During a special theater presentation at this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, Hardcore Gamer got the chance to see new gameplay footage of the upcoming Capcom titleOnimusha: Way of the Sword. The next installment in theOnimushaseries takes a more grounded and realistic approach to combat, with cinematic presentation and brutal swordplay at the forefront of the live demo.
Wield Your Sword Against Enemies
Gameplay began with our hero, Musashi, arriving at Kiyomizu-dera Temple with sword in hand. Heading through the luscious forest on the path to the temple, Musashi encounters a few different types of supernatural enemies blocking the way to the main structure.
Musashi takes down the different sets of enemies with tactical prowess and patience, utilizing a series of defensive moves to protect himself while waiting for the right moment to strike. His standard guard move was capable of blocking enemy attacks from multiple directions (of course, there was a limit to how many blocks he could perform before his posture was broken). Gameplay feels like a mix between the slow-and-steady katana swordplay ofGhost of Tsushima(minus the stances), mixed with the special moves, puzzle-solving and linear level design of the more-recentGod of Wartitles.
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One of the most impressive moves is the redirect move, which serves as a parry against attacking enemies that used their moment to send their attack into nearby walls and objects. One redirected enemy ended up heading face-first into a large torch, catching on fire and taking massive damage while burning to death. Ranged attacks could be deflected back at enemies with proper timing, and we’re pretty sure we saw a few melee attacks get deflected as well, behaving more like a standard parry. The animations of dying enemies were brutal and realistic, as were the rest of the visuals in the extremely impressive demo.
Harnessing The Power of the Oni
Enemies still generate souls upon death in classicOnimushafashion, with three colors representing different types of souls (blue for skill power, yellow for health, and red for XP). A few skills generated specific types of souls, like one that executed a wild two-sword attack, leaving a flurry of yellow souls in its wake. A powered-up state, achieved from deflecting and guarding against enough attacks, boosted Musashi’s damage and created massive amounts of blue souls with each attack.
The animations of dying enemies are brutal and realistic, as were the rest of the visuals in the extremely impressive demo.
A warrior stood in front of a group of enemies at the gates of the temple, giving Musashi the chance to show off this game’s version of the “Issen” mechanic. With a properly timed input, the warrior was attacked with massive damage in a single blow. The Issen can be chained into other enemies by hitting the input again with perfect timing, capable of repetition to take out large numbers of enemies.
Reaching the main platform of the temple revealed a boss battle agains Sasaki Ganryu, a fast-talking and cavalier former enemy of Musashi’s who seems to have received similar powers to his own. The face off was a tense and fast-paced sword battle, with crazy moves from the Sasaki being barely repelled by Musashi. He’s eventually defeated, but from what it seems, it won’t be the last we see of Sasaki before this adventure is over.
The return of the classic PlayStation 2 series is a stylish, modernized take on the original series' base mechanics, evolving them into modern-day Samurai gameplay with ease. With beautiful animations, an intense level of variety in combat and a healthy dose of puzzle-solving and cinematic storytelling thrown in the mix,Onimusha: Way of the Swordis sure to please old and new fans alike when it releases in 2026.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword
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