A week removed from Summer Game Fest, one of the demos I can't stop thinking about is Onimusha: Way of the Sword. After spending time with a behind-closed-doors build—which featured an open area of Kyoto set later in the game than the public Steam demo—it is clear that Capcom has poured significant resources into making this reboot feel distinct.
While comparisons to Sekiro are likely to follow this title, the melee combat feels like it is in an entirely different league. Slices and stabs connect with slow, bone-splitting follow-through. Blades don't just hit; they clash, drag, deflect, and spark as if they are laced with fireworks. In a market long dominated by floaty, spammy sword mechanics, Capcom has leaned into extravagant animations, tactile feedback, and the satisfying crunch of cleaving limbs from enemies.
Addressing the Difficulty Concerns
Despite the excellent combat feel, the demo raised a common question: Is Onimusha: Way of the Sword too easy? Playing on “Action” mode rather than “Story,” I found the rank-and-file Genma troops were rarely a threat. They went down quickly, attacked sparingly, and rarely pushed me to counter. It wasn't until the final boss—a many-armed monstrosity—that I faced a real challenge.
I took these concerns to game director Satoru Nihei. According to Nihei, the demo experience was intentionally altered for the sake of the hands-on event.
"Both the demo and also the version you've tried here today are early on in the game. So there is that kind of sense that a lot of basic enemies are going to be a bit easier just because of where it sits in the game," Nihei told PC Gamer through an interpreter. "But on top of that, especially with the demo that we released, Musashi comes fitted with a lot of skills and abilities that are not going to be accessible at the beginning of the game."
Nihei also pointed out that the demo build included button reminders over enemy heads to help players grasp the range of actions available. These prompts, which won't be present in the final release, made the boss encounters significantly easier to solve. Capcom opted to “juice” Musashi’s starting abilities in these builds to ensure players could feel the full potential of the combat system, even if it caused some balance discrepancies.
What to Expect at Launch
Capcom is confident that the final product will offer a more curated challenge. Nihei noted that as players progress, Musashi will gain abilities gradually, and enemy difficulty will scale accordingly. Fans looking to adjust that challenge will have two presets available at launch: Story and Action.
With a release date of September 24, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is arriving as part of a crowded wave of titles ahead of GTA6. Whether the final balancing matches the high bar set by the game's visceral swordplay is something we will find out later this year.
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