Onimusha: Way of the Sword New Game Plus

What is confirmed

A Creative Bloq review states that after the ending you can either keep playing or start New Game Plus, and mentions Carnage and outfit unlocks in the same context. TechRadar independently confirms that finishing the game unlocks Carnage and ties it to replay value.

Two completed-playthrough reviews agreeing is solid evidence that the mode exists and when it appears. It is not evidence of what your inventory looks like on the second run.

Why the carry-over list is not published here

Neither the official site nor the store pages publish a New Game Plus inheritance table, and reviews describe the mode in passing rather than itemising it. Video reviews show footage but cannot establish inventory rules.

Publishing a plausible list would be guesswork with real consequences — someone planning a completion route around a wrong assumption wastes hours. The fields stay marked to be confirmed until they are checked against a retail save.

New Game Plus and Carnage together

Carnage is the post-game difficulty and the natural setting for a second run. Some completion items are connected to it, which is why full-completion estimates reach 60 hours or more across two playthroughs.

If you intend to complete everything, going straight into New Game Plus on Carnage is the efficient route, since it advances both the difficulty-gated unlocks and any second-run collectibles at once.

Protect your clear save first

Before starting New Game Plus, keep a separate save from just after the credits. Until inheritance rules are documented, overwriting your only completed save can cost access to post-game content you have not finished.

This is cheap insurance. Use a manual save slot rather than relying on the autosave that New Game Plus may overwrite.

Is a second run worth it?

Reviews are positive about the combat and boss encounters and critical of pacing and repetition, so a second run is most appealing if you enjoy the fighting itself. Carnage changes the pressure enough to make familiar encounters demanding again.

If the campaign already felt long — thorough first runs are around 33 hours — treat New Game Plus as optional rather than as the expected next step.

How this page will be updated

The carry-over table will be filled in from a retail save by checking the inventory, upgrade screens and key-item list on both sides of a New Game Plus transition, rather than by summarising secondary coverage.

Capcom's Steam news feed is also worth watching, since a patch can change post-game behaviour. If official notes contradict early player findings, the official notes take precedence.

What a second run is likely to involve

Guide estimates put full completion past 60 hours and note that some items relate to Carnage, which points to a first run followed by a New Game Plus run on the higher difficulty. A thorough single playthrough is around 33 hours by comparison.

Boss Rematch exists alongside New Game Plus, so you can revisit individual encounters without replaying the campaign. Some trophy or achievement requirements are attached to it.

Those two features together mean a completion route does not require blind repetition. You can target what you are missing.

Carnage difficulty in practice

Carnage is the post-clear difficulty and is the reason most players start New Game Plus at all. Reviews connect it directly to replay value rather than treating it as a token unlock.

It assumes the fundamentals are automatic: deflect and parry timing, Issen counters and soul absorption. Players who leaned on Story difficulty in the first run should expect a noticeable step up.

Capcom has not published enemy scaling figures for Carnage, so anything specific about damage multipliers should be treated as player-measured rather than official.

What to do before you start it

Keep a manual save from immediately after the credits, and note anything you left unfinished — collectibles, side content, boss rematches — before starting a new run.

Decide your goal first. If you want the completion items, going straight to Carnage is efficient; if you want to enjoy the combat again, the difficulty choice is yours to make.

Watch the official Steam news feed for patches. Post-game behaviour is exactly the kind of thing an early patch can adjust, and official notes override first-week player reports.

Why inheritance rules matter so much here

In a game where progression comes from absorbing souls and improving abilities, whether upgrades carry forward decides what a second run even feels like. A full carry-over turns Carnage into a victory lap; a reset turns it into a fresh challenge.

It also decides your completion route. If currency and collectibles reset, the efficient order for gathering Carnage-gated items changes completely.

That is why this page refuses to guess. A wrong assumption here costs hours, not minutes.

What reviewers said about replaying it

Reviews are positive about the combat and boss encounters while criticising pacing and repetition, which shapes how appealing a second run is. If the middle stretch already felt long, a replay will not fix that.

Video reviews from Game Informer and Shacknews come from completed playthroughs and are useful for judging replay value, though neither establishes inventory rules.

A safe plan until the rules are documented

Finish the story, keep a manual post-credits save, and spend some time on your cleared save clearing anything difficulty-independent. Then start New Game Plus when you know what you still need.

That order costs nothing if inheritance turns out to be generous, and protects you if it does not. It also means you enter Carnage with the fundamentals sharp.

This page will be updated from a retail save rather than from secondary reporting, and any Capcom patch note will take precedence over early player findings.