Onimusha: Way of the Sword: Capcom’s Musashi could have done more for accessibility?

It seems to be Capcom's year, and one of the clearest examples is the work behind the return of the Onimusha series, which brings one of the most legendary figures of feudal Japan back to the screen: Miyamoto Musashi, the famous swordsman from sixteenth-century Kyoto.

Miyamoto Musashi between History and Legend

This time, the protagonist is the legendary samurai and master swordsman who lived during the Tokugawa shogunate. Information about his life is not always easy to separate from legend: according to historical accounts and later traditions, he fought his first duel against an adult samurai at just 13 years old and had already accumulated more than 60 victories by the age of 20. As the years went by, Musashi gradually abandoned his life as a warrior to devote himself to calligraphy, painting, meditation, and writing. He is credited with two famous works on the philosophy and practice of swordsmanship: The Book of Five Rings, one of the best-known treatises on military strategy, and The Way for Those Who Walk Alone, a collection of principles reflecting his views on life and discipline.

Over the centuries, his figure has appeared in numerous literary, cinematic, and video game adaptations. It is precisely this historical figure, suspended between reality and legend, that Capcom draws inspiration from to create the protagonist of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, bringing back a version of Musashi less focused on strategy and philosophy and more devoted to the "way of the sword." This reinterpretation comes to life through the RE Engine, which enhances both the characters' facial expressions and the attention to detail given to Kyoto's environments and its supernatural world.

The Story

The story takes place in a devastated 1600s Kyoto overrun by the Genma. The game revisits the elements that made the series famous, putting sword-based combat at the center of the experience, with a strong emphasis on precision, alongside open-ended exploration featuring puzzle elements and a supernatural storyline that serves as the main driving force of the adventure. As Musashi, we must face hordes of demons, cleanse areas infected by a miasmatic fog, and make our way through the streets of a Kyoto filled with corpses and the few remaining inhabitants, now corrupted by the presence of the Genma.

Timing and Precision

As mentioned above, the gameplay revolves around sword combat. Random button mashing is not an option; learning to parry attacks with the right timing is essential from the very beginning, using precise timing to break through enemy defenses. Alongside the health bar, we also have a stamina bar that allows us to take less damage from enemy attacks until it is depleted.

Defeating enemies allows us to absorb different types of souls through the Oni Gauntlet: yellow souls restore health, blue souls fill the gauge used for special weapon attacks, red souls are used for upgrades and purchasing items and consumables, while purple souls fill the Berserker Mode gauge. The bosses we encounter drop special items which, together with those collected during exploration, some of which are required to unlock new abilities, can be used to upgrade Musashi's equipment: clothing increases health, the Oni Gauntlet improves soul collection speed and maximum Oni power, while the sword increases the stats of various attacks.

When Repetition Starts to Show

While the combat system holds up well, it is the repetition in some gameplay choices that makes Onimusha: Way of the Sword's stamina bar start to waver. The minibosses, despite offering a good variety of attack patterns, are not particularly numerous, and some of them will appear repeatedly throughout different missions. To name just a couple, Byauke appears around ten times across main missions and encounters in different sections of the map, while Dohatsu-ten will also be fought repeatedly during the interludes in which we seal the rifts.

The accessibility of Master Musashi

While the gameplay shows some rough edges, it is in the accessibility department that Capcom's new title struggles in certain areas while performing well in others. A gameplay system heavily reliant on timing and reaction speed can require significant physical and mental effort for some players. The game features two difficulty settings, and even when dropping from Normal to Story mode, the experience remains equally punishing: the parry timing window, enemy attack speed, and enemy health remain unchanged between the two difficulties. The only difference is the amount of damage our character receives, allowing us to withstand more hits before being defeated.

There is, however, an interesting option that helps reduce the memory load. Given the variety of enemy and boss movesets, this feature displays the appropriate button to press on screen just before an incoming attack, eliminating the need to memorize the different enemy patterns for each encounter.

Aside from this useful feature, the remaining motor accessibility options mainly concern control configurations for both controllers and keyboard. For controllers, there are two presets, Defensive and Reactive, which allow players to swap the positions of attack controls with those used for parrying and dodging, while the keyboard configuration is fully customizable.

Unlike many big-budget titles, in Onimusha: Way of the Sword the only action that can be activated with a single press is sprinting, and at the time of writing, this option is available only when using a controller. The remaining configurable options are limited to swapping the confirm and cancel buttons in menus, adjusting the required press duration for these inputs, including during cutscene skipping, and disabling controller vibration. On PC, players can also swap mouse buttons, disable the Windows key, and disable the Alt+F4 shortcut.

Moving beyond control configuration, Capcom has done an excellent job with camera management, offering a wide range of features. This section includes several sliders for adjusting camera and aiming movement speed and sensitivity. There are also more specific settings for controller input inertia and dead-zone management.

Interestingly, Capcom has also placed considerable emphasis on automatically correcting camera tilting and rotation, as well as automatically recentering the camera during different gameplay situations. Players can also enable camera assistance while wall-running and aim assist during bow sections.

Cognitive and Visual Accessibility

Beyond comprehensive control configuration and easily manageable camera settings, these are not the only elements that can make a difference in terms of accessibility. Equally important is how clearly, legibly, and unobtrusively all this information is presented to the player. In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the interface plays a central role in this regard.

The game allows players to adjust not only the overall interface size, but also the size of prompts reminding them which controls to use during combat and the size of text. Players can also enable gameplay tips and, for those who are more sensitive to visual effects, disable blood effects, change their color from red to purple, or even disable dismemberment altogether.

These are not the only configurable elements. The HUD, in particular, has its own dedicated selection menu complete with a preview, allowing players to disable individual elements at will and reduce the amount of information displayed, potentially lowering cognitive load.

Support for different forms of color blindness is also available, with the option to adjust its intensity and adapt color rendering to individual needs.

Audio and Spatial Orientation

Finally, the audio department has also received some attention. In addition to the standard game volume settings, there is an interesting option that allows players to adjust the angle of speaker orientation, enabling them to customize the perceived direction from which sounds originate and adapt the audio presentation to their needs.

Conclusion

Onimusha: Way of the Sword represents a successful return for a series capable of preserving its identity while embracing a modern presentation. Its precise, timing-based combat provides a satisfying experience for players who can master it, while the exploration and supernatural elements help create an adventure that remains engaging for much of the journey.

From an accessibility standpoint, however, the results are more mixed. Capcom provides a considerable number of options dedicated to customizing the camera, interface, HUD, and colors, demonstrating particular attention to readability and reducing cognitive load.

There is nevertheless one significant limitation: Story mode does not meaningfully alter the mechanics that make combat more demanding from a motor accessibility perspective, leaving part of the audience without the level of customization they may need.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword therefore takes several steps in the right direction, but it could have gone further precisely where its gameplay needed it most. The game offers solid work in terms of readability and experience customization, but also misses several opportunities when it comes to motor accessibility.

It is a convincing return for Onimusha, then, but not yet a benchmark for accessibility among Capcom's major releases.