When you thought Capcom’s blistering hot streak in 2026 was certain to finish, you could be proper. However it’s not ending with Onimusha: Manner of the Sword. The samurai motion recreation revives Capcom’s long-dormant collection after 20 years (discounting remasters), and it bucks an enormous pattern from the final 5 years. Parrying positively issues in Manner of the Sword, however this recreation isn’t any Soulslike.
Capcom’s contemporary tackle motion fight has gone over fairly effectively with reviewers. On the time of writing, Onimusha: Manner of the Sword‘s Metacritic rating is sitting at 86 — three factors decrease than Resident Evil Requiem‘s 89, one level increased than Pragmata, which settled at 85, and on par with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. Whether or not that is sufficient to provide Onimusha: Manner of the Sword a shot at exhibiting up at The Sport Awards 2026 for extra classes along with greatest motion recreation, effectively, that is one other story.
Most evaluations, even the commonly constructive ones, steadiness excessive reward for Manner of the Sword‘s fight and storytelling with constant criticism of how a lot additional stuff Capcom included within the recreation. Polygon’s Giovanni Colantonio known as it a “battle price surviving,” regardless of how sorely it examined his persistence at instances.
“Even when your energy is rising by way of piecemeal RPG development, it all the time feels such as you’re within the duel of your life,” he wrote. “And as outdated foes you swear you vanquished already rear their ugly heads once more, you don’t have any selection however to surrender or stand and combat.”
“Highly effective swordplay strikes in lockstep with thematic takeaways concerning the nature of energy, making for the uncommon arduous recreation that really has one thing to say about its personal issue. However by the top of my quest, I couldn’t say that I felt enriched from all that struggling.”
The issue comes from an absence of enemy selection and Manner of the Sword‘s insistence that you simply combat the identical mini-bosses a number of instances all through the sport.
Game Informer’s Wesley LeBlanc additionally discovered the facet quests barely repetitive.
“Capcom… struggles to justify the repetition, too, with no discernible cause past these darned demons doing foolish little demon issues,” LeBlanc mentioned. “It leaves Musashi’s journey feeling padded, particularly when the named villains have tantalizing ambitions, and it’s clear there’s a greater, extra streamlined journey someplace in it.”
Nonetheless, LeBlanc argued that Manner of the Sword‘s distinctive fight makes up for its much less impressed moments. In contrast to some fashionable motion video games, he mentioned, this one makes you continue to learn gone the primary tutorials and challenges you to use these classes in ever-evolving methods.
George Yang, writing for RogerEbert.com, agreed. Yang known as the boss fights exhilarating and customarily praised the fight for its “weighty” and “meticulous” really feel that make each combat a “deal with,” even while you’re dealing with down the identical Genma time after time.
Will Borger wrote IGN’s 10/10 review, praising Onimusha‘s fight whereas highlighting the standard of Capcom’s storytelling and animation.
“Capcom has executed a exceptional job of translating facets of [Toshiro] Mifune’s on-screen mannerisms, proper all the way down to his behavior of scratching the again of his head and the best way he walks,” he mentioned. “Utilizing the likeness of a lifeless actor is all the time fraught, however Capcom navigates it with aplomb right here.”
Kotaku’s review, written by Jackson Tyler, is much less glowing. Tyler compares Manner of the Sword with earlier Onimusha video games, concluding that Capcom eliminated an excessive amount of of the collection’ id in a bid to make it palatable to fashionable shoppers.
“As an alternative of a coherent interconnected area you discover all through the sport, there may be an open world with facet missions and collectables,” Tyler mentioned. “As an alternative of a centered useful resource system that emphasizes resolution making in fight, there’s a sprawling quantity of currencies feeding into a number of overlapping, incremental improve programs. That is Capcom’s reply for find out how to carry again Onimusha: to strip it totally to its perceived core and to switch all the things else with one thing that appears superficially comparable, should you squint. The result’s a recreation at struggle with itself.”
Onimusha: Manner of the Sword might be launched on Sept. 4 for Nintendo Change 2, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X