Onimusha: Way of the Sword Difficulty Settings

Story or Action for a first run?

Pick Story if you mainly want to see the campaign, or if timing-based defence is unfamiliar territory. Pick Action if you want the intended back-and-forth where reading the enemy matters and mistakes are punished.

A developer interview published by Xbox Wire confirmed the two starting difficulties and described a team goal of letting a wide range of players enjoy the game rather than chasing pure punishment.

Carnage is a post-game difficulty

Carnage becomes available after you finish the game once, and is the natural pairing for a New Game Plus run. Some completion items are tied to it, which is part of why full completion estimates run past 60 hours.

New players sometimes assume the opening menu is missing an option. It is not — the hardest setting is simply gated behind a first clear.

This is not a Soulslike difficulty curve

The combat is technical, but the design intent described by the developers is broad accessibility rather than deliberate suffering. Treating it as a punishment simulator sets the wrong expectation.

Capcom also responded publicly to feedback that the demo felt too easy, saying it was confident players would be satisfied with the difficulty of the final game. Demo balance is not final-game balance.

Learn these four things before worrying about difficulty

The official site frames the combat around Deflect, Parry, Issen and Soul Absorption. Deflect and parry are distinct actions with different timing windows, Issen is the counter payoff, and soul absorption feeds your progression.

A beginner combat tips video covers projectile blocking, the parry-versus-deflect distinction, dodging and the difficulty options. Note that it discloses a paid promotion with Capcom.

Watch real gameplay before you decide

An Action-difficulty demo walkthrough is the clearest way to see incoming damage, attack tells and deflect windows at the higher of the two starting settings. Watching a few minutes tells you more than any description.

Remember that demo balance can differ from the final build, so use footage to judge the rhythm of combat rather than exact damage numbers.

Can you change difficulty later?

The two starting options are presented at the beginning of a playthrough, and Carnage appears after a clear. Whether the setting can be changed mid-run without restarting is not stated in the sources verified here.

If in doubt, start on Action. If it frustrates you within the first hours, check the options menu; if the setting cannot be changed there, a fresh Story run costs little that early.

What each setting changes

Story is positioned for players who want the narrative or who are new to timing-based defence, while Action delivers the full attack-and-defence pressure the systems were designed around. Both use the same mechanics; the difference is how much room a mistake leaves you.

Carnage sits above both and is unlocked only after a first completion. Some completion items are tied to it, which is part of why full completion estimates run past 60 hours.

Capcom has not published exact enemy health or damage multipliers for any of the three, so treat descriptions of the gap between them as qualitative.

How difficulty affects your playtime

Third-party estimates put the main story at about 20 hours, an average run at 25 and a thorough one at 33. A harder setting mainly adds retries rather than content, so the effect on the clock depends on your skill.

The most reliable way to shorten your playthrough is not lowering difficulty but learning deflect timing properly. Once tells become readable, fights that cost several attempts resolve quickly.

If you are aiming at full completion, remember the second run happens on Carnage. Time invested in fundamentals during the first playthrough is repaid there.

A sensible plan for new players

Play the free demo first. It runs about 30 minutes, ends in the Ganryu duel, and gives you an honest read on whether Action-level pressure is enjoyable or frustrating for you.

Start the full game on the setting that matched that feeling, and give it the first couple of hours before judging. Defensive systems take longer to click than attack-focused ones.

Leave Carnage for a New Game Plus run. Approaching it before the fundamentals are automatic turns a good fight into a wall.

It is not a Soulslike, despite the comparison

The combat is defensive and timing-driven, which invites the comparison, but the developer framing is broad accessibility rather than deliberate punishment. Two starting difficulties exist precisely so that narrative-focused players are not forced through a wall.

The systems also differ from that genre in practice. Soul absorption feeds progression continuously, and Issen counters reward reading a single attack rather than managing stamina across a long exchange.

Approaching it as a technical action game rather than an endurance test sets a more useful expectation, especially in the opening hours where the timing is still unfamiliar.

What difficulty does not change

The campaign, the boss encounters and the post-game structure are the same on Story and Action. Choosing the gentler setting does not remove content or lock you out of New Game Plus.

Carnage is the only difficulty tied to unlocks, and it is available to everyone after a first clear regardless of which setting that clear happened on.

Where the difficulty information comes from

The two starting difficulties were confirmed in a developer interview published by Xbox Wire, which also described the goal of letting a wide range of players enjoy the game. Carnage as a post-clear unlock is documented in a completion guide and mentioned in reviews.

Capcom responded publicly to demo difficulty feedback in coverage by PC Gamer, saying it was confident players would be satisfied with the final balance. That exchange is the clearest signal that demo tuning was provisional.

Exact scaling values are not published anywhere official, so this page describes the settings qualitatively rather than inventing multipliers.