Whether it’s with more mainstream AAA titles or indies, more often than not it has felt like action games have been geared very specifically in one direction or another when it comes to their melee combat. On the one side you have the more traditional hack-and-slash titles that may require some amount of technique or skill, but are still generally designed to let you enjoy a sense of power as you cut through swaths of enemies. On the other you have more modern titles that have taken inspiration from the Dark Souls series or some others, focusing far more on challenging (and rewarding for the right crowd) one-on-one combat. Since I’ve never played one of the older Onimusha titles to know where this series has come from, I can’t comment on how this one compares, but I will say that for me it feels like it has managed to do a great job of finding a balance between the classic hack-and-slash style while still featuring deeper and yet still very approachable technique-based combat as well.

While more often than not I’ve found that games tend to get off on the wrong foot with me, even higher-end ones, I really loved the opening of Way of the Sword. It very quickly introduced me to a new character, helped me understand in general what he was about, sprinkled in a fair amount of humor, delivered its tutorials pretty seamlessly with the action… and then promptly killed him off. Not to worry, and apologies if that seemed like a spoiler, but in order for you to realize your ultimate potential in possession of your Oni gauntlet, it turns out that was a necessity. Now charged with helping to fight the forces of darkness, you’ll embark on your ambitious journey.

What follows is a mixture of plenty of exploration, satisfying combat that ranges from more stealthy to just plain brutal, loads of severing of limbs from enemy bodies, and then a periodic boss battle that will truly test your mettle. On a general level, the mobs you’ll be running into the majority of the time are there to act as bloody fodder for your blades, but I’d suggest trying to vary up your techniques and do some practicing of your essential skills like your dodge and parry in particular, since once you face off with the bosses those will be your key to any hope of success. There’s absolutely a bit of a learning curve to these battles, mostly in recognizing and then properly dealing with specific enemy attacks, but with some persistence as well as some patience they’ll eventually get taken down. If there was one complaint I have it’s that when you’re in the middle of battle trying to get your fingers over to the D-Pad to try to heal or use some other item is far from ideal, and that can get you killed, but as issues go in games of this scope that’s actually a pretty minor concern. Within a limited amount of time, this is a game that won me over not just with its satisfying combat, but with an overall effort that feels carefully planned and executed as well.