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Many will probably remember 2026 as the year Grand Theft Auto 6 launched, but for me, I’ll remember it as The Year of Capcom.
Huge updates to Monster Hunter Wilds, bangers like Resident Evil 9 and Pragmata, a huge expansion for Dragon’s Dogma 2, and now the revival of the classic Onimusha franchise make for one of Capcom’s most productive years, maybe ever.
I’ve been playing Onimusha: Way of the Sword (Xbox, starting at $69.99) for the past couple of weeks on Xbox Series X for this review, and I’d already previewed the game a couple of times leading up to this. I admit I don’t have much experience with the franchise in general, but I’d say that’s probably true for a lot of people trying it out in 2026.
There are tons of high-quality samurai games out there in this day and age. Can Capcom compete with the best of them and stand out in what is arguably a pretty busy crowd? Can Onimusha revitalize the franchise for a modern audience and stay true to what veterans are expecting? Here are my thoughts.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword review — Story, setting, and art
Set in the twilight of the Sengoku period in Japan, Onimusha has generally revolved around historical swordsmen dropped into a fantastical, horror-tinged setting.
Onimusha was originally envisioned as a “ninja” version of Resident Evil, complete with tank controls and fixed camera angles. The original game was re-released in HD for Xbox recently, and it’s actually pretty good if you have some old-school Resident Evil nostalgia. Onimusha: Way of the Sword is quite a different beast, though.
In Way of the Sword, you play as historical legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who is believed to have never lost a duel. Musashi’s presentation in Onimusha is perhaps the game’s biggest triumph: powered by RE Engine, Musashi is incredibly expressive, making his characterization particularly infectious. His cocky, almost comedically arrogant attitude leads the game’s story delivery with similar confidence and also gives him a lot of room for character development throughout.
Set in Kyoto, Musashi is humbled early on as demonic Genma forces manifest and launch attacks on the surrounding villages and town center. Revived from the dead as an Onimusha, Musashi reluctantly takes charge of his new role as demon slayer, with the goal of preventing the permanent sundering of the veil between reality and the underworld.
Musashi is supported by an eclectic cast of interesting characters with great designs and similarly expressive delivery. But what really shone for me above all was the antagonistic characters. The demonic Dokyo does some absolutely heinous experiments on innocent townsfolk, and the hilariously creepy Genryu stalked Musashi, desperate to prove himself. One-off boss battles also enjoy top-tier characterization in ways many other similar games often neglect, giving those duel-style boss battles high stakes and memorable conclusions.
I’m not sure the overarching plot of Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be remembered as a true classic, but the visual treatment, characters, and setting are designed primarily to feed its infectious hack-and-slash gameplay — which is every bit as thoughtful and high-quality as modern Capcom is now known for.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword review — Gameplay
This is a weird and complicated segment to write in some ways, and it reminds me of my Monster Hunter Wilds review from last year. There are things in Onimusha: Way of the Sword that Capcom nails spectacularly well, but there are also areas where they’ve really dropped the ball — and weirdly, it’s similar pitfalls that I saw in Monster Hunter Wilds.
First, the good stuff. Onimusha’s swordplay combat is absolutely spectacular and incredibly nuanced. It’s often about playing defensively, where parries and dodges deliver the best form of offense over simply hack-and-slash. A well-timed parry will devastate an enemy’s stamina meter, leaving them open for a spectacular dismembering attack, which can slice enemies cleanly in half. This extends even further to boss battles.
Oftentimes there are multiple different ways to interact with enemies. Some might have armor that needs to be broken; some attacks aren’t blockable with regular parries and need to be deflected. Some attacks can’t be blocked and need to be dodged. Learning when and how to react forms the basis of finding victory over more dangerous opponents, and the volume of unique and memorable bosses in Onimusha is generally impressive. This isn’t a soulslike, but you will find yourself dying a couple of times (or more) on some of the harder bosses to learn their patterns.
The big bads can often be found at the end of well-designed linear segments that function similarly to how dungeons might in other games. These areas are well-paced, sprinkled with story beats, unique music, and set pieces. It’s the connective tissue between these areas that really let Onimusha down for me.
The “overworld” is an open-world map based on ancient Kyoto. It’s an urban area with dense streets and pathways, with a needlessly frustrating, sometimes headache-inducing approach to map design.
There’s a huge amount of needless gating throughout the open world, making exploration painful. An area might be blocked off by a wall that might be climbable in one area, but inexplicably un-climbable in another. “This door doesn’t open from this side” is scattered throughout, even as the mini-map pings you for treasure on the other side, leading you on a wild goose chase to find the arbitrarily “correct” entrance to a walled-off area that, visually, should be easily passable.
Sadly, you can’t really ignore the “open world” gameplay, since upgrades require all manner of random bits and bobs like pieces of cloth and leather. Finding these around the open world is an absolute chore owing to all the random blocks, gates, and arbitrary barriers that simply frustrate and harm the pacing.
Onimusha might’ve been better had it had no open world whatsoever and stuck to being simply linear, or using a more Resident Evil-style maze-like layout. The game plays far better every time you escape the pain of the open world and its chore-like upgrade system, which is a shame.
It’s not enough to prevent Onimusha’s best aspects from shining through. Those boss battles are incredibly fun and rewarding, the story delivery is interesting and engaging, and the overall treatment makes for a game well worth your time. But man, Capcom in general needs to rethink its approach to “open world” gameplay, or perhaps better yet, not even try.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword review — Conclusion
Onimusha is let down by its open-world design, but the high points are so high that it isn’t held back by its less favorable connective tissue.
Musashi is a great character who I hope we see more of, even if Onimusha games generally swap to new protagonists across each new game. Capcom’s RE Engine absolutely shines here, with top-tier visuals, presentation, digital character acting, and nuanced and detailed combat.
Onimusha is launching in an incredibly busy window as developers of all sizes flee to avoid GTA 6’s launch, but it is without a doubt one of the top-flight titles of the season. If you love Onimusha or action-oriented samurai games in general, and want something that avoids the stress of a soulslike while still being suitably challenging — this is absolutely
Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches on September 4, 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. It comes with Xbox Play Anywhere for Windows PCs and handhelds, too.
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