Throughout the story of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, you'll face a good number of bosses that must be defeated in order to progress. In this section of our guide, we'll give you some tips for taking on Benkei. You'll face him as you progress through the story during Bloodbath on the Bridge.
Benkei is a deceptively easy boss... or an extremely difficult one. His attack pattern is actually quite simple, and he'll use his naginata throughout the fight. At long range, there are three main possibilities. First, he may point the weapon straight at you before charging forward with a thrust. This move is extremely fast and will always cover enough distance to reach you, so Parry as soon as he stomps the ground and the wooden planks of the bridge kick up. The attack connects almost immediately afterwards, making the timing fairly predictable once you learn it.
His second medium-to-long-range attack sees him spin the naginata through a series of diagonal slashes, tracing an X through the air as he advances toward you before finishing with one final strike. It covers a considerable distance, but is relatively easy to Parry.
His third long-range attack is the one you should be looking for: his jumping attack. He'll leap directly toward your position and slam down with an area-of-effect attack. Just like several other bosses, he'll be stuck in place for a second or two if he misses. This is one of the best opportunities to use the Earth-Shakers, charged as much as possible, to smash through his armor. Remember that until you break his armor, you won't deal any meaningful damage to his health.
As for his close-range attacks, almost all of them are fairly easy to read, with the exception of his front kick. The main attack to watch is the wide circular swing he performs after drawing the naginata to one side, which has a very obvious wind-up. What makes this move dangerous is that whether it hits you or you successfully Parry it, Benkei will immediately follow it with an Unavoidable Attack. Stay alert or he'll tear through your defenses. He can occasionally use an Unavoidable Attack after other moves as well, but after this particular swing the follow-up is guaranteed.
Whether he deals enough damage to you or you completely deplete his health bar, Benkei eventually enters a second phase in which he pulls out a flaming naginata. He essentially deals much more damage, with one particularly important difference: his double Unavoidable Attack. As in the previous phase, the sequence usually starts with the same telegraphed circular slash, followed by an Unavoidable Attack regardless of whether you Parry the opening strike. The problem is that successfully Parrying that Unavoidable Attack is immediately followed by another one, this time as Benkei leaps into the air wielding two naginatas. He can also use this jumping attack completely out of nowhere at virtually any point in the fight.
The key throughout the entire battle is to use the Earth-Shakers to destroy his armor almost immediately and even interrupt some of his attack animations. Remember that the attack gives you several invincibility frames and can stop many of Benkei's actions dead in their tracks... although he can still interrupt you while you're charging it.
