The fastest way to win the Windswept Kennin-ji Ifuu boss fight is to alternate perfect parries with timed dodges based on the game’s on-screen prompts, dodge or deflect his wind blades from range instead of blocking through them, and shoot his inflated backpack with the Oni Bow the instant he floats up toward the ceiling in phase two. Get that rhythm down and Ifuu goes from one of the scarier mid-game walls in Onimusha: Way of the Sword to a fight you can clear in a couple of tries.

Before you even get to swing a blade at him, though, you need to open the temple. Ifuu is waiting inside the Dharma Hall of Windswept Kennin-ji, the ninth main mission in Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s story order, and the entrance is blocked by two enormous protrusions stretching out in opposite directions. Go right first. When you reach the small pagoda, look for a fence with a hole in it right in front of you, and through that hole you’ll spot the end of the protrusion.

Use your Oni Gauntlet to reveal the small spider feeding it, then put a bow shot through it. Head back to the central entrance and go left instead. Past the building you’ll find a kind of bridge, and getting onto it means walking up close to the building first, since that’s where the actual crossing point begins. Follow it to the second protrusion, reveal that spider the same way, and shoot it too. With both destroyed, the temple opens up and Ifuu is waiting inside.

Ifuu Phase 1: Knowing When to Parry and When to Dodge

Ifuu’s first phase is really a lesson in stamina management. If you block his attacks too early, you won’t take damage, but you’ll bleed stamina with every single hit, and that stamina debt catches up with you fast. A perfect block, timed right at the moment of impact, costs you almost nothing. This fight, like every boss fight before it, wants you constantly switching between parrying his blade swings and dodging with your body or arms depending on what the game’s prompt tells you to do, so keep your eyes on that cue rather than guessing.

Watch for the moment his hand glows blue before he lunges for a grab. Don’t block it. Blocking doesn’t stop him from draining your soul essence if the grab connects, and a successful grab speeds up how quickly he pushes into his next phase, so a reflex dodge is the only clean answer, the same rule that applied to Sasaki Ganryu’s throat grab back on the bridge duel.

His basic two-hit swing can technically be parried, but he won’t stagger off the first hit even on a clean parry, so don’t get greedy trying to punish immediately, land your own light attacks once his combo actually finishes instead. Light attacks are your friend here anyway, since they chip away his stamina bar quickly without committing you to long recovery animations, and whenever he turns his back on you, that’s your cue to absorb any yellow or blue soul essence sitting on the ground so you can fuel your ultimate attack later.

Surviving Ifuu’s Wind Push and Ranged Wind Blade Attacks

A big chunk of what makes Ifuu different from earlier bosses is that he fights at range as often as he fights up close. When he blows a gust of wind at you, it shoves you backward and doesn’t deal damage on its own, but it’s always the setup for a follow-up ranged attack that you have to deflect or block right after, so don’t relax the moment the push lands. These wind blades are more reliable to dodge outright than to deflect, since the deflect timing on them is noticeably tighter than on his melee swings, and a missed deflect here costs more health than most of his other attacks in phase one.

If you do land your ultimate attack during this stretch of the fight, it throws off a lot of yellow soul essence, and it’s worth pausing to use Absorb and top your health back up before pushing offense again rather than hoarding it for later. By the time you’ve strung together a handful of clean parries and dodges without eating unnecessary hits, you should already be closing out phase one. Don’t get careless just because his health bar looks thin, either, since even a nearly dead Ifuu can still punish a late reaction with a big chunk of your health bar.

Ifuu Phase 2: The Flying Tornado Attack and the Backpack Weak Point

Phase two is where the fight actually earns its reputation. Ifuu starts turning into something like a spinning tornado and flying straight at you, and the correct response is to dodge to the side the instant the spin starts, because as soon as the flying attack ends he throws an additional strike in whatever direction he was already flying.

Getting hit by that follow-up because you dodged the wrong way, or didn’t dodge at all, is one of the more common ways players lose big chunks of health here. Outside of that, keep doing what worked in phase one: block and parry his strings, then land a few quick hits any time his back is exposed, but stay ready to snap back into a defensive read the instant his animation changes.

Bring his stamina bar down to zero again and you’ll get another big damage window, same as phase one. Once Ifuu drops to roughly half health in this phase, his moveset gets meaner across the board, and you’ll notice his weapon start to spin and glow red as a visual warning that his damage output just went up. The signature moment of the whole fight comes next: Ifuu flies up toward the temple ceiling and his backpack visibly inflates behind him.

That’s your cue to put an arrow straight into it with the Oni Bow. Hitting it interrupts whatever dangerous follow-up he was about to unleash, and he also takes real damage when he crashes back down to the floor, using an Oni Bow interrupt to shut down a boss’s biggest attack in almost exactly the way you already used one to sever Rasho-gan’s tether cords earlier in the game. Miss that shot and you’re eating one of his hardest-hitting attacks in the entire fight.

Best Weapon and Soul Absorb Strategy for the Ifuu Boss Fight

The Wind Whipper is one of the more effective weapons against Ifuu specifically, since it chews through his stamina bar faster than most alternatives, though an Earthshakers loadout gives you better all-around utility if you’d rather not switch gear just for this one fight. Whichever you bring, the deflect-versus-dodge split matters as much here as it did against Byakue, where you had to deflect the axe swings while dodging the body attacks entirely: with Ifuu, his weapon swings and wind blades are the deflect category, while his grabs and the tornado flight are strictly dodge-only, and mixing the two up is how most health bars disappear in this fight.

Keep collecting soul essence between his combos rather than mid-flurry, since yellow restores health and blue fuels your ultimate gauge, and either one left sitting on the ground too long is essence you can’t use when you actually need it. Once you’ve got the parry-dodge rhythm down and you’re shooting his backpack on reaction rather than after a delay, Ifuu stops being a wall and turns into one of the more satisfying fights in this stretch of the game.

Windswept Kennin-ji Ifuu Boss Fight FAQ

Is Ifuu fought alone, or does Burai join the fight?

At Windswept Kennin-ji it’s a solo fight against Ifuu only. He’s one of two brothers who travel through hell seeking combat, and Burai does show up later in the game for a rematch where the pair fight you together across three phases, but that’s a separate, later encounter, not this one.

What’s the best weapon against Ifuu?

The Wind Whipper drains his stamina bar noticeably faster than most other weapons, though Earthshakers is a solid all-around pick if you don’t want to swap gear specifically for this fight.

How do I stop Ifuu’s backpack attack?

Watch for him flying up toward the ceiling with his backpack inflating behind him, then shoot it with the Oni Bow. That interrupts the attack and drops him to the floor for extra damage.

Should I block or dodge Ifuu’s grab attack?

Dodge it. Blocking doesn’t stop the soul essence drain if the grab lands, and getting grabbed accelerates how quickly he pushes into his next phase, so a reflex dodge is the only reliable answer.

What happens if I don’t destroy Ifuu’s backpack in time?

You eat one of his hardest-hitting attacks of the fight. There’s no partial credit for a late shot, so treat the inflating backpack as a hard interrupt window rather than something you can react to slowly.

That’s everything you need to get through the Windswept Kennin-ji Ifuu boss fight without burning through a stack of healing items. Bookmark this guide if you’re working through Onimusha: Way of the Sword one boss at a time, and check out our other guides on ingametor.com for the rest of the game’s toughest fights.