I will preface this piece: yes, I am a massive Capcom fan. Some might say shill, but the caveat here is I don’t get paid for being a fan, I’m just… a fan. It started with Street Fighter, grew with Resident Evil and with that, every (well, most) games that span off from that wave of creativity. One of them being the Onimusha series.
Onimusha is a series that started way back in 2001, and for all intents and purposes, was “Resident Evil gameplay but demons and samurai”. Well, the broad strokes anyway, we’ll get into what made it special. It was a glorious time of creativity, and Capcom were certainly riding it.
Now, after a much-anticipated return, Onimusha is coming back. After the latest trailer above, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is coming in September this year. Is it something to be excited about, when you think about it, or is the spin-off style of gaming nostalgia running thin? Join me, as we do a little deep diving.
Big Trouble In Ancient Japan
There are some readers who perhaps weren’t really aware of Onimusha and its place in Capcom’s vault. Or, you might be too young to played it when the first game came out. Well, put down your brainrot and pay attention, here’s a little retrospective for you.
After the release of Resident Evil, it proved to be a very popular type of game to try and emulate. Alone In The Dark had a go at it, Sony tried it Extermination, not to mention Capcom themselves having a go. One of which was the popular Dino Crisis… whatever happened to that?
But at the turn of the century, Capcom gave us Onimusha: Warlords. Yoshiki Okamoto initially pitched it as “Sengoku Biohazard”, a game similar to Resident Evil that involved trapped houses and ninjas. Whilst that didn’t happen per se, a few staples did carry over: fixed camera images, prerendered backgrounds and tank controls.
But instead of guns, it was swordplay, magic, and a soul-collecting leveling systems for weapons and armour. It was, in many regards, a spiritual spin-off to Resident Evil, much like Dino Crisis was.
What Do Samurai Have To Do With Jean Reno?
It’s fair to say that the first game did well. Let’s not mince words, it sold one million units alone in Japan. Remember, this was a time of innovation, not dog-piling on every new game for being “X but different setting”. With that success game the first sequel, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny, which I reviewed the remaster of last year.
It also did well, but the real standout was its next game, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege. Returning to original series protagonist Samonosuke Akechi, that wasn’t the only surprise. No, it decided to mix in a time travel/time split mechanic with legendary French actor, Jean Reno. Yes, the lovable titular hitman of Leon fame.
It also had one of the best opening FMV’s ever, which I strongly urge you to watch. Anyway, it did well by critical standards, yet didn’t sell as well as the previous titles. Nonetheless, it was a marked improvement on the gameplay that the first two games built.
So, what happened?
The Dawn That Didn’t Break… The Bank
Well, what usually happens when sequels come out in a routine fashion? That old favourite: the law of diminishing returns. By 2006, we were approaching a third sequel in Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. It was at this point that attention was starting to wain. Even yours truly didn’t really bother with it until years after its release.
Whilst it’s nice to see franchises change tack occasionally, the changing of a new protagonist again, as well as a new story arc didn’t really gel with fans. Not to say it was bad, it just felt too radical of a change. Remember, this was a time when people didn’t take to new things. Just look at Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, a game using concepts we see so often in Soulslikes and rogues nowadays, yet killed the franchise in 2002.
Anyway, barring a few mobile and browser games, Dawn of Dreams was the last entry in the Onimusha series. It seemed like all was dead and buried, much like… well, Dino Crisis, another beloved series killed by a massive tonal shift.
The Remaster Revival
For many, we just naturally assumed that time had done its thing and let Onimusha slip into the annals. For the most part, it had. That was until 2018, seventeen years after the original game’s launch that a remaster was coming. That’s right, twelve years after the last main entry, we were getting it back.
Released late 2018, the remaster saw the nostalgia wave ride high. Featuring visual upgrades, as well as Quality of Life improvements we tend to see in remasters, Onimusha Warlords’ release reignited that interest.
So much so that we got remaster of the second game, albeit seven years later. Still, it didn’t dampen the spirits of the fans, even if it did have some of its edges trimmed. Nothing too major, just some bonus features from the original that were strangely omitted.
But it was in between that seven year gap that something really set the fans off. The announcement of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and the whole point that this little piece is getting too.
The Light That Doesn’t Go Out
So, where do you go with a new entry in the Onimusha series? Do you just make something that looks new, with “original” gameplay, or do you reinvent? But with that, do you keep it tastefully modern like the Resident Evil 2 remake did, or go too drastic and do an Alundra 2? That is: make something so different than the first it may as well be a new IP.
Well, it did what most action-adventure games did: copy Dark Souls. Okay, that’s not fair, and don’t run off before I’ve had a chance to elaborate. But go and play the new demo, then come and tell me I’m not wrong.
Yes, from an outside perspective, Way of the Sword has cribbed a few mechanics from Dark Souls… and Sekiro. On the surface, it’s a game of third person, free camera combat. With a souls-as-currency system, health potions that refill at checkpoints and bosses with health bars. But before you cry afoul, that it “besmirches the original”, let’s look at what’s going on.
Old School, New Tricks
So, as we learnt from Dawn of Dreams, the Samonosuke/Nobunaga arc is over. There is no time travelling to Paris, no Jean Reno with a demon-slaying whip. From the press email:
“Onimusha: Way of the Sword is the latest instalment in Capcom’s classic Onimusha™ series. The first entry in 20 years, the all-new action game returns to a dark fantasy Japan where samurai clash with the supernatural. The story fuses history and myth, following the journey of Miyamoto Musashi, a samurai armed with a mystical Oni Gauntlet, as he battles demons invading Edo-period Kyoto. Onimusha: Way of the Sword features intense action that combines the series’ signature Issen and Soul Absorption mechanics with exhilarating swordplay that takes combat to new heights.”
A new hero, a new time period, yet that familiar gauntlet gameplay from the early days. Swordplay takes centre stage (as it should, it’s in the name) and, having played it, it’s fantastic.
It can be played all Souls-y, if you’re happy with that. Enemy lock on, pick them off then on to the next. Or, if you fancy, as I did, play without locking on and it feels like the old ways. Full 360° combat, parrying and attacking whichever way you choose.
There’s no jumping, nor was there originally. The only thing that really feels different (and this is just from the demo) is the camera shift. Yeah, I love the original fixed camera gameplay, but I accept that this new choice benefits a game like this.
Show Us The Way
My point, then, in what is basically an elaborate press release is: Way of the Sword is shaping up to be a very exciting return to the series. It’s like Capcom know what we like, still riding high from the Resident Evil remakes, announcing Code: Veronica and off the back of new IP like Pragmata. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should, as evidenced in Miles’ review.
The excitement it seems doesn’t just lie with me, if forums are anything to go back. What with Capcom’s current resurgence, there’s no better time to get back into one of the worthy successors to the Resident Evil imitators. Even if you haven’t played any of them, but like your Souls and/or action-adventure titles, this will scratch that itch.
For the old heads like me, it’s got that series charm with new stylings. For youngsters and newcomers, it’s a gorgeous looking slice-and-dice adventure with demons and demon-bosses. September may be packed with big titles, but for me, this is the biggest.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is available from 25th September 2026. The Standard Edition will be available both physically and digitally, while the Deluxe Edition and Premium Deluxe Edition are available via digital stores. The Deluxe Edition includes the base game, plus cosmetics and charms for Musashi. In addition to this, the Premium Deluxe Edition packs in additional cosmetics for Musashi, outfits for his allies, and an in-game digital soundtrack.
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As I said back in my preview piece, I am a relic who enjoys Resident Evil and its older derivations. Onimusha 2 is definitely one of those, and I mean that with outright praise. Coming of an era with that, Devil May Cry, Extermination, Dino Crisis… there was a veritable flood.
What makes Onimusha special was that it retained that trademark Capcom style, whilst being exciting as a new “brand” for the publisher. So, naturally, sequels were lined up, and then some twenty years later, resurrected with a fresh coat of demon-slaying style and spackle.
Which begs the question, then; does Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny follow nicely on from Warlords’ 2018 port, or is going to taint the taste for the upcoming revival in Onimusha: Way of the Sword next year? Let’s find out…
Disclaimer: it turns out that if you select the already unlocked bonus costumes and then save, you can’t change them back on a whim. But on the plus side, at least you know the captures in here are authentically mine.
They Call It “Feudal” For A Reason…
So, now that I can talk about the plot unlike before, it’s actually pretty straightforward. After the events of the first Onimusha, it was left ambiguous as to the fate of resurrected warlord, Nobunaga Oda. As we soon find out, he survived the assumed death in a collapsing castle, and is back to the wreak havoc on the neighbouring villages in a bid for domination. Having taken control of the Genma, the demons in the Onimusha universe, Nobunaga stops at nothing to raze towns and villages to dust.
One such village in his crosshairs is that of the Yagyu clan, home to the popular-in-modern-lore Jubei Yagyu. That’s right: instead of the established protagonist in Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Samanosuke, players this time fill the kegetsu of Jubei on his quest for revenge. Samanosuke (as we learn in the next game) is off fighting the Genma on a larger scale, so we’re instead following the more famously known samurai as he takes on Oda and his demon crew.
As I say, it’s a classic revenge story, interwoven with elements of more famously known Japanese figures. And in peak 2000’s era Capcom, it features some of the most wooden and woeful voice acting and hand-gesturing in gaming. But then, if you’re old and you cut your teeth on that kind of corn, you’re in your element here.
We Still Kill The Old Way
Now, I’ve used the “if you remember this” referencing already (and will probably do it again later), but I am aware that this series may be new to some. So in that regard, those might be wondering how Onimusha 2 plays. Well, like a game that uses a style made popular by survival-horror at the time, funnily enough. What that means is fixed camera angles, lots of door transitions and key-and-lock puzzles that are way too elaborate for common sense.
To get more specific, Jubei’s travels take him from villages, mines and such to demon-tainted corridors and castles down the line. That’s not a spoiler, Japan was rife with castles and lords back in the day. Anyway, our hero’s quest sees him battle his way through said locales, hacking and slashing his way through Genma hordes. The difference here is that demons are not as bound to one plane of existence as. say, dinosaurs or zombies. So expect to clear a room out, leave, come back and find more demons. Or sometimes don’t even leave, just stand there and grind out some more souls (more on that later).
To use the most obvious analogy, it plays like a Resident Evil game. That is to say, it has tank controls: the old system of “you’ll walk forward by pressing up, regardless of camera orientation”. Fortunately, for all you modern moaners, this is optional, relegated to the directional pad. Full 3D movement has the thumbstick priority here, although it can be disorienting when screens change and the 3D movements bugger up a bit.
Combat is pretty standard, too. But standard isn’t bad, and can actually be engaging when it works. Jubei can find and equip several types of weapon along the way, which one you get on with is entirely preference. What Onimusha 2 did incorporate, besides the standard blocking system, is a parry-and-counter system for more engaging combat. It’s a bit fiddly to pull off at times, but it’s satisfying when it works.
Souls-Hike Pricing
What sets Onimusha 2 apart from the survival-horror template to a more action-adventure title is the reliance on combat and grind. That’s right, before all of yours Souls’ and such popularised it, Capcom were doing it near-twenty five years ago. And by golly, it can be just as boring then as it is now. As mentioned previously, demons have souls. These souls are the game’s currency, gathered up by Jubei’s magic hoover-hand upon death.
As the rather lacklustre chart above shows, Jubei’s weapons have a certain level to them. Three being the max, each level changes the appearance, stats, and magically attack of selected weapon. We don’t actually get to see these stats, but c’mon, Capcom wouldn’t give us placebos now… would they? The magic attack that each weapon uses is unique, too. The Buraitou is a lightning-affinite sword, so its special is a shockingly strong combo attack.
The Senpumaru is a double-edged pole-type weapon, with a wind-based affinity. Its special is an area-of-effect defensive tornado, which when upgraded will also knock back enemies. I won’t spoil the rest, but you get the gist. To again make modern references, there’s no secret tricks with any of these, or any that cater to a specific “build”, as it were. It really boils down to what you, the player, are comfortable with. Personally, I favour the Buraitou and Senpumaru.
“So where’s the grind?”, you might be wondering. Well, the upgrade system is not cheap… at all. That’s no exaggeration, mind. You really will be backtracking and slaying groups en masse if you want to max out your weapons and armour. Of course, you don’t have to (and there’s a trophy/achievement for going bare-bones), but it will make the game harder.
Oh You
I won’t go much more in-depth to the game on the whole, as it has been out for quite some time now (the original, I mean). But I would just like to elaborate on a system that will, most likely, pass by a lot of players. See, this is the inherent problem with older titles: there’s an absolute treaure trove of hidden features in some titles, that without any hand-holding could be entirely missed.
There’s one in Onimusha 2, too. It’s not uncommon to occasionally switch to other characters at certain story points, much like in Resident Evil 2 (off the top of my head). Sure enough, there’s a portion of the game spent as Oyu, with her own back and forth section of action. But that’s not all the game has to offer.
There is a gift system, one that can be utilised for item gain and support. Along the way, Jubei will pick up seemingly random and unhelpful items, like flutes and kaleidoscopes. But whilst useless to the grumpy man himself, they can be given to the supporting characters Ekei, Kotaro and Magoichi (I haven’t really divulged into this lot because some things should be a surprise). If they like a gift, they’ll reward Jubei with an item, from consumable medicine to life/magic-enhacing jewels.
Butter them up futher and it doesn’t stop at gift-giving. They’ll even pop up along the way to aid Jubei at certain points, including but not limited to, boss fights. It’s a neat little mechanic, but it’s also a pain in the ass. The support crew will drop hints at what they like, but they are vague at best. Do you want to know if they’re going to help you or not? Well, so would I.
Yes, there are plenty of guides written about in the last twenty years but if you didn’t know it was there, or how deep it went, it can go entirely missed. That’s the classics for you.
We’re All Getting On A Bit Now…
So, what is actually new in Onimusha 2, that really makes it stand out from its original version? Well, besides new aspect ratios, adaptable controls and a few quality of life tweaks… not a lot. Oh sure, it looks nice, and I don’t mean to sound too blase about it, but c’mon: remasters have to at least look nice or they’re just terrible ports, really. The voice acting is still straight GCSE drama level, as previously mentioned.
In terms of gameplay, Jubei can now switch between weapons on the fly. Both melee and ranged weapons can be cycled through, which is a little bit fiddly at first but functional. It is done in real-time, however, so be mindful. Of course, players can pause and manually equip if they need a reprieve, so it’s nice to have both options. Maps are also hotkey mapped, which is a nice little tweak without having to scroll menus to find out which one you’re in.
But one of the biggest and most welcoming changes is the titular Onimusha transformations. In the original (that is, the first Onimusha), Samanosuke could transform into his more power Oni form at a player’s whim. You know, the sort of hail Mary, get-out-of-a-bind moments… or boss fights. Whereas in the original Onimusha 2, the game would go “Ooh, spicy moment!” and transform Jubei at random (provided he had the requisite five purple orbs collected).
Which, as you can imagine, is pretty damn annoying if you’ve just cleared a room and it triggers it. Fortunately, Capcom saw sense this time around and have once more put it back in the hands of the player. Also, and maybe it’s just me, but the volume of purple orbs is far more plentiful. Anyway, you know what they say about gift horses and the mouths thereof.
Destined, As It Were
In conclusion, because how much can you really wax lyrical about a remaster, is Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny up to scratch? Is it worth the entty price, or re-entry price if you’re an old hat like me? Well, that entirely depends on how much you love a retro hack and slash, I suppose. Personally, I do, as I’ve gone on record in the past saying that this era of gaming is my proverbial jam.
In regards to value, there’s a fair few trophies/achievements that encourage the grind, or lack of, as well as collectible hunting. There’s the usual smorgasbord of galleries, featuring artworks from development to release. In terms of gameplay, the remaster thankfully comes with a few extra modes from the start. I won’t give away what they are, but they’re separate from the main game and add their own rewards and change things up a little bit. I mentioned in the preview about the new Hell mode, akin to a Dante Must Die mode in Devil May Cry. This unlockable, one-hit death mode is strictly for the hardcore, and we all know there are some of those out there.
To wrap up, then, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Remaster is worth it, with a but. The “but” being that like any remaster, it’s more for the fans that it is the newcomers. For the latter, the first game’s remaster is readily available and likely to be cheaper, for somewhere to start. If you have done that one, then by all means leap into this one because, as a whole, Onimusha is a great series.
If it gets people invested, and garners more support for the upcoming new one, then I am all for it. It just makes me more hopeful that the third one will get the same treatment, and that one’s a cracking game.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny Remaster is available now on PlayStation 4 (reviewed on PS5 Pro), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
You have to hand it to Capcom. For a company that gets derision for constantly remaking/master Resident Evil, they’re also the kings of drip-feeding lesser known – but still fondly remembered – classics. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, the various fighting compilations… yet still no Dino Crisis. Now, to accompany the first one, we’re getting Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny.
Initially released a year after the first Onimusha in 2002, Samurai’s Destiny was a continuation of the heroes-against-demons action that received positive acclaim. The formula was mixed up slightly, with a different main hero and more playable characters interspersed into the story, but the broad strokes were largely the same.
Now, twenty threes after its initial release, and hot off the back of a new Onimusha game being announced, Capcom are bringing Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny back. Yours truly was fortunate enough to get a preview copy, so let’s see if it’s worth revisiting,
Demons May Cry
I’m mostly going to be tackling this preview on the assumption that you, dear reader, have played or at least heard of Onimusha over the years. Yet, I accept that there as some that haven’t, be it down to general ignorance years ago or being too young now. Damn pesky kids, not respecting heritage and all that old man grumbling, etc.
Anyway, the general gist of Onimusha is essentially feudal Japanese Resident Evil with demons instead of zombies. As they didn’t have many readily available guns back then, we’re looking at varying flavours of swordsand staves. There weren’t obtuse key-and-lock puzzles, more a basic sense of pathfinding and the occasional bit of backtrack when certain areas became unlocked.
If you can imagine Capcom’s output at the turn of the century, it could almost seem homogenised. Resident Evil was declining before Leon’s return in RE4, but Devil May Cry and Dino Crisis were flying the “Like Resident Evil but…” flag. Onimusha slot into that bracket nicely, or generically, depending on one’s point of view/cynicism. I was in camp Resident Evil Derivatives Forever, for context.
Never Out Of Style
One thing that can be said, regardless of how you feel about the gameplay, is that Capcom do look after their IP’s. Onimusha looked good back in the day, as the market was flooded with a lot of fixed-perspective imitators. Now, they’ve done a decent job of jazzing it up with some modern flair.
That is to say, they’ve done their best with a game that originally debuted on the PlayStation 2. Remember, this is a remaster after all. But that being said, if you can accept the limitations of an almost-thirty year old console, it does look pretty shiny indeed. New aspects ratios for bigger TV’s are avaialable, and can be switched between the original on the fly for a more nostalgic feel.
All the textures have been HD-ified (not a real word, but go with it), including locales and characters. Villages and dungeons all have that nice little upscaled look to them, so one can see the glossy enemies that lurk around corners. Both tank and 360° movement controls are dual-integrated, again for new and returning players.
Jubei and his fellow warriors have all been given a makeover too, so now we can see more emotion in them during cutscenes. Granted, we can’t escape the hand gesturing that was so prevalent back then, but it’s a step up from looking like Gerry Anderson marionettes. As is being able to skip them if you’ve died and seen it umpteen times before, thank god.
Slicin’ Samurais
Whilst I get that this is a retrospective/preview, I’m aware that some of you may not know how Onimusha 2 plays. Well, from what I’ve written about its source company, it plays exactly like… Kurushi: Final. Nah I’m kidding, it’s very obviously Resident-Feudal-Evil style.
So if readers are familiar with tank-based controls, fixed camera perspectives and enemies occasionally taking advantage of that, then nothing has changed. The action is still pretty flash, the parry timing is pretty responsive and overall, it’s still fun.
Granted, players won’t be performing vertical leaps or vaults over foes, a la Sekiro or Stellar Blade, but think of it as a precursor. As in said in my Darksiders Remaster review, it’s odd having a lock-on button that’s not clicking in the right thumbstick, but it’s not the end of the world.
Onimusha has always been a showcase of different weapons, special moves and the occasional challenge. In that regard, Capcom haven’t touched anything in Onimusha 2, which we like.
A Slice Of Yagyu
The problem with doing a preview is that whilst I’d love to discuss more about it, it’s not a game review to tell you how I felt about it. That, and Capcom slapped some restrictions on what I can mention anyway. But we’re not here to march into the plot, just to give people a glimpse of what to expect. Well, in that regard, Onimusha 2 still delivers.
As mentioned above, the weapon variety and associated progress doors are still here. As is the rest of the gang that accompanies Jubei, one way or the other. From the oafish Eikei, the stoic gun-toting Magoichi, right down to the kunimitsu Oyu. Nobunaga’s side has an equal colourful ensemble, but to go into that wouldn’t be fair. But yes, Gogandatess still has that Batman-like weird nipple armour, if you’re wondering. It was a new one on me, that’s for sure.
What Capcom are promising as a new feature though, is Hell mode. Cribbed from stablemate Devil May Cry, Hell mode is a one-hit death mode that will test the steeliest of samurai’s resolve. Conversely, there’s a story mode for the story-driven types, as well as other quality of life additions. The ability to swap weapons on the fly and skip cutscenes may not sound like much, but to us older types it’s music to our ears. So is the added music gallery, funnily enough.
Once Upon A Time In The East
To summarise then, as this still isn’t a review, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is shaping up to be another remaster for the collection. Limitations aside in what I can tell you, I’ve had fun with it. As I said, I didn’t play this one (or if I did, it was briefly via Toby), so I didn’t have as much nostalgia for it. But this has swayed me as for one, I love the series as a whole and two, I am a sucker for a good remaster.
I didn’t experience any technical issues, and as Capcom are usually pretty careful with their ports, remasters and remakes, I couldn’t see why there would be. It’s hard to preview a remaster, because as I’m bound and not scoring it, I can’t really yay/nay it for you.
It’d be remiss to say “If you like Onimusha…” and call it a day, so I won’t insult you. Yet if you are a fan, you should already be excited for this. If you’re not, it’s a cracking series to get into if you’re a fan of older Capcom survival-horror/action IP’s.
Also, as it goes without saying, if more people support this kind of thing we’ll get a remaster of the best one: Onimusha 3. Seriously, a demon-slaying, whip-wielding Jean Reno alongside Samonosuke in glorious HD? Come on people, do the right thing.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is available from 23rd May 2025 on PlayStation 4 (preview platform), Xbox One and their respective later iterations, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Disclaimer: In order to complete this preview, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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There was a time, oh around the release of Wo Long, that we feared the Nioh series was over. An impressive torchbearer for the soulslike genre, bleak as the bleakest Fromsoft poison swamp, playable, bite-sized, and overflowing with unnecessary loot. It was also hard as all get out, and the third boss in Nioh 1, I remember as being a skill check for me so high, I swore off the whole genre for a year. It was feared that Sekiro had outdone the Nioh series at its own game, and it had cowered away to lick its wounds.
But no, rejoice fellow tarnished, fellow lamp bearer, for Nioh rises again for the third installment in what is now a trilogy. Shrugging off the shackles of Nioh 2’s static maps and bite-sized mission design, Nioh 3 embraces the most overblown gaming conceit of the modern era; the open world. Yes, Nioh 3 is no less than Koei Tecmo and Ninja Theory’s answer to Elden Ring.
But with great ambition comes great expectations. Is this the best Nioh has ever been? Is it leaner, meaner and more awesome than ever, or is it a bloated mess? Does open world solve all problems, or does it just make a whole world load of new ones? Read on, fair reader.
You play as Takechiyo, and in a slightly unique use of character creation you are both a created character of your own design, and a named one. There’s a fair amount of customisation for those who like to put their own spin on avatars, but you keep the name so that it can be used in voiceover throughout the game.
Takechiyo is the heir to the Shogunate, son/daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and is being prepared for rule when Edo castle is beset by yokai, demonic thugs and monsters from Japanese folklore who pillage and destroy everything in their wake. If you’ve played any Nioh game in the past, or Onimusha, or Sekiro, you know their type.
But that story and its little opening twist are left aside very quickly, and instead you are spirited away back in time to the height of the Warring States period that Koei Tecmo know so well. Takeda Shingen and a young version of your father Ieyasu are at war for the ‘peace’ of Japan. As the progeny of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Takechiyo gravitates to his cause, dispelling yokai and then literally freeing their castle stronghold from a Crucible – an infestation of Yokai, and that foreboding orb and skeleton in the sky.
From here, the plot becomes mostly superfluous, just a series of excuses to venture here or there. It lost any meaningful impact, and just devolved into excuses to move into higher level areas. It also leaves you to explore without much plot at all of hours at a time, no where near a quest giver, and those moments, while they felt unstructured, were actually my preferred parts. I did not care for the quests I was given, one in particular stood out being sent on a fetch quest into high level territory, to find medicine because Ieyasu had a headache. I mean, really?
The bones of it are that you are this figure of light who can dispel these Crucibles throughout different eras in time. Much slow progress in Ieyasu’s time, but also much flitting to different periods and back to your own ensues. It allows for a fair bit more variety than just the one time period and its open world, which I appreciated, however it also makes the story hard to care about and feel very video-gamey – hunt down these Crucinite stones across time, explore, fight bosses, reach the end. You can probably tell, I wasn’t all that invested in the plot, but kept playing for the joy of discovering more places, powers, bosses, and challenges.
Combat in Nioh 3 varies very little from that seen in Nioh 2 where I personally think it was perfected. The same high, mid and low stance structure survives, the same basic actions, controls, and the same selection of melee weapons and their respective movesets. The ki system returns, where you can recover a little of your used stamina if you are quick to press R1 after combos. More importantly, it dispels the enemy-strengthening Yokai Realm aura that enemies incessantly put out, which slows your stamina recovery to almost nothing. All present, all largely the same. But why break a good system, right?
Well, the trouble is they have. They’ve added more on top of it. Now, instead of just being a samurai, you are also a ninja. And with that comes style shifts to the other movesets, learning another whole style, a new group of weapons, the head-scratching differences of the ninja style over the samurai style, such as not being able to use ki in the same way, and many more issues besides. In Nioh 2, you could use a small variety of ninjutsu and ninja tools, like kunai and spells, but the way you controlled the character, your practice, and muscle memory were all being built on the same system.
In Nioh 3 its like trying to play two different soulslikes at the same time, two different ‘systems’ at the same time. I find it nigh on impossible to git gud at these games even when I’m concentrating solely on one game, training my reflexes and learning the controls perfectly. Trying to play Code Vein and Lords of the Fallen at the same time is virtually impossible, each one so different from the other that you are disadvantaging yourself – parries work or are timed differently, jumps and dodges, and even attacks are on different buttons.
But Nioh 3 says you should do that within the one game. Ninja and Samurai aren’t so different that you’ll dodge instead of jumping, but their systems work differently enough to make it a pain, and to be detrimental in battle. There is no ki, and no stances, in the ninja form, for example, so you can’t dispel the miasma; you can’t parry in ninja form, but you can dodge using the ki button (which is super confusing).
The worst offender was the burst break – that moment when the enemy does an even worse than usual move, and it’s unblockable. A big red cloud comes over them, and you’ve got to press a specific button – R2 – at the right moment. I’ve got no issue with that in principle, but in Nioh 3, the R2 trigger is used for burst break, but also tied to flipping from Samurai to Ninja style. It means that every time I hit that crucial moment and block a red burst power, I become a ninja and my counterattack is always hampered by suddenly using the ninja system, instead of the samurai style I prefer. I found it harder to block and fight as effectively in ninja style, so this would then mean using up precious seconds to swap back, and a lot of the time this meant tanking a few hits to the face. Timing a burst break right often meant losing the battle.
The only real way I found to combat this was to toggle the burst and style buttons to unlink, but it’s not a foolproof thing – it doesn’t go to a different button easily. Instead, once unlinked, ‘burst counter’ is a click of R2 and ‘style change’ is holding the button down. I got used to clicking it just the tiny bit with time, but you can’t tell me you don’t sometimes hold down the parry button in these kinds of games and pray to Amaterasu that you timed it right, thereby changing to ninja and shooting yourself in the foot with a kunai. I digress…
Many of the features of Nioh 3’s open world are holdovers or enhancements from Nioh 2 systems. The Crucibles you’ll encounter, like locked-in challenge areas, feel much like the red zones of the last game, but then when you encounter the really big Crucible levels, you see the vastly enhanced version. The first one I encountered only a few hours in, reminded me of the final level of the original Nioh, so far above that installment has the dial been cranked for this one. You can also find ‘missions’ often to revisit an area for a different purpose after you’ve cleared it in the open world.
But this ‘enhancement’ to open world may not be the breath of fresh air you might hope. This is the open world style we’ve mostly grown tired of, the maps full of icons to clear off like a gaming vacuum cleaner, the progress counters and recycled uninteresting open spaces. Bosses and a vast number of the enemy types are recycled from the previous game, and where they used to be dense and tightly designed gauntlets and skill checks, they end up being spread few and far between.
The style of the game doesn’t quite suit just being able to go anywhere, so areas have level guidance, and the density of enemies is vastly reduced. I could barely get past an Enki (gorilla-type enemy) in Nioh 2 until I learned a near-perfect strategy, but the rest of the game and available routes were virtually closed off until I’d mastered it. Here, I can just go around him, not fight him at all, or, because he’s largely a recycled enemy, beat him senseless the first time from muscle memory.
That’s a problem throughout Nioh 3. I’m not a great soulslike player, and I found enemy difficulty vastly reduced from that of Nioh or Nioh 2, both well known as pretty solid and punishing soulslikes. Nioh 3 is relatively pedestrian in comparison, and I was many hours in before I fell to a normal enemy just by accident. Bosses are still fiendish tests of skill and often patience as you bait them out and punish them. Very few fell into the category of pushover, or could be wiped out in a few quick combos – they took time, practice, and above all patience. As with all soulslikes, be not overconfident, or punished you will be.
The second proper boss of the game, the chimera-like creature at the end of the first crucible, was a massive issue for me, and took many many tries to finally beat. But on the other hand, another boss just a few hours later in the depths of a very cool cave system, was a reskin of the umbrella-twirling vampire lady who so skill checked me in Nioh 1. This time however, I found her a pushover, due to knowing exactly how to fight her from experience in Nioh 1 – oh so the long hours of experience were not wasted, because I could beat her again nine years later?
Nioh’s notorious loot system also makes its not so welcome return. You are still overwhelmed with loot, often multiple items, armors, weapons and accessories even just from single enemies or bodies, and not only do you have to sort through it all for your samurai outfit, but you now have to cover your ninja outfit as well. You can only carry a few thousand items, so once again a vast amount of item management and quantity selling of old items awaits in Nioh 3.
I have no idea why feedback on this issue was not listened to, or was deliberately ignored. It was almost laughable in Nioh 2 (albeit one of that game’s only real flaws), but it’s even worse here. Nioh 3 needed an item system rethink; far fewer items, with far more meaningful stat differences. Instead, as with the open world, it’s like a doubling down on the parts that didn’t work.
Let’s move on to more positive territory. One of my favourite parts of Nioh 2 was the constant search for Kodama, an actually engaging collectible (which is a rare thing) that had me scouring every area and trying to 100% the maps. Nioh 3 actually manages to up the ante on that, making Scampusses (yokai cats you chase), Chihiro (yokai weasels you shoot from afar) and Kodama all worth seeking out, and bonuses meaningful. However, it wasn’t tied to permanent upgrade of the amount of elixirs, and so I found my interest waning.
Sound and graphics in Nioh 3 are wonderful – the spirits’ designs especially – and a few times I really did gasp at a brand new boss design. I really appreciated the twisting grand Haunted Caves I found some ten hours in, a real nod back to the caves of the first game that are such enduring memories of it for me. And while I wasn’t really bopping to any particular piece of music, nothing was a problem, all felt fitting and in keeping with the tone, series, and setting.
After Nioh 2 I thought I would lap up another Nioh game like a cat at his milk. But expanding the honed and bite-sized mission design to a sparse open world, lowering the difficulty dramatically, recycling enemy types and bosses, encumbering the control system with ninja style to the point I tried desperately to turn it off, these things just all combined to sap some of the enjoyment out of the experience.
It’s by no means a bad game, and if it is to be your first Nioh experience, these concerns may be largely unconvincing (what would you care if a boss is recycled), but instead of upping the ante, Nioh 3 manages to water down many of the elements that made Nioh 2 such a joyful torture to play.
Nioh 3 is available on the 6th February exclusively on PlayStation 5 (review platform).
Developer: Team Ninja Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles – Sun Tzu
Someone up there in the heavens of video game design has been listening to my prayers. Ever since Assassin’s Creed began establishing that it could be set anywhere in the world at any time, I have been wishing for one thing. We’ve been given Greece, Rome, Civil War America, London, Egypt, and soon even Anglo Saxon England, but throughout the last ten years, a clamour has been heard and wilfully ignored. Where did you always want Assassin’s Creed to go, and you never got your wish? Feudal Japan.
But to say it’s an Assassin’s Creed game is doing Ghost of Tsushima a disservice. Yes, it is an open world game with a bit of every other open world game that has come before, but it’s not a simple copy of any of them. It is more like a distillation of everything that makes them great. It is not just the stealth of Tenchu, or the katana combat of Onimusha, it is both of them and far more besides. Ghost is more than just the sum of its influences. At some point you transcend them, and become something new and incredible.
There has never been a samurai or ninja game quite like Ghost of Tsushima. It combines the historically accurate with the stylisation of Akira Kurosawa, breath-taking natural beauty with bloody visceral combat, a vast open world with incredible attention to detail. Its heavy in narrative, but also incredibly designed, working to hide mechanics and gimmicks in the natural space of the game, to draw you in and not let go. Let me explain, young Samurai.
The way of the Samurai is found in death – Yamemoto Tsunetomo
Tsushima Island is a real place and the Mongol invasion in 1274 really happened. Nestled precariously in open sea, on its own in the gulf between Japan and Korea, it is the site of the first Mongol Invasion of Japan (I say first, because they did it again a decade later). Some 600 ships set sail out of Korea, and arrived on Komoda beach. They attacked and took Tsushima, killing its hundred or so samurai defenders and then occupying the island, taking the peasants and the elderly as prisoners and slaves. That’s the history out of the way.
You play as Jin Sakai, a samurai who fights and falls at Komoda beach. Only destiny has other plans. Jin survives and is nursed back to health over the next few days, awakening to a very different island, one occupied and roamed by ruthless Mongolian warriors. So begins Ghost of Tsushima, a single-handed katana-wielding guerrilla resistance war against the invaders of your island. As a one-man army, Jin cannot simply challenge every Mongol to an honourable samurai duel – he would be overwhelmed in moments. Instead he is forced to bend the traditions of his class to save his people. Watching his descent from honourable samurai to the ghost that strikes from the shadows is a satisfying early part of the story, made convincing by a number of quests that force the honourable ways from Jin, in favour of practicality. The teachings of a female thief named Yuna are particularly useful to this new found course, where the more stoic of the island’s survivors, such as the elderly Sensei Ishikawa, find the changes to Jin’s style troubling and dishonourable.
Over the course of the game, the legend of the Ghost grows through fear and word of mouth, inspiring an island to fight back. When these rumours begin to be heard openly as you pass NPCs, your legend really starts to feel real. I don’t think I’ve seen someone become a legend in a game this realistic, in quite this way before. The rumours, and Jin’s systematic cleansing of the Island, cause no end of trouble for the fantastic frustrated villain of the piece, the huge overgrown general of the Mongols, Khotun Khan, cousin of the famous Kublai. He is a grand villain, and in the first ten hours of the game, I only wanted to see more of him.
It’s a satisfying, if simple, story of struggle and rule-breaking to survive and triumph over adversity, and it carries the game well, because of its simplicity. In a genre where myriad quests can coax you away from the main narrative thread, having something so clear cut was helpful. The story does not have the flair or drama of the Kurosawa epics it has been influenced by; it has been too westernised for that. It lacks much in the way of intrigue or politics, and for all its westernisation, samurai by virtue of their teachings innately lack the emotional drama that some of this plot demands. Jin feels, but he packs his emotions away for the most part, making it hard to really feel the drama in places.
Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world – Miyamoto Musashi
There is no getting around it; Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful game, and the island is a joy to explore. The only comparable worlds I can think of are those of Horizon Zero Dawn, and Crysis. Views out across the island are simply breathtaking and the draw distance goes on forever. From dawn sun-dappled rolling hills to sunset orange blazing over barren peaks; from violet chrysanthemum-covered hillsides to cultivated Japanese gardens and raked gravel shrines; from the wonder of the golden forest with it’s falling yellow leaves and five-tiered pagoda to the smoky ruins you can see on the horizon, only to visit that same burnt town later on, the locales that Sucker Punch have created are amongst the most beautiful ever programmed, on any system, ever.
It is truly mesmerising to walk through the golden forest and find the golden temple pagoda at its centre. I caught my breath and just stared at it for a long while, letting the swirling leaves rush and fall all around, so long in fact I thought one of the monks might come and see if I was okay. It’s trite these days to say the world of the game was a character in itself, but for Ghost of Tsushima, I doubt anyone who plays in it will ever forget Tsushima Island.
You can sometimes get a little overcome by the beauty of it all. But that’s when the Mongols are most likely to make their presence known. You’re galloping over a lush hillside of bluebells as far as the next valley, and your alert pings. A small group of marauders have taken a woman hostage and are beating her. The bluebells become the site of a drumbeat-backed bloodbath in seconds as you dispense justice. Nowhere is sacred and nowhere is safe from the slaughter that has overcome this picturesque island.
Tsushima Island is a long thin map, split into three disparate sections, which you will visit and liberate as you proceed through the game. When you discover your map, the coolest thing is that it has regions, that must be liberated from Mongol control. This has always been my favourite way to play open-world games. Take back the map, one section at a time. AC: Syndicate, GTA 4, Spider-Man, some of the best open world titles have made great use of this mechanic, and it really plays into the gamer’s mind; that systematic need to discover, to clear and reclaim the island.
As in any open-world game, Tsushima Island is littered with hundreds of things to do. Narrative quests advance the story, but there are dozens of others, liberating camps and towns, helping interesting survivors take back their homes or simply taking in the beauty. Early quests involve helping an aggrieved noblewoman get revenge for the massacre of her clan, not at the hands of Mongols, but traitors; or your Sensei, who, singularly unconcerned by Mongols, is hunting a dangerous ex-pupil across the island. Along with quests for legendary armour and weapons, or literally hundreds of shrines, foxes, singing crickets, and Mongol artifacts to find, there is never a dull moment in Ghost of Tsushima.
Each quest feels more like a vignette about life under Mongol occupation, than a typical game quest. There are also very few fetch quests; instead most are actually go here, save this person, track this person, or slay these Mongols, rather than find this item. It was notably rare to have a fetch quest, which, in a game of this type and size, is an achievement on the part of the scenario designers.
Everything you do and everywhere you go on Tsushima is guided by the divine wind. The developers have been at pains to have no HUD and nothing encroaching on the beauty of the game world, and so have designed this wind mechanic to take you where you need to go. Mark a spot on your map, or the next quest, and the wind will change direction and literally blow you towards your destiny, sorry, destination. You can see it in the bowed grasses and plants, or the leaves dancing in the air. This makes for a wonderful feeling at the start of each quest, as if to say the winds of change or destiny are with you. It makes the game feel almost magical. This constant wind mechanic also means that nothing is ever still; the island of Tsushima is truly alive.
You will also collect the materials for fashioning lots of customisable armour, sword scabbards, hats, bows, and kimono. If I could level a criticism, its that just like another high-profile first party release last month, there is too much damn looting needed, meaning I end up delving into every house, walking the tatami-mats systemically looking for bundles of supplies when I could be enjoying the locations more.
Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price – Sun Tzu
If you are one for sound design and music, Ghost is a masterclass in auditory wonder. The authentic instrumentation and compositions are fantastic. Peaceful lullabies, lilting strings, swelling, pulsing battle themes, and echoing blasts. It’s a stirring masterpiece of composing. Mongol settlements and logging camps are themed with throat-warbling Mongol singing, Japanese pagodas and temples are themed with zithers and twanging strings.
It’s quite possibly the most atmospheric game I’ve ever played. Music is essential to this but Ghost is a stylish cinematic creation in so many areas not normally given that much weight in games. Lighting is something to behold, the sunsets and sunrises and blazing skies flooding your eyes on a regular basis just blew my mind. Camera work is striking, from tilted cams when galloping, to actually using different depth of field lens effects during the showdowns. The constant wind, ambient nature noises and rolling mists combine to make your average journey from A to B more cinematic than Kojima’s finest work.
They have even gone so far as to incorporate what’s called Kurosawa mode; a black and white, heavy grained, high contrast mode that makes everything look like an old samurai movie. This mode’s best results come in the showdowns and duels when cuts and camera angles can do their work, rather than the normal over-the-shoulder angle. Ghost also features one of the most extensive photo modes I think has ever been incorporated into a video game, and if you are of an artistic nature there is no end to the wonderous creations possible. Just stop anywhere and make something beautiful.
Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death – Uesugi Kenshin
It wouldn’t be a samurai epic without swords and combat. Ghost of Tsushima’s story is built around the desire to have a character steeped in both the honourable combat of the samurai, but also in the stealth combat of the ninja. Let’s take each separately because they each have enough nuance to carry an entire game on their own.
Jin is an accomplished swordsman, capable of instant kill slashes or flurries of blocking, rolling and dodging, and you will need to learn how to use him to his full potential. Combat gameplay is close in style to the Assassin’s Creed series’ latest offerings and relies on patience and deft timing. Button-mashing will get you nowhere. Instead the more stoic, emotionless swordsman, prepared to wait for the enemy to commit to his first move, will generally win out. Many enemies can simply rebuff your attacks, so you need to wait, watch for their tells, and parry, before getting your chance to strike. It’s simple, far simpler than the parrying in For Honour, for example, but it’s also satisfying.
Parrying and dodging will seem very difficult to start with, but you will learn quickly, young samurai. Hone your reflexes, watch carefully and before long you will become an unstoppable twisting, dodging whirlwind on the battlefield. Sucker Punch have incorporated a system of four stances into the swordplay, and though I was initially sceptical I’d use any of them, as I generally find I don’t need to in most games, here they are deftly balanced and quickly become natural. Stone stance is good against swordsmen, while water stance gives you moves that will overcome shields. After a few hours of experimentation, you will begin to see the benefit, and then with practice incorporate switching stances on the fly as you fight. They can also make a furious battle something quite beautiful to watch back, if you think you did particularly well.
Counterintuitively health is not an item, but is given to you via prowess in battle. When you need health, because you suck at the combat, you won’t get any. But parry and kill with skill and you will be rewarded with more health ups than you need. The game demands perfection from you.
Standoffs and showdowns complete the systems around samurai combat, allowing you to call out one or a group of Mongols for an honourable skirmish. Hold triangle, as if holding your blade in its scabbard, until the last possible moment. As your enemy commits to their attack, you release and one-shot slice them across the body. With learned skills, this can extend up to three people dispatched in beautiful slow motion, before the Mongols even know what hit them. Showdowns are the game’s bosses, who can be either samurai or Mongol in one-on-one deathmatches. Honour deprives you of your bow or your throwing weapons, and the system of parrying, waiting for openings and the feel of real samurai combat is never greater than in one of these duels.
With a swish across the touchpad dedicated entirely to flicking blood from your sword and sliding it back in the scabbard, you can make already visceral bloody bouts into almost choreographed duels. It’s quite a feat on the part of Sucker Punch to have translated the way of the samurai from a muscle memory swordplay art form into a button-pressing dance entirely using a controller, but somehow it feels natural and cinematic.
Stealth gameplay is fun, if a little simple, and this mode does little you haven’t seen before. You can crouch, creep, and crawl underneath houses or scale walls and roofs to get the drop on unsuspecting Mongols. Before long you have a grappling hook you can use to swing silently over the heads of your enemies. The first time you dive from above and plunge a katana in through the collarbone of an enemy will stick with you as its glorious. If all that combat wasn’t enough, Jin also embraces the tools of the ninja. You can wield throwing kunai (little weighted daggers), clay pots full of gunpowder, or coated in tar to stick to armour, or firecrackers and wind chimes to distract and confuse.
Combining these styles is the key to a successful battle. When you get overwhelmed, which can happen a lot with enemies that basically cannot be attacked without patience and openings, throw out a kunai or two to disable enemies and gain the other hand. I took to hurling sticky bombs out at the biggest bruisers in the Mongol army or the fur-armour wearing nightmares, just so that I didn’t have to fight them along with half a dozen of their mates.
The last of a packed combat roster is archery. Jin can use a couple of distinct and balanced bows, each more accurate than the last. With a trigger finger on L1 your can deflect arrows from the air, and give yourself one second to take aim and let fly with your own. Concentration allows yet another slow-motion trick giving you that extra time needed to put down Mongols running in from every direction.
Combining every tool at your disposal is a breathless flurry of activity and can initially make Ghost’s combat a tough ask. But like any skilled samurai, practice makes perfect. I can barely find fault with the combat systems here, and only the lack of a lock-on comes to mind. This frees you to enemy-hop like Batman in Arkham Asylum, but it can mean the camera swings in the wrong direction at the most inopportune moments. More than once I found myself trying to control the camera as well as myself in battle and that is very trying.
The dance of battle is always played to the same impatient rhythm. What begins in a surge of violent motion is always reduced to the perfectly still – Sun Tzu
If there’s a criticism to be leveled at Ghost it could be argued it’s not very new. Instead, it’s a distillation of an entire console generation of open-world game innovations, tested formula from AC, Far Cry and Horizon, wrapped up and delivered in an incredibly beautiful package to cap off the PS4 generation. But Ghost is more than just the sum of its influences. At some point you transcend them, and become something new and incredible. Ghost is a historical epic, and it basks in what came before.
I may have wished for an Assassin’s Creed in Feudal Japan, but what I got was something so much better. I can imagine an AC game here, full of mindless fetch quests, bad acting, overwritten dialogue and parkour, and I’m so glad that’s not what we got.
Ghost has everything it needs, well written quests, hidden locations, breath-taking graphics and a dozen massive collectathons, but it does them all with a flair and an eye to design that you rarely see. Here the open world genre has been made magical, natural and undeniable. Combat is satisfyingly cinematic, fully aware of its influences, it’s slow motion nods and systems based entirely in samurai cinema. I’ve not played another quite like it.
Perhaps the most telling feeling I can leave you with is this. The best games hook you in and don’t let go, and the best open-world games must do this over and over and over. Ghost of Tsushima has that one more quest, one more job gameplay that coaxes you back saying just one more quest, one more hour, until the morning sun is dappling through the bamboo forest, glinting off your katana and you realise the dawn has come.
Ghost of Tsushima is Sucker Punch’s masterpiece. With the depth of its combat, its incredible open-world design and its rich historical authenticity and cultural legacy, it’s a heady contender for the most incredible release of this console generation. It’s definitely the best samurai game ever made.
9/10
Ghost of Tsushima is available now only on Playstation 4.
Developer: Sucker Punch Publisher: Sony
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, a copy of the game was purchased. For our full review policy, please go here.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
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