Onimusha: Way of the Sword Main Story Guide

Premise

A blood-soaked Kyoto and the Oni Gauntlet

Capcom's return to the Onimusha franchise drops players into a blood-soaked Edo-period Kyoto overrun by the Genma. The story follows Miyamoto Musashi, whose face is modeled after Toshiro Mifune — likeness rights were licensed from Mifune Productions after two years of negotiations — and the tale stands completely separate from prior Onimusha games and the Netflix series.

Musashi carries the Oni Gauntlet, an armament that houses the Oni Lady, a mysterious guiding presence who offers increasing power in exchange for more souls. According to the wiki source, players who accept every upgrade see Musashi become more aggressive and less controlled in cutscenes — a mechanical-narrative link the guide calls one of the game's strongest storytelling choices.

The conspiracy comes into focus at Ichijo Temple, where mentor Ono no Takamura explains that the demons seek to open a permanent rift between worlds, using Kyoto's spiritual energy as a catalyst. That revelation turns a simple revenge tale into a race against time.

Cast

Main characters and their motives

Each supporting character carries a hidden agenda that the true ending resolves — Takamura's gatekeeping, Okuni's intelligence on the Genma's origin, and Ganryu's rivalry all feed the finale. Note that the wiki source lists the same English voice actor for Musashi and Takamura, which looks like a copy error; treat the cast table as single-source until cross-checked against official credits.

Endings

Standard ending vs. true ending conditions

The standard ending plays automatically if you simply clear the final boss: Musashi defeats the Genma Lord but remains bound to the Gauntlet. The true ending is gated behind extra conditions, and this is where sources disagree — do not merge the competing lists.

Per this page's wiki source, the true ending needs four things: collect all Oni Memories, complete every Takamura Training Session, win the optional post-chapter duel against Ganryu after your final story confrontation, and keep a hidden corruption meter below 30% — the meter rises when Musashi absorbs souls without resting at save points, and high corruption locks the true ending regardless of other progress.

The true-ending sister page reports a different set (five Oni Gauntlet Seals, the Rasho Gan super-boss, three S-ranks, and a Chapter 11 duel flag), while the hidden-area guide ties the ending to a Rasho-gan fragment. All three condition sets are mutually exclusive claims from single sources; compare them on the true ending page before planning a run.

Pacing

Campaign length and chapter structure

The campaign is chapter-based: Kyoto's districts act as open exploration zones strung along a linear main path, with each district playing out as one chapter of the conspiracy. Official materials and the story trailer put the main story at roughly 20 hours.

Community estimates in the same source break that down further: 15-18 hours if you mainline the story, 30-35 hours for full completion, and about 5 extra hours if you chase the true-ending conditions. There is no branching main plot — behavior metrics influence dialogue, character reactions, and the ending rather than the mission order.