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 Sasaki Ganryu. You'll face your rival once again during To Live is to Suffer.
The first thing to keep in mind is that Sasaki has also adopted the near-instant thrust used by several previous bosses. If he's far away and you see him crouch down and point his sword at you, he'll strike almost instantly. You can try to Guard, Deflect or dodge it, whichever works best for you. At long range, he can also leap into the air and perform a vertical slash as he lands. This is probably his easiest attack to block. On top of that, he retains most of the moves from your first fight, including all the tricks that come with them: feints, fake attacks before the real slash... and he can continue certain combos even after you successfully Parry him, particularly his thrusting combo. He may switch hands and stab with his left, which is an unusual attack and one the camera doesn't make particularly easy to Parry.
In general, it's best to keep him at a distance and bait one of those two attacks: the thrust or the jumping slash. These give you the best opportunities to wait for him to lose his balance and punish him with the Earth-Shakers. The problem is that from a distance, the Oni on his back will attack you as well. It can use slashing attacks from either side — successfully Parrying them will also reduce Ganryu's Stamina Gauge. You can cut off its arms to temporarily remove this attack, although they'll grow back after a while. It can also use a mid-range downward strike that causes Ganryu to move away from you. It's fast and difficult to anticipate, but fortunately doesn't deal much damage. In addition, the snake-like head is the one that performs the grab attack, which, much like Ganryu's hand-switching stab, comes in from the side and can be partially obscured by the camera. Don't worry, you'll soon learn to recognize it.
The new mechanic in this fight is Ganryu's Countering Stance. At several points in the middle of a combo, the action will slow down and you'll see Ganryu assume a defensive stance while his sword glows blue. If you use Oni Strength before your next attack connects, you'll break through the stance and trigger a powerful follow-up that deals considerable Stamina damage.
Keep your distance and focus on depleting his Stamina Gauge. Once you learn how to bait his attacks, this is actually a fairly easy boss fight.
