Hecubites, those insect demons, can’t be knocked over with kicks. Some also have immunities and strengths to be considered. Minotaur, though large and powerful, are very slow. Those big undead samurai are covered head to toe in armor EXCEPT for their backs. Many enemies have weaknesses or exploitable animations. In order to preserve your life bar and your healing items, you gotta work smart, not hard. However, since health is finite, as we mentioned before, this isn’t always the best option. All enemies can just be hacked at until they die. You can’t treat every enemy the same way. Exploit Weaknesses and Understand Strengths But you can also stand over an enemy and execute them when they are down, making what would be an extended exchange end in a single stroke. Why is that important? The most obvious reason is that a knocked down enemy can’t attack you. Kicking is a great way to knock enemies down. Alternatively, when locked on to an enemy, hold the movement stick away from the direction you’re facing and attack. Hit the down arrow and square (the attack button) at the same time, and you’ll throw a quick push kick in whatever direction you’re facing. Kicks will knock over light enemies and stun bigger ones. The nuanced combat in Onimusha is largely hidden from you, but with a little experimentation, you’ll find that there are some special moves that you can exploit that’ll help you get the upper hand on tough foes. When they are saved, they’ll drop to their knees in relief, and also drop items that will be very useful for you. But you can save them by killing the enemies around them before the enemies do their own killing. The damage you take is far more costly knowing that you can’t just buy more healing.Įvery once in awhile, you’ll happen upon a very unlucky guard trying his best to fight off some demons. So be very cautious about how much risk you put yourself into when backtracking. There is a finite amount of items hidden throughout the castle and the surrounding grounds. In lockstep with games like Resident Evil, Onimusha’s very clear inspiration, health is a limited resource. If you die, you will absolutely lose any progress not recorded at a magic mirror. Games these days are so autosave heavy that you take being able to return where you left off for granted. Look, this seems like a no-brainer, but hear me out.