Twenty years.

That is how long it has been since the last proper Onimusha game. Long enough for the series to become less of a franchise and more of a half-remembered promise: something fans talked about whenever Capcom announced a new project, then quietly stopped expecting.

So when Onimusha: Way of the Sword finally arrived and it was this fucking good, I was not entirely sure how to process it.

The premise is wonderfully straightforward. Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary wandering swordsman, wants one thing: to become the strongest. He is not searching for redemption, trying to save humanity or fulfilling some grand prophecy. He simply wants to travel across Japan and defeat every warrior capable of challenging him.

Then Kyoto collapses into chaos.

Demons known as the Genma spill into the streets, turning shrines and alleyways into slaughterhouses. Musashi is killed in the confusion, only to be resurrected with an Oni Gauntlet fused to his arm. He is now apparently the chosen warrior responsible for stopping the invasion.

Musashi is absolutely furious about this.

That anger gives the entire game its personality. He complains constantly, insults monsters before cutting them apart and makes it very clear that he had better things to do than become Kyoto’s unwilling saviour. There is a wonderfully dry absurdity to the way he handles everything. The world is ending, demons are clawing their way through the city and Musashi’s main concern is that nobody asked him whether he wanted the job.

He is not a hero because he believes in the cause. He is a hero because everyone else has proved too incompetent, unavailable or dead to deal with it. I loved him immediately.

The supporting cast fits that tone perfectly. Okuni, a fearless young dancer, treats Musashi less like a legendary swordsman and more like an irritating older brother who has somehow wandered into her life. Takamura, his veteran mentor, listens to Musashi’s complaints with the patience of a man who has heard them all before. Then there is Shizuka, the Oni spirit bound to the gauntlet, whose presence adds another layer of personality to an already lively group.

Their conversations are warm, funny and often surprisingly understated. Between the demon attacks and bloody sword fights, there is a real sense that these characters enjoy being around one another, even when Musashi clearly wishes they would all stop talking. The villains are just as memorable. The Genma are grotesque, threatening and frequently bizarre, with the kind of designs that make you want to stare at them even while they are trying to tear your head off. They have enough personality to be more than disposable targets and I found myself looking forward to every encounter with them. It is rare for a game to have a cast this consistently enjoyable and Onimusha manages it with ease

Still, the combat is where the game earns really earns its stripes. At the core are parries, dodges and the Issen counter system. Time a response perfectly and Musashi turns an enemy’s attack into a devastating follow-up, cutting through them in a flash of steel and light – which all seems like standard affair in this day and age yet somehow in Onimusha this manages to stay fresh at every turn. The Oni Gauntlet adds another layer; absorbing the souls of fallen enemies and converting them into resources for special attacks, experience points or equipment upgrades

On paper, these systems could easily have felt busy or disconnected. In practice, they fit together so naturally that you stop thinking about them individually. You dodge because an attack is coming, parry because the opening is there, trigger an Issen because your timing is right, then pull souls from the corpse before the next enemy reaches you.

The result is fast, precise and deeply satisfying. The combat does not merely reward aggression; it rewards attention. Enemies telegraph their attacks clearly enough to read, but not so clearly that every fight becomes routine, when you land a perfect Issen against a powerful opponent and the screen erupts around Musashi, there is a brief, beautiful moment where the whole encounter seems to freeze around the sound of the blade.

It is one of the best feelings Capcom has created in an action game since Devil May Cry 5.

The setting is equally impressive. This version of Edo-period Kyoto is all weathered wood, wet stone and paper lanterns glowing through the gloom. The city feels beautiful, but never safe. Demon-infested streets give way to ancient temples, abandoned buildings and stranger locations that are best left unspoiled. Each area has its own atmosphere, and the RE Engine gives everything a remarkable physical presence: rain gathering on rooftops, blood darkening the ground and Genma flesh twisting in ways that are just unpleasant enough to make you look twice.

The enemy variety is not perfect. Some of the Genma foot soldiers remain familiar for longer than they probably should, and I understand why that has been a sticking point for some reviewers. But it never bothered me much. The combat is good enough to make repetition feel like practice rather than punishment. Even after fighting the same basic enemy for the twentieth time, there is still satisfaction in finding a cleaner parry, a faster kill or a better way to move through a group without giving them room to breathe.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword feels like the series returning with something to prove. It remembers what made the original games special; the atmosphere, the supernatural horror, the sharp-edged action though it is not trapped in the past. It has a strong cast, a distinctive sense of humour and combat that is elegant without becoming inaccessible.

Twenty years was a long time to wait but in the end, it was worth every one of them.