Onimusha: Way of the Sword Reviews Are In: IGN Gives Capcom’s Series Its First-Ever 10/10

Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Capcom’s first mainline entry in its samurai action series since 2006, launched to some of the strongest reviews of any game this year, headlined by IGN’s first-ever perfect 10/10 score for the franchise and an 86 Metascore across 84 critics on PlayStation 5.

Capcom lifted the review embargo on August 31, 2026, three days ahead of the game’s September 4 release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, according to reviews collected by Metacritic, OpenCritic and IGN.

What Onimusha: Way of the Sword Is About

The game puts players in control of the real-life swordsman Miyamoto Musashi in early-Edo-period Kyoto, where a supernatural gauntlet lets him absorb the souls of the Genma, oni-like demons consuming the city. It’s a direct continuation of the series’ long-running fight between humanity and the Genma that first began with the original PlayStation 2 game in 2001, and it marks the first mainline Onimusha since Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams in 2006 — a 20-year gap.

The Review Scores, Outlet by Outlet

What Reviewers Are Praising — and What They Aren’t

IGN’s review, written by Will Borger, centers its perfect score on the game’s Issen parry system — a one-hit counter mechanic that rewards precise defensive timing — along with Musashi’s writing and his relationships with the cast. Other outlets echoed the praise for combat feel: CBR and GamesRadar both singled out the game’s boss battles, sound design and its recreation of Kyoto as standouts, and reviewers broadly agreed the parry windows are more forgiving than the FromSoftware games this design clearly borrows from.

The criticism was narrower and more consistent across outlets: several reviewers flagged a repetitive mini-boss rotation and an artificial-feeling difficulty spike in the mid-to-late campaign. Multiple reviews also recommended playing with the Japanese voice track over the English dub, which some found tonally goofy against the story’s violence.

Why This Score Matters for Capcom

Onimusha: Way of the Sword isn’t an outlier for Capcom this year — it’s a pattern. GamesRadar noted the game is Capcom’s fourth widely-praised launch of 2026, arriving in the same stretch as the well-received Pragmata. That track record is the real story behind the score: a 20-year-dormant franchise landing a first-ever perfect review from a major outlet is rare, and it happening as part of a run rather than a one-off suggests Capcom’s current internal quality bar, not luck, is what changed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Onimusha: Way of the Sword worth buying?

Critics are broadly recommending it: the game holds an 86 Metascore across 84 reviews and a rare perfect 10/10 from IGN, with the most common complaints being a repetitive mini-boss rotation and a difficulty spike in the back half rather than any fundamental flaw.

What platforms is Onimusha: Way of the Sword on?

It released September 4, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Metacritic scores it separately by platform, with the Switch 2 version currently the highest-rated at 89/100.

Is Onimusha: Way of the Sword connected to the older games?

Yes. It continues the series’ core conflict between humans and the Genma demons introduced in the original 2001 Onimusha, and it’s the first mainline entry since Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams in 2006.

Should I play with the English dub or Japanese audio?

Multiple reviews recommend the Japanese voice track. Several critics noted the English dub leans into a tone that clashes with the story’s more violent and serious moments.

For more on Capcom’s 2026 lineup, see our breakdown of the Mega Man: Dual Override gameplay trailer and the Street Fighter movie’s second trailer.

Sources: Metacritic and CBR’s review.