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Capcom’s Onimusha sequence has taken its followers on a rollercoaster all through current years. After remastering the unique sport in 2018, a number of years of full silence adopted. Onimusha followers all over the place step by step started to lose hope in the way forward for the sequence, which was already a well-known feeling after a dormant decade following the discharge of Onimusha: Daybreak of Desires in 2006. Indicators of life arrived in November 2023 with the Netflix Onimusha TV present, though it was removed from what Onimusha followers needed.

Onimusha loyalists continued to undergo all through 2024, although they had been ultimately rewarded for his or her endurance. They celebrated the top of 2024 with the announcement of a brand-new online game entry within the Onimusha sequence with Onimusha: Manner of the Sword. A remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future was ultimately introduced the next February and only in the near past launched on the finish of Might.

This was Capcom’s agency message that Onimusha was again. In fact I’m nonetheless crossing my fingers for contemporary re-releases of Onimusha 3: Demon Siege and Onimusha: Daybreak of Desires (my private favourite), but it surely’s much more thrilling to see what a brand-new Onimusha will appear to be. Capcom was able to reply that query at this yr’s Summer season Sport Fest as I bought to see a hands-off first look of Onimusha: Manner of the Sword being performed reside.

Like with earlier Onimusha entries, the brand new title in Capcom’s samurai motion sequence stars yet one more well-known historic determine with a well-known actor modeled round them. This time round, gamers take management of the legendary Musashi Miyamoto with the mannequin of late, famend actor Toshiro Mifune. Within the west, Mifune was greatest identified for his roles in quite a few movies directed by Akira Kurosawa together with Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon, and way more.

The presentation I noticed for Onimusha: Manner of the Sword already captures the traditional feeling of enjoying via the older Onimusha entries. Slaying the Genma demons will depart varied coloured soul orbs that gamers should manually suck into Musashi’s Oni Gauntlet similar to previous Onimusha titles. Their colour dictates their impact – gold orbs get well HP, and pink orbs are foreign money for different improve techniques (the specifics weren’t proven within the presentation), whereas blue orbs see the most important change this time round.

Blue orbs are inclined to refill a magic gauge in previous titles for gamers to forged spells, however Manner of the Sword appears to have both changed or expanded this technique with talent methods. All through this hands-off demo, Musashi displayed his mastery of the katana as his base weapon, and was in a position to make the most of a talent the place he wielded a pair of twin swords briefly all through the period of the talent. This system wasn’t on a timed cooldown; as a substitute, blue orbs stuffed up a talent gauge that dictated when it might be used once more. I’m not precisely certain if magical spells are completely gone, or they only haven’t proven them but.

One of the vital intriguing delicate techniques they showcased for Manner of the Sword, that prior Onimusha titles possessed, is how soul orbs will also be utilized by enemies. If gamers don’t suck in lingering soul orbs, there’s an opportunity that the encircling Genma will suck it up themselves which in flip, powers them up and offers them entry to new assaults. A flying Genma demon, as an example, began spewing a brand new projectile assault regularly after it absorbed a number of soul orbs, and even did a self-destruct approach after it latched onto Musashi’s head. This has quite a lot of potential to change the dynamic of encounters, since it can push gamers to think about leaving themselves weak for a couple of moments to suck in orbs, to be able to deny them from being consumed by surrounding foes.

The Issen system that was first launched in Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future makes a return, as nicely. As an enemy’s assault is about to strike Musashi, gamers can reply with a ahead assault that has Musashi provoke a way that may immediately kill grunt enemies, and considerably injury harder ones. The Chain Issen mechanic can also be in Manner of the Sword; if an Issen is initiated towards a big group of enemies, gamers can proceed their Issen assault to surrounding enemies as time slows down after every Issen strike so folks can select which enemy to focus on subsequent.

If there’s one important takeaway I bought out of this Manner of the Sword gameplay demonstration, it’s that Capcom has intentionally made its visible environment comparatively darker than the opposite video games within the sequence to focus on the visceral brutality of its fight. Musashi can block omnidirectionally, so he doesn’t must be dealing with his opponents to deflect their assaults. When his katana makes contact with an enemy, sparks fly and brighten up the display for a break up second.

When Musashi lands the ending blow on every particular person Genma demon, it’s usually finished in a savage, ferocious method. There have been many distinctive animations of Musashi’s katana slicing the flesh off Genma demons, and one among them sliced a Genma straight in half vertically from the highest of its head to the underside of its abdomen. Manner of the Sword’s sound design highlights the depth of every of those kills, as Musashi’s katana meticulously cuts via them.

Though Capcom has been deliberately obscure on Manner of the Sword’s story specifics to stop spoilers, there have been a couple of story scenes within the gameplay demo that concerned one thing known as the Black Mass. As Musashi progressed via the linear stage, there can be sections that possessed a darkish mist that dispersed throughout Musashi that allowed him to see reminiscence flashbacks of how the Genma tortured the land’s residents. Considered one of these Black Mass visions portrayed how the Genma compelled folks to throw one another off a pagoda. 

Musashi additionally confronted off towards his historic rival Ganryu Kojiro at this pagoda, who was beforehand proven within the newest trailer for Manner of the Sword. I’m very interested by Capcom’s resolution to make use of the ‘Ganryu’ identify as a result of most different historic texts usually discuss with Musashi’s rival as Sasaki Kojiro, somewhat than his stylistic Ganryu identify. Ganryu in Manner of the Sword additionally has an Oni Gauntlet, and appears to be drunk on the ability it’s given him. It is price mentioning that gamers do see the boss’s lifebar in Manner of the Sword, which did not come to the sequence until Daybreak of Desires.

As Capcom’s Manner of the Sword demonstrator traded blows with Ganryu, a secondary posture bar stuffed up beneath the boss’s HP. When Ganryu’s posture fills up, a quick pause happens through the boss battle that offers the participant two color-coded choices: pink and purple. Every of them highlighted completely different elements of Ganryu. Selecting pink offers a major quantity of HP injury, whereas purple does much less injury however it could reward a substantial quantity of coloured orbs for the participant to devour. If gamers are getting low on HP or need to cost up their talent bars, the purple possibility is likely to be extra preferable over the uncooked injury pink possibility relying on the scenario. Every possibility offered a novel particular assault animation as a result of Musashi targets the precise physique half that every possibility highlights over.

After overcoming Ganryu, Musashi progressed slightly additional into the extent and stepped into what was clearly a “boss battle space”. Upon getting into, an attention-grabbing scene occurred as a result of the Genma boss demon, Byakue, entered the world via what seemed like a crack in actuality. Though the boss was considerably bigger than the earlier Ganryu, the Capcom presenter nonetheless took it down with little downside, and the earlier posture bar system I described was nonetheless current all through it.

It is up within the air how a lot I’d contemplate Manner of the Sword a “Soulslike”, although its aesthetic and gameplay cadence could make it appear that strategy to fashionable audiences. There was a couple of small shrine areas that the Capcom participant intentionally shied away from. They actually seemed interactible, however I am unable to say for certain if these function like bonfires or shrines within the Souls and Nioh video games, respectively. Early Onimusha video games had been extra easy motion titles with the isometric mounted digicam angles seen in traditional Resident Evil entries. It wasn’t till Onimusha: Daybreak of Desires that the sequence began to lean extra into being an motion RPG, though there have been nonetheless gentle RPG mechanics in prior Onimusha titles.

I left the Onimusha: Manner of the Sword presentation happy that the core mechanics of Onimusha had been nonetheless intact. The ebb and circulate of fight could also be comparatively extra visually violent than previous titles, however it’s nonetheless Onimusha at its core. My greatest query is that if the katana would be the solely base weapon obtainable to Musashi all through the sport, or if there’ll be different weapon varieties as nicely. There’s nonetheless fairly a little bit of time for Capcom to supply a solution to this, as they nonetheless have a lot to indicate for Manner of the Sword because it’s slated to launch someday in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X|S, and PC.