Onimusha: Way of the Sword - PC Hands-On Impression
Sharpen your blade with the launch of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which is available now. Take a look at our impressions from the PC version of the game and find out what we thought of the whole experience!
By Craig Bishop (Gamesplanet)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword review copy was provided by Capcom for testing purposes, opinions are Gamesplanet's own and not representative of Capcom. Performance stated is a mix of pre and post release launch code (mostly launch code).
Explore the historic Japanese capital of Edo-period Kyoto in Onimusha: Way of the Sword which is available now. Thanks to our friends at Capcom, we've had hands-on time with the PC version ahead and post-release to find out what this latest entry in the Onimusha series is about, and how Capcom has rekindled their classic series with modern elements.
Note: While this was intended as a Hands-On Impressions piece, I did end up finishing the game in my 45 hours with it so it's partly a review, without the score.
Sharpen your blade, test your might
Players will take on the role of a wandering samurai known as Miyamoto Musashi, who wants to travel the path of the sword to prove his unmatched skill, however things quickly go awry and hell itself invades the living world. In order to fight back against the malice Musashi will obtain a powerful Oni Gauntlet, that grants him the power to absorb souls from defeated enemies and use it against them to unleash powerful attacks. At the start of your adventure you'll be parrying and dodging attacks, but once you get more skills you'll soon find yourself an unstoppable powerhouse that slices and carves apart anything and everything in your way. If you can time your attacks, either with a parry or a dodge, you may be able to do counter damage that helps turn the tide in battles.
As you progress though the story you'll obtain Oni weapons, that can give a variety of benefits - including a pair of twin hammers that deliver a mighty attack that can drain a large chunk of any enemies stamina (also especially useful for interrupting moves that may be hard to deflect). You'll also have a variety of different healing pouches and items that can be helpful in combat to restore health, deal less damage from enemies or regain other resources.
There's a surprising number of Boss encounters within the game too, and each one will test your skills in battle. One tip I'd recommend: if you have the chance do as many side quests as you can so you can upgrade your Clothing, Sword and Gauntlet to make things easier. I didn't know that there were skill tree upgrades waiting for me until quite late in the game, so keep an eye on your map as your upgrades may be a simple quest away. While I won't spoil any of the encounters, some of them do ramp up difficulty so you'll want patience (especially the final one).
Exploring Kyoto
The game itself has a few areas to explore, with one main city area and several other locations to visit. It was a refreshing pace to go to new areas the game opened up and you gained more abilities. By exploring each area you may come across secrets to help upgrade your character further - or even opening up the skill tree more (which I recommend doing as soon as you can). There's a variety of side quests to take part in, and even though these are not as deep as I liked they were a nice chance of pace from the main story and a couple were fun to do.
Even though the game does not feature a dynamic day and night cycle, there are a couple areas where the time is set differently which gives each one its own visual style. Those looking for something to collect can hunt down collectable Lion Dogs, and by discovering certain amounts you'll be able to get some cosmetic weapon skins for your sword.
Final Impressions
I went into Onimusha Way of the Sword as a mostly newbie to the series, though I had tried Onimusha: Warlords very briefly in the past, I didn't get far enough to call myself a true fan of the series. That said, every trailer I saw for the game after the huge success Capcom had earlier this year with both Resident Evil Requiem and PRAGMATA (which I also had an early hands-on with), definitely made me more excited to try Way of the Sword. After 45 hours with the game there have been highs and lows, and I do feel like you'll want to be patient with the game if you're not used to titles like Dark Souls. Even though the game isn't technically a souls-like, there are a couple elements which do make it similar to that type of game - including a final boss that I spent 7 hours trying to beat. For some that may be too much, and I'll admit there were times when I wanted to throw the towel in, but I persisted and the feeling of finally beating them was incredibly satisfying.
While I am not normally someone who enjoys hard games, I did enjoy my time with Way of the Sword - it's just a shame that some of the difficulty ramps up between certain boss fights. There's a difficulty mode beyond the "Action" and "Story" modes once you've completed the game you'll unlock "Carnage" mode, which ramps up the difficulty even more. Unfortunately that isn't for me, as I did enjoy my time with the game and I may go back to it again one day - just not sure if I'll survive Carnage or have the patience for it.
For those looking for an enjoyable action game, with timing you need to master then you'll absolutely have a blast playing the game. There's a couple rough spots (could have been better at times), but even with those I'll still give the game a Recommended. It just falls below PRAGMATA and RE Requiem for me, though I hope to see more from this series in the future. Capcom have delivered 3 massive hits so far this year and they have their work cut out for them in 2027.
How about Steam Machine?
The majority of my playtime was on Steam Machine, using the High Preset with FSR (3.14) at 1440p Quality I had over 60 FPS in most encounters and used HDR with VRR to iron out the dips. It ran incredibly well, perhaps one of the most optimised RE Engine games in recent years. The only downside to the image quality is that you can't enable RT, but even without that it still looks great. I've also heard it runs well on Steam Deck too (if you're ok with 30 FPS). At the end I did swap to my PC with a 14900k and 4090 to take advantage of the Nvidia Reflex option to reduce latency (use it if you're on a Nvidia card you'll need the timing for parry and dodges). But regardless of your setup it should be an enjoyable experience no matter the hardware. It scales well on a number of devices.
Buy Onimusha - Way of the Sword: Get bonuses on Gamesplanet
Buy your Onimusha: Way of the Sword Steam key on Gamesplanet before September 26 at 1am BST / 2am CEST and receive the following early-bird bonuses:
A set containing a charm and a sword appearance that can be used in-game.
- Charm: Lion Dog
- Sword Appearance: Sealed Curse
Meanwhile, those who purchase either the Deluxe or Premium Deluxe Editions before Sept 26th will get the following:
A set containing charms and sword appearances that can be used in-game.
- Charm: Lion Dog
- Charm: White Monkey
- Sword Appearance: Sealed Curse
- Sword Appearance: White Lion
