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Nioh |OT2| You Can Be My Yojimbo Anytime
- Thread starter mcz117chief
- Start date
Great review. Really enjoyed reading it. Congrats on the completion
Thanks!
It's great to finally write the review after having all these thoughts for so long.
What does that mean exactly?
I could see it being a Sony exclusive (or at least a timed exclusive) especially with the way Sony dropped the ball on Demon's Souls. Doubt they'll let the same thing happen again.
Not 100%, not worth it /s
Can anyone who's into reforging explain how that umbracite mechanic works? You get to pick between a list of 3 to 4 possible reforge rolls? So less RNG if I understand it right?
Ah yes looks like it: https://m.imgur.com/a/2rYaM
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
How do you unlock Way of the Demon? Beat the epilogue in Way of the Strong?
My DPS is too low for this and I die too fast,
My DPS is too low for this and I die too fast,
the 3 Kelleys is insanely hard... gave up for now and wonder how I could forge stronger gear. Most of my weapons/armours are +5 or +6 by now.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
I don't know what deal they have with Sony, but with FROM not doing any Souls for a while, Nioh would be good to fill that blank.
But more that that- Nioh could also be their exclusive GaaS if they want to go down that route, a Diablo/Destiny loot base game.
I assume it's the same as for Strong- just keep clearing missions.
AgentOtaku
Member
Yes, even tho I made this thread...
...I ended up reinstalling it and am actively playing it again
As of right now, I just beat
and am at the main castle mission after that. Thanks to folks like R_Thanatos who gave some valid pointers and kinda convinced me to stick with it. That and well, the combat, REALLY is that fucking good
I think ultimately I just needed a break and absolutely needed to stay the hell away from all the sub-missions
...I ended up reinstalling it and am actively playing it again
As of right now, I just beat
Ogress
I think ultimately I just needed a break and absolutely needed to stay the hell away from all the sub-missions
Phoenix944
Member
Yes you have to beat the epilogue. What's your level btw?
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Yes, even tho I made this thread...
...I ended up reinstalling it and am actively playing it again
As of right now, I just beatand am at the main castle mission after that. Thanks to folks like R_Thanatos who gave some valid pointers and kinda convinced me to stick with it. That and well, the combat, REALLY is that fucking goodOgress
I think ultimately I just needed a break and absolutely needed to stay the hell away from all the sub-missions
Honestly I think that might be the case for people who got burned out midway- they just blow through chunks of content in one go like they would a Souls game.
Nioh might be one of those games you come home to knock out a mission or two after a long days work.... not so different from other loot games.
AgentOtaku
Member
Truth
At this point, it's the longest game I've been playing consistently for probably months now (in recent memory), on and off, that wasn't an MP game like Titanfall or SFV.
The core loop really is that good, never get's old, and easily makes it something you could rely on and comeback to at any point
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Truth
At this point, it's the longest game I've been playing consistently for probably months now (in recent memory), on and off, that wasn't an MP game like Titanfall or SFV.
The core loop really is that good, never get's old, and easily makes it something you could rely on and comeback to at any point
I do think you should play the sub missions when you're up for it, some of them have really good rewards like guardian spirits. Maybe during short gameplay sessions of 30mins when you don't feel like going through a whole main mission
Yes, even tho I made this thread...
...I ended up reinstalling it and am actively playing it again
As of right now, I just beatand am at the main castle mission after that. Thanks to folks like R_Thanatos who gave some valid pointers and kinda convinced me to stick with it. That and well, the combat, REALLY is that fucking goodOgress
I think ultimately I just needed a break and absolutely needed to stay the hell away from all the sub-missions
Nice dude, glad you're enjoying it. Yeah I treat it more like a destiny game, just getting a mission or two in, than a souls game but that's just me.
Yeah, skip the side missions at your leisure and don't worry too much about being underlevelled, you'll be fine.
But try to keep a look out for a side mission called "trail of the master" (fourth region I think) it gives you access to more blacksmithing options. Cool ninja gaiden reference too.
AgentOtaku
Member
Werd
I think I know which one you're talking about
I think I know which one you're talking about
Chaos2Frozen
Member
PWARGaming has put out a video explaining the new blacksmith mechanics for 1.12, for anyone still not sure about them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcOHMvO6mDo
EDIT:
wtf?! Why is there a patch 1.13 now?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcOHMvO6mDo
EDIT:
wtf?! Why is there a patch 1.13 now?!
Reading on Reddit that it's for bug fixes introduced with patch 1.12. Some people couldn't forge spears or something. Team ninja has been great with post game support and they're surprisingly fast with bug fix patches.
Patch 1.12 seems to add some great QoL stuff for endgame reforgers but not enough to bring me back. Admittedly I haven't played the game since patch ?1.09. Waiting for second dlc.
AmethystEnd
Member
N° 2048
Member
You don't have to use your Amrita if it's in a stone. So you can do any lvl run without the though of losing all that Amrita.
Or just save your Amrita for whatever you want.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Ah well shit. I struggled in that mission
the 3 Kelleys + yokai part
I think I'm about level 175. Most points in Heart and Skill as I use kats and dual kats. My weapons are 150+5 or +6 and my armour pieces are +4 or +5 with decent properties, though nothing min-maxed or anything. Wearing the swordsman set except the chest piece (got 5 pieces with the dual kats I'm using, thinking of swapping them out with an elemental dual kats as soon as I can get two levels in Magic to unlock an accessory that reduces set requirements by 1...), though I also have a full Warrior of the West set at +4 or +5 that I could use...
Even so, I can't kill
1 Kelley
all three ganging up on me. One time I did somehow but by the time I was chipping away at the second, the 3rd + all the yokai were already on my ass. They do so much damage that I die in 2, maximum 3 hits, so Quick-Change barely helps, I usually instantly die after "respawning" because there's so many harassing me that my invincibility frame isn't long enough. Living Weapon didn't help, I take so much damage that one or two hits and it's gone.
I handled all the story missions OK up until then but this one is just destroying me. I think I just need better gear, so that I can at least
take out the Kelleys quickly enough. In NG I struggled too until I wrecked them with Windstorm II, but now they nerfed it... ;_;
Phoenix944
Member
There are some nice sub mission though. You might want to skip those on the same place as a main mission, because they use the same map (if that bother you)
I'll just point to the murderous anti-human solution that I've stumbled into and made some posts about a while ago: Daiba-Washi as a Guardian Spirit and Moment / Guardian Talismans.
It generates a whirlwind with a pretty damn big AoE that knocks all humans on their asses. Then you can just put a Final blow on them and a few swings to the back if they aren't dead yet.
If I'm reading that right you're aren't killing the yokai in the tanks? You can attack it and preemptively kill them before
3 Kelley clone
I think you're already doing this but get behind the first one when he pops out of the tank and fully charge an iai strike (sign of the cross for dual swords in your case). Should do big damage as it will be multiplied by back damage. Sometimes it will cause him to crumple too allowing you a free final blow.
Then you've only got the two, play safe and separate them doing kicks and ki damage moves in order to get an iai strike into final blow combo.
It's a cheap fight so feel free to cheese it using guardian spirit talisman or LW. In fact I think they fully expect you to liberally use LW as you can break the tanks for free Amrita which charges up your LW allowing you to use semi infinitely.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Wait what?? Really?
I know I tried that many times in NG, and the tanks just wouldn't break, so I assumed I had to continue on into the room to spawn the trio.
WTF, have I been doing it the wrong way all this time... ;__; LOL
Haha. No. That's precisely my problem. I do exactly what you say, a fully charged Sign of the Cross in the back + final blow... but he still isn't dead yet. My damage just sucks... that's despite having dual kats with decent scaling too.
Ok, that's definitely a game changer though, so I'll try that next time.
Hmmm strange, just do a few normal high stance attacks on the tank and the yokai should pop out w/o starting the trio fight. At least, they always did in my game. Maybe they changed something in the more recent patches, i'm not sure.
They did add that function to save builds (was a bit buggy before but now I think it works great):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKgCBDOa-88
same here
Oh nice! Thanks for the heads up
AmethystEnd
Member
You got me really excited because I didn't read fully. Thought you meant we could save skill tree builds.
Honestly, respeccing is trivial so they really should just let us freely save skill tree builds.
Just started playing a few days ago. Having a blast with it. The only souls-like experience I have is a few hours of DS2 and Bloodborne. Don't really have a reason why I didn't finish them, I'll switch to playing something new and let my backlog grow.
I know you can respec easier than most soul-like games (or at least I was told) that's good to hear. I have extreme gamer ocd when it comes to what points to put where when leveling up. Going to try and stick with a Spear/Katana build for my first playthrough. I like the balance of leveling Body and Heart to have both my weapons dmg boosted, along with hp and ki.
Co-op is freakin awesome. I ran the first level for about 2-3 hours after I finally cleared it myself. I'll probably end up doing that quite a bit. As far as the items to summon people, how rare are they? I didn't like running out of them, considering one of them was wasted on a dude that afk'ed 5min in for at least 30 minutes. Won't be waiting that long for people next time lol.
I've been enjoying the game enough that I considered buying the DLC already. I assume the actually 'level' content for it isn't until after post game, so I guess there's not much point yet. That was until I seen the Odachi. That's a weapon I'd really like to test out. If I were to buy the DLC today, would the weapon just start dropping normally early on? That or I assume you could craft one?
I know you can respec easier than most soul-like games (or at least I was told) that's good to hear. I have extreme gamer ocd when it comes to what points to put where when leveling up. Going to try and stick with a Spear/Katana build for my first playthrough. I like the balance of leveling Body and Heart to have both my weapons dmg boosted, along with hp and ki.
Co-op is freakin awesome. I ran the first level for about 2-3 hours after I finally cleared it myself. I'll probably end up doing that quite a bit. As far as the items to summon people, how rare are they? I didn't like running out of them, considering one of them was wasted on a dude that afk'ed 5min in for at least 30 minutes. Won't be waiting that long for people next time lol.
I've been enjoying the game enough that I considered buying the DLC already. I assume the actually 'level' content for it isn't until after post game, so I guess there's not much point yet. That was until I seen the Odachi. That's a weapon I'd really like to test out. If I were to buy the DLC today, would the weapon just start dropping normally early on? That or I assume you could craft one?
Chaos2Frozen
Member
^ you can get the co-op item fairly regularly from fighting the revenants (npc summon from player graves) they drop the ochoko cups. Alternatively if you help out other players in their world you can get them from regular enemy kills with decent drop rates.
As for the Odachi, yes they start to be regular drops. You don't have to do the new content but the new content would give you one with the highest rarity for free right off the bat.
As for the Odachi, yes they start to be regular drops. You don't have to do the new content but the new content would give you one with the highest rarity for free right off the bat.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
I need money, Souls and divine drops....tens of millions of them....
Where's everyone's favorite route?
Where's everyone's favorite route?
WotS restless spirits gives 500kgold. WotD restless spirits gives 1.5 mil gold. Should solve any and all of your money needs.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Phoenix944
Member
Did every mission on WotD except for the Twilight ones... It's a bit annoying that I have to wait a day between each refresh.
Btw, do we know when the next DLC is due?
Btw, do we know when the next DLC is due?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
There's like a dozen of those... xD
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Lol, the one with Mitsunari and Yoshitsugu... eh, Fox and Moth.
Unfortunately it seems like I have to unlock most if not all of the WotS missions first, and not just the region as I don't have them in Sekigahara
Ah yes, since that restless spirits mission was part of the 1.06 patch you probably have to get past the last bar on the mission progress meter.
If you haven't unlocked that, just do the old vanilla thing of killing high level revenants and selling their gear(remember that divines themselves sell for more than divine fragments). If you practice parrying a little you'll be able to efficiently kill revenants in a matter of seconds even if there are hundreds of levels between it and you. But remember that revenants don't drop any + <insert number here> gear.
For + divine gear, marobashi (the 6 masters) a very good mission and they are one at a time. But again, it's 1.06 mission so you will have to unlock it.
Also this last patch has also apparently significantly increased the twilight mission rewards (gold and Amrita). I haven't played in a long time so cannot confirm but you can speedrun them if the rewards are good enough for you.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Amazingly, I played the whole game without using parries.
I did not know what I was missing- it's an exhilarating feeling pulling off a Water Shadow or Shrike in a fight.
So in summary:
Money - kill revenants for divine drops to sell, don't dissemble them.
Amrita - revenants don't seem to give a lot of Amrita as rewards so I think I'll complete 'quick' missions for the Huge chunk of Amrita at the end.
Ah I forgot to ask- what about ochoko cups and glory?
^ For now all that is good but once you've unlocked the last set of missions on the mission progress bar I would change your farming methods to:
- Gold: Restless Spirits.
Once you have enough damage you'll be able to one or two shot them but dont worry if you can't do that with current level of gear. This isn't a true dual boss fight as Fox only spawns when the Moth is at half hp. Tactic when really underlevelled/geared is trying ki break Moth when near half hp. He'll take a knee while Fox is spawning and you can chain iai strikes/SotC and get Moth to 25% hp if not outright kill him. Then it's just a regular one on one with Fox.
- Amrita: Spend a little time reforging an Amrita farming gear set and do Ghosts of sawayama runs
Just get any old set and reforge 'amrita gain' on each gear piece. It's not a rare special effect so you should get it quite quickly. It's not necessary but you can also use suzaku Phoenix spirit for a whopping 30% increase to Amrita gained when using LW. You can get similar 'Amrita gain when in using LW' in some accessories as well. However, the big thing that will increase Amrita gain is drinking a Saisetsu-shin Sake. This will multiply the Amrita you gain after you when you kill enemies quickly.
Here is a quick Amrita run:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YUQA3GO14VY
Here is how to farm sake:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Lricp8ft0
- Glory: I'm not the best person to ask as I don't have ps plus anymore but coop or pvp is the best for glory. PVP kinda sucks in this game though.
- Gold: Restless Spirits.
Once you have enough damage you'll be able to one or two shot them but dont worry if you can't do that with current level of gear. This isn't a true dual boss fight as Fox only spawns when the Moth is at half hp. Tactic when really underlevelled/geared is trying ki break Moth when near half hp. He'll take a knee while Fox is spawning and you can chain iai strikes/SotC and get Moth to 25% hp if not outright kill him. Then it's just a regular one on one with Fox.
- Amrita: Spend a little time reforging an Amrita farming gear set and do Ghosts of sawayama runs
Just get any old set and reforge 'amrita gain' on each gear piece. It's not a rare special effect so you should get it quite quickly. It's not necessary but you can also use suzaku Phoenix spirit for a whopping 30% increase to Amrita gained when using LW. You can get similar 'Amrita gain when in using LW' in some accessories as well. However, the big thing that will increase Amrita gain is drinking a Saisetsu-shin Sake. This will multiply the Amrita you gain after you when you kill enemies quickly.
Here is a quick Amrita run:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YUQA3GO14VY
Here is how to farm sake:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Lricp8ft0
- Glory: I'm not the best person to ask as I don't have ps plus anymore but coop or pvp is the best for glory. PVP kinda sucks in this game though.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
The Odachi's mystic arts that increases Ki damage is amazing. Against defensive Revenants I'm crushing their guard effortlessly. My current skill set for Odachi is
High -> Twin Moon
Mid -> Charging Bull
Low -> Tiger Blade
For the Guard+triangle moves, for now it feels like Moonlit Snow > Groundquake > Retrograde flow. Moonlit for the damage and poise armor (and style). I haven't tried out Groundquake and Retrograde after getting the mystic art, but maybe they're a lot more viable as Ki destroyers.
Haven't found a use for the fancy stance switching combo.
High -> Twin Moon
Mid -> Charging Bull
Low -> Tiger Blade
For the Guard+triangle moves, for now it feels like Moonlit Snow > Groundquake > Retrograde flow. Moonlit for the damage and poise armor (and style). I haven't tried out Groundquake and Retrograde after getting the mystic art, but maybe they're a lot more viable as Ki destroyers.
Haven't found a use for the fancy stance switching combo.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
So I tried the first DLC mission/boss in Way of the Strong and got repeatedly crushed. I eventually did it, but I'm really outmatched...
...So naturally, being the smart person that I am, I went and dipped my toes in Way of the Demon (lol). Just did the England tower mission + one sub-mission (Bandits village). Getting one-shot or two-shot pretty often. I did get some sweet +10 loot but not that much. Now I see 150 ain't the limit anymore, OK. So I soul-matched my good gear to about 163 or so, and managed to upgrade a few pieces to +10 though not everything yet.
I still feel like I'm underpowered for just about everything. I just peeked at the Tachibana duel and he rekts me in two hits and I barely chip at him. Not sure how to get better gear for now... maybe I shouldn't have skipped so many side-missions in WotS, I dunno...
...So naturally, being the smart person that I am, I went and dipped my toes in Way of the Demon (lol). Just did the England tower mission + one sub-mission (Bandits village). Getting one-shot or two-shot pretty often. I did get some sweet +10 loot but not that much. Now I see 150 ain't the limit anymore, OK. So I soul-matched my good gear to about 163 or so, and managed to upgrade a few pieces to +10 though not everything yet.
I still feel like I'm underpowered for just about everything. I just peeked at the Tachibana duel and he rekts me in two hits and I barely chip at him. Not sure how to get better gear for now... maybe I shouldn't have skipped so many side-missions in WotS, I dunno...
Chaos2Frozen
Member
^You have to become a demon.
A bit of a PSA, though I'm sure some folks have been aware of the issue for a while now:
With WotD basically bringing in normal item levels back into the equation for divine items, the negative aspects of Soul Matching will also apply. Chaining item level ups on the same piece of gear can bring about some rather staggering cost increases and they will stick with you ever unto the future. Eventually, you're really likely to have to basically reset your individual gear pieces and Forge, Soul Match and Reforge them all over again. The new ability to use Patronage points to pay for Soul Matching and the increased rewards can help migitate all this to a degree, but it is still something to consider.
My personal go to plan has been to store divine pieces of gear with 80% or 90% Soul Match cost discount Special. I'll be using them as a springboard to level up my stuff when the next eventual higher difficulty comes around.
With WotD basically bringing in normal item levels back into the equation for divine items, the negative aspects of Soul Matching will also apply. Chaining item level ups on the same piece of gear can bring about some rather staggering cost increases and they will stick with you ever unto the future. Eventually, you're really likely to have to basically reset your individual gear pieces and Forge, Soul Match and Reforge them all over again. The new ability to use Patronage points to pay for Soul Matching and the increased rewards can help migitate all this to a degree, but it is still something to consider.
My personal go to plan has been to store divine pieces of gear with 80% or 90% Soul Match cost discount Special. I'll be using them as a springboard to level up my stuff when the next eventual higher difficulty comes around.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
What is the consensus for "Consecutive Attack" bonus, worth it or replace with something else?
They are weak to lighting damage, plus if you get the shock effect to proc on them it'll be the same as hitting them with sloth.
They are weak to lighting damage, plus if you get the shock effect to proc on them it'll be the same as hitting them with sloth.
Just finished the main game and started NG, Confused in 2 areas:
1. What is the diff between WOtStong and WOtSamauri?
2. I have plenty of green divine items. Can I start hoping to find/get + items in NG or only in NG+. Nothing has dropped yet. Not sure I want to complete the entire game again just to get + items.
3. Do you only get + items if you solo the missions or can get them if I coop?
1. What is the diff between WOtStong and WOtSamauri?
2. I have plenty of green divine items. Can I start hoping to find/get + items in NG or only in NG+. Nothing has dropped yet. Not sure I want to complete the entire game again just to get + items.
3. Do you only get + items if you solo the missions or can get them if I coop?
1: Way of the Strong is the games version of NG+ extra difficulty, Way of the Samurai is the normal difficulty that you have just finished playing. In Way of the Strong, there may be some differences in enemy placement in some missions and the enemy levels are vastly elevated. The rewards are increased accordingly.
2. Generally speaking, you might find some +# items from the most difficult missions on the Way of the Samurai, especially the DLC area, but mostly it will be from Way of the Strong where you can start seeing +# items even in the first available regions.
3. Co-Op does not limit the kind of stuff you can get as drops AFAIK.
Nestunt
Member
Lets get one thing out of the way: Nioh is a Dark Souls clone. Like many first-person shooters were DOOM clones in the 90s. That doesnt mean Nioh is a lesser game for it. This was clearly a very thought-out choice and the final product is very strong because of it.
Nioh is a third-person action RPG where melee combat is the cornerstone of everything you do or encounter. Set in Japan, during the well-documented Sengoku period, you role-play William Adams, an Irish who sailed across half of the globe to confront an English occult researcher (Edward Kelley), who stole something from William and has travelled to Japan to gather a special kind of resources to fuel war against Spain. I know, it already reads as a complicated narrative. It wont stop here.
First and foremost, Nioh gains a lot from its context. Even if the Sengoku period has already been portrayed in many different ways by different artistic products, Team Ninja (the studio behind the game) extracted every meaningful and characteristic juice from that Japanese period. I bet this knack came from their own nationality and the support of Koei-Tecmo (the publisher), which has years of experience when it comes to transposing that historic context to videogames.
I have to premise this review with a very important caveat: Im a sucker for that aesthetic. Its probably my favorite one from all of humanitys history. So, I will try to justify the final score with other strong arguments besides my passion for Japanese architecture, clothing and weapon design, and that beautiful oriental music.
Still, I am able to say that the graphics and the music are not amazing, even by my low barrier to entry when it comes to this culture. The music is not very memorable, but does its job well enough and manages to not superimpose itself. On the visuals department, well, its a Team Ninja game. For those who have past experience with their graphics engine, you know: the textures are not incredible and the characters sometimes suffer from that doll-house effect. However, Nioh is their best game in these departments, and the craft and effort they deployed to introduce variety in the scenarios and wearable items mitigate a lot of their past issues.
Nioh is also Team Ninjas best game in the Controls and Gameplay departments. And I bought an OG Xbox to play Ninja Gaiden Black (and replayed it ~3 years ago). This is where cloning Dark Souls generated more dividends. The control is meticulously on point and the player never feels in unfair disadvantage. But its faster than even the fastest of the Souls games (Bloodborne). Not only faster, but deeper. William, throughout progression, will learn different attack combinations for each weapon and many combat tools with interesting effects. And this is where the trade-off begins for Nioh. Yes, the game separates itself proudly from Souls in this regard, but at the same time loses some of the intentional minimalistic focus of FROMs games.
It is really satisfying to pull off a combination of attacks where you start from mid-stance with your fast dual-swords on a close-range flurry that makes damage numbers pop out of your enemy, back-dash its counter-attack while changing to your spear and poking him back with three-heavies, Ki-pulsing (to recover stamina) while changing to lower-stance and swing that same spear to a combo that will end in a jump that catapults you to the back of your enemy. That was my go-to move against big foes and it always felt amazing! Like that combo you train in fighting games and finally nail it online -- Team Ninja are the makers of Dead or Alive, they know what they are doing.
Yet, despite all that beautiful incentive to master the 5 melee weapons at Williams disposal, I dont know if I prefer the journeys and stories I went through with my smaller lineup of chosen weapons in Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Even though you have more weapons to choose from in those games, the systems in place incentivize the player to focus on a smaller arsenal and allocate your upgrade points to those. That lends itself to an experience where you really feel attached to a load-out and ingrains itself towards a more epic role-playing path, like the ones in Fantasy novels.
But thats my opinion. You can still do that with Nioh and play it like Souls. I simply found myself taking a different approach and really enjoying it. I will probably remember more fondly the character-weapon combinations I built in Souls. Nevertheless, I tip my hat to Team Ninja, Niohs systems are so well-built that I ended up experiencing every weapon and allocating upgrade points to other tools, like Magic and Ninjutsu, because they always felt meaningful. And I tend to min-max in every RPG.
Other aspect that separates Nioh from Souls is the world-building and progression throughout said world. While From Softwares RPGs are known for their open and interconnected worlds, Team Ninja made a more traditional design choice: game levels. One could say that, given the diversity of scenarios that should be depicted to properly understand the reach and rise to power of Ieyasu Tokugawa during that period, a box-to-box approach to level design is better than open-world. Notwithstanding, FROM has proven that you can have the best of both aspects and still come out with a cohesive product.
I think this choice from Team Ninja is intimately tied to the choice they made about game Story. Which, in principal, is the right way to roadmap the design of a game. Yet, in my opinion, and despite how interesting it is to see the perspectives from different areas and factions of Japan, this ended up hurting the final product.
The Story they presented was a bit disjointed. I know, the crux of that period is its disjointedness, but I dont think the game captured that in the best way possible, partly because this wasnt the ideal game for that.
I would have preferred Williams journey to be circumscribed to a smaller region and feel that same sensation you have in Souls games, when you are looking to a place you have already been, miles away from the one you are now, which is architecturally different. The trade-off would probably be the loss of the myriad of interesting personalities you encounter throughout Nioh. And despite my love for the boss fights you have with those characters they were perfectly in tune with my samurai duel power-fantasies the charisma they exude through their design was not properly flushed out story-wise, due to the flood of people and regions they wanted to tackle.
In the end, Team Ninja managed to entangle all those loose threads into a robust take on the events that lead to the Edo period. Even if William is not as interesting as his real-life counterpart certainly was, getting to know the lead actors of that Japanese conflict from his occidental viewpoint was refreshing. Also, his antagonism with Kelley ends up having more than one layer.
Like I said in the beginning, being a Souls clone did not hurt Nioh. On the contrary, not only helped it become a very strong gameplay experience, but also showed that there are ways to deduce different and interesting design choices out of that formula.
The game has the control fidelity of Miyazakis games, and they added even more depth to the combat in a way that is meaningful even for players who have the tendency to min-max. Like in Souls games, most of the world-building is done through carefully crafted level and item-design that are coupled with texts that flush-out the lore, and in Nioh they managed to include even more diverse locales and beautifully modeled weapons and armor, all entangled in a narrative that despite its contextual disarray ended up as a very serviceable Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai.
Nioh is a very long game, and despite some rehashing of enemies and scenarios, it never felt too long. I come out of it wishing for more elements of Souls, but also for Souls to have more of those elements of Nioh that made me greatly enjoy it on its own. And maybe thats the biggest compliment I can give Nioh: you immediately see its influences, but rapidly know you are experiencing something also unique. I reckon it will be difficult for many Souls clones, and there will be a bunch of them in the coming years, to do it in such a special way.
Nioh is a third-person action RPG where melee combat is the cornerstone of everything you do or encounter. Set in Japan, during the well-documented Sengoku period, you role-play William Adams, an Irish who sailed across half of the globe to confront an English occult researcher (Edward Kelley), who stole something from William and has travelled to Japan to gather a special kind of resources to fuel war against Spain. I know, it already reads as a complicated narrative. It wont stop here.
First and foremost, Nioh gains a lot from its context. Even if the Sengoku period has already been portrayed in many different ways by different artistic products, Team Ninja (the studio behind the game) extracted every meaningful and characteristic juice from that Japanese period. I bet this knack came from their own nationality and the support of Koei-Tecmo (the publisher), which has years of experience when it comes to transposing that historic context to videogames.
I have to premise this review with a very important caveat: Im a sucker for that aesthetic. Its probably my favorite one from all of humanitys history. So, I will try to justify the final score with other strong arguments besides my passion for Japanese architecture, clothing and weapon design, and that beautiful oriental music.
Still, I am able to say that the graphics and the music are not amazing, even by my low barrier to entry when it comes to this culture. The music is not very memorable, but does its job well enough and manages to not superimpose itself. On the visuals department, well, its a Team Ninja game. For those who have past experience with their graphics engine, you know: the textures are not incredible and the characters sometimes suffer from that doll-house effect. However, Nioh is their best game in these departments, and the craft and effort they deployed to introduce variety in the scenarios and wearable items mitigate a lot of their past issues.
Nioh is also Team Ninjas best game in the Controls and Gameplay departments. And I bought an OG Xbox to play Ninja Gaiden Black (and replayed it ~3 years ago). This is where cloning Dark Souls generated more dividends. The control is meticulously on point and the player never feels in unfair disadvantage. But its faster than even the fastest of the Souls games (Bloodborne). Not only faster, but deeper. William, throughout progression, will learn different attack combinations for each weapon and many combat tools with interesting effects. And this is where the trade-off begins for Nioh. Yes, the game separates itself proudly from Souls in this regard, but at the same time loses some of the intentional minimalistic focus of FROMs games.
It is really satisfying to pull off a combination of attacks where you start from mid-stance with your fast dual-swords on a close-range flurry that makes damage numbers pop out of your enemy, back-dash its counter-attack while changing to your spear and poking him back with three-heavies, Ki-pulsing (to recover stamina) while changing to lower-stance and swing that same spear to a combo that will end in a jump that catapults you to the back of your enemy. That was my go-to move against big foes and it always felt amazing! Like that combo you train in fighting games and finally nail it online -- Team Ninja are the makers of Dead or Alive, they know what they are doing.
Yet, despite all that beautiful incentive to master the 5 melee weapons at Williams disposal, I dont know if I prefer the journeys and stories I went through with my smaller lineup of chosen weapons in Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Even though you have more weapons to choose from in those games, the systems in place incentivize the player to focus on a smaller arsenal and allocate your upgrade points to those. That lends itself to an experience where you really feel attached to a load-out and ingrains itself towards a more epic role-playing path, like the ones in Fantasy novels.
But thats my opinion. You can still do that with Nioh and play it like Souls. I simply found myself taking a different approach and really enjoying it. I will probably remember more fondly the character-weapon combinations I built in Souls. Nevertheless, I tip my hat to Team Ninja, Niohs systems are so well-built that I ended up experiencing every weapon and allocating upgrade points to other tools, like Magic and Ninjutsu, because they always felt meaningful. And I tend to min-max in every RPG.
Other aspect that separates Nioh from Souls is the world-building and progression throughout said world. While From Softwares RPGs are known for their open and interconnected worlds, Team Ninja made a more traditional design choice: game levels. One could say that, given the diversity of scenarios that should be depicted to properly understand the reach and rise to power of Ieyasu Tokugawa during that period, a box-to-box approach to level design is better than open-world. Notwithstanding, FROM has proven that you can have the best of both aspects and still come out with a cohesive product.
I think this choice from Team Ninja is intimately tied to the choice they made about game Story. Which, in principal, is the right way to roadmap the design of a game. Yet, in my opinion, and despite how interesting it is to see the perspectives from different areas and factions of Japan, this ended up hurting the final product.
The Story they presented was a bit disjointed. I know, the crux of that period is its disjointedness, but I dont think the game captured that in the best way possible, partly because this wasnt the ideal game for that.
I would have preferred Williams journey to be circumscribed to a smaller region and feel that same sensation you have in Souls games, when you are looking to a place you have already been, miles away from the one you are now, which is architecturally different. The trade-off would probably be the loss of the myriad of interesting personalities you encounter throughout Nioh. And despite my love for the boss fights you have with those characters they were perfectly in tune with my samurai duel power-fantasies the charisma they exude through their design was not properly flushed out story-wise, due to the flood of people and regions they wanted to tackle.
In the end, Team Ninja managed to entangle all those loose threads into a robust take on the events that lead to the Edo period. Even if William is not as interesting as his real-life counterpart certainly was, getting to know the lead actors of that Japanese conflict from his occidental viewpoint was refreshing. Also, his antagonism with Kelley ends up having more than one layer.
Like I said in the beginning, being a Souls clone did not hurt Nioh. On the contrary, not only helped it become a very strong gameplay experience, but also showed that there are ways to deduce different and interesting design choices out of that formula.
The game has the control fidelity of Miyazakis games, and they added even more depth to the combat in a way that is meaningful even for players who have the tendency to min-max. Like in Souls games, most of the world-building is done through carefully crafted level and item-design that are coupled with texts that flush-out the lore, and in Nioh they managed to include even more diverse locales and beautifully modeled weapons and armor, all entangled in a narrative that despite its contextual disarray ended up as a very serviceable Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai.
Nioh is a very long game, and despite some rehashing of enemies and scenarios, it never felt too long. I come out of it wishing for more elements of Souls, but also for Souls to have more of those elements of Nioh that made me greatly enjoy it on its own. And maybe thats the biggest compliment I can give Nioh: you immediately see its influences, but rapidly know you are experiencing something also unique. I reckon it will be difficult for many Souls clones, and there will be a bunch of them in the coming years, to do it in such a special way.
Just can't get enough of Miduki:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TnJikwbDfw - How to truly fight Yuki-Onna (double ki-flux all day every day)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psMspD-BrJk - How to fight DLC bosses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TnJikwbDfw - How to truly fight Yuki-Onna (double ki-flux all day every day)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psMspD-BrJk - How to fight DLC bosses