During Summer Games Fest 2025, Capcom invited me to sit and watch a live demo of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and I was deeply saddened that I had to wait until 2026 to get my hands on it. The combat looks fast, complicated, and bloody, and the demo did an excellent job of assuaging any fears I had that modern Onimusha would make the mistake of being another soulslike.
Fast paced action combat, and absolutely not a soulslike
During the live demo we got to see the protagonist, Musashi, early on in his journey as a swordsman, and also early into his time wearing the Oni Gauntlet, which he isn’t too fond of having. As he slashed through enemies it was clear that Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be a tough game, but it isn’t taking too many elements from the soulslike genre, something that fans of the series will be happy to hear.
Musashi can guard in any direction, although each block takes away posture. He can also parry, which redirects enemies in a different direction. In action, Musashi sent an enemy directly into a torch, which set them on fire. The most exciting move I saw was the Issen, which returns from previous games, which occurs when you attack at the right moment while an enemy is attacking you. It results in a high damage execution, which completely kills the enemies we saw in the demo. This move can be chained by getting the timing right repeatedly, letting Musashi take out four full health enemies almost instantly. Mastering these moves and figuring out the timing on different enemy attacks seems like it will make it quite tricky to pull off.
Of course, there was plenty of orb collecting during the demo, which Capcom made sure to remind us that orbs will despawn, and rather quickly, so you need to make sure you find time to absorb them during extended combat sequences.
Dark and eerie
The demo took place in the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, which Capcom said it worked closely with modern historians to accurately recreate. There, Musashi had to deal with a concentration of Malice, which was unleashing monsters on nearby villagers. Musashi had to absorb a Dark Orb, which allowed him to see what events had happened to create the Malice.
Further into the Temple, a boss fights with Sasaki Ganryu, another Gauntlet wielder, but one who has been corrupted by its power. The fight here was intense, involving lots of well timed blocks, redirects, and dodges, as Musashi whittled down Ganryu’s health bar. Ganryu’s posture was broken twice during the fight, but instead of it just dealing massive damage, there was a choice of where to strike, represented by different button options.
Capcom explained that while you can go straight for the head for big damage, going for a different part of the body would cause an abundance of health orbs to drop, allowing Musashi to recover if needed during the fight. Those won’t be the only options, but having the chance to make a quick tactical decision seems like a smart way to bring a new flavor to this kind of boss fight.
The demo ended with another boss fight, this time against Byakue, the monster that came out of the Malice that Musashi needed to absorb into his gauntlet. Byakue was covered in Ofuda, paper talismans, which got blood soaked as the fight continued. This served as a culmination of all the abilities shown to us, in which the person running the demo dispatched of him quickly and stylishly.
While I would prefer to be playing Onimusha: Way of the Sword right now, it releases sometime in 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
