Side Missions Guide: Quests, Secrets, and Bosses

Systems

The three side-quest systems

Side content in Onimusha: Way of the Sword falls into three categories. Katana Commissions ask for kills with specific sword techniques and pay in upgrade materials and skills; Genma Hunt requests are bounties posted by villagers and merchants on named Genma; Lost Relic Retrievals are item hunts, some of which need the Eye Awakening to spot hidden paths.

Tracking runs through the pause menu's Records page — there are no waypoints, so you navigate from the quest description plus area knowledge. The source guide claims 23 quests total and seven secret areas, but its reward tables were truncated during capture, so both numbers are unverified and should be checked against a completed save before being taken as fact.

When things open

Unlock schedule and chapter-scaled rewards

• Most quests unlock between Chapters 3 and 8; the rest trickle in as the story passes their districts.
• No traditional New Game Plus lock — unfinished quests stay clearable after the story, but some quests are mutually exclusive within a single playthrough (choose one branch).
• Rewards scale with the chapter you complete them in: roughly +1 weapon-upgrade material per chapter, 3x red souls and an omamori at some tiers, +1 rare material from Chapter 6, and an extra accessory slot from Chapter 8.
• Because weapon-upgrade materials get harder to farm late, delaying commissions to their highest chapter is the efficient play — community math puts the all-23 total near 45,000 red souls at optimal chapters, enough to fully upgrade two weapons or buy the essential Awakening-tree skills.

Worth the detour

Notable quests and their rewards

Secrets

Secret areas and the Oni Shrine power-up

The wiki source claims seven secret areas, a figure that conflicts with the hidden-area guide's three-major-zones model — treat both as incomplete until mapped. Example triggers it lists: finishing the Ronin's Challenge, using Eye on the well behind a teahouse, killing 20 enemies in Rokuhara without taking a hit, clearing the Cursed Shrine, a Chapter 7 hidden entrance, collecting five Oni Statues, and completing everything else. It describes the Genma Laboratory as the most lore-heavy of the set.

The Oni Shrine on Mount Hiei is the payoff: collect the five Oni Statues scattered across the secret areas, place them on the pedestals in the order carved into the wall, and gain a permanent +25% soul-absorption power-up for the Oni Gauntlet — stacking with the Silk Ribbon to +35%.

Bosses

The five optional bosses

The optional boss roster runs from the Ronin near Kyoto Central's hidden dojo — an early parry lesson — to the Genma General, widely considered the hardest optional fight in the game. For the General, stay at mid-range and bait the thrust, which has a long recovery: parry it to stagger the boss, then follow up with a Break Issen. Below 30% HP it enrages and adds a ground slam with a shockwave that you must jump.

Shadow Musashi is the mirror match: the AI adapts to your playstyle, reads like a player, and punishes button-mashing — it even uses Issen against you if your own posture breaks. Watch for the slight crouch before its heavy lunge, deal with it via the Foresight Evade, and turn conservative during its Ki-en State windows. The Corrupted Shrine Keeper rounds out the set with dark magic and spear attacks, and the source also mentions Marakumo and Ganondoru behind Demon Realm Gates — entities with no retail verification, so treat them as unconfirmed.