Source-checked guide

Onimusha Way of the Sword Difficulty Settings

Q: What difficulty settings does Onimusha Way of the Sword have?

Two presets: **Story Mode** and **Action Mode**. Story Mode is the easier setting, with a wider Issen window and a button guide on by default. Action Mode can still enable that guide.

Capcom ships Story (easy) and Action settings. Story widens the Issen window and can show a button guide. Famitsu says death does not send you far back.

Answer first

Direct answer

Capcom ships two difficulty settings, Story Mode and Action Mode; Story Mode is the easy preset, widens the Issen window, and can show a button guide; Famitsu says death does not send you far back, and extra post-clear difficulty remains unanswered.

Last verified September 1, 2026

Verified Sep 1, 2026

What is confirmed

Producer Akihito Kadowaki described two difficulty settings on Xbox Wire: Story Mode (Japanese 活劇, Katsugeki) and Action Mode (剣戟, Kengeki). Story Mode is the easier preset and can show a button guide by default. Action Mode can still enable that guide. English searches for easy mode, too easy, how hard, change difficulty, and difficulty options map to these two presets, not to a separate casual rank.

Famitsu reports no death penalty that sends you far back; retry is immediate. Story Mode is the easier preset. The on-screen button guide is the assist people also call action prompts.

Capcom is not chasing an “impossibly difficult” action trend, per Kadowaki. How hard the game feels still depends on the preset and on landing Issen without an on-screen timing cue.

Whether the game is a soulslike is a separate question and lives on its own page.

What is not confirmed

Post-clear extra difficulty is unanswered in the launch interviews cited below. Kadowaki gave no comment; Nihei said there will be something. Reddit threads ask whether a hard mode or Carnage rank unlocks after the first clear, and whether that is New Game Plus. This page does not treat Carnage as a first-playthrough setting.

A dev slider or slider difficulty, and whether changing settings affects trophies, are not in the interviews cited below. They stay unanswered here.

Reddit threads calling the demo “too easy” are player opinion, not Capcom’s difficulty table. Exact Issen frame windows are not published. Mid-run switching between Story and Action is also unpublished.

Frequently asked questions

What difficulty settings does Onimusha Way of the Sword have?

Two presets: Story Mode and Action Mode. Story Mode is the easier setting, with a wider Issen window and a button guide on by default. Action Mode can still enable that guide.