Respawn Monday #18: Onimusha: Way of the Sword is Game of the Year Material

This weekend was a renewed focus on Onimusha: Way of the Sword, an action game where I am now 20 hours in and realizing that this is a solid Game of the Year contender. Each time I progress through Musashi’s journey of ridding the world of the demons pouring out of Hell, I’m realizing that Capcom didn’t take any shortcuts when reviving one of their classic IPs. They reinvigorated it to a point that it’s capable of standing alongside their top franchises. Some thoughts.

The Effects of Onimusha Parrying

There’s a lot popping out from the overall presentation to even how the game feels when playing it. Everything about the game makes me appreciate Capcom’s level of detail, and the importance of the game’s parry system, which is simple on paper but effective thanks to how it is displayed on the screen.

Way of the Sword has simple controls where you have a fast attack, a heavy attack, dodge, block, and blocking at the moment an attack would land triggers a parry. Simple stuff as far as action games are concerned, but the delivery brings everything about Musashi’s arsenal to the next level.

Parrying is a spectacle in itself as Musashi can parry most attacks, and when you execute it successfully, you are rewarded with Musashi’s expertise with the katana. A parry on a boss or even small enemies has unique animations, and successful parries reduce the enemy’s stance bar. When reduced to zero, it allows the player to execute a painful attack that comes with a satisfying animation of the main protagonist dishing out a punishing blow to an enemy. Parry an attack from behind and you get a slow-mo parry of him deflecting it without turning his back, while certain attacks that are parried see Musashi redirecting the flow of the enemy blade to leave them exposed for a chain of attacks.

The sound of the blade clashing during a parry, the sparkle seen between the blades clashing, and the camera angle that slightly shifts to add more focus to the parry, all of it makes a timely press of the block button make you feel like a winner, a feeling that actually helps build momentum during difficult encounters.

It’s nothing like The Blood of the Dawnwalker or even Wolverine, both recent games I played that focus on melee encounters, with both also having the ability to parry. Wolverine has parry but can get lost in the chaos of attacks you can unleash as Logan, while Dawnwalker does have more weight, but nothing like I described with Way of the Sword.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword Has Game of the Year Potential

Onimusha: Way of the Sword would have felt like a completely different game if the parrying didn’t have this much detail when executed properly. It truly shines during boss fights as we get these unique animations, and Onimusha’s parry also has two versions of it, with one being more rewarding for doing so as it’s a tiny bit harder to execute since it involves two buttons instead of one.

Then, we have Musashi, a Capcom protagonist that is just pouring with so much personality in both the game’s cutscenes and in combat. The facial animations of the game’s protagonist are so defined that you know when he’s struggling, confused, or irritated. Musashi is seen mostly blowing on his open main sword hand before a fight, and dealing a massive horizontal blow that would result in cutting a demon in half can sometimes see him lose his balance just a bit. The way he moves, reacts, and stays idle as others converse stands out more than other protagonists, making it hard not to notice these types of mannerisms.

This is quite an impressive delivery from Capcom, as the Onimusha franchise has been dormant for years, and they could have easily released a new title and just marked it as the company’s version of the soulslike formula. But no, they intentionally avoided that path to deliver an action game closer to the original games, and I believe they succeeded in doing this. More importantly, they did it while making it challenging, as this game can kick your ass, especially in boss fights. It’s not on the same level of difficulty as Elden Ring, where you can stay on a boss for hours or days, but you will need numerous tries to get some attacks memorized to win a fight.

There’s more I can say about Way of the Sword, but I’ll save it for the full review, as I am so close, and honestly wish it won’t end any time soon.

How was your weekend?

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Respawn Monday #12: Why Beast of Reincarnation Felt Rough at the Start

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Respawn Monday #14: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 Beta and my Return to R6

Respawn Monday #15: How Time Works in The Blood of Dawnwalker

Respawn Monday #16: Jean Fart Gas and Onimusha Goodness

Respawn Monday #17: Still Processing the Madness that is Control: Resonant

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About the Author - Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.