Nioh - PlayStation 4

Nioh is an immensely layered experience. Through its Dark Souls-inspired combat, you're taught the virtues of patience and the value of defense. At times, enemies fight with the unpredictability of a PvP match. It's normally comforting when you can recognize the patterns of a enemy combo. Yet there's another layer of difficulty when that foe can switch up attacks mid-combo. Each area has its own sense of character not just by conveying widespread destruction in its detailed backgrounds but also by challenging you with environmental puzzles. It is though exploration that you increase your chances of finding weapons and items, often by searching through the seemingly countless corpses strewn throughout the game.

Geralt de Rivia playing Dark Souls style... and I love it

So, the title of this review says it all in what someone should expect when playing Nioh. Now before I get into the actual review I want to say that this is by no means a bad thing. Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and so forth are some of the best games of any generation because they are actually challenging. They are not games made for casual players because they require patience and dedication to get good enough to not only beat them but to even play them well. One other thing I should clear up is that Nioh was not made by From Software (the creators of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games), instead this game was created by Koei Tecmo of Ninja Gaiden fame. Because of that, anyone who is thinking of purchasing this game must understand that it is not an easy game. Alright, now for the actual review. I will say that I never go too deeply into story details during my reviews. Nioh takes place during the 1600s and you follow an Englishman named William. The game starts out with conspiracy theories about supernatural things involving different real life countries and political figures, like Queen Elizabeth. So long story short you were hired to perform a task and once you completed your task you were to be disposed of in order to not share anything you may have discovered; then you pretty much just start. The rest of the game finds you traveling to different lands in order to help resolve a far reaching conflict. I will say that the story is much more fleshed out when compared to Dark Souls or Bloodborne; you don't just start and try to figure everything out for yourself. The game itself is slow, methodical, and challenging. You start with the bare necessities only to unlock stronger weapons (axes, spears, swords, bows, and flintlocks), armor, and tools by defeating enemies, bosses, and remnants of other players. When I say remnants I mean AI versions of players who have died. When a player dies you will see a grave that states their name, rank, equipment level, how they died, and how much of a challenge they would be if you were to fight them. Fighting them and beating them unlocks very good gear as well as a much better chance of getting the item you need for coop play. One difference between Nioh and Dark Souls is, as of my personal experience, there are no invaders. This is something I am personally happy about because after awhile human invaders became more annoying than threatening. But that comes down to personal opinion. Also in a fashion similar to Dark Souls you will collect a kind of currency that can be spent at points along the way in order to upgrade yourself. Also in Dark Souls fashion, if you are to die, which you will, you must get back to that spot in order to retrieve your lost currency. If you die again, it's all gone. What follows is a wide assortment of enemies and a large number of bosses. I'm not joking about the boss number, there are a lot of them. Also in Dark Souls fashion, you can summon other players to help you by offering an item that is found in the world. The one thing that people should know however is that in order for you to summon someone they must have already beaten the area, boss and all. This is different from the beta where anyone can be summoned at anytime. This is also the only problem I have with the game because the beta was designed differently and the coop functionality was changed at literally the last minute. However, this is literally the only problem I have with the game. Nioh is a challenging game with perfect controls, superb visuals, not too bad of a story for something like this, rewarding gameplay, and enough extras to keep people coming back for awhile. Now I compared this game to Dark Souls a lot because it really is like it so if anyone reading this does not like Dark Souls then I would look for another game to play. But if someone is looking for a challenging game that fills the genre void that Dark Souls 3 has left, then I would give this game a look.

A challenging yet fun game that takes a little time to learn the combat mechanics but once learned, progress picks up. Graphics are decent–I really love the period in which this is set and the games supernatural elements are neat. This is one of those games that for casual gamers will be a bit of a slog but provide many hours of entertainment and challenging gameplay. One of my favorite PS4 titles and up there with the likes of Bloodborne in terms of challenge and similarity Souls-like gameplay…although different enough to be somewhat unique

After a week with Nioh, I can fully endorse this to any fan of action rpgs. It's easily one of the most competent games this gen, starting with something as simple as the under 30 seconds initial install and update (!) To the level design, skill trees, movement, and combat. Nioh controls like a charm, the aforementioned combat is deep and rewarding, and the unique story based on Japanese folklore is a change of pace from the typical fantasy tropes. While the game is challenging, don't let that put you off. For a complete newcomer it may take a few hours, or gameplay sessions, to get the mechanics down. But once it clicks you'll be on your way. Highly recommended!

I started this game hoping to enter a magical wonderland of rainbows and samurai, however I was met with grit and demons... and some samurai and ninjas too. I have been met with a brand new world of war and honor. I am sucked in and love it! This game has a ton of content even without the season pass, but I look forward to that as well. The story is amazing, enemies are great, and the color and sound is astonishing. I HIGHLY recommend this game for anyone who likes story oriented games. You'll have a blast and love the loot system too for the armor and weapons. Overall I give this game a AWESOMENESS! out of AMAZING!

There are a ton of professional reviews, and videos, etc., and definitely a contender for Game of the Year, however, very few talk about all the “little” things. Here are some of the things that make the game cool for me. Yes, stamina is critical (called Ki, and plenty of articles elsewhere on that). Yes, fighting is mechanically almost identical to a Souls game. The game is more claustrophobic with more close quarters combat than recent games. Reminds me more Demon’s Souls in that regard, which I prefer to some areas in the Souls games of Bloodborne. The game also is more aggressive than a Souls games. Notice I said more aggressive and not harder. I think it is about the same in difficulty so far as a Souls game, but I do feel this game is much less forgiving if you try to rush or make an error. Some areas you can do whatever you want with 2-3 enemies around and others, the whole room will come at you (literally. . .I had a wall come after me). This game has traps. . .not just tricky enemy placements, but real traps. When you come to a bend or an opening or a room strangely empty with several Revenants (similar to blood stains in Souls game. . .but read a pro review for that description), you really need to think how to approach before going in. Bats coming out of cave to knock you off a cliff. . .brutal. Another aspect that I love is the verticality and interconnectedness within a mission (another thing not as good in recent Souls games as Demons Souls or DS1). Missions are synonymous with an area in Dark Souls that ends with a Boss. This game just doesn’t jack with how you got there in the first place as they are unlocked and chosen from a map, including optional side missions, and ones on the same map with different enemy placement and goals or cranked up difficulty like New Game plus feel on Dark Souls (times 2). However, in the first village you will spend a couple of hours wandering around a burning village trying to get past lines of fire to progress (hint, you need water). It has you going around buildings, roof tops, falling through roof tops, etc. So far the game makes great use of unlocked short cuts which I really miss in later Souls games. Graphics are good, but not great on standard PS4 (it does have optimization for Pro). However, developers understand gamers and give option to set at 60FPS lock in “action mode” where some areas look a bit bland, but game plays 60FPS all the time. I appreciate that. It also has camera challenges like many 3rd person games like the Souls games. You can get jacked up with an enemy if you target lock-on and are on a ledge or something. I have fought one, "true" boss Onryoki so far. It took about 10-12 times before I figured it out. It was challenging, but played out like a typical Souls boss where you find a gap in the attack pattern to exploit. This particular boss changes attack approach part way through which is typical. However, I found his second attack style much easier to exploit than the first. There is a Diablo loot system (random) and some may not like. I neither like nor dislike and it has not taken away anything from the game that I can tell. There is still blacksmithing when off mission, and option to purchase things out of mission. I am not certain if any NPCs that you really interact with though. More for cut scenes it seems, but I could be wrong. If I didn’t have to work and sleep and say hi to family, I would be playing 24 hours straight. Back to the game!

Nioh is an immensely layered experience. Through its Dark Souls-inspired combat, you're taught the virtues of patience and the value of defense. With each death, you learn a bit more about yourself and your enemy. This Team Ninja production, set during a time of great social upheaval in Japan, demonstrates the studio's penchant for demanding action-driven gameplay that rewards tactics and high dexterity. And despite all the inevitable dying, Nioh is surprisingly rich with solutions to overcome its many hurdles.