- Primary Subject: Onimusha: Way of the Sword Demo
- Key Update: The demo offers a deep combat system but suffers from a lack of difficulty.
- Status: Preview
- Last Verified: 2026-06-04
- Quick Answer: Check out our impressions for Capcom's upcoming game, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, highlighting its combat mechanics and ease of play.
Capcom can seemingly do no wrong this year. From Resident Evil Requiem to Monster Hunter Stories 3, with Pragmata tucked in between, everything the developer has been putting out has been banger after banger. Can Onimusha: Way of the Sword continue that trend? It certainly has the potential, but I'm wary about it.
I recently played the demo Capcom put out to the public following the June 2026 State of Play. It's a short and sweet one, less than an hour long, giving you a taste of the combat you can expect when the game launches this September.
There's a lot of mechanical depth to the way combat works. At first glance, it's your standard grounded action game focused on dodging and parrying, with light and heavy attacks to mix in. But take a glance under the hood and you'll notice there's much more to it than that.
The loop of Way of the Sword revolves around stunning enemies by depleting their gauge and going in for the kill with a swift strike. The power fantasy of feeling like an unstoppable samurai against hordes of unsuspecting, demonic jobbers really makes that dopamine spike.
You can perfect-parry attacks of all kinds, including directly deflecting enemy projectiles back at them, and dodge just in time to get a neat slow-mo effect to drain that stamina gauge before going for the final blow by breaking the enemies' Issen. Doing so will net you Orbs, which offer a wide variety of effects.
Some of the coolest moments during my playthrough of the demo came when I nailed a perfectly executed parry, entering Blazing State with a slick, cinematic transition that added weight and excitement to the move. Blazing State makes Musashi's attacks pack a bigger punch, with a bright blue aura surrounding every swing of his sword. From here, I proceeded to chain Issen breaks for a complete takedown of a cluster of enemies at one point during the demo.
Interactions with enemies go beyond dodging, parrying, and slicing them. There are sword clashes called Blade Barrages that trigger a small mini-game in which you have to press a different type of attack than your enemy; Blade Locks that require you to mash buttons to overpower opponents; and specific attacks that can only be dodged. All of this forces you to stay on your toes as you track what's being thrown at you.
The demo culminates with a nice boss fight to cap things off, making you utilize everything you learned in the previous hour of combat.
My issue, like that of many who have played the demo, is that the game is incredibly easy. It could be a situation where Capcom set the player to be incredibly OP to give them a sense of feeling like an absolute demon-killing machine, but in doing so, it undermines the gameplay design and challenges thrown at you. It is not a great first impression.
There were no real difficulty settings besides a somewhat confusing set of control scheme options: one designed for "offensive" players who relished the challenge, and one for "defensive" players, which featured more streamlined controls.
At least there's still some time between now and the full release of Onimusha: Way of the Sword on September 25, so I'm hoping Capcom can iron out the issues so it can feel like a proper, enjoyable challenge on release.
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