Even if you're as tired of parrying in action games as I am, pay attention to Onimusha

Miyamoto Musashi, the legend goes, had his first duel at age 13, bludgeoning a grown-ass samurai to death with a stick. Over the next several decades he killed dozens more men in duels, fought in several large-scale battles, and wrote a book about swordfighting that may or may not be entirely honest about his many victories. Even if half of it's bullshit, I don't think anyone in history could more truthfully look someone in the eye and tell them that while they were partying, he was studying the blade.

The same goes for Capcom's new Onimusha: Way of the Sword, an action game that seems to be aiming for authenticity down to the hilt. First up is using the likeness of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune, who played Musashi in four samurai films in the 1950s. Second is the way that it slows combat back to human speed at a time when most action games are going faster and flashier, making just a couple deliberate swings enough to cut an enemy down.

When Morgan saw a hands-off demo of Onimusha at Summer Game Fest in June, he said it was the highlight of the show. Now that I've put my hands on it alongside Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem, I can say that it's easily the most exciting game Capcom's got coming out next year.

Despite a magical gauntlet that lets him suck up the souls of fallen enemies, Musashi largely moves like a human instead of a videogame hero. He's not dishing out lightning fast seven hit combo chains, teleporting behind a boss's back after a parry, or launching enemies into air juggles, at least not in the demo I played (I wouldn't be surprised if some later gauntlet powers lean into superpower territory). Instead he's swinging that katana like he's got to put some muscle behind each strike if he really wants to cut through muscle and bone.

Onimusha immediately punishes you for mashing buttons. I learned that once I committed to a swing I wouldn't be able to cancel into a block. I was committed to waiting for the animation to play out as Musashi shifted his weight to deliver a quicker one-handed swing or a heavier two-handed strike. And this game looks realistic enough that whiffing an attack made me feel almost as klutzy as I would trying to do absolutely anything with a sword in real life.

But when you get it right, the samurai movie flair is very much there—batter an enemy with enough hits to exhaust their stamina and you can dash at them to deliver a killing horizontal slash, or ram the blade through their chest in a piercing finisher.

Onimusha also looks at parrying through the lens of classic samurai movie battles and cleverly splits it into two separate mechanics that add an extra nuance to swordplay. Your typical parry is in here (just like practically every action game since Sekiro): press block just before an enemy attack to quickly repel it.

But you can also deflect attacks instead by holding block and tapping another button at the moment of impact. Time it right and you'll lock swords with your enemy, sparks flying as the blades slide against each other—and then you can redirect their weight off to one side, potentially shoving them into a wall to stun them.

Deflecting plays into a physics system that seems like one of Onimusha's big focuses, though there weren't really many opportunities to play with it in the demo. In one of its earlier trailers, Musashi kicks a table across a room to flatten someone, uses a deflect to knock one enemy into a torch, and deflects yet another enemy to send them tumbling into a kimono, which covers their head and blinds them.

Either a parry or a deflect will take a huge chunk out of the enemy's stamina, but one gives you more control over the fight. It also just looks awesome, and brings the sort of momentary sword clashes that would be canned animations in most games into the action.

I discovered that the two defensive moves have different purposes against ranged enemies as well: When an archer fired an arrow at me I instinctively parried it and got lucky when the ricochet struck another guy who was closing in on me with his sword. But deflecting again allows for more intention: it'll send an arrow directly back at the archer who shot it.

I could keep picking apart the 20 minutes of Onimusha I played through twice this week, but I expect Capcom's going to let us play more of it before too long—there's going to be plenty more to dissect before it's out next year. It really is impressive how different it feels to other action games of the moment, though, and even from other Capcom games like Devil May Cry or Monster Hunter.

Between this, Phantom Blade Zero, and Ninja Gaiden 4, I'm starting to feel downright spoiled for action games that aren't soulslikes.