Japanese publisher CAPCOM is set to continue its incredible streak in 2026 with Onimusha: Way Of The Sword , which is set to be every bit as good as Resident Evil Requiem and PRAGMATA . The playable demo released last week has already been downloaded 1 million times to offer the same taste of the game that was offered during last year's Gamescom , but the extremely low enemy aggression has become a cause of concern within the community. Producer Akihito Kadowaki recently addressed the matter on social media , but the current industry trends for action games paint a bleak picture.
"We’ve heard the feedback that the demo felt too easy for some people," Kadowaki-san said in a fresh video . "First, the demo is just a slice of the early part of the story. Also, we really wanted you to enjoy a variety of Musashi’s actions, so we intentionally equipped him with some late-game skills. Because of that, some players might have felt a lack of challenge."
“Rest assured, in the final game, the bosses and the regular Genma will put up a tougher fight. Please look forward to the challenge in the full game," the Onimusha: Way Of The Sword producer concluded, promising to deliver a worthy level of challenge.
While this statement is definitely appreciated, given that balance requests for single-player games are often ignored, current industry trends suggest that Onimusha: Way Of The Sword 's challenge level will still be too low , potentially resulting in its excellent mechanics being underused.
Over the past few years, action game fans have surely noticed how much easier games have become to attract newcomers . While this is completely understandable, the approach most developers are taking ends up damaging games , rather than making them better suited for new fans.
In most cases, t he depth and the power of the toolkits at the player's disposal are balanced with low health of enemies and reduced aggression , making for dull experiences.
This is something I have experienced in way too many games in the past few years, starting with Team NINJA's Wo-Long: Fallen Dynasty . Although the balance improved with post-launch updates, during the pre-release review access, I found myself wondering whether it was indeed a Team NINJA game: it lacked the challenge I experienced in the Nioh series and in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin . I had the same feeling playing Nioh 3 earlier this year, although to a lesser extent.
This trend continued with other games as well . During my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on PlayStation 5, I had no use for the game's incredibly deep combat mechanics because mobs were dying too quickly. On PC, the first thing I did was download mods to increase their health and reduce Stagger buildup , which made the experience much more enjoyable right from a Dynamic difficulty playthrough.
CAPCOM itself has shown how it is willing to tone down the challenge level to make its games better suited for newcomers . At launch, Monster Hunter Wilds was incredibly easy, even in the post-game, forcing me to download mods that increased monsters' HP and attack power to have a semblance of the challenge level of previous entries in the series, which I still didn't get because of low aggression . Thankfully, this was addressed in post-launch updates that brought lapsed players back as the game's producer Yuya Tokuda pleaded , so I expect the Ascension expansion to deliver on this front.
As these complaints are common among action game fans, I truly hope Onimusha: Way Of The Sword will not follow the current industry trends, and, at the very least, offer an optional higher difficulty option right from the start. I am not too hopeful, but stranger things have happened before.
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