Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release: September 25, 2026
Rating: Mature

When I ask Onimusha: Way of the Sword producer Akihito Kadowaki and director Satoru Nihei if they feel the pressure of having to follow two well-received Capcom releases this year, Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, they candidly confirmed they do. The pair even shares that the producers for those two games routinely wish them good luck on keeping up the momentum whenever they cross paths at work. I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking that could be, especially since Way of the Sword is the first Onimusha game in many years, adding additional pressure to get it right for starved fans. But if what I played of the game during Summer Game Fest is any indication, Kadowaki and Nihei may have little to worry about.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword stars a fictionalized version of the real-life master swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi (whose in-game likeness is modeled after the late actor Toshiro Mifune). When demons known as Genma invade Kyoto, Musashi becomes unwillingly bound to the Oni Gauntlet, a powerful heirloom that can also talk. The gauntlet, who identifies as Shizuka, combined with Musashi’s unparalleled swordsmanship, makes the pair the perfect heroes to purge Kyoto of this threat, much to the reluctant Musashi’s chagrin.

My demo unfolds midway into the adventure, with Musashi encountering a blind woman outside of a village. The chipper lady says she can tell Musashi resents the Oni gauntlet and the trouble it's brought him and offers a solution: visit the Yasui Konpiragu Shrine in town, where all of his problems will be solved. Upon entering the village, which is enveloped in a dreamlike golden glow, I encounter unsettlingly cheery citizens who tell me how happy they are to have had their wishes granted by a mysterious god. An old man suffering from chronic knee pain sought relief, so his leg was amputated. A couple who wished to stay together forever were turned into a pair of smiling, creepy dolls. Neither Musashi nor Shizuka knows what to make of this strange place, but they know it can’t be good. Shizuka suggests contacting the soul of a heroic oni named Yorimasa, who died in battle, to help sort this place out.

Unfortunately, visiting Yorimasa’s grave yields no results, so Shizuka suggests calling upon the help of the Eight Stout Pillars. These talking statues stand high on ceremony, but only five are present; three of their brothers are missing, and we’ll need to find them to receive their collective blessing. Exploring the village to find these stone figures leads to many combat encounters, giving me a chance to see how the action has evolved since I played an earlier section of the game last August. The answer is that it’s still very good.

Hacking foes apart still feels somewhat deliberate yet flashy, but countering and parrying is Way of the Sword’s bread and butter. Enemies have health and stagger meters, and parrying attacks whittles down the former, which can open them up to attack. Parrying feels great thanks to satisfying feedback and smooth counter animations (achieved using motion capture using a real-life sword expert, according to Nihei), such as slicing off a limb or carving a foe in half. Projectile attacks can also be deflected back to their senders. My demo featured floating demonic heads that spat energy balls; deflecting those attacks lodged them right back into their mouths, causing them to explode into a mess of blue ooze.

Auto-directional blocking allows Musashi to guard against attacks from all sides, while dodging attacks at the last moment lets Musashi shift behind them in a near-supernatural fashion, opening them up to counterattacks. Successive parries or blocks build respective meters that, when full, cause Musashi’s sword to radiate a blue aura. When in this state, Musashi can cut down multiple foes in quick succession. Filling the dodge meter unleashes a different but still devastating multi-hit attack. Break Issun attacks, flashy finishing moves that act as emphatic exclamation points to encounters, have been made even more impactful over the past few months due to player feedback, Nihei shares.

Defeated enemies drop souls that I manually absorb into the Oni gauntlet by holding a shoulder button. I’m doing this a lot because I choose to rush into most encounters head-on despite having the option to stealth execute oblivious foes. I enjoy the combat that much. Plus, I want to master parrying, given how important the mechanic seems to be for success. I collect the three missing Stouts and return them home. As a reward, they use their power to condense the malice in the area into one spot, making it easy to identify the Genma responsible for granting these so-called miracles.

I return to the village, which has lost its idyllic glow and is now tinted in ashen grey. I spot a black mass of energy ahead, and upon reaching it, I’m treated to a flashback. A woman is shown praying to a shadowy Genma known as Rasho-gan, who asks her if she’s “joining” or “severing”. The woman cries about how she’s been forced to play the Shamisen every day and is scolded by her mistress when she plays badly. She doesn’t want to practice playing her instrument anymore. Rasho-gan offers a twisted solution: severing the woman’s fate using her fingers. He takes out a large pair of scissors. Unfazed, the woman offers her hands, and Rasho-gan amputates her digits in one slice (off-screen, thankfully, but the sound is gross nonetheless) as Musashi watches in shock and horror. The woman barely flinches and is quite pleased to realize she’ll never have to play her instrument again.

Rasho-gan admires his bloody prize as Musashi remarks about how messed up this situation is. Suddenly, what we thought to be a magical recording of Rasho-gan from the past suddenly turns and addresses Musashi directly. The creature attempts to sweet-talk Musashi into letting him remove the gauntlet by taking his entire arm; Musashi is nearly bewitched by Rasho-gan’s supernatural charms before Shizuka yells for him to snap out of it. Good thing, too, because Musashi catches Rasho-gan’s massive blade at the last moment, kicking off one hell of a boss fight.

As the battle starts, Rasho-gan takes his true form: a disturbing humanoid mass of human arms and hands. A defiant Musashi tells Rasho-gan he won’t be getting anything from him. Rasho-gan wields a large sword and connects to surrounding objects using what I can only describe as spectral umbilical cords. Hacking away wildly at this boss has limited success, but I soon realize that parrying will win the day. Playing defensively and deflecting his tricky attack patterns drastically lowers his stamina meter, creating openings to retaliate. This intense sword dance reminds me of the best battles in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is probably the highest praise I can offer. I wouldn't say Way of the Sword's parry is just as good as Sekiro's, but the intensity and satisfaction of deflecting attacks is definitely in the ballpark. 

Other attacks can’t be blocked, such as when Rasho-gan uses his cords to pick up large objects, such as boulders, trees, or even entire buildings, to throw at Musashi. Quickly firing Musashi’s bow to sever these connections causes the objects Rasho-gan holds to crash down on him, dealing damage. A lot is happening in this fight, but I find my rhythm parrying his attacks and interrupting his ranged moves, until I finally bring Rasho-gan to his knees. Unfortunately, I don’t get to finish him, as Rasho-gan makes a run for it. He doesn’t get far, however, thanks to a fatal intervention from a character I won’t spoil.

“That particular boss, Rasho-gan, rather than being kind of born from a particular kind of monster or mythological creature, is more kind of tied to the location itself,” explains Nihei through a translator when I ask about the inspirations for Rasho-gan. “So the place that you fight him in, Yasui Konpiragu temple in Kyoto, it's a real temple. And that place has long had legends associated with kind of bonding and separating fates, and there's a lot of imagery tied to that with the threads and cords. So kind of thinking about that location and what kind of twist [we] could put on it is kind of where that boss was essentially born from.’

I loved this battle, and it ended my time with Onimusha: Way of the Sword on a high note. Every Sekiro fan has probably been chasing that game’s highs since 2019, and while I won’t say Capcom’s action game is the second coming of From Software’s ninja classic, it’s one of the closest to reach that style while still feeling distinctly Onimusha. Tack on how much of an entertaining pair Musashi and Shizuka seem to be, and I can’t wait to face everything this corrupted Kyoto throws at me on September 25.

Naoki Hamaguchi is ready for something new. Following more than a decade of work as the director of the acclaimed Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, Hamaguchi has more than earned his place among the acclaimed group of luminaries at Square Enix. However, with the announcement that Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the final part of the trilogy, is releasing in the first half of next year, it's time for Hamaguchi to grapple with a big question: What's next?

Though Hamaguchi is often looked at as part of the "new generation" of Square Enix developers, the Remake trilogy director has been around since the PS2 days, with his first official credits at the publisher appearing on Final Fantasy XII. However, relatively speaking, when compared to his fellow supervisors on the Remake trilogy, Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura, who joined Square in 1990 and 1991, respectively, Hamaguchi is the youngest of that trio. 

"There's a deep respect among each other between the three of us, and I really feel that during our day-to-day jobs," Hamaguchi tells Game Informer. "It's really nice to feel that, because both Nomura and Kitase, respectively, are the producer and the creative director of the overall FFVII franchise, not just the Remake series, so they have a much bigger role than I do, where I'm just in charge of the Remake series in general. Nomura and Kitase both put their full trust in me in terms of putting the Remake series in my hands, and that's really nice to see. But at the same time, unlike Nomura and Kitase, I wasn't involved in the development of the original Final Fantasy VII, so whenever I feel like I'm stuck in the creative process in terms of determining this particular moment or scene and what kind of weight it holds, what kind of meaning it has for the original, then it's really nice to have the two right by my side. I can just go to them and get their input if I'm ever doubting myself or anything."

Hamaguchi has been laser-focused on the Final Fantasy VII Remake series since its inception, leaving little time for other projects. But with Revelation right around the corner, and Hamaguchi's work on this trilogy garnering him more positive attention than ever before, fans are excited for what he could do next.

"Right in this moment, I'm fully focused on completing FFVII Revelation and ensuring we're delivering the FFVII Remake series in a perfect state, so that's where I'm right now," Hamaguchi tells me. "At the same time, I do see a lot of fans and community asking me to take on the helm for a FFVI remake [editor's note: PR later clarified Hamaguchi was talking in hypothetical terms]. [laughs] So, I'm seeing a lot of that floating online, but, you know, a Final Fantasy VI Remake or any other remake, it could be me, or it could be someone else. Personally, I think that it might be in better hands if it went to another creator in Square Enix."

However, Hamaguchi has been kicking around some ideas for what might be next for him. "In terms of what I personally want to do, obviously, I think my next creative work is also going to be a JRPG," he says. "When you look at all the other titles that we have released at Square Enix, not just the FFVII Remake series, I think Square Enix, as a brand, as a company, is more than capable of delivering this grand-scale RPG that could resonate to gamers across the world. Fans might have a lot of different expectations, but for me personally, I do want to take on this new challenge with another RPG title after this, whether it be Final Fantasy or a different IP. Again, we don't know. But personally, if it's not Final Fantasy, that's also exciting, because that could be a challenge for me. So, whatever it is, I hope fans look forward to it."

During that same weekend, Bloomberg ended its conversation with Hamaguchi in similar fashion, to which the director clarified that he is not interested in a remake. "It’s not going to be a remake!" Hamaguchi told the outlet. "As a team, I do think there’s an opportunity to work on a smaller scale, like a AA title, or a new Final Fantasy title or even a new AAA franchise. I think all those would be good."

For now, the next game scheduled to appear on Hamaguchi's resumé is Final Fantasy VII Revelation, which will become the first in the series to launch across all major platforms simultaneously. You can read Hamaguchi's thoughts on bringing Final Fantasy back to Nintendo here. If you're a fan of Queen's Blood, the collectible-card battler minigame from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you can read about some of the change being implemented in Revelation's version of the game here.

For tons of behind-the-scenes details on the development of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, check out our cover story for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth here.

Summer Game Fest is finally done (though we're still posting plenty of previews from our time at the show). That means it's finally time to play video games instead of just getting excited about the ones that we will be playing in September, which is apparently when all video games except Grand Theft Auto VI are releasing.

Below you will find our recommendations of what to play this weekend (or watch or play on a tabletop), but before that, here is a longer-than-usual list of some of the biggest stories of the last two weeks. This really only scratches the surface. We wrote a lot of stories.

• The 25 Most Exciting Games Of Summer Game Fest 2026
• RGG Studio Head Talks Tupac's Controversial Stranger Than Heaven Inclusion
• Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis Director Discusses Use of Generative AI In The Upcoming Unreal Engine 5 Remake
• The Lost Wild Preview - Everyone's Stalked By The Dinosaur
• The Nintendo Switch 2 Remake Of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Drops In 2026
• Kingdom Hearts IV Gameplay Trailer Revealed, Will Launch Simultaneously On Consoles And PC
• Here's Everything Announced During Nintendo's 2026 Summer Direct Presentation
• Sega Confirms And Responds To Generative AI Content In New Crazy Taxi Game
• Naoki Hamaguchi On Bringing Final Fantasy Back To Nintendo
• How Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Arrived In Street Fighter 6

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Play by Play Studios
Developer: Play by Play Studios
Release: June 9, 2026
Rating: Everyone

Everybody who knows about NBA The Run wants it to be the spiritual successor to the beloved ‘00s EA Sports Big franchise, NBA Street. The spirit is definitely there, and its brand of streetball is friendly to newcomers with enough complexities to please fans, but the insistence on its always-online structure keeps it from achieving true greatness.

Created by Play by Play Studios, a new team that includes a number of EA Sports veterans, NBA The Run is a fast-paced 3v3 arcade-style basketball game that strikes a good balance between flashy and strategic skill-based play. Its knockout tournaments are its bread and butter, both as a squad and solo. Knockout Squads feature team-based 3v3 play, and Knockout Solos gives you full control of the trio you pick.

Whether you choose to head online solo or with a squad of three, The Run is built around its roster and does a good job making each NBA star’s kit feel authentic. Steph can shoot a trey from anywhere, but his shots are easily blocked. Wemby is thought of as the best player in this version of the game, but keeping him away from the paint can force bad jumpshots instead of easy dunks. This is all stuff to consider when picking your ballers, and the rulesets make the metagame fun.

That’s where The Run is different from other basketball games. Every game has randomized rules determined at the beginning, which gives each game a sense of balance and enhances that “one more game” hook.

One such example is Triple Threat, where three-pointers are worth three while other shots are only worth one. There’s also Dunkfest, where dunks are the more valuable shot type. That often means relying on your online teammates to play towards the objective, which can be perilous. I often encountered teammates online doing nothing but dunking when the rules clearly stated three-pointers were the way to win. It’s just better with friends, so you know which players they pick and how each selection will complement your team based on the rules.

Human or bot issues aside, I always had a smooth experience finding matches online. Its focus on fast matchmaking and rollback netcode is a strength, but it’s a double-edged sword. Online tournaments are all the game has. There’s no story, no create-a-player, and while the game features a nice roster of over 32 playable NBA stars and 5 fictional streetball legends to unlock, the lack of accessible lore makes the fictional legends feel like nothing more than grind rewards. If you solely want to ball online, this is a great way to do it, but for everyone else, it leaves much to be desired.

 

With the game always online, the lack of couch multiplayer is its biggest hindrance. Couch multiplayer is obviously less common today than it was in 2003, but it is an expected arcade sports staple, and it’s The Run’s most disappointing exclusion.

NBA The Run does its best to make up for what it lacks with a high attention to detail that makes it easy to see the love for streetball culture. The gameplay, art style, and overall presentation hosted by the legendary DJ, Bobbito Garcia, feel like it all belongs, and that’s what matters. The love of the game is what’ll keep me playing, and it’s easy to feel the team’s love of the sport. Play by Play made clear its plans for ongoing iteration without annualized releases, so hopefully many of these shortcomings can be rectified post-launch to make it the definitive streetball game it wants to be. As it is, it’s too barebones to wholeheartedly recommend, but there’s a great game of basketball waiting for you if you don’t mind only playing online matches.

Score: 7.25

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Ever since Crazy Taxi burst onto the scene in 1999, it has been associated with American rock band, The Offspring, in particular, the band's fast-paced 1997 track, "All I Want." The music became such a key part of the package that when the original entry in the series was brought to PS3, Xbox 360, and PC without the synonymous tracks from bands like The Offspring and punk-rock outfit Bad Religion, it was a major point of criticism from fans. We spoke with series creator Kenji Kanno not long after the reveal of Crazy Taxi: World Tour on the importance of those songs and how they ended up in the series in the first place.

According to Kanno, when he began developing a new Crazy Taxi game, as originally reported in 2022, the conversation often circled back to the soundtrack. "Music is very important for Crazy Taxi," Kanno says. "Every time I talk to stakeholders about the game, they ask the same thing: 'Will you have The Offspring? Will you have Bad Religion?'"

And the emphasis and importance placed on music in Crazy Taxi have been significant, dating back to the very first game. According to Kanno, it was integral to the development of the original title, and finding the soundtrack has been a crucial part of development in many of the projects he oversees.

"When I design a game or when I create a game, the first thing I decide on is actually the theme song," Kanno says. "I decide on the song, and then I tell [the development team], 'Hey, we're going to make a game based on this song,' and I make them listen to it on repeat. Like, they can be a designer, they can be a programmer; they have to listen to the song on repeat, and then they can work on the game with [mimicking "All I Want" while pantomiming typing] 'Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!' playing in the background. [laughs]"

The exterior of Tower Records in Shibuya

As for how The Offspring landed in Crazy Taxi, it all stemmed from doing what many music fans who grew up in the '90s were accustomed to doing: going to a nearby record shop and sampling new music, hoping to find something that resonated. For Kanno, that journey took place in one of the most iconic record shops: Tower Records, which is still open to this day. 

"I went to Tower Records in Japan," he recalls. "I listened to a bunch of songs, like, all day. A bunch of songs all day, and when I came out, what I narrowed down to was The Offspring and Bad Religion."

The upbeat tempos and punk rock vibes of those songs are felt throughout Crazy Taxi's design, so it makes sense that these songs were the starting point for the original game's creation. That moment was so important that a Tower Records location became one of the destinations in the original Crazy Taxi. Songs like "All I Want" and "Change The World" by The Offspring, as well as "Ten in 2010" by Bad Religion, became mainstays for Dreamcast owners and arcade-goers, so much so that all three of those songs were present in the demo of Crazy Taxi: World Tour that I had a chance to see.

From everything we saw, Crazy Taxi: World Tour looks like an appropriately chaotic modernization of the original premise. However, the game has attracted some controversy upon the reveal that generative AI was used during its development. We also asked Kanno about the team's use of that technology in development. You can read what he has to say on that topic here. 

Crazy Taxi: World Tour arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC in 2027.