Atma Onimusha: Way of the Sword Review

Peak Capcom action and polish. Capcom dips their toes in the AAA Action/Adventure space, while creating one of deepest and most approachable Parry/Dodge/Attack system I ever played. Capcom managed to codify entire sub-genres with Street Fighter [1v1 Fighting], Devil May Cry [Character Action], etc, and I believe now they picked up what works from other Parry intensive games and codified the [Parry Action] sub-genre with this game. All while having the Capcom action polish that makes the game infinitely replayable. The way the "Blazing State" mechanic shifts the balance of defence and offence is genius, and reminds of how the "Style Rank" from DMC encourages move variety. You start boss fights with an empty blazing gauge and build it by parrying. Once you've parried enough and also started to learn the boss's parry patterns, you fill the blazing gauge and now it's your turn on offence. The fight then shifts from passivly waiting for parry openings, to aggressive attacking and reacting to parry openings. Then the fight moves to another phase where you repeat this cycle with even crazier moves to parry. The feeling of getting stronger and adapting to new situations is demonstrated by a skill-tree or equipment in other similar games, but in this game it's also very prominent during the fight itself. This is exactly what you would expect from a game based on Miyamoto Mushashi, and Capcom adapted his legacy beautifully.