Onimusha: Way of the Sword Key Art
Image: Capcom

Capcom has been on a wild winning streak for the past decade, give or take. Monster Hunter is now an international phenomenon, Resident Evil goes from strength to strength, and now Onimusha–a series largely left fallow for nearly twenty years–is back and coming out swinging. Onimusha: Way of the Sword launched this morning, setting players loose on a demon-infested Kyoto, on a quest to rip and tear until it is done. No taciturn Doom Marine here, though, just an impressively expressive Miyamoto Musashi.

If that name rings a bell, it's because the character you're playing here was, ostensibly, a real historical swordsman, although he's long since been elevated to the stuff of legends through countless embellished retellings. And few are as embellished as this, as during the prologue he ends up killed, resurrected, and drawn into a conflict against the armies of hell and their eternal quest to force open the gates of the underworld. As you do.

This sounds grim, and the game is pretty dark and gore-soaked, but from the little I've played so far, there's a real sense of humor and whimsy here. Everything feels like a slightly over-theatrical samurai movie production. Specifically, Akira Kurosawa's movies, with Musashi here roughly modelled after famous Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune and trying to echo his mannerisms, and the character takes all this weirdness in stride. It lends a lighter edge to it all - this is not gritty realism. It's a performance, and the player is part of it.

For all that theatrical authenticity, it's all the more curious that–as you can hear in the launch trailer below–Capcom has opted for a British voice cast for Way of the Sword. While this approach can have its charm (I admit to liking the Xenoblade series), it does sit wrong with me here, especially as the game goes out of its way to capture the feel of classic samurai movies. I can't see myself playing this one with anything but the original Japanese audio, even if it does make it a bit harder to focus on the action.

And oh, what lovely action it is. Again, I'm still only early on, but as with previous Onimusha games, this is a grounded, slower action game than, say, Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, but it's not a Souls-like either. Attacks are snappy and responsive, and while blocking and parrying is an option, the game constantly nudges you towards Issen attacks, attacking a tiny fraction of a second before an attack hits your undefended body in order to land an instant, powerful counter, which I cannot see ever getting old.

The risk-reward mechanics continue, with enemies dropping more souls (which can be absorbed for health) when you're low on health, encouraging you to push your luck and let them swing first. There's definitely a good range of play-styles going on here, and I've yet to really figure out how I'm going to tackle it, but I cannot deny the appeal of playing a reflexive, reactive game. Whether my reflexes will hold up for the duration is another issue.

While most of the previous Onimusha games were relatively short experiences (some clocking in at a breezy 6-8 hours), early reports are that this one is an epic, clocking in at around the 25-hour mark. Longer for completionists, as there's a New Game+ mode along with an unlockable, even harder difficulty mode. While most of the reviews thus far are very positive, the length has been a point of some contention. Just know that if you're digging into this over the weekend (as I will be), you might not be done for a few weekends yet to come.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is out now for £60/$70, with Deluxe and Premium editions adding to the sticker price even more in exchange for a few cosmetic and booster items, which I'd personally not recommend. Savvy shoppers might be able to shave around 20% off that price tag, though, and there's a lengthy demo available on Steam. As an aside, Capcom's excellent supernatural samurai tower defense game Kunitsu-Gami is on sale right now, if you're hankering for a distinctly different flavor of demon-slaying.