by Danreb VictorioYou’ve heard this from us before, and it probably came from me: Capcom is on a generational run. This year alone saw superb games in Resident Evil Requiem, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, and PRAGMATA. At Summer Game Fest, Capcom hosted a behind-closed-doors presentation of a new section in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, along with a separate one-hour demo of another section, and while there are some blemishes we didn’t notice before, the game still looks like yet another winner and was one of the best experiences to be had at Play Days.
SGF Theater Demo
Before going into my latest hands-on impressions, I’ll be going over the hands-off demo we saw of the game right after the Q&A with Resident Evil: Veronica’s Yoshiyaki Hirabayashi. By this time, I had already played Onimusha twice–once at a Gamescom-adjacent event at Capcom’s office, and with the demo of the game that was released last week after the PlayStation State of Play. We already know that the combat in Way of the Sword is intuitive, and all the abilities you expect from past Onimusha games, like the ability to absorb health, stamina, and magic, are all here. This presentation really showed what to expect from the core loop.
A look at Onimusha’s new open world
In the demo, Musashi begins the questline “Okuni’s Kabuki Dance” where his first task is to head to the sandbar to meet up with Okuni. It’s here that we confirm Way of the Sword appears to be an open-air game, very much like that of Horizon‘s. We also got a better look at the map and how it can chart waypoints to navigate to the objective. Outside of the menus, you can also press down the analog sticks to activate a wayfinder mechanic not unlike the scoutflies found in the modern Monster Hunter games. They’re actually quite helpful on that approach because just setting a waypoint isn’t enough. Navigation in Onimusha isn’t like Assassin’s Creed or Zelda, where you can climb or handglide your destination. You do have to deal with some labyrinth-style exploring in these rural Japanese towns.
On the way to the sandbar, we pass a man helplessly standing on a ladder, terrorized by wisps. We were told we could ignore such subquests and that the people struggling could actually die, but ridding the area of the pests was easy enough. After saving him, Musashi gets rewarded and presses on. Typical open-world sidequest.
Miyamoto Musashi definitely is no Jin Sakai
Eventually, Musashi finds his way to Okuni, and this is where we see some of the game’s blemishes. The English dub and voice acting aren’t very good. The acting seems subpar, and the lip syncing isn’t close. On top of that, we discover that Musashi is a cringe goof. The jury’s out on whether that’s a good thing, but considering how close we are to launch, it doesn’t inspire much confidence that anything with dialog will see any meaningful change. After the conversation, he’s tasked with using a boat to reach the next location, and while he’s standing there, Okuni makes fun of him for not knowing how to paddle. If everybody assumes Musashi is an idiot, it really makes you wonder what kind of character he’ll be.
After paddling to his destination, he’s tasked with sealing the rifts in the area and comes across some enemies that look like attractive women floating in the water. Of course, they weren’t beautiful women; they’re actually demon fish with a backbone that look like women. To take them out, Musashi lures them out of the water and goes to town on them with his sword as they surface and roll on the land. Upon taking the banshee fish out, we get a look at some of Musashi’s other moves, like the ability to run on walls as well as slash while he runs.
More combat wrinkles
More combat ensues, and we see Musashi use the environment to his advantage. He can kick up wood panels to use as cover to shield against incoming attacks, and he can also throw them at his enemies, which gives him a prime opportunity to inflict massive damage on whoever just ate the wood. We’re also given a look at a perfect parry-kill, which is achieved by attacking rather than evading at just the right time.
Finally, we come to a mini-boss fight against “Byakue Hundred Defilements,” a warrior covered in talismans. Musashi quickly takes them out by shooting at explosive barrels at just the right time, and before long, the real boss fight against Dohatsu-ten (Heaven’s Bane) happens. He’s a super-aggressive enemy with a big sword, but using a combination of environmental attacks in addition to perfect parries, Musashi is able to stun him, which presents a choice on how to damage him–hurt his stamina or take a chunk of his health? Choosing stamina ultimately made the boss easier to deal with, and after a festival of dodging and striking when right, the area became cleansed, and we were rewarded with watching the Kabuki dance.
HANDS-ON
Watching everything that happened in that theater demo was nice, because it also let me scout the game and gain a better understanding of how to approach my own hour-long demo after the presentation. After being briefed on the nuances of controls and what to expect from the demo, playing the game again felt like reuniting with an old friend. Again, this was my second time playing this game, and after my experience playing Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny last year, I had a lot of appreciation for how everything was polished.
I know it won’t last long, but one thing I really appreciated about playing this demo was that this section took place in broad daylight, with lush greenery as far as the eye could see. Exploring the neighborhood and admiring some of the historical locales felt special, especially as you take in some of the game’s plot, but even once you stop enjoying the flowers, the core combat gameplay in Way of the Sword felt more fun than ever.
The quest was simple: locate the three missing stout pillars. The main difficulty in it was just finding my bearings in this world again (after all, this is one of 25 games I played at SGF), but it was as easy as finding the quest marker. As mentioned earlier, we had the ability to press both sticks down to activate a wayfinder that took me to where I needed to be, and from there it was just about ridding the area of enemies. Some were smaller and easier to take down, but I was also careless and died one time fighting a bigger enemy, so it’s good to see that the game keeps you on your toes.
And that’s exactly what the boss fight at the end of the demo did.
The boss was a gross-looking samurai with a kit that included launching rocks at you, hitting you with a sword combo, and dropping obstacles on you that’ll force you to either run or shoot them down. While the boss was difficult, the main reason was my being unaware of my own kit. Musashi has heals and the aforementioned bow to go along with his sword, which you’ll have to use as much defensively as you do offensively. The key to taking him out was severing him from this red cord that was tethered to him, which stunned him and left him exposed. At that, as long as you focused on defending and parrying, you’ll have an easier time taking him out.
It’s worth noting that by default, the game has a suggested button to press displayed next to any enemy you’re fighting, and the team at Capcom constantly reiterated that this wasn’t a QTE prompt. Still, that’s what we’re wired to do. In fact, this is the first open world game I played where you press the X button to pick things up, so since I’m so used to triangle, I bet it was funny to devs constantly seeing me strike at collectibles with a strong sword attack.
Anyway, getting back to the boss, the commands displayed on the side did confuse me for a bit, but once I knew that they were defensive suggestions, things became more manageable. Each time I got closer to taking him out, the fight got more theatrical, relying more on my ability to rapidly tap a button than fighting defensively, but it did take me out of my poise its fair share of times. I wanna say it took me around 7 to 8 tries to pull it off, and while I felt humbled, I was also the first person to leave the demo… and I was playing next to Jason Schreier. (Yeah, absolutely unnecessary swipe, but we’re all allowed to gloat once in a while).
Onimusha: Way of the Sword releases on September 25, capping off an extremely crowded month that’ll include the likes of Marvel’s Wolverine, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, and Control: Resonant, among so many other AAA titles. It’ll be a bloodbath, but judging from what we’ve seen over the last couple of years, Musashi should be ready for the fight even if he does end up being a cringe warrior. On that note, I’m definitely switching to Japanese voice acting with subtitles.
