Onimusha: Way of the Sword — Miyamoto Musashi and the Return of the Series
Published: · Techbox, Thessaloniki
Twenty years after the last main game, Capcom has brought the Onimusha series back — and chose Japan’s most famous swordsman as its hero. Who the real Miyamoto Musashi was, what the Genma are, and why Way of the Sword became one of the biggest releases of the year.
The return after twenty years
Onimusha began in 2001 on PlayStation 2 with Warlords and became one of the console’s first big action games. Three more main entries followed up to Dawn of Dreams in 2006 — and then, silence.
Way of the Sword was announced at The Game Awards 2024 and launched on 4 September 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. It passed one million sales on day one — rare for a series dormant for two decades.
The real Miyamoto Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi (around 1584–1645) is regarded as the greatest swordsman in Japanese history. He wandered as a ronin, is said to have fought more than sixty duels undefeated, and founded the Niten Ichi-ryū school, which fights with two swords at once.
In early-1600s Kyoto he defeated Yoshioka Seijūrō, head of one of the city’s most famous fencing schools — and the game opens with exactly that duel. In 1612 he faced Sasaki Kojirō, also known as Ganryū, on Ganryūjima island, with a wooden sword carved from an oar. Sasaki is his eternal rival in the game.
In his final years he wrote The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin no Sho), a treatise on strategy still read today well beyond the martial arts. He was also an ink painter, with works kept in Japanese museums.
From Toshiro Mifune to the game
The series has a tradition of borrowing actors’ faces: the Warlords hero carried the features of Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Onimusha 3 brought in Jean Reno. The Musashi of Way of the Sword was modelled on Toshiro Mifune, the legendary star of Kurosawa’s films — who played Musashi himself in the 1950s "Samurai" film trilogy.
Genma, the Oni Gauntlet and Edo-era Kyoto
In the game, Musashi dies in an ambush and returns from the underworld with the Oni Gauntlet bound to his arm — a weapon that absorbs the souls of the Genma, the demons overrunning Kyoto. If he tries to remove it, he will die.
Around him move real historical figures: Ono no Takamura, a Heian-era poet who, according to legend, served the king of the underworld by night, and Izumo no Okuni, the woman regarded as the founder of kabuki theatre in early-1600s Kyoto.
The Onimusha series timeline
2001 — Onimusha: Warlords (PS2) · 2002 — Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny · 2004 — Onimusha 3: Demon Siege · 2006 — Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams · 2019 — Warlords remaster · 2023 — the Netflix anime series, with Musashi again modelled on Mifune · 2025 — Onimusha 2 remaster · 2026 — Onimusha: Way of the Sword.
Collectibles: what exists and what is coming
Historically, Onimusha had few collectibles compared with series such as Resident Evil. That is changing: following the success of Way of the Sword, Hiya Toys has already shown a Musashi figure, and other makers are likely to follow.
For now you will find the game on disc, the collectible Lenticular Edition for PS5, a keychain, a wall scroll and an acrylic stand. All gathered on the Onimusha page →, where every new product is added.
