Dohatsu-ten — Way of the Sword Boss Guide (Fights 3-4)

This is the boss guide for Dohatsu-ten in Onimusha: Way of the Sword — fights 3 and 4 of 18, the base encounter and the Enhanced rematch together.

The fights at a glance

The base fight

Dohatsu-ten is a devil wielding a massive katana. Beyond his standard, deflectable attacks:

• The face kick — he is fond of kicking you square in the face. Attempt a perfect dodge, or simply parry/deflect at the cost of some stamina.
• The defense wall — at some point your attacks stop making a dent. That is your cue to break his defense with the dedicated guard-break input (per the game’s prompt). This recurs in every fight on this page’s family of mechanics — see the Issen explainer for the deflect/parry vocabulary.
• White-glowing attacks — parry or deflect only; he barks “No escape” right before landing one.
• The ranged slashes — put enough distance between you and he hurls sword slashes that can be sent right back with a well-timed deflect. The tell that one is coming: he shouts “Shatter”, “Prepare” or “Perish”.

The enhanced state

Once he shifts into his enhanced state he teleports rapidly around the arena, every teleport ending in a deflectable attack — sometimes with his weapon wreathed in Malice. If there is too much distance between you, he closes the gap with a dash into a devastating slash, which can likewise be deflected. The rhythm is constant: teleport, deflect, punish, repeat.

Dohatsu-ten (Enhanced, fight 4)

The rematch is the same fight as above, with one caveat: he can unleash some of his enhanced-state attacks even in the fight’s early stages. Everything in the sections above still applies — the shout tells, the defense break, the teleport rhythm — just from bell one.

Where this sits on the road

Dohatsu-ten holds fights 3 and 4; the Nue duo follows at 5, and Sasaki Ganryu closes the first act’s gauntlet at 6-7. The full order lives on the boss list; on the Platinum push both fights return in Boss Rematch — part of the Glutton for Punishment sweep on the trophy roadmap.