Onimusha: Way of the Sword - How to Issen and Chain Issen

The only thing more satisfying than pulling off an Issen counterattack in Onimusha: Way of the Sword is nailing a Chain Issen. Not that either move is easy. Issens, which have long been a feature of the Onimusha franchise, demand the precision of a parry or deflect, without any of the defensive protection that either of those skills offers.

Nevertheless, when you do get the hang of Issen, it's absolutely worth the hassle. Issen instantly kills most enemies and takes a big chunk out of those that can withstand it. It's your ticket to quick victories, and it looks pretty cool, too. Unfortunately, you won't have access to the standard Issen moves for a few hours, as they're locked behind a skill tree. There's also a third kind of Issen, though it's a move you can only use when enemies are exhausted.

In this guide, we'll explain how to Issen and Chain Issen in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and we'll also offer up a quick explainer of all of the different Issen types.

On this page:

• How to Issen
• How to Chain Issen
• How to Break Issen

How to Issen

You'll need to unlock Issen from the skill tree once that becomes available — which is about three-ish hours in, depending on how you play, after you clear the Malice blooms from Eastern Kyoto.

Once you unlock Issen from the skill tree, press the light attack or heavy attack button (X and Y on an Xbox gamepad, or Square and Triangle on a Playstation Dualsense) right before an enemy's hit lands. It's like parrying, only without the guard, and it instantly kills standard Genma if you pull it off. If you get the timing wrong, you'll either land a light or heavy attack on your opponent or, if you were very late, just get hit without a chance to strike back or guard. Issen can be dangerous until you're comfortable with the timing.

How to Chain Issen

Chain Issen is when you perform several consecutive Issen strikes, and as it's separate from standard Issen, you need to unlock it in the skill tree as well.

Chain Issen is more challenging to execute. You have to press the light or heavy attack button right as your Issen strike lands to chain into the next one. The camera zooms in as you start a chain, which can be disorienting, but try to focus on the button timing rather than where Musashi is going.

You can Issen an entire mob of enemies if you get the rhythm right, but it's easy to get it wrong. If you want to master this technique, you might want to set aside some time for Takamura's practice drills until you feel confident.

How to Break Issen

Prior to unlocking the regular Issen, you can only use a Break Issen, which activates when you've exhausted an enemy by depleting their stamina. You can chain these, but only if there's another enemy (or more than one) that's also exhausted.

Break Issens can become possible when you toss an environmental object at a group of Genma, like the board shields, or if you parry an enemy into a group of nearby enemies. In other words, Break Issen isn't something you can force in every battle like you can with regular Issen.

That's it for our guide on how to do Issen and Chain Issen in Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Just remember that Issens are cool, but they aren't essential. If you're struggling to do them, you can refund your Power Stones and souls and invest them in the reflex skill branch or Blaze, or you can just rely on parrying and deflecting. In the meantime, check out our list of all bosses in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, to give you a sense of the giant foes you can use Issen against.