How to Beat Minamoto no Yoshitsune — Onimusha: Way of the Sword
The final boss and the toughest fight in the game — two health bars across three escalating phases. Here's the loadout to bring and exactly how each phase behaves, for the trophy Truly, Thank You. For every other fight, see our full boss guide.
The loadout to bring
Slot these before you commit — the right consumables turn an 8.5/10 into something manageable.
Amulet of Introspection — widens your Issen/parry window; the single most useful item in the fight.
Stimulant — gradually refills your Oni Awakening gauge (vital for phase 3).
Sun-Dried Hozuki — refills your Hozuki Pouch to 3 charges; you can only carry one, so save it.
Greater Defense Talisman & Greater Might Talisman — temporary damage-reduction and damage-up; pop them together in phase 3.
Heavy Restorative — a fallback heal for when the pouch runs dry.
Learn the tells
Katana strings — deflect on the flash.
Double aerial kick — safe to deflect/parry, but a perfect dodge or Issen knocks him down for free damage.
White three-slash combo — dodge from range, or deflect if you're already close; read the spacing and adapt on the fly.
Delayed hand-grab — dodge, or counter with Circle. High risk: a hit siphons your souls and triggers his enhanced Malice state.
Shoulder-tap on his katana — the key tell. A lightning-fast dash-thrust follows; parry the instant you see the tap.
Armored & mobile
His armor means regular hits bounce off — don't waste time trying to shatter it; survive and farm souls instead.
Opening aerial slam + ground crack — sprint away the moment you regain control; it's a double threat.
Aerial arrow barrages — deflect them all (sometimes they come from both sides at once).
Three-chain white strikes — deflect the whole chain; a single miss is near-instant death on Carnage.
Hand-grabs — the close version mirrors phase 1; the ranged one warps in first and is a harder read.
‘Shatter’ reality tear & ground crack — sidestep or perfect-dodge before they trigger.
Souls. Favour purple souls to build both gauges fast — unleashing your Oni Armament nets even more.
Oni or nothing
The wall: he can't be damaged unless you're in your own Oni Awakening state. Everything here is about building souls, transforming, and cashing out.
Build souls two ways — chain Issen counters for blue/purple, or parry to fill the Blazing gauge then attack in Blazing to pull blue souls → Oni Power → purple.
The soul-pull. When he locks you and drags your souls away, grab them yourself to top your gauges — then immediately dodge or Issen the arena-sweep slash that follows. Getting clipped by it is a game over.
Transform on cue. The instant your Oni Awakening gauge fills, transform and land as many Issen counters as you can while it lasts.
Delay the finisher. Hold your R1 finisher until the Awakening gauge is nearly spent — it lands far more hits and much more damage than an early one.
Panic option. If it all falls apart, dump your quick-slot items — that's exactly what you saved them for.
Trophy