Way of the Sword Reviews Say Capcom Has a Fourth Hit on Its Hands this Year

If you thought Capcom’s blistering hot streak in 2026 was bound to end, you might be right. But it’s not ending with Onimusha: Way of the Sword. The samurai action game revives Capcom’s long-dormant series after 20 years (discounting remasters), and it bucks a big trend from the last five years. Parrying definitely matters in Way of the Sword, but this game is no Soulslike.

Capcom’s fresh take on action combat has gone over quite well with reviewers. At the time of writing, Onimusha: Way of the Sword‘s Metacritic score is sitting at 86 — three points lower than Resident Evil Requiem‘s 89, one point higher than Pragmata, which settled at 85, and on par with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. Whether that’s enough to give Onimusha: Way of the Sword a shot at showing up at The Game Awards 2026 for more categories in addition to best action game, well, that’s another story.

Most reviews, even the generally positive ones, balance high praise for Way of the Sword‘s combat and storytelling with consistent criticism of how much extra stuff Capcom included in the game. Polygon’s Giovanni Colantonio called it a “battle worth surviving,” despite how sorely it tested his patience at times.

“Even when your power is rising through piecemeal RPG progression, it always feels like you’re in the duel of your life,” he wrote. “And as old foes you swear you vanquished already rear their ugly heads again, you have no choice but to give up or stand and fight.”

“Powerful swordplay moves in lockstep with thematic takeaways about the nature of strength, making for the rare hard game that actually has something to say about its own difficulty. But by the end of my quest, I couldn’t say that I felt enriched from all that suffering.”

The problem comes from a lack of enemy variety and Way of the Sword‘s insistence that you fight the same mini-bosses multiple times throughout the game.

Game Informer’s Wesley LeBlanc also found the side quests slightly repetitive.

“Capcom… struggles to justify the repetition, too, with no discernible reason beyond those darned demons doing silly little demon things,” LeBlanc said. “It leaves Musashi’s journey feeling padded, especially when the named villains have tantalizing ambitions, and it’s clear there’s a better, more streamlined adventure somewhere in it.”

However, LeBlanc argued that Way of the Sword‘s exceptional combat makes up for its less inspired moments. Unlike some modern action games, he said, this one makes you keep learning long past the first tutorials and challenges you to apply those lessons in ever-evolving ways.

George Yang, writing for RogerEbert.com, agreed. Yang called the boss fights exhilarating and generally praised the combat for its “weighty” and “meticulous” feel that make every fight a “treat,” even when you’re facing down the same Genma time after time.

Will Borger wrote IGN’s 10/10 review, praising Onimusha‘s combat while highlighting the quality of Capcom’s storytelling and animation.

“Capcom has done a remarkable job of translating aspects of [Toshiro] Mifune’s on-screen mannerisms, right down to his habit of scratching the back of his head and the way he walks,” he said. “Using the likeness of a dead actor is always fraught, but Capcom navigates it with aplomb here.”

Kotaku’s review, written by Jackson Tyler, is less glowing. Tyler compares Way of the Sword with previous Onimusha games, concluding that Capcom removed too much of the series’ identity in a bid to make it palatable to modern consumers.

“Instead of a coherent interconnected space you explore throughout the game, there is an open world with side missions and collectables,” Tyler said. “Instead of a focused resource system that emphasizes decision making in combat, there’s a sprawling amount of currencies feeding into several overlapping, incremental upgrade systems. This is Capcom’s answer for how to bring back Onimusha: to strip it entirely to its perceived core and to replace everything else with something that looks superficially similar, if you squint. The result is a game at war with itself.”

Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be released on Sept. 4 for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X