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.
Deep Player Toolkits, Toothless Enemies
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, the 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.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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