Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches in the most packed September of recent memory, but fans of the series can get their first taste of the next entry with a playable demo now available on all platforms. And while the initial PlayStation 5 Pro support (which now includes PSSR 2) disappoints, early tests highlight how the massive performance issues seen in Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon's Dogma 2 caused by the RE Engine are evidently a thing of the past.
A new comparison video put together by ElAnalistaDeBits puts the game running on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro side-by-side in the two display settings: Quality and Performance Modes. In terms of image quality, the differences between the display modes on both systems are minimal and very difficult to spot. In terms of performance, however, the PlayStation 5 Pro clearly has an edge, pushing Quality Mode into the 50 FPS range and the high 40s with ray tracing, which is not available on the base system. As such, the initial support for the more powerful console disappoints, but there's a good chance things will be improved for the final release.
Where Onimusha: Way of the Sword doesn't disappoint is in optimization, as the demo runs quite well on PC even at native 4K resolution on a high-end system. A new early analysis from MxBenchmarkPC shows how an RTX 5080 runs the game at 4K resolution with NVIDIA DLSS in the 70 FPS range, which is a rarity for many modern titles.
With DLSS set to Quality mode and ray tracing enabled, the game runs in the 80 FPS range, which can be further boosted with Frame Generation. This, alongside the solid performance of both PRAGMATA and Resident Evil Requiem, proves once again how excellent the RE Engine is for linear games.
The newly released Onimusha: Way of the Sword demo is the exact same slice of the game I experienced during Gamescom 2025, which I enjoyed quite a bit despite some initial roughness. The intervening months have done wonders for polish, and I enjoyed my short time with Musashi even more this time around, leaving me even more excited.
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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