Our latest hands on time with Onimusha: Way of the Sword continues right where we, and anyone who played the demo, left off. The insufferably languid Sasaki Ganryu has been defeated (though he lives to be a right prat another day), and Miyamoto Musashi is drawn deeper into the world of the Oni and the Malice that is now afflicting the human realm.
Continuing on in this troubled area following the demo, and with the Oni inhabiting his gauntlet now a little more forthcoming to him, he encounters fresh Oni Visions. These reveal that the big sloppy monster Daidara has recently passed through, sniffing out and eager to find and consume more Oni souls. Following his trail takes us into the Oni World itself, a realm that’s filled with gravity defying rocks and islands, with rich veins of gold running through the rocks.
Exploring this realm soon puts a new weapon in Musashi’s hand, the Oni Bow, allowing him to shoot back at enemies – a headshot often getting a quick kill for standard foes – and blast open some floating rocks to fall down on them, and to trigger moving blocks for environmental puzzles.
It’s relatively simple stuff at this early stage of the game, and quickly builds up to the battle against Daidara. He’s not a cautious opponent, coming across like an angry toddler at times with his sweeping club attacks and head-down charging attack. That, naturally makes it quite a fun and accessible fight as you read his clearly signposted attacks and time blocks and dodges.
With Daidara defeated, it’s time to return to the real world, where Eastern Kyoto has been almost entirely consumed and corrupted by the Malice. This has shrouded much of the city in a poisonous red fog, and sprouted giant mushroom-like growths with huge tortured faces within them. Eastern Kyoto is a more open environment to track back and forth through to reach the various Rifts that need to be sealed – in turn strengthening Musashi’s gauntlet and perhaps bringing the Oni that’s trapped inside back to the fore to explain more of what’s happened.
There’s more types of Genma enemies here. The Kubi Akari are these jowelled floating heads, while lizard like enemies that can spin into spiked wheels emerge and race around you. They’re important variety alongside the regular corrupted swordmen and bowmen that we encountered through the earlier demo… though I wouldn’t say that these battles in the open world are really meant to truly challenge Musashi at this stage.
That remains the preserve of the deeply thematic boss fights, which are truly excellent. Rasho-Gan, the Wish Warper is a real highlight here, stepping into the temple grounds that he has infested transforms the look and feel of the world from the grey awfulness outside into a beautiful sunny day. Everyone is happy here, the man hopping on one leg, the women with stumps for hands, they’re thoroughly delighted. It’s only once you’re able to confront Rasho-Gan himself that you learn what truly happened. That lady with no fingers? She just didn’t want to practice Shamisen anymore, and Rasho-Gan was more than happy to make that happen for her. It’s a gloriously twisted premise.
Again, it’s a fun fight that leans on technical mastery of the block timing for his attacks and leaning into the opposed parrying to overcome him head-on. There’s other ways to fight him, I’m sure, but when he decides to start lifting up buildings and rubble to throw at you. After running around trying to evade them for a few attempts, I was delighted to learn that the spectral chains he was using could be shot through with the Oni Bow to drop them right on his head.
The final boss fight we encountered pushed me to play in a different way. This barrelling Dulux dog of an enemy named Byakue pushed me to stay still instead of constantly move and evade. This allowed me to be in position when he charged to dodge, simply side-stepping and opening Byakue up to attacks in slow motion. In all of these battles it’s all about keeping the pressure up, making sure to strike and counter, to gradually drain their red stamina bar – yes, it’s the “wrong” colour still – until you open them up for an Issen Break attack, giving the option to target different parts of their body.
I enjoyed the contrast here, the challenge ramping up for me as I had to learn the moves and adapt. I’m sure that those who’ve mastered Soulslikes will still laugh in the face of these early battles, but it was a pleasingly balanced difficulty for me.
And I’m really curious to see how the rest of the game unfolds. From the more linear path seen in the demo and the section of the game that follows on directly, to the more open city setting that needs cleansing, I’m keen to see where Musashi’s journey takes him next.
Thankfully the wait isn’t too long, though if his fight against the Genma is filled with peril, then so too is this game’s launch date. Arriving on 4th September, it’s right in the same window as a number of other action adventure and combat-oriented games. Having had to wait two decades for this series continuation, you’d have to hope that this is successful enough to justify a tighter turnaround for the next sequel.
