I just finished Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and overall I genuinely loved the game. I maxed Musashi out completely. Every skill, every ability, every pouch, my equipment, sword, gauntlet, everything. I enjoyed the combat enough that I wanted to keep going after the ending and get as close to 100% completion as possible.
The only thing I really have left now is the Boss Rematches.
And unfortunately, the Boss Rematch system has become easily the most frustrating part of the entire game for me.
I have 18 boss rematches total. I have completed 6 of them so far on Action difficulty, so I still have 12 left. I am absolutely capable of beating them. That is not my complaint.
My complaint is that the game takes away almost everything I spent the entire playthrough building.
In the actual campaign boss fights, Musashi can use his Oni Armaments, Oni Awakening, consumables, stocked resources, charms, and the full combat system that the game spends dozens of hours teaching you and allowing you to upgrade.
In Boss Rematches, I am basically reduced to:
Parry.
Deflect.
Dodge.
Normal attack.
Heal with Hozuki.
Repeat.
Over and over and over again.
I cannot use normal consumables. I start with empty gauges. The bosses give so few souls that even with max level Charm of Oni Power and max level Charm of Awakening equipped, I can finish an entire Action rematch with my Oni Armament gauge sitting around 90 percent full.
Think about how ridiculous that is.
I spent the entire game unlocking and upgrading these abilities, and during an entire boss fight I sometimes cannot even earn enough energy to use one Oni Armament once.
And I specifically saved a lot of experimentation for the postgame because I assumed Boss Rematch would be the perfect place for it.
There are Oni Armaments I barely used during the campaign because there are so many abilities and only so many opportunities to test them against bosses. I thought the rematches would let me finally experiment.
Which Armament works best against this boss?
Which one creates the best opening?
Which one synergizes with this boss's attack pattern?
How does Awakening change the fight?
What strategies should I practice for New Game Plus?
That is exactly what I expected a Boss Rematch mode to be good for.
Instead, the mode barely lets me use the abilities at all.
That also makes it a terrible practice environment for New Game Plus.
If I am preparing for another playthrough, I do not want to practice fighting every boss with only a sword, parries, counters and Hozuki. That is not how I plan to play the campaign. I want to practice using the actual maxed character I built.
And before anyone suggests the Awakening Hozuki Pouch, that is not really a solution either.
I am probably successfully parrying or deflecting around 60 to 70 percent of attacks on bosses I have not completely memorized. I am not interested in dying 20 or 40 times against every one of the 18 bosses just to perfectly memorize every animation.
That remaining damage means I need healing.
So the game effectively makes me choose:
Keep my normal Hozuki pouch so I can survive.
Or give up my reliable healing so that maybe I can generate enough Awakening energy to use Awakening once.
Why should I have to sacrifice survivability just to use an ability I already spent the whole game earning?
That does not feel like an interesting build choice. It feels like artificial resource starvation.
The completion system makes this more frustrating.
If I beat a boss on Story, it records the Story clear.
If I beat the boss on Action, it also gives me credit for Story.
That makes sense in terms of difficulty hierarchy, but it means that for someone like me who wants the Action clear recorded, simply doing everything on Story does not feel complete.
And yes, I could just clear everything on Story and collect whatever clothing and rewards are attached to it.
But that is not what I want.
I want the satisfaction of saying I beat every boss on Action.
The problem is that the Action rematches are not recreating the Action campaign fights. They are forcing me into a restricted challenge version of them.
That is a huge difference.
I do not want Capcom to make the bosses easier.
I want them to let me use Musashi.
There are several ways I think they could fix this in an update.
One option would be:
Story Boss Rematch
Keep the existing restrictions. Hozuki only, limited resources, fundamentals focused.
Then once you beat that boss on Story:
Action Boss Rematch
Start with full Oni Power and full Awakening.
That alone would make a massive difference.
It would also give Story clears a real purpose for players who intend to complete Action afterward.
Another option would be to allow normal consumables on Action.
Or simply increase soul generation dramatically during Action rematches so that the longer the fight lasts, the more access you gain to Armaments and Awakening.
Or add two separate rule sets:
Standard Rematch
Use your actual campaign build and normal campaign resources.
Challenge Rematch
Current restricted rules. Hozuki only. Empty gauges. Pure fundamentals.
Then everybody wins.
Players who want the parry mastery challenge can have it.
Players who want to take their fully maxed Musashi back against earlier bosses can do that too.
Because right now this feels backwards.
The whole appeal of character progression is eventually being able to return to something that was difficult earlier and say:
“Look how powerful Musashi has become.”
Instead, I maxed every ability in the game and Boss Rematch basically says:
“Cool. Put most of that away. Here's your sword. Parry.”
I can do it.
I am doing it.
I have already cleared six bosses this way on Action.
But it is tedious.
It is repetitive.
And more importantly, it is not fun for me.
That is what frustrates me the most.
I just finished the game. I should be excited. I should be experimenting with builds, testing Armaments, preparing for New Game Plus and enjoying the payoff for all the time I spent maxing Musashi.
Instead, the last thing standing between me and the completion I want is twelve more fights where I mostly parry, dodge, counter and slowly wear bosses down while staring at special ability gauges that barely move.
That is not how I want to end a game I otherwise really enjoyed.
I really hope Capcom patches this and gives Boss Rematches some kind of full build / campaign rules option, or at minimum allows Action difficulty to start with full gauges.
Let me use the character I spent the entire game creating.
That is all I am asking.
