Less than a month before launch, I finally know how to feel about Onimusha: Way of the Sword's structure

I've lost count of how many chances I've had to play Onimusha: Way of the Sword ahead of its release in a little more than a month, yet for all the demos I've seen a question has remained exactly how things will come together with the full game. What is progression like? How do your abilities grow and change; most importantly, exactly how representative have those previous demos been compared to the full game?

While I can't say that the concern has been universal, it's been a common enough complaint following Onimusha's public demo release that the game seemed a bit too easy. While the demo itself is quick to mention that it's not to be compared too closely to the full game, that hasn't stopped some players - myself included - from worrying about how easy it felt in practice, even on the harder of the two difficulty options.

I'll be blunt; I think Capcom messed up with their public demo release. It certainly set the wrong idea for how the segments of the game it showcased would actually play in practice, and devoid of some of the upgrades those demos provided the game does put up a suitable challenge. Nothing especially difficult, but engaging enough that it doesn't feel mindless either. Many of the abilities - such as perfectly deflecting an attack setting your sword ablaze in a blue flame - are part of an upgrade that players will have to actively spec into, and wouldn't have been normally available that early in the game. 

Divorced from those upgrades, it feels like a core puzzle piece for the gameplay loop has been slotted in place. The methodical pace of combat, deflecting and dodging attacks to counterattack - or Issen countering at just the right time - are no longer just set dressing, even if the game still is just a little bit easier than I personally would have liked. There is an incentive to engage with combat and all of its options rather than the path of least resistance acting as the only obvious answer to your problems.

Progression itself is about what I'd expected from previous demos. Currency earned from defeating enemies can be used to either purchase items from vendors found in certain segments of Kyoto, or spent to increase the stats of your weapons. A separate item, Power Stones, which can be used to unlock skills on a skill tree - this is where more of your abilities that were found in the public and other earlier demos can be unlocked. These Power Stones are rewards for exploration, and players can of course fast travel to shrines previously interacted with.

It's neat! There's a decent amount of exploration, even if things are a bit more linear than they may first appear. A lot of what I played wasn't too different from previous segments I'd checked out during Summer Game Fest or last year's Gamescom halo event, but getting to play things stretched across over an hour does help give a feel for the overall pacing of the game, and what to expect from the full release. It feels like it strikes a good balance between exploration and not just being an open-world.

Playing on a PlayStation 5 Pro, the game looked and ran great, of course - but that wasn't the only build I had a chance to play; Switch 2 was also available, though exclusively in handheld and tabletop mode. While I didn't have the opportunity to explore quite as much as on Sony's premium console, I did have a chance to go up against the same boss fights that were available to fight in the other version. It holds up pretty well! The motion controls are neat, even if I'd never personally play the game that way; and while the framerate was undeniably variable, and I noticed the difference in performance with a fight against an enemy in a cave and a shrine with a ton of foliage, I'd say VRR helped it hold up pretty well.

We're less than a month away from launch, following the game's release date shift, so it's hard to say just how much it matters how I feel about things now - within a few short weeks, we'll have our impressions of the full game. In that sense, I don't think the specifics actually matter all that much, rather than the confirmation that some of the concerns I'd have from previous demos don't appear to apply to the full game. I was already excited to play Onimusha alongside it's release, but now I'm far less concerned about what might be waiting for me when it finally unlocks. Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches on Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC (Steam) on September 3.