Onimusha: Warlords Samurai Survival Horror, Remastered

Combat is close-range and deliberate. You carry three blades with different strengths, plus a bow and a matchlock gun for distance, and every demon you cut down releases souls you absorb with a magic gauntlet: red souls upgrade your weapons, yellow ones heal you, blue ones refill your magic. Spend magic on a special attack that leaves you invincible while it lasts, or gamble on timing: land a strike exactly as an enemy attacks and a counter kills lesser demons in one blow, spilling a flood of souls. Healing items are scarce, so the smart play is fighting wounded on purpose, since dying enemies drop healing orbs more often when your health is low. The swordplay is simple, but the risk and reward keep it sharp.

Inabayama Castle is the heart of the game, in the classic survival horror mould: fixed camera angles, narrow corridors, demons that respawn when you double back, and a map you learn by walking it. You explore, collect keys and items, remember which locked door they fit, and open the place up piece by piece. Between fights sit puzzles, from simple to genuinely stubborn, including a water cell sequence and a game of shogi where failure kills you on the spot and sends you back to your last save. Enemies come at you from blind spots the camera hides, so every corner turn carries a little dread. It is old-school by design, and it works.