It has been 19 years since Capcom launched one other recreation progressing the story of its samurai motion horror franchise, Onimusha — however in 2026, Onimusha: Means of the Sword will arrive as the following recreation within the collection. Forward of Gamescom, Capcom gave US media a preview of the sport with a brief 15-minute demo, a mere style to indicate us the place the following recreation goes within the twenty years because the final mainline Onimusha.
Onimusha: Means of the Sword continues the franchise’s custom of basing characters on historic figures after which having them struggle demons. Gamers tackle the position of Miyamoto Musashi — one of many most famous swordsmen in Japanese history — tasked with destroying the Genma, a military of demons plaguing the land. You may hack, you will slash, you will parry, you will kick ass.
The Onimusha video games have at all times been one thing of an arcade hack-and-slash with parrying mechanics, a novelty when the collection debuted within the early 2000s, however which different video games have adopted within the many years since. Interval samurai video games have been in vogue in recent times, from 2019’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima (and Ghost of Yotei releasing quickly) to this 12 months’s Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
Whereas my demo with Onimusha: Means of the Sword was transient, it looks like Capcom has resisted mimicking the stealth and hyper-mobility of these extra fashionable samurai video games and preserved the idiosyncrasies of the originals. Musashi receives the ability of the Oni gauntlet, by means of which he can soak up orbs of the hordes of demons he slays — and no, you nonetheless cannot bounce.
Many of the modernizations to Onimusha: Means of the Sword is thru the parry system, which has 4 other ways to deflect enemy assaults, presuming you time it accurately. But it is nonetheless a recreation about reducing aside demons along with your sword in frankly brutal vogue, depleting their block meter to get in a closing slash that can ceaselessly slice them in half in a gruesomely satisfying vogue.
A brief slice of Onimusha: Means of the Sword
The demo opened up with the participant as Musashi strolling down a forest path to get to a temple, passing fleeing villagers and sword-wielding demon troopers pursuing them. Killing them was simple — the sport was on the Motion problem (with an excellent simpler Story problem if I wished), and even with my middling Sekiro and Elden Ring expertise, it was a breeze, so I am hoping for a harder possibility when the sport releases.
A darkish fog gathered across the temple, which Musashi referred to as Malice, which appears like a focus of demonic presence (however what do I do know). As I method the temple gates, the Oni gauntlet, the soul-gathering demon armor piece that is iconic to the franchise, speaks to Musashi. When he strikes to the touch a glowing orb, ghostly recollections of villagers march into the temple. To enter myself, I had to make use of Oni Imaginative and prescient — mainly a Batman-style detective sight — to seek out the fitting religious binding to chop.
Naturally, extra demon troopers await me within the temple, giving me an opportunity to make use of my particular weapons — a pair of dual blades I can summon after I’ve revved up sufficient power within the Oni Energy Gauge utilizing my common sword. Presumably, I will get to make use of quite a lot of magical arms this fashion within the full recreation, but it surely does appear to be many of the fight can be utilizing my trusty katana (and a whole lot of parrying).
I lastly entered the principle sanctuary of the temple overlooking the valley under, which had one other ghostly reminiscence for me to look at — recalling the corrupting Malice convincing aged villagers to toss their youngsters into the abyss. Grim stuff. However I used to be rapidly shaken out of my reverie by an previous pal of Musashi’s who greeted him with a blade. There’s some unstated historical past between your legendary swordsman and the seemingly unhinged newcomer (named Sasaki Ganryu), however he is bought an Oni Gauntlet too, and a want to chop you down.
In contrast to the fodder I might fought earlier than, Ganryu as a boss was a satisfying and prolonged struggle, requiring loads of counters and measured assaults to interrupt your opponent’s stance. Once you do, you are given a selection of the place to land your important hit — within the boss’s physique for additional harm, or in his Oni Gauntlet to get extra orb forex.
When you have some therapeutic gadgets to make use of usually, I could not apply them in the course of the boss battle — however successive assaults will make therapeutic orbs come out, rewarding exact play whereas forgiving missteps. It is a promising various to different punishing slash-and-parry video games, like FromSoftware’s Souls titles and their imitators.
With the boss defeated, the demo ended, and thus our first take a look at a brand-new Onimusha recreation in twenty years. Whereas Onimusha: Means of the Sword comes within the wake of a number of different motion video games set in historic Japan, Capcom’s contribution has the arcade really feel and brutality, mixed with demonic thriller, that would set it aside from extra grounded and practical samurai simulators.
Onimusha: Means of the Sword is popping out in 2026.
