Onimusha Way of the Sword controls and button layouts

Aggressive Layout (default) puts all combat actions on the face buttons.

Defensive Layout moves guard to the left bumper and returns the face buttons to attack positions, the arrangement used by most Soulslike games.

Common to both layouts:

• Move: left stick. Sprint: press the left stick. On Defensive, sprint can be set to Toggle instead of Hold.
• Camera: right stick. Lock on: press the right stick. Switch lock-on targets with the right stick.
• D-pad Up: Use Hozuki Pouch. D-pad Down: Use Item. D-pad Left: Select Item. D-pad Right: Select Oni Armament.
• Open Main Menu: touchpad / View button. Pause: Options / Menu button.

Deflect is performed by holding the Defend button and pressing an attack button at the same moment the incoming hit lands — L1 plus Square on PlayStation in the Defensive layout, LB plus X on Xbox. It is not available from the start; it unlocks through skill enhancement at a Spirit Mirror, so an early control reference will be missing it. Deflect handles projectiles and heavy attacks and drains enemy stamina heavily. The deflect guide has the full input list.

Issen has no dedicated button. It is the one-handed or two-handed attack button pressed at the exact moment an enemy strike would connect. Chain Issen is the same press immediately after an Issen lands, and Break Issen is an attack against an exhausted enemy after its stamina gauge is drained.

Two enemy tells matter more than the button list: attacks that glow white must be parried or deflected rather than blocked or dodged, and an enemy limb glowing blue signals a grab, answered with Evade at the last moment for a grab reversal.

Controller buttons cannot be freely rebound. What the controller offers is a choice between the two pre-configured layouts. The layout is picked at the start of a new game and can be changed at any time from the Controls section of the System Menu, so the initial pick is not permanent.

Keyboard and mouse bindings can be reassigned in-game at System Menu > Settings > Controls > Mouse and Keyboard Controls, with a small number of exceptions. On Steam, the Steam Input API is enabled by default for all controllers, so Steam Input remapping is available on top of the in-game settings.

Button prompts do not follow the pad automatically. Gameplay settings > Button Icon Type selects Type 1 (Xbox), Type 2 (PlayStation) or Type 3 (Nintendo) prompts, and an icon type must be chosen because the game does not detect the controller type on its own. When you use both devices, the on-screen glyphs follow whichever one you pressed most recently.

• Keyboard and mouse: Mouse Sensitivity, Mouse Acceleration, Mouse Input in Menus, Keyboard and Mouse Prompts, Mouse Y-axis Inversion, and independent X-axis inversion for the camera and aiming axes.
• Controller: Camera Speed horizontal and vertical, Aim Camera Speed horizontal and vertical, Controller Y-axis Inversion, and independent X-axis inversion.
• General: Sprint Control (Toggle or Hold), Menu Cursor Speed, Vibration, and Switch Button for Menus / Switch Button for Confirm.

The Steam PC build supports XInput and DirectInput controllers, DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge and Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, with the latter three needing the Steam Input API enabled, and it supports wired and wireless Bluetooth connection with controller hotplugging. On Nintendo Switch 2, attacks and several other actions can additionally be performed with Joy-Con 2 motion input alongside the normal button presses, rather than replacing them.