Onimusha: Way of the Sword Trophy Guide — Always Save the Townspeople | The Efficient Platinum Route

Intro

Let me get this out of the way first: I’m a massive Onimusha fan. I bought the first game on release day, got completely hooked, and I’ve bought every entry on day one since. Onimusha 2 is still my favourite, mostly because Jubei Yagyu is one of the coolest protagonists I’ve ever played as. I loved 3 as well, the one with Jean Reno in it.

So of course I picked this one up on launch day, September 4th. I played it every spare hour I had around work, and on September 20th the platinum popped. Total playtime: about 50 hours, across two playthroughs.

My honest take as a fan? “This is unreal. Thank you, Capcom.”

The swordplay is the best I’ve felt in this kind of game. Even the small animations look sharp and deliberate.

That attack animation showed up exactly once in 50 hours of play. Wild, right?

When the first trailers dropped, I was a bit worried about the Issen, the series’ signature one-flash kill. Here Musashi slips past the attack before cutting, and I wasn’t sure it would feel as good. In Onimusha 2 and 3, Chain Issen was this instant flurry of cuts that looked incredible, and next to that I was going hmmm.

Then I actually played it. Nope, I like this version better, honestly. It looks great, it feels great, and Chain Issen is far easier to pull off than in the older games.

Complaints? Almost none. This is the spoiler-free section so I’ll keep it vague, but there’s one thing about what carries into New Game+ that made me go hmm.

From a trophy hunting angle, it took me about 50 hours. There’s one random-drop trophy that decides your total, and it’s tied to rescuing townspeople. Just keeping that in mind from your first playthrough will cut your waiting time down a lot. Everything else unlocks while you enjoy the game, which makes this a friendly platinum if you’re a working adult with limited hours.

If you’ve been on the fence, play it.

⚠️ Spoilers from here on. If you have not played it yet, turn back.

Platinum thoughts (spoilers)

Here’s my conclusion up front: don’t go all-in on exploration in your first playthrough. I did all the side quests, maxed every upgrade, and combed every corner of the map. Then I started my second run and found that my sword, clothing and gauntlet upgrades had all been reset. I had to farm the exact same materials again for Carnage. Fun game, so I didn’t mind that much, but if I were starting over, here’s the short version:

• Keep exploration light on run 1, and rescue every townsperson you see
• Save equipment upgrades and side quests for the Carnage run
• Do Boss Rematch after clearing Carnage, with the Bishamon Sword

The full order is in the roadmap further down.

The thing that actually held up my platinum was the random side of the townspeople rescues, so I will cover that in detail too.

Platinum difficulty and time

• Release date: September 4, 2026
• Played on: PS5
• Play period: September 4 to 20, 2026
• Total playtime: about 50 hours
• Time breakdown: 26h first run (Action) + 19h Carnage run and Boss Rematch + 5h hunting the merchant
• Playthroughs: 2 (skills, Hozuki Pouches, charms, Genma notes and Lion Dogs carry over; equipment upgrades and side quests do not)
• Platinum difficulty: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
• Sense of achievement: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
• How close I came to quitting: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5)
• Need for a guide: Low (exploration is fine on your own, but knowing the New Game+ rules and the merchant situation saves real time)
• Missable elements: None
• Online requirements: None
• Biggest wall: the final boss on Carnage, and Selfish Selflessness

There are three difficulties: Story (easy), Action (normal) and Carnage. I played my first run on Action. Bosses killed me on the first attempt almost every time, and even regular Genma will take you down if you switch off. It is not Souls-level, but that tension is exactly what I wanted. Carnage unlocks once you finish the game.

Why only ★3? Because the genuinely hard part is basically the Carnage run itself. Everything else unlocked while I was just playing. That is also why the sense of achievement is ★3, I never really felt like I was hunting trophies. Judge the boss fights alone, though, and it is a solid ★5.

⚠️ No missables, but what does not carry over hurts

Nothing is permanently missable. After the credits you can pick Continue and you are dropped back before the final mission, so you can clean up anything you left behind. That is exactly what I did to finish my material farming.

The problem is New Game+. What I ran into personally: sword, clothing and gauntlet upgrades are all wiped. That one stung.

Does not carry over

• Sword, clothing and gauntlet upgrades
• Mysteries of Kyoto and Chance Encounters (side quests)
• Outfits and red souls

Carries over

• Basic and special skill upgrades
• Hozuki Pouch and charm upgrades
• Genma notes and Lion Dogs

So maxing your gear on run 1 means doing the whole job twice. Same for side quests. And materials are tight. I explored pretty thoroughly and still came up short, so open every chest you find from the very beginning.

You could argue it is better to just do the side content on both runs. But if you are a busy working adult, time is the whole problem, so I would decide up front not to chase max upgrades on your first playthrough.

🎯 Biggest wall: the Carnage final boss (19 losses, over two hours)

Carnage is not that bad while you are moving through the levels. The bosses are another story. From the Greater Nue onward they get rough, though usually a few attempts is enough.

And then there is Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Man. You are way too strong.

Even on Action in my first run, he beat me ten times before I took him down on the eleventh, in about 60 minutes. I shouted out loud when he finally went down.

Carnage was worse. Nineteen attempts, and the fight ran past two hours. This one fight sits at the level of a late Souls boss. On my personal scale, harder than base Elden Ring, easier than its DLC. You have to learn the Issen timing with your hands, not your head.

Even so, my how-close-I-came-to-quitting score is ★1. It is strange, but every loss made his moves clearer. Feeling yourself get better is the best thing about this game.

One thing though: I could never dodge his grab. Not once, the whole fight. So I accepted the damage and built my strategy around the openings elsewhere.

If you are also eating that grab every time and cannot close it out, I put my tips in a video.

Carnage Yoshitsune fight: my tips

Charms matter more than you would think here. Bring the ones that boost your Oni gauge, your Awakening gauge, and either the Blazing State or Reflex gauge. My approach leans on the Two Celestials in his third phase, so keeping the Oni gauge topped up was the top priority.

Tricky trophies

Selfish Selflessness (the merchant finally showed up on my 42nd rescue)

This was my last trophy. All you do is save a merchant who is being attacked by Genma, but whether a merchant appears at all is random. Across both playthroughs I ran 42 of those rescue events before I finally got one. My last five hours were basically spent waiting for it.

The fix is simple: from your first playthrough, go and help every single townsperson you see getting attacked. Note that Citizen Savior (rescue 30 townspeople) counts cumulatively across playthroughs. I picked up my last five on run 2.

Dressed to Kill

Max out every piece of equipment. Gauntlet materials come from Byakue and Dohatsu-ten.

I had cleared all the side content on my first run but got lazy with chests, so I was short on leather and the rest. I replayed the final dungeon twice on Action. With cutscenes skipped, two extra runs took about an hour, and I covered the rest by trading red souls for materials.

Here is the thing: none of that carries into your next run. You upgrade it all again on Carnage. “What am I even doing this for?” was my honest reaction. This one is busywork.

By the way, Byakue was a joke for me. I practised so much in the demo that the Issen timing was automatic. Whenever one showed up I just thought, free materials.

I only noticed after finishing the game that Rifts spawn randomly, which is a fine way to farm Byakue and Dohatsu-ten.

One more thing I spotted while circling the map hunting the merchant after my Carnage run: chests with materials in them seem to respawn. I noticed it while wearing a charm that raises the Genma encounter rate, so if materials are your bottleneck, try exploring with one equipped. No hard proof, just what it looked like to me.

Genma Griller (turn the oil-throwing enemy against them)

Set three enemies ablaze at once. My first reaction was, ablaze? what does that even mean? So I think this one trips people up.

I got it in an area with enemies that throw oil. Once they had covered other enemies in it, one shot from the Firebird Flute did the job. Use their own oil against them. Here is the clip, and the map is shown at the end.

Glutton for Punishment (a victory lap if you have cleared Carnage)

Beat every Boss Rematch opponent on all difficulties. It reads like the final hurdle of the platinum, and it really is not.

Clear Carnage, take the Bishamon Sword you are given, and sweep the whole list. If you beat Carnage on your own, this feels like a bonus round. No need to brace yourself.

Also, do not do these rematches during your first Action run, that is double work. Clearing them on Carnage counts for Action and Story as well.

Efficient Platinum Roadmap

What I actually did

1. First run on Action: every side quest, every Lion Dog, full exploration
2. After the credits: two more laps of the final dungeon plus red soul trading for Dressed to Kill
3. Carnage on New Game+, re-upgrading gear as I went
4. Boss Rematch
5. Circled the map rescuing townspeople until the merchant appeared

What I would do if I started over

1. First run on Action, story first. Explore enough that the game does not get painful, and grab Power Stones and Oni Stones whenever you see them. Lion Dogs and Genma notes carry over, so pick those up. Deliberately rescue every townsperson you come across and try to get the merchant out of the way early
2. Roll straight into Carnage on New Game+
3. Do all the Mysteries of Kyoto and Chance Encounters on that Carnage run
4. Do your equipment upgrades here too, and take Dressed to Kill
5. After clearing Carnage, sweep Boss Rematch with the Bishamon Sword

The Lion Dogs are a nice palate cleanser, though I can see the repetition wearing on some people.

Verdict

Overall: ★★★★★ (5/5)

The boss fights are the star. Almost every story boss is a white-knuckle duel, and you can feel yourself improving as you lose. The Issen is easier to land than in older entries, aim for the big wind-up attacks and it just comes out. Chain Issen in particular used to be a happy accident, two hits if you were lucky. Now you can go for it on purpose, and the feel is on another level. Even the Lion Dog collectibles show up on the map, so that part never became a chore.

The one thing that gave me pause: the deeper exploration sends you through the same places repeatedly, and a lot of the quests feel alike, so some people will get bored partway through.

Still, the trophies come to you if you just play, and the game underneath is superb. Whether you are here for the platinum or just to play something great, this is worth your time right now. Mostly I am just happy that the first new Onimusha in twenty years turned out this good. I love Capcom games, and I will keep watching what they do next.

I have not decided what I am playing next. Come back and find out.

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