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Onimusha: Way of the Sword offers two difficulty levels, Story (Storyline Focus) and Action (Combat Focus), chosen when starting a new game. Neither choice is locked in: the difficulty can be changed at any time from the Spirit Mirror menu, so a player can start on Story to learn the ropes and move up once comfortable, or drop from Action to Story if a fight is proving too punishing.

The Two Levels

Action Prompts

Action Prompts are the on-screen icons that indicate how to deal with an incoming enemy attack. Story sets them to On automatically; Action sets them to Off by default, but they can be switched on at any time regardless of difficulty level from System Menu > Settings > Gameplay. This makes Action Prompts an independent option rather than something locked to a single difficulty.

The Retry Screen Prompt

After being defeated a certain number of times, the retry screen offers the option to lower the difficulty from Action to Story. This prompt only appears when the difficulty is set to Action; a player already on Story is not shown it, since there is no easier level to drop to.

Not a Punishing Game by Design

Regardless of the level chosen, Musashi Miyamoto is not put through a gauntlet of instant-death traps or sudden ambushes. Falling into water or off a cliff during exploration costs only slight damage, with Musashi recovering immediately rather than being sent back to a checkpoint. The difficulty setting instead shapes how demanding enemy encounters and Combat System interactions are, not whether the world itself is hazardous to move through.

Choosing a Level

Story is the better starting point for anyone new to action games or unfamiliar with parrying, deflecting, and Issen timing, since the Action Prompt icons walk the player through how to answer each attack. Players who already know their way around a swordfight, or who want Getting Started to include a real challenge from the outset, can pick Action and still fall back on the automatic Action Prompt option or the retry-screen downgrade if a particular boss proves too much.

The Post-Clear Third Level

The two levels above are the ones offered when starting a new game. Community documentation of the shipped game reports a third, harder level that unlocks only after the story has been cleared once. Capcom's web manual does not describe it, so it is recorded here as community documentation rather than as first-party material.

Two details separate it from the other two. It cannot be applied to an existing save and requires starting a fresh run, and once a run has begun on it the difficulty option is removed from the Spirit Mirror menu entirely, so there is no dropping back down. Clearing the story on it is reported to award the game's strongest sword appearance, which is the reason to attempt it.

The achievement unlock rates are consistent with this. The two rarest hidden achievements in the game both sit below every collection award, at roughly four and four and a half percent, which is the shape a reward locked behind both a second run and a harder difficulty would produce.

The third level is also selectable for boss rematches at the practice ground after a clear, with its own cosmetic reward for clearing the full roster on it.