Onimusha: Way of the Sword's Demo Is Amazing On Steam Deck, But It May Not Mean The Game Will Be Great on the Go

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Last year, I had the pleasure of checking out Onimusha: Way of the Sword for myself. I wasn’t able to play it, but the hands-off demo stunned me with its gorgeous visuals and dynamic gameplay. I was so eager and excited to play the game for myself, and I now had the chance thanks to the demo being released to the public. I jumped in, and I fell in love with the game. It feels as good as it looks, with its wonderful parrying system, fantastic animations, and brutal dismemberment. I could go on and on about it, and why I think it will be one of my GOTY contenders, but I want to talk primarily about the performance on the Steam Deck.

I think it’s common knowledge that Capcom’s RE Engine is very well optimized for games that have contained worlds, as we saw in Resident Evil Requiem. It keeps the game running well, while still looking incredible, which isn’t commonplace for AAA games. Capcom has consistently done the impossible for most of its major releases, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword is looking like it will be another one.

It’s important to note that the demo is a slice of the game, and one that has most likely been heavily optimized ahead of its release. So much so that the official Onimusha Twitter/X account posted saying that the demo doesn’t reflect the performance of the full game. They mentioned that there will be a PC benchmarking tool that releases in the future. So with that in mind, it’s hard to categorically say that the game will run as well as the demo does. I’m also not sure whether or not the game is performing better or worse for this demo, but my bet is that the demo is performing better than the full game because this is a smaller slice that has been refined for this experience.

Still, I was extremely impressed by the demo. On the default settings, which are set to mostly low quality with FSR upscaling at Performance, the game runs wonderfully. It will stick between 40-50 FPS for the majority of the time, with only a few drops into the 30s when looking at memories. And with the default settings, the game looks beautiful, even with it mostly on low settings and FSR set to Performance. Even if the demo isn’t indicative of the final performance, this demo still shows the excellent optimization of the RE Engine. And since the account never said anything about the visual quality being different from the full release, it’s safe to expect that it will look this way when the game releases.

Still, even if the performance here is different than what the full release will be, I’m still very optimistic about the full release on the Steam Deck. It may not perform as well as the demo, but Capcom has proven their skills over and over with games like this. As long as the levels stay contained, I see no reason why Onimusha: Way of the Sword wouldn’t be a solid experience on the go.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword can be pre-purchased for $69.99 ahead of its September 25th release date.

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