Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a goofy goofy movie by samurai Seiko

In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, you don’t just play as one of the most famous swordsmen in history. You’re also playing kind of an idiot.

At Summer Game Fest, I sat down for about an hour of hands-on time with Capcom’s triumphant return to the Onimusha franchise, which will break nearly two decades of dormancy when Way of the Sword is released on September 25. The good news is that the section of the game I played had more of the same brutal and skillful combat that I used in a swordplay game. Saw it briefly last year.

The great news is that the protagonist, Japanese legend Miyamoto Musashi, is much more fun and quirky than previous glimpses of the game have suggested, and better matches the horror tone and gory, comedic action of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good stoic warrior Burdened by the symbol he lives forbut we have a slew of games featuring samurai seeking to restore their honor or take revenge, starting in 2019. Axe: Shadows die twice And 2020 Ghost of Tsushima To complement it Ute ghost and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (Both were released last year.)

Demon-slaying aside, I didn’t feel like Path of the Sword would deviate from the path taken by those other titles until this hands-on. In this part of the game, I entered a town partially overrun by demon soldiers (called Genma), but I wandered through a rift into a bright sun-soaked area of ​​the village, finding the spirits of the locals who had all happily suffered strange fates, like amputating half a leg to treat a sore knee or turning a couple into dolls to stay together silently forever. Hmm!

To confront the Oni demon that is cursing the villagers, Musashi must recover some statues of lost souls, and he’s very rude about it. To cross the river, he borrows a boat from the dancer Okuni (presumably Izumo no Okunithe historical founder of kabuki), then complains that he doesn’t know how it works: “When will a swordsman need to row a boat?” She tries to explain how the oars work and calls him an idiot. it’s great.

In traditional samurai games, it’s fun to see the noble struggle of remaining confined to social hierarchy and norms, but it can feel routine and restrictive after a while. The impudent and foolish Musashi, divorced from Bushido’s rules of respect and duty, fits into the game’s chaotic setting of demons running frantically through rural villages. The series’ famous Oni Gauntlet talks to him, trying to curb his bad morals. There is comedy amidst the masterful sword cutting.

And yes, my sword got pretty bloody – although mastering Musashi’s moves was harder than I expected.

Read more: Onimusha: Interview with the producer of The Way of the Sword: Resurrecting the series after 20 years

She slowly and painfully learns Onimusha’s many quirks

As fans have seen in numerous trailers released by Capcom, Way of the Sword has several different ways to deal with enemy attacks coming from close or far away.

There is a basic block that drains stamina. A standard, well-timed parry is required to counter some attacks, while a dodge works well with others. You can also block ranged attacks to reflect them. Finally, there’s the Issen style, which feels bad when you master it, leaving Musashi’s shadow form for the enemy to penetrate before they hit you back – you have to attack in mere frames before the enemy hits you. I never consciously pulled it out, but it’s already there YouTube guides From technology to people who play Free sword show Available now.

Unlike in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, one doesn’t do this explicitly needs Master counters to defeat basic enemies, which can be hacked clumsily in Way of the Sword, but bosses will quickly humiliate players who don’t. “This is intentional,” Way of the Sword producer Koichi Shibata told media in a behind-closed-doors press conference before our preview of the game.

I fumbled through most of the section with simple sword strikes, but when I got to the boss at the end of the demo, I got hit hard enough to shut the place down. I’m by no means a master of parrying, but I was able to slowly get the timing down over the course of the fight. The pacing is understandable, and the boss’s movements are dispatched more easily than some of the more annoyingly fast attacks of Elden Ring and other Soulsborne bosses.

He is an interesting coach in terms of subject matter. Remember the deformed villagers I mentioned? This person hypnotically convinces them to let him cut off body parts with huge shears – which is very satisfying to dodge them while his grotesquely elongated body hurls them at Musashi. I was exhausted early in the fight, yet became nearly untouchable by the end after I cornered him with my bumpers, hitting him with a sliver of health left on the screen and blood coursing through my veins.

In my focus on the blade, I ignored my previously chosen special weapon—two daggers that cut golden orbs, which can be absorbed to restore health—and my bow, which I only used to nullify some big attacks from the boss. There are a lot of other items I forgot were there too, like defensive spells, which probably would have helped. When you are one with the sword, there is nothing else.

After I won and the demo was over, Capcom showed us more hands-on gameplay, with producer Shibata playing a different part of the game. Aside from some well-timed Issen counters and grab reversals, Shibata showed off other gameplay mechanics, including wall running and saving villagers from demons in short encounters. The Onimusha producer battled two as-yet-unseen bosses with amazing names like Byakue, The Hundred Defilements, and Dohatsu-ten, Heaven’s Bane.

Previous previews had a dark, demon-filled Japanese historical fantasy tone, which seemed stiflingly serious alongside its intense combat. But I saw the game breathe in this demo, displaying Musashi’s gruff personality and arrogance with a swagger to match his swordsmanship. You’re right — I want to lead an idiot with a competitive streak around cursed villages, killing demons for the challenge rather than a tired sense of duty. Now, if I could only time the radical-looking Essen counters right…