Onimusha: Way Of The Sword hands-on preview – return of the demon samurai

Capcom brings back Resident Evil sister series Onimusha, as GameCentral enjoys a playable demo featuring undead monsters and some very fine sword-fighting.

The ongoing success of Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes has already inspired other publishers to revive their own classic survival horror titles, such as Dead Space and Silent Hill 2, but this is the first time Capcom has looked to its own back catalogue for more inspiration. Back in the late PS1/early PlayStation 2 era, Capcom reused the Resident Evil formula for a number of similar games, starting with fan favourite Dino Crisis.

Even Devil May Cry – whose continued absence from Capcom’s modern line-up seems stranger by the minute – evolved out of an early prototype for Resident Evil 4, but if you don’t count that then it’s Onimusha which was the most successful of Resident Evil’s sister series. Particularly popular in Japan, there were four mainline entries and multiple spin-offs, ranging from tactics games to a pachislot title licensed by Sega.

Much like Capcom’s Viewtiful Joe (remember that?) it suffered from oversaturation and never really made it into the PlayStation 3 generation, with the only entry being a Japanese-only strategy spin-off. But, after a couple of recent remasters, it’s back, with a visual style borrowed from the Resident Evil remakes and some very satisfying sword-fighting.

If you’re not familiar with Onimusha it’s an easy game to explain. The originals featured very similar exploration and puzzle-based gameplay to PS1 era Resident Evil games, but with more emphasis on action – since you don’t have to worry about your sword running out of ammo.

Set during the Sengoku period of medieval Japan, with Oda Nobunaga portrayed as a literal demon from Hell, the majority of enemies are zombie samurai and related monsters (onimusha means oni warrior, but while oni is often translated as demon it’s a bit more complicated than that).

Like Capcom’s reveal of Resident Evil Requiem, little is known about the plot of the game but from the brief context we were given it doesn’t seem to be a reboot, but a straight sequel. You play as Musashi Miyamoto, who was introduced in fighting game Onimusha Blade Warriors and is apparently the main character of the Netflix Onimusha series, which we haven’t seen. Like Nobunaga he’s also based on a real historical figure, who is revered as the greatest swordsman in Japanese history.

The demo, at least, is set in Kyoto and as usual for the series, Musashi has somehow ended up with an oni gauntlet on his hand, which allows him to collect the colour-coded souls of oni (used variously to regain health, upgrade abilities, and the like) and talk to a disembodied female voice.

That voice is of someone with a Japanese accent, but Musashi and the other human characters all have English accents, which breaks the immersion somewhat. Although, unlike the original Onimusha games, there is a Japanese language option for the voiceovers.

The demo is very simple and almost entirely linear. We’d guess it’s from very early on in the game, as you’re given plenty of time to take on the various oni samurai, with the game offering a variant of light and heavy attacks, where the former are one-handed and the latter two-handed.

Combat in the originals was never very complex but Way Of The Sword is a little more involved and comes across very much like a beginner’s version of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. We don’t mean that in any kind of derogatory sense though. No one wants every game to be as hard as FromSoftware titles and here you can still get caught out if you’re not paying attention, with both you and your enemies having a stamina gauge, as you try to break each other’s stance in order to do serious damage.

This is most easily done by parrying an incoming attack at just the right moment, which has a generous window of opportunity. It is very satisfying though, as your sword glows red hot at the impact, amid a shower of sparks. Blocks are not instant though, as you need time to get your sword moving in the right direction, so in some instances it’s best to evade – which is not a FromSoftware style roll but a more subtle dodge of the shoulders, that still has a bonus for perfect timing.

The fighting is excellent, with oni samurai splitting down the middle as you deliver a finishing blow and the ability to ping back arrows at whoever’s firing them, like a lightsaber parrying blaster bolts. There’s also an oni power gauge to keep an eye on, which allows you to wield two swords at once (something the real Musashi was famous for) and, it’s implied, gain access to other abilities.

None of the standard enemies in the demo really required that sort of help, although we did like that the monsters were already starting to get very weird, with a strong influence from the mythology of yōkai, including a weird flying face creature and a sort of armadillo style monster.

There were a couple of dream vision style cut scenes, but we didn’t really gather what was going on, other than oni were bullying and/or slaughtering the peasantry, at one point forcing an aged father to throw his pleading son down a crevasse.

Although in general the action was very easy the demo ends with a duel with Ganryū Kojirō, who is also based on a famous swordsman of the period. The game treats him as an old rival, but as far as we’re aware he’s never been in the series before – perhaps he was in the Netflix show though. Either way, you seem to have a frenemy style relationship with him, with Ganryū complaining about the curse of immortality.

This battle is where things get more serious, with the parrying, dodging, and stamina all becoming vitally important, since simply spamming him with light attacks will get you nowhere. We still found it relatively easy to parry and counter-attack though, which again was super-satisfying to get right and looks great on-screen. We’d go as far as to say it’s one of the most enjoyable sword fights we’ve had in any recent video game.

How the rest of the game will turn out we’ll just have to wait and see (although we do have an interview scheduled with the developers at Gamescom). As with the original Onimusha games, the foundations of the gameplay and graphics have already been laid down by Resident Evil and with the engaging melee combat and fantastical samurai setting added on top, Onimusha is easily one of our most anticipated games of 2026.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (previewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: TBA
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 2026
Age Rating: TBA

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