Onimusha: Way of the Sword is an exceptional, triumphant feat of storytelling and action.
Miyamoto Musashi was legendary. Living from the 1580s to the 1640s in Japan, he was a swordsman, craftsman, writer and artist, and he even did a famous self-portrait that people still love today. He was the epitome of a jack of all trades, living in an era when the East and West were colliding for the first time and bringing bold, sweeping changes to the lives, traditions and stories of the world’s cultures. It’s all of this that makes him the perfect focus for Capcom for their latest Onimusha game, Way of the Sword, and one of the reasons that video games as a storytelling medium can transcend time itself.
I didn’t know much about Musashi prior to playing this game. I’ve watched a few films that have featured him as a character, and played video games with him in it in the past, but I’ve never studied him outside of Cool Sword Moves. Well, that’s changed. Capcom have flushed out what it means to be the legend, what his life is, what his personality entails. I love this portrayal of the character because he’s a little arrogant but it’s justifiable. He’s sort of a superstar who lives fully by honor, his name bound to that even when he gets a little violent. And when he gets the Oni gauntlet, the big special tool in the game endowed with demonic mysticism that can easily make him more powerful, he doesn’t want to use it because to him it’s essentially cheating. He’s so against it and fights using it throughout the game so much that it creates a really neat dynamic, especially within him.
It’s worth noting that the Musashi’s face here is based on the late Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. The team at Capcom behind the game had to work with his family for around 2 years to get them to finally agree to using his likeness, but they felt it was crucial. Mifune played Musashi in several films, and the actor and his portrayal are tied together in Japanese lore, so Capcom wanted to honor the legends together again with the effort.
They work that portrayal throughout the fantastic plot. It’s got a little bit of liteness to it, but it’s built on Japanese historical depth and tradition. That can mean a bit of fun back-and-forth one-liners by Musashi and the cast he comes across, but there are also moments where things get dark, where he starts to doubt himself, where you see people dying or making incredibly hard choices that are gut-wrenching, and all of this affects him and his journey. It’s so well written. It’s brilliant.
And that ties into the action, too. Musashi was legendary for never losing a duel, and fighting fairly and with honor, but that Oni provides an incredible advantage against his foes. We can attack with its magic and abilities, like blasting enemies or powering up or doing some really wild movesets, but it’s the other side, the actual honor-filled sword fighting, that I truly love. The defending and parrying system feels really good, and we’re constantly switching back and forth between using our sword to shield us or rolling away or lunging or slashing. It’s almost rhythmic, in a way. It’s really good.
The game looks great. I should say that because I’m playing the Switch 2 version there are the usual Capcom caveats. The faces and expressions look wonderful, but the hair never leaves a lot to imagination. In handheld mode it definitely looks like an early PlayStation 4 game, with a little muddiness in areas with a lot of browns and grays, but when it’s docked it looks really, really good on a 4K TV. The audio is moody, and the voice acting is top tier, with enemies having the tinges and emotions of anime villains, slapping us with brutality and ego all the same.
I’ve fallen in love with Onimusha, and its structure, and its characters. Musashi is fantastic. Just watching his motivations develop and change, especially when he goes up against his rivals, is a defined line that makes complete sense, ultimately looping back on itself in some pretty terrific ways. By the end of the experience, past the lore that we’ve picked up or the numerous enemies we’ve defeated, past the sprawling towns and complexes and forests and caves we’ve visited, past the magic and spells and demons and death, we circle back to the very first vision we see when we started the ride: Miyamoto Musashi, a man with depth, created by the cuts of the sword he carries.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is easily one of my favorite games of the year. Hands-down. Swords-down.
This review is based on a Switch 2 code sent to the Editor by the publisher.
