Capcom Says Onimusha: Way of the Sword Isn’t Too Easy, and Player Data Proves It

Before its release, there was a lot of discussion around Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s difficulty.

Basically, some players argued that the game’s demo was too easy. Enemies lacked aggression, and although Capcom promised a greater challenge in the full thing, not everyone was convinced.

Of course, players who voice their opinions online tend to be more hardcore. And from the start, the developer had stated that Way of the Sword’s overall difficulty wouldn’t be especially brutal, as it didn’t want to dissuade more casual action fans.

The finished game shipped with three difficulty settings, along with a button prompt accessibility option that can make fights significantly easier to wrap your head around.

However, in order to unlock the third ‘Carnage’ difficulty level, you need to beat the game once. This was a move that more experienced players criticised, preferring a meatier challenge right from the off.

But despite the pre-launch concerns and aforementioned criticism, Capcom reckons it got Way of the Sword’s difficulty spot on.

Speaking to PC Gamer, director Satoru Nihei brings up player data, and how it falls in line with the developer’s expectations.

“What we’ve seen in the trends in the data is that it’s close to what we set out to achieve, in terms of difficulty,” he begins.

“There are points where they do stumble, they do die, they do get defeated. But they’re able to overcome that and progress.”

Nihei explains: “That was what we set out to achieve in terms of pitching the difficulty for the game: We wanted players to be able to progress through the story, but also have some challenge to it, so they get a sense of satisfaction from defeating enemies.”

“It was never an intention for this game to be a particularly difficult game.”

It would obviously be really interesting to see this data for ourselves — I’d love to know what the game’s deadliest boss is, for example — but Nihei seems pretty convinced that the team did a great job.

As of writing, Way of the Sword has not received any post-release updates. Capcom has not mentioned any plans for continued support, but readers are left wondering whether anything is in the pipeline, given that the title has been a hit both critically and commercially.

It is not far-fetched to imagine the game gaining an additional difficulty setting, or something similar, to draw players back in the not-so-distant future.

Do you have any issues with Way of the Sword’s difficulty? Show off your Carnage-exclusive cosmetics in the comments section below.