Onimusha: Way of the Sword Lands at 86 on OpenCritic

Capcom Moved the Date Up, Then the Scores Landed

Here is a sequence you almost never see: a publisher pulls a major release three weeks *forward*, and then the reviews come in strong. Onimusha: Way of the Sword shipped on September 4, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, moved up from its announced September 25 date. It is now sitting at 86 on OpenCritic with a "Mighty" rating.

• OpenCritic: 86 average across 106 critics, 94% recommending, inside the site's top 5% of games
• Metacritic by platform: 89 on Nintendo Switch 2, 85 on PlayStation 5, 83 on Xbox Series X and S, 82 on PC
• IGN: a perfect 10 out of 10 — the outlet's first for the series
• Length: roughly a 20-hour largely linear campaign with optional side content

What Kind of Game Is Way of the Sword?

Capcom has gone back to the well and come up with something sharper than nostalgia. Director Satoru Nihei's take drops you into a dark-fantasy version of Edo-period Kyoto, all lantern-lit alleys and supernatural dread layered over real historical figures. The hook, as ever, is the gauntlet — a sentient thing strapped to your arm that drinks the souls of everything you cut down, and those souls are the currency for upgrades and for unlocking your nastier weapons.

Combat is built around a parry. Time it and you open a window; miss it and you are the one bleeding. There is a finisher called Break Issen sitting at the top of that system, and the reviews are close to unanimous that landing it feels superb. This is not a game trying to be a soulslike with a samurai skin. It is a game with a *very* specific idea about how a sword should feel, and it commits.

Why Is the Switch 2 Version Scoring Highest?

That 89 on Switch 2 is the highest score the game earned on any platform, which is a genuinely surprising line to write about a Capcom action title. It is also part of a pattern we have been tracking all year — Elden Ring's Tarnished Edition and Oblivion Remastered both landed on the hardware in good shape, and studios have clearly stopped treating a Nintendo port as an afterthought.

If you have been holding off on picking a platform, the reviews suggest you genuinely do not have to compromise here. All four versions cleared 82.

Where Do Critics Think It Could Improve?

Consistent feedback across the round-up: the campaign leans on repetitive side content, and pacing sags in the stretches between set pieces. Reviewers who came in for the combat found more filler between fights than they wanted. It is the sort of note that tends to show up in a first entry after a long gap, when a team is rebuilding a formula and errs on the side of giving you more of it.

Worth weighing against the fact that 94% of critics still recommend the game, and one of the ones who did not hedge at all was IGN, handing the series its first perfect score in its history. When the criticism is "there is too much of this" rather than "this does not work," you are in a good place.

The Bigger Picture for Capcom's Revival Streak

This is the first mainline Onimusha in roughly two decades, and it lands in a year where Capcom has been steadily pulling dormant properties back out of the vault. It also arrives right as Capcom and Konami stack back-to-back September showcases, which suggests the revival pipeline is not slowing down.

For a series that has been quiet since the mid-2000s, coming back to a "Mighty" rating and the best-reviewed Nintendo version of the bunch is about as good a homecoming as a franchise gets. More launches and reviews in our gaming coverage.

Sources: OpenCritic — Onimusha: Way of the Sword — September 2026; Inven Global — September 2026.