Onimusha: Way of the Sword Beginner's Guide

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a sword-fighting action game made by Capcom, and the first brand-new mainline Onimusha game since Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams in 2006.

It was revealed at The Game Awards in December 2024. Capcom has said clearly that it is not a Soulslike — it is a character action game built around parries and timing, with no stamina bar to manage.

You play as Miyamoto Musashi, one of the most famous swordsmen in Japanese history. His face is modeled on the actor Toshiro Mifune, which is why the character looks like the classic samurai movie star.

The game launched on September 4, 2026, moved up three weeks from the original September 25 date.

It is on four platforms: PlayStation 5, Windows (PC), Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The PC, PS5 and Xbox versions launched together, and the Switch 2 version was confirmed later, at the June 2026 Nintendo Direct.

There is no PS4, Xbox One, original Switch, or mobile version. If you only own a PS4, you will need one of the current platforms to play it.

The game costs $70 USD, which is the standard price for a major new release in 2026. Special or collector's editions are marked to be confirmed.

There is a free demo that lets you play the opening Kiyomizu-dera section, so you can try the combat before you buy. The demo is on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

On PC, you need about 50 GB of free space. Confirmed GPU figures are a GTX 1660 minimum and an RTX 2060 Super recommended, with the CPU and RAM figures still marked to be confirmed.

Musashi duels a swordsman named Yoshioka Seijuro and cripples his arm, then is ambushed and killed by demons called the Genma.

He wakes up in the depths of Hell, where a Man in White forces a cursed gauntlet called the Oni Gauntlet onto his arm. The gauntlet feeds on souls and will kill him if he tries to remove it.

Musashi must hunt the Genma, purify the rifts opening across a dark-fantasy Kyoto, and eventually confront the villain behind it all — Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the Man in White.

Miyamoto Musashi is the hero, voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya in Japanese and Kenjiro Thompson in English.

Sasaki Ganryu, also called Kojiro, is Musashi's rival. He also gets an Oni Gauntlet but turns to slaughtering humans to absorb their souls.

Minamoto no Yoshitsune is the villain who leads the Genma and wants to become a godlike being. Shizuka Gozen is the Oni spirit living inside Musashi's gauntlet, who guides him through the story.

Combat is built around striking, parrying, and deflecting. There is no stamina bar, so the challenge comes from reading attacks and timing your responses, not managing a resource.

A perfectly-timed parry triggers Issen, which can dismember enemies instantly. There is also a move called steer that causes an enemy to fall toward a certain direction, and a guard stance that blocks attacks from all directions.

Defeated enemies drop three kinds of souls that the Oni Gauntlet absorbs: yellow for health, red for upgrades, and blue for powering Oni Armaments. Oni Vision reveals hidden threats and weak points.

Learn the parry early — every boss in the game builds on it. Practice against the first enemies until the timing feels natural instead of trying to learn every move at once.

Pick your control layout at the start: the aggressive layout keeps everything on the face buttons, while the defensive layout puts guard on the left bumper (the Souls-like default). You can swap any time in the options menu.

Upgrade your gear at shrines with materials. Clothing and sword materials come from treasure chests, but gauntlet materials (malachite) only come from closing rifts — and the mini-bosses Byakko and Dohatsu-ten drop more, so hunt them down. Rifts you have not closed show as red streaks bleeding from the sky.

Most skills unlock with power stones and Oni stones, so you will likely have surplus red souls. Spend them on skills first, then trade the extras at Yorimasa's monument for consumables and upgrade materials.

Keep prayer beads equipped for malice zones — the red mist drains your health every second unless you use them. Use the practice grounds to drill Issen and Chain Issen timing without risk.

Before a boss, route through enemies that drop blue souls so you enter the fight with a full Oni Armament gauge. If you want the more authentic feel, switch to the Japanese audio.

The game sold over one million copies on launch day, and reviewers gave it generally favorable scores on Metacritic, with the Switch 2 version reaching universal acclaim.

The campaign runs roughly twenty hours. Reviewers called it one of the best action games of recent years and said it was worth the $70 price.

If you are unsure, play the free demo first — it shows the real combat and the opening story, so you can decide with confidence.