to cleanse Edo of demonic influence and free himself from this curse. This requires plenty of duels across the corrupted Edo, steadily opening up the city and clearing the thick mists that have filled the streets.

The controls are tight in these sections, with the combat flowing freely with any number of encounters. While the action can be rewarding in bursts, extended play reveals a lot of the same kind of basic encounters and repetitive enemies. Cutting through swarms can sometimes feel like a hassle instead of a challenge, something that doesn’t really get amended too often through the game. While the creature design is solid and the impressive visuals do a good job of drawing the player into the world, it can feel too similar and samey to the fights that happened right before and just after.

This is the biggest problem with Onimusha‘s big return, as it often feels like it’s spinning its wheels with fetch quests that have more of the same fights. It never becomes dull thanks to a refined combat system that puts emphasis on specific dodges and counters, but it quickly loses much of the impact it had in early encounters. The skill tree adds some variety to the combat, but often not enough to keep the random encounters from blurring together in the kind of standard Dark Souls style that has overtaken much of the genre. It’s good and fun gameplay for action fans but struggles to deliver standout beats in the moment-to-moment action.

Onimusha Is Still Sharp When It Wants To Be

By contrast, Way of the Sword thrives when it gets to unleash a boss battle. These one-on-one duels with hulking monsters, multi-armed freaks, and corrupted swordsmen are a genuine blast, requiring multiple on-the-fly strategic adjustments along with the sword skills that have hopefully been honed in the previous dozens of encounters. These sequences speak to Onimusha‘s best qualities, where the cinematic presentation and tight execution can set up some truly great scenes and fights. While the side missions and fetch quests may struggle to stand out from one another, these fights are far more effective and challenging.

That boss design speaks to the larger issues with the game while underscoring its strengths; when the game is able to focus and deliver some big moment of lore or deploy a terrific boss battle, it exceeds expectations and becomes something unique within the action genre. It makes sense that the overarching game would try to create momentum to build up to those battles, but they only make things more forgettable in the interim, leaving the player frustrated that the constant side quests have added to pacing woes. Genuinely, the boss battles are the real draw for Way of the Sword and make the best case for the game and the series as a whole, even if the experience around it struggles sometimes to match those highs.

At Least We’ll Always Have Edo

To the game’s credit, Onimusha: Way of the Sword has a secret weapon in the form of Miyamoto Musashi. The player character, Musashi, is a quickly endearing goof. He’s a master swordsman whose overconfidence often gets him in trouble, whether that be in the opening cinematic, picking fights with entire samurai schools, or calling out the Oni General. As a grounded focus for the fantasy adventure, Musashi is a terrifically fun character to follow and absentmindedly insult the various deities and demons he encounters. The central plot, while nothing groundbreaking, is a well-told take on the material that helps keep the player invested. It’s one of the ways Way of the Sword best combats the pacing problem, helping ensure that the game is elevated beyond those weaker elements.

More than once, I’d force myself through another fetch quest mission just because I really wanted to see the resolution of a challenge or watch as Musashi got himself into a twisted new scenario. Alongside some other compelling supporting characters and effectively memorable antagonists, Onimusha‘s new adventure makes for a pretty fun action-adventure story through a corrupted Japan. Those finer elements are what elevate the game beyond the drab elements. It’s important to note that the game isn’t ever really bad, even in those repetitive moments. The visuals and combat are still solid, after all. The combat can be rewarding and fun, even if the excitement is dulled over time. It’s just that those hiccups keep Onimusha: Way of the Sword from maintaining its best elements. Still, when it wants to, the game can really cut through those basic hangups and deliver a terrific action game.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches September 4, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.