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 Dokyo, The Transgressor, whom you'll face at the end of In the Light of an Icy Moon.
The fight against Dokyo is extremely straightforward, but very long. The main reason it drags on for so long is that you won't be able to meaningfully deplete her Stamina Gauge, and for most of the battle she'll remain out of reach while bombarding you with projectiles. This is where the Reflex Combo: Range ability becomes particularly useful. If you've unlocked it, once your Reflex Combo is ready against one of her ranged attacks, you'll be able to instantly close the distance and deal damage.
As mentioned above, most of this fight revolves around dodging projectiles. The only attack that deserves special mention begins when she fires what looks like a chain in a straight line. A moment later, successive waves of fire will erupt along the ground. Dodge just before they reach you and you'll leap over them safely.
The main opportunity to deal damage comes when Dokyo starts floating and a giant mask appears, circling around her. Fire a charged Oni Bow shot at the mask to destroy it, then rush toward Dokyo and attack her while she's vulnerable. If you fail to destroy the mask, she'll throw it at you like a bomb. Later in the fight, two masks will appear at once, and you'll need to destroy both.
At one point, she'll create a circle of masks around you. What actually appears is a ring of kamikaze Kubi Akari, but there's an easy trick to dealing with them: run straight toward Dokyo. She'll stop at the edge of the circle, causing the Genma to explode right next to her.
Once you deplete her first health bar, the fight remains essentially the same, but with far more projectiles. The circle of Kubi Akari will now include a red one that tries to grab you; perform a last-second dodge to send it flying into Dokyo instead. She will also occasionally teleport directly to Musashi and unleash a slash. It's extremely fast and difficult to block, and in any case you won't gain much from trying to deplete her Stamina Gauge.
Naturally, Dokyo also has an ultimate attack: when you see rocks falling into the arena, take cover behind the one that remains intact so that Dokyo effectively "loses sight" of you. If you're exposed when the attack goes off, it's almost certainly fatal. Once you survive it, you can use Oni Strength to pick up part of the rock you used as cover and throw it at her. It's an extremely long, exhausting and tense fight, but not necessarily as difficult as it first appears.
