How To Beat Yoshitune In Onimusha: Way Of The Sword

Onimusha: Way Of The Sword - Minamoto No Yoshitsune Battle Guide Published Sep 16, 2026, 6:06 AM EDT Alex is a gamer at heart. He started his journey on the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and has been playing games since. While he enjoys difficult games like Dark Souls, he also likes to cuddle up with a cozy game, too. Alex loves completing games 100 percent and getting all the achievements so it's only natural that he enjoys flex-... uhhh... SHARING that gaming knowledge with the world. Alex has a Master's degree in English but his love for games has made him into a writer he is today. He's written for websites like Destructoid, TheEscapist, ProGameGuides, and DotEsports before starting his career here at TheGamer. Minamoto No Yoshitsune is the final boss in Onimusha: Way Of The Sword, and what a final boss it is! Attacks that can kill you in two hits, three phases and, worst of all, no check-points. Essentially, you have to beat three increasingly difficult boss fights in one go, and live to tell the tale. It took us forever to finish this fight, and we're here to help so you can, hopefully, have a much easier time with the final boss of Onimusha: Way Of The Sword. Before You Fight Yoshitsune Unless you're playing the game on Story difficulty, you absolutely need to prepare for this fight. In order of priority, here's what you'll need: Make Sure You Unlocked Your Oni Portal Abilities You don't need to get every ability in the game, but make sure you've unlocked some of the better ones. The most important ones are Charm Capacity 2 (which lets you equip a third charm) and Onimusha Onslaught: Power (which lets you do more damage during Oni Awakening). Upgrade Your Equipment As Much As You Can We hope you have been collecting everything you came across during your playthrough. Again, you don't need to get all your equipment to level five, but the higher it is, the easier it will be for you to finish the three fights. Don't forget, you can buy a few missing items at Yorimasa's shop. Equip The Charm Of Oni Power You get this charm by finishing the Restless Spirits side quest. This will let you fill your Oni Power Gauge faster, which you will absolutely need during the final phase of the boss fight. So, if you have it, equip it, upgrade it to level three and thank us later. Bring The Right items Here's what you'll absolutely need to have in your inventory before the fight: Hozuki (Obviously, and hopefully you have your pouch fully upgraded) Mirror of Revival (It will save you from dying one time) Stimulant (It slowly refills your Oni Awakening gauge. Very important) Heavy Restorative (more healing) Sun-Dried Hozuki (Gives you three more Hozuki when used. Just in case) If you have all of the above, you are ready for Yoshitsune. Yoshitsune Phase One The first few times you fight him, Yoshitsune's first phase may seem impossible to you, but once you fight him a few times, it will all come together. Yoshitsune has a few sword attacks which you can easily deflect or parry, an annoying pushback attack, a grab attack, and a few others. Below, we will list each of these and how to properly counter them. Sword attacks Nothing much to say here. You can parry or dodge them, but we think the best course here is to deflect them. Deflecting will lower Yoshitsune's stamina by quite a bit, which is always a good thing. The nice thing about these sword attacks is that they usually come in sets of two or three, so if you time them right, you can lower Yoshitsune's stamina bar by a quarter or even more. Even if you get hit by these attacks, they don't hurt much, so don't worry. The only exception to Yoshitsune's sword attacks is when he, very casually (almost like he is happy to see you), walks towards you and taps his own sword against his back. Don't let your guard down here, because he is about to unleash a superfast sword attack. Just like with the rest, you can easily deflect this one. The Annoying Pushback Attack This one is really annoying and hurts more than it should. Whenever Yoshitsune wants to create distance between you, he will jump and push himself away from your torso with both his feet, essentially using your body as a springboard. We never paid much attention to this until we noticed that it hurts as much as a sword attack. The problem is, this is a superfast move, which you need to know is coming so you can react. What you can do here is deflect it to nullify the damage... however... if you want to punish Yoshitsune, you can simply dodge it. Dodging it will also nullify the damage, but if you can get a Reflex Combo attack, then you can knock Yoshitsune down and have him lie on the floor for a few seconds for some extra damage. As we said, the problem with this attack is that it's really fast, and it's hard to see coming. Whenever Yoshitsune finishes and attacks and is left standing close to you (face-to-face), there's a good chance he's about to do the pushback. In such cases, just be ready to use the dodge (and hopefully a Reflex Combo attack) and you should be good. Giant Glowing Sword Attack This one you'll see coming a mile away because Yoshitsune will make his sword super long, with a glowing pinkish flame, and likely attack you from a distance. When he does this, he can do anywhere from one to three swings, and you need to be ready for all of them. Since this is, technically, a long-range attack, it's not recommended that you parry or deflect it, unless you're standing close to him (but even then, it's risky). We recommend you simply dodge these giant sword attacks so you can build up your Reflex Combo bar. Stamina Breaker Yoshitsune's sword will glow a light-reddish color as he's about to attack you with a strong Stamina Breaker. You've likely seen this one from other enemies and bosses, as this is one of those attacks that completely drains your stamina and damages you, and that's not even the worst part. The worst part is, after you take a hit from the stamina breaker, you'll have to watch yourself get mocked and stabbed by Yoshitsune for about five seconds (it gets old fast). The safest approach is to simply dodge this attack, but we like to deflect it (even though it's harder) because it chips at Yoshitsune's stamina a lot if done right. Grab Attack By now, you likely know the sizzling sound and the glowing hand when an enemy is about to use a grab attack. Yoshitsune is no different. After you hear the sizzling sound, wait about two seconds and press the dodge button to counter it. If you don't, not only will you take a lot of damage, but even worse, you'll be forced into another cut-scene where Yoshitsune punches you in the face repeatedly. Honestly, as bad as this attack hurts, once you've learned the timing, you can simply counter it every time, so just try not to get hit. Sword Lock And Battle Barrages These are the same as with all other enemies. When you get into a Sword Lock, just button-mash the light attack to win. With Battle Barrages, when your two swords clink together, just use the opposite attack from the one you used last (in most cases, you'll likely clink with a light attack, so make sure to use the heavy attack). Sword Guard If Yoshitsune is standing still and is guarding against your attacks, you'll know he is in his Sword Guard. We can usually tell after our second light attack. Nothing to worry about here. If you notice Yoshitsune holding his Sword Guard, just break through it with Heavy Attack + Dodge. Once his guard is broken, you'll likely get a chance to use another Guard Break (same button input) for a bit more damage. Once you get used to this first phase, you can usually go through it really fast using Oni Awakening. What we like to do, is fill our Oni bar all the way up (we use the Dual Hammers to drain his stamina) and get some Purple Souls. Then we quickly switch to our Oni form and use Issen to do major damage to him. By the time we are out of our Oni form, Yoshitsune has about half his health, so just keep reacting to his attacks, until you defeat him. Yoshitsune Phase Two Phase Two is no joke. While a lot of attacks from phase one carry over here, many of them are more lethal and the new attacks are even nastier. Even worse, Yoshitsune is wearing armor now, and your attacks will do less damage, so your best bet is to just drain his stamina completely and go for the finishers. The good news is, once you master this second phase, you'll have very little to learn for phase three. Earth Shatterer This will be the first attack Yoshitsune does as soon as Phase Two starts (well, the second part of it anyway). Normally, this is a two-part attack that can absolutely devastate your health if you aren't careful. First, Yoshitsune will hop in the air and signal that he is about to stomp you. Afterwards, he will hop into the air again and stomp in the same spot but much harder, creating an area effect in the process. Ideally, you want to dodge both of these attacks, and if you're lucky, you can even interrupt the second stomp with a Reflex Combo attack. However, if you get stomped by the first hit, you'll get stomped by the second one too, and then you can kiss about half your health goodbye. Still, if you dodge the first hit, you can still get hit by the area-of-effect from the second attack. If you can't dodge the second attack, just make sure you are far away from the area. Soul Punches This one is nasty. Yoshitsune's left fist will glow purplish (soul color?) and he will swing it in front of you and create a shock-wave. Similar to the Giant Glowing Sword attack, Yoshitsune can do up to three of these, and you need to dodge them all. There is a delay between the first two swings, that you need to get used to if you don't want to get hit. Just keep dodging and hopefully you build up enough Reflex for a Reflex Combo. Arrow Attacks Yoshitsune will either fire several arrows from the air or fire three sets of arrows from his sides. You really don't have to worry about this one much. You can easily dodge all incoming arrows, but we recommend you learn how to deflect them back so you can chip away at his Stamina. Sword Counter Guard You've likely seen this one many times with regular enemies. If you hit Yoshitsune, he guards against your attack, and the game seems like it has paused for a second. That's when you know Yoshitsune is holding a Sword Counter Guard. This means, that if you attack one more time, you'll get hit with a counter-attack. Simply use the Guard-Break (Dodge + Heavy Attack) to break through this, and then another one for some damage. It's a bit hard to see this one coming because Yoshitsune doesn't use it often. Improved Annoying Pushback Attack It's back, and it's even worse. Yoshitsune REALLY loves using it in this phase. So much so, that sometimes, he will even approach you with air dashes, just so he can push back away from you again. You just need to dodge them and be ready for them at all times. These attacks don't hurt much, but if you take a few of them, before you know it, you'll be down to half your health. Improved Stamina Breaker(s) Probably the nastiest attack in this second phase. Similar to the Stamina Breaker from the first phase, Yoshitsune's sword will grow a light-reddish (he will actually raise his hands happily to announce it), and he will swing at you hard, but three times. You need to either dodge or deflect all three of his attacks, otherwise, you'll be forced into another cut-scene where you'll watch yourself get slashed repeatedly and have half your health gone. The good news is, if you deflect these Stamina Breakers, even if you only manage to deflect the last one, you'll knock Yoshitsune down, and you can use this to damage him for a few seconds. The timing on the third swing always seems to throw us off, so if you're having the same problem as us, maybe just dodge all three of these attacks. Improved Sword Swings Same as the first phase, except, Yoshitsune gets another attack, which he will launch from the air. Just deflect all of them, and you should be fine. Same Attacks From Phase One The Giant Glowing Sword, Grab Attack, Sword Lock and Battle Barrages are exactly the same as they were in the first phase. Use the same tactics on them here. Yoshitsune Phase Three You're almost there! Once you get Yoshitsune to his final phase, you're nearing the credits, you just need another small push. First, the good news:​​​​​​ Phase Three is exactly the same as phase two when it comes to attacks. You only need to learn one more attack, and it's pretty easy to avoid, and honestly quite fun. Now, for the bad news: In phase three, you can only damage Yoshitsune while you are in your Oni form. This is why we said earlier to equip your Oni Charms and bring Stimulants, as well as, to get the new abilities so you can get to you can activate your Oni phase sooner. Any damage you do to Yoshitsune while you aren't in your Oni Awakening state will just chip at his Stamina. Soul Drain Attack The only new attack in phase three, and it looks quite deadly. Fortunately, it is actually quite easy to avoid. Yoshitsune will jump into the very middle of the arena and start draining souls all around him. You should... do the exact same thing, actually. Once you see those souls fly into Yoshitsune, use your gauntlet and gather as much as you can. Once the souls stop flying into Yoshitsune, he will do a nasty sword swing. Shizuka will actually yell "Now," just before Yoshitsune is about to attack. Many people we talked to said to dodge or parry this attack, but we could never get the timing right. So, instead, we recommend you do the following: Interrupt Yoshitsune's Soul Drain Attack with an Armament attack. We recommend the Dual Hammers because they will further damage his Stamina. The Armament attack will also shield you from any incoming damage. This worked wonders for us, because not only did we get some purple souls from earlier, but the Hammer swing brought us even more . You'll likely always have enough blue souls for the Armament attack because of how many souls you'll gather during the Soul Drain attack. Other than the Soul Drain attack, this is exactly the same as phase two, except you will have to activate your Oni Awakening more often. The good news is, you'll likely only need to use the Oni Awakening three times and the fight will be over, and you'll even get to see a cool new finisher while in your Oni state. Just keep practicing and you'll get it down eventually. Once you see those credits roll, tap yourself on the back, because you'll have defeated a particularly nasty boss. ;