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 Dohatsu-ten, Heaven's Bane. You'll face him for the first time while progressing through The Roots of All Evil.
First of all, Dohatsu-ten is probably the fastest boss you've faced so far. This makes him particularly troublesome, as you'll often have only a fraction of a second to recognize which attack he's using. His moveset is also quite varied. On top of that, keep in mind throughout the fight that successfully Parrying him doesn't always interrupt his combos. Don't attack unless you're sure there's an opening or, even better, play it safe and focus on setting up Issen attacks.
Right from the start, he'll frequently use an Unavoidable Attack. It's easy to spot, but don't let the animation fool you: he spins around before delivering the slash. Parry or Deflect to the side as he turns, rather than reacting to the first arc traced by his sword. When he's at medium range, but not too far away, he'll use kicking combos. He may throw out a single kick or use a full spinning kick followed by another. If you dodge both, he'll usually follow up with a third sword attack, although he can sometimes throw another kick instead. The biggest problem is simply how fast he is, making it difficult to decide whether to dodge or guard in time.
He also has a jumping attack that covers a considerable distance. It's a sword strike, so be ready to guard. You can usually punish him afterwards, as he doesn't tend to counter immediately. When he's far away, if he raises his sword with both hands, he'll launch a vacuum slash that you can Deflect back at him.
The good news is that all of his sword attacks are fairly easy to read, and you'll be able to use Deflect against most of them. He also guards frequently, so use Oni Strength to break through his defense and then punish him with your special attack.
Now for the bad news: after landing just a couple of hits on you, he'll power himself up. First he'll spread his wings and gain a powerful, extremely fast long-range attack. If you manage to block it, great, but it will probably catch you the first few times. If he lands a few more hits, his sword will enter a Blazing state and things will get much more dangerous. Incidentally, as the fight progresses he'll eventually gain both enhancements regardless of how well you're doing. With his sword in its Blazing state, he gains two new attacks. The first is difficult to avoid: an extremely fast kick that launches you into the air, followed by a slash that is almost impossible to escape if the kick connects. The second is a barrage of vacuum slashes. This time, instead of raising his sword first, he'll pull it to one side. He fires three waves in total: two in quick succession, followed by a third after a short delay.
Dohatsu-ten is an optional boss that appears several times throughout the game. Defeating him is important because you'll obtain Dohatsu-ten's Horns, which are required to enhance the Gauntlet. You can encounter him in the following locations:
