Nioh (2017)

I realized I never wrote any final thoughts for this game, so I'll go ahead and put together a little review. Nioh is an action-adventure game I never expected to get into this much -- but it's really one of those games where the more time you put into it, the more you get out of it.

"Souls-likes" had never been my thing, but I felt drawn to Nioh anyways thanks to its setting. Sometimes that's really all it takes to make a game stand out, but in this case I really dig the samurai era and its fantasy spin full of memorable yokai creatures. The story itself is nothing to write home about, but for me it was always much more about the setting than the plot or characters.

I had a hard time getting into this one at first. I died many, many, many times in the first levels. I had to set the game down for a while -- but when I finally got back to it, I was determined to defeat that boss I was stuck on, no matter how many times I had to fight it. Eventually, I did beat it... but it wasn't just from memorizing its attack patterns and making full use of my own abilities. I had to think outside the box a little, and work with the menus to adjust my armor, weapons, items, and skills. Finally, the game clicked with me. I outsmarted the impossible boss, and it felt amazing. So this is what they all mean, when they say "get gud." It's not just your reflexes in the heat of the battle; it's using your head to prepare for each confrontation accordingly.

The game of course only gets harder as it goes along, but the sheer number of options it provides you to work with is staggering. There are many ways to approach each enemy, and the fun comes from experimenting. Try out different weapons, different skills, different stances, different items, different combos, different approaches, different ninja or onmyodo abilities. I enjoyed messing with all these different things. I also had a good time playing through portions of the game with a friend -- co-op Nioh is really a blast if you're both really getting into it.

The game isn't perfect. I felt there was way too much loot to deal with -- and the menus are cumbersome at best, thoroughly intimidating at worst. (I tried my hardest, but I don't think I ever really got how to use the blacksmith to full effect.) People have remarked that there isn't enough level or enemy variety, which I think is a valid criticism too. I thought there was perhaps just barely enough (especially in regards to the bosses), but it seems this is something that's been improved upon for the sequel. I will note there are DLC campaigns for Nioh, and I did end up playing through all of those too. It gets extremely tough, but playing co-op made it manageable for me. Post-game Nioh brings its own new fun experiences by the way, in that you're more free to try out new "builds" for your character. It was crazy how I could put so many hours into a game, and then suddenly it feels fresh again just by tweaking my stats a bit.

Suffice to say, I 100% never expected to get the platinum trophy for a game as intimidating as this. But I did, and it was a blast. I look forward to playing through the sequel, which I've already picked up. I intend to wait a bit before diving in fully though, in order to avoid genre fatigue. If the setting of Nioh interests you, it's well-worth checking out (especially considering how cheap the game has become). Just remember that it does not play the exact same as other "Souls-likes" -- Nioh has its own feel to it, and needs to be approached in its own way.

There's no mistaking it - Nioh is a Souls game to the core. It may not be by the same developer, but the experience point system, the treacherous exploration, the tough as nails bosses... it's pure Souls.

Including the frustrating parts. Nioh spares no expense in ripping the player to shreds as they take part in a journey to reclaim a foreigner's guardian spirit in 17th century Japan. The character in question, William, is adept with a handful of weapons and can level up stats to get better with each one. Where the real interesting part comes in is that William can adapt to three different stances (low, mid, high) for each weapon, emphasizing evasion, blocking, and damage. Along with that, the stamina bar is now a mystical gauge called Ki, which can be pulsed with a timed button press to regain stamina at a quicker pace and dispel stamina-draining pools called yokai realms. Enemies have their own Ki as well, with the player aggressively (optionally, but aggressive is the way to go) hitting stamina out of their enemies to get grapples and finishing moves in.

A special powerup mode (think Devil Trigger or Rage of the Gods) is also available, a Guardian Spirit that charges the player for a short time. This mode is powered by how many souls (cough Amrita cough) the player obtains, and can be key to get out of tricky situations.

The story is pretty laid-out, completely unlike the Souls games. This can be a bit of a bother, as it's no longer a rich mystery and is rife with cliche. The world is also a set of missions instead of a connected set of areas, with sub-quests to pepper amongst the main quests. Herein lies Nioh's ultimate weakness - a large amount of its content amounts to repetitive fights with enemies you'll be seeing way too many times. The bosses are intense (mostly) the first time you encounter them, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th times lessen that magic. Playing these quests is also akin to grinding, and with the gigantic amount of weapons and armor that are dropped Diablo-style (especially from enemies born from online player deaths called Revenants), the player will feel overpowered in the endgame, making many a fight later on trivial.

However, the game is gorgeous. It doesn't quite pull off the ruined world that the Souls games do so well, but it looks rich with detail and echoes fantastic audio and visual design.

If you can stomach the lack of balance, cliched story, and content so boringly repetitive you'd poke your eyes out (or just be a BOSS and skip it), Nioh is surprisingly solid, and not only manages to prove itself as a Souls-like but even provide satisfyingly good combat that makes it better than a few of the actual Souls games. You know the ones...

Oh dear, Nioh: Dragon of the North DLC has been released, and I still haven't finished the base game!

Gosh, that came out quick. I like Nioh, it's an awesome game, the gameplay is great, but I don't find myself hooked on it, I'm not totally thrilled and drawn into it as I thought I would be. I think it's mainly just the story, the lore and the game world. It just doesn't tickle my fancy, and to be honest I don't understand the story. There are so many characters and sub plots that I'm always completely lost and I'm not invested in the plot. It's hard to be invested when there's 15 main characters and none of them are very memorable. Also, there aren't enough enemy types; each level is populated with the standard 3 or 4 enemy mobs with no variation. Granted the bosses are all unique and amazing and provide lots of variety (along with the level design) but there should be more mobs.

This status update has accidentally turned into a bit of a review. :P Though I want to beat it before I cast my final judgement. The game is absolutely enormous and jam-packed with content so that's one thing in its favour. It's like a gigantic endless novel, thick as a phonebook.

Nioh has a really cute kitty in it. In fact there are multiple cute kitties. It's a funny juxtaposition, given the extremely brutal gameplay. Still though, the very fact that it has cats in it means an automatic 5-star score when I do my review (still haven't beaten it yet).

In fact at first I was quite angry about the final release of Nioh, given the overwhelming abundance of tutorial levels and tutorial messages and other tutorial crap hurled at the player during the first chunk of the game. But I decided to forgive them, since the little irritating hint/tutorial fairy (think: "LISTEN!" from Ocarina of Time) is actually a cute little flying cat. So I'll let it slide I suppose.

Nioh Beta - Final Thoughts

I've played around with the Nioh Beta a little bit more and I'm fairly certain that this will be an excellent game; likely to surpass Dark Souls 3.

There is one unexpected and exciting addition to the game: hard mode. For a game which is already very difficult, it's a brazen move for Team Ninja to ignore the scores of players wanting these games to be "more accessible" and instead they've taken the opposite direction, offering increased challenge for players who master the base game. I'm not usually the kind of person who plays games on hard difficulty, but for this genre it's a welcome addition.

The hard mode (or "twilight mode" as it's called) isn't just a simple handicap or enemy damage/hp buff: it actually offers an entirely new experience. Completely different enemies and placement, new objectives and new items/weapons/armour. It's a risk-reward challenge because the best gear is found only in these twilight levels.

I was also thrilled to see Nioh's version of the dreaded "Bonewheel Skeletons" from the souls series. The poor bonewheels were nerfed in Dark Souls 3 and it was sad to see these once-feared enemies as pitiful weaklings. But the ones in Nioh were powerful and terrifying. Looking forward to the full release.

Nioh Beta Final Thoughts:

The beta was excellent and this game is shaping up to be a masterpiece. I can definitely say it's more difficult than Dark Souls 3. It's very different to Souls/Bloodborne.. the fighting is more complex, more options and combos and stuff, very technical. It also has a "twilight mode" which is like nightmare more, brutally difficult. I wish 'souls had something like this. I finished the beta, and I've switched it over to hard mode, but haven't made any progress; it's extreme. Requires true mastery of the game systems.

I'm so relieved that they've kept the challenging nature of the game, in fact it's even more difficult than the last demo, but mostly very fair, very fast-paced. Enemies, level design, atmosphere are all creative and excellent. It feels like Bloodborne: the souls formula but in a totally original, gorgeous setting with very different gameplay. My final wish is for the game to be huge, like on the scale of Dark Souls 3 or bigger. At least it has "twilight mode", which will keep me going indefinitely. I doubt I'd be able to beat the hard mode sections within the next week. Another positive change; the framerate, which is silky smooth now, no framedrops so they must have done some heavy optimisation.

Demo is available for free download on PS4 til September 6th, highly recommended. Players who complete the demo will be awarded special DLC items when the full game is launched.,

The new Nioh Beta is awesome.

It contains three levels: one from the original beta and two entirely new ones. It also contains a tutorial dojo area thing. It is really awesome for two main reasons:

1) Thankfully they've retained the brutal difficulty from the original test. In fact, I would say that they've possibly even increased the difficulty. This game is hardcore. I'm enjoying it thoroughly, currently I'm on the final level, a bit stuck, it's tough.

2) It has a cat!! There's this amazing in-game cinematic where a samurai has a little pet kitty, keeps the kitty in his coat. So sweet. Click here to watch the short video of the kitty. When I saw this I was automatically sold on the game.

Lots of changes. Weapon degradation is gone. Blacksmithy crafting thingy has been added. Muskets added too. Interesting changes to combat. Overall I'm really pleased with it and it looks set to be superior to Dark Souls 3 in my eyes, depending on how the DS3 DLCs go. Only complaint is some slight camera control issues but it's not a big deal.

This is a Souls game with a kitty in it, therefore it's the greatest game ever made.