Tips to Know Before Playing - ign.com

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is not like other action games. It’s a game where pace matters more than anything, and where said pace can swing wildly from high-speed and frenetic to deliberate and methodical. This is far from the only quirk: in this Onimusha guide, we’re going to explore tips for what you need to know before you pick up the controller and face your first opponents.

One of the first things you’ll need to choose when you start up a new game of Onimusha: Way of the Sword is whether you want to play with the default Aggressive Layout or the Defensive Layout. Don’t put too much stock into the way these layouts are named though, because it’s less about how confident you are with action games and more about where you want your attack and guard buttons. With the aggressive style, all of your combat buttons are on the face of the controller. This looks like:

With the defensive style, the layout changes to one that will likely be more natural for veterans of Soulslikes, and, in particular, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

The choice is yours! If you try one and feel like you're getting tripped up on what buttons do what, you can very easily swap styles in the options menu.

Gear upgrades in Way of the Sword are done by finding a bunch of resource materials and then turning them in at a Spirit Mirror where you can upgrade your clothing for health and stamina, sword for increased damage, and Oni Gauntlet to increase your Oni Power and Soul Absorb Speed/Range.

Easy enough, but you should also know where you can find each of these materials. All of the materials that you use to upgrade your Clothing and Sword can be found in small treasure chests strewn all around the open zone of Kyoto, as well as the various levels that you travel to for main missions. You can spot their locations by looking for these treasure chests on the map. They’re also the main rewards you’ll receive for completing sidequests, so if you feel like your gear is falling behind relative to the increasing strength of enemies, take a break from the main quest, complete some sidequests, and go hunting for treasure chests so you can gain enough materials to level up your gear.

The materials for your gauntlet are a little different in that, Malacite and Malacite Masses are only found as rewards for closing rifts, one of the regular combat encounter types you’ll run into.

You’ll also occasionally need Byakue’s Talismans and Dohatsu-ten’s Horns. These are rewards for defeating Byakue and Dohatsu-ten, who are two mini-bosses that you’ll fight at least half a dozen times over the course of your adventure. So if you’re looking to upgrade your gauntlet, start exploring Kyoto and keep an eye out for red streaks that bleed downwards in the sky, as these mark locations of Rifts that you haven’t closed yet.

Onimusha is not like a lot of other action games where you’re constantly moving around, hitting enemies with flashy combos, and dealing with hyper aggressive enemies that dart in and out from off screen. As a general note, your defense is what’s going to open up the most rewarding offense. You’ll need to make mental notes of enemy attack patterns, especially to identify what the proper response is to each attack in an enemy’s repertoire of techniques. When you see the start up of a move you need to be able to know whether you should parry, dodge, or if you’re willing to take the risk, if it’s an opportunity to try and use an Issen by pressing an attack button just before their strike lands.

You’re very likely to have a surplus of Red Souls as you play through the game. After all, most skills are unlocked with Power Stones and Oni Stones, and the ones that do require Red Souls don’t require all that much in the grand scheme of things. You could also spend Red Souls to upgrade your charms, but since you can only equip one at the start of the game, there’s not much incentive to really invest in charms that you don’t plan on using.

Instead, you should take those excess Red Souls to Yorimasa’s monument, after completing the “Careful What You Wish For” main quest. Here you can trade in Red Souls for a variety of consumables and, more importantly, upgrade materials to enhance your Clothing, Sword, Gauntlet, or Hozuki pouches. Prioritize the skills that you want to get in the skill tree when it comes to spending your Red Souls, as those will provide the most noticeable bumps in your combat ability, but once you’ve run out of things to spend your souls, hit up Yorimasa’s Monument, take a look at what materials you need to upgrade the aspect of your gear that needs the most help, and trade in your souls to buy those materials so they don’t just sit and collect dust.

If you need an extra edge in combat, consumables will be the extra aid that could be the deciding factor in overcoming a tough fight. You can only hold six consumables at a time, and those empty spots will automatically be filled by whatever you pick up. To swap them out, you’ll actually need to visit a Spirit Mirror and select the Storehouse option.

As you progress through the game, you’ll find more potent versions of each type of consumable, so make sure that you’re equipping the strongest version of each one that you have. One particular type of consumable that you should take note of is the prayer beads. Using these will grant you substantial protection from Malice, which is the red mist that you’ll occasionally have to traverse and even fight some enemies within. Whenever you’ve gotta go through Malice, pop some Prayer Beads beforehand, otherwise you’ll have to deal with the constant stress of losing a bunch of life every second while also trying to figure out where you need to go to make the Malice dissipate.

The practice grounds are a very valuable tool to make sure that you have a handle on Onimusha’s tougher mechanics. The Issen and Chain Issen drills will come in particularly handy letting you practice the timing of landing the highly risky counter attack in an environment devoid of any risk. If you’re struggling with Blade Barrages as well, practicing the drill will help you break the habit of pressing the attack button more often than needed, and keep you ready to counter the barrage whenever it comes up.

A Break Issen is when you deplete an enemy of their stamina and use a highly damaging attack while they’re stunned that typically kill them outright. This mechanic changes against bosses, where you’re given a choice what body part you want to target with the Break Issen, with each option having a different animation and effect. Typically, when you’re choosing a body part to target, it will have a red or purple mark. If you go for a red mark, you’ll deal heavy damage but only get a small number of Souls to spawn after the attack. If you go for a purple mark, a bunch of Souls will spawn, but you’ll deal less straight up damage.

When deciding which type of Break Issen to do, you should consider your situation -- you have a couple of seconds to make a choice before the game automatically makes one for you. Low on health? Go for the red mark. If you're trying to charge up your Oni Armament, go for the purple, as the damage you can inflict with the Armament will likely balance out the lower damage of the Break Issen itself.

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