In the months leading up to the release of Nioh, an action RPG created by Team Ninja, I couldn’t help but feel excited for its release. Being a huge fan of the Souls series, a game focusing on slow paced difficult combat, and epic boss fights, I was ready to test my skills in another game falling into that category.
You start the game as William, a European sailor set out to find his Guardian Spirit, who was stolen from him by an alchemist named Edward Kelly. Setting out across the seas in search of your Guardian Spirit, you crash land in Feudal Japan, finding a land filled with danger. After diving in to the first few hours of Nioh, i was happy to find that while resembling the formula of Souls games, Nioh had plenty more of its own style to offer, and adding more depth to its faster paced combat.
Using experience known as Amrita, which you earn from killing the many enemies Nioh has to offer, you can upgrade a basic skill tree, common to many role-playing games such as health, magic, Ninjutsu, how much weight you can carry, and whatever your weapon preference may be. You will also earn skill points which are used for purchasing new combos, special attacks, as well as new magic or Ninjutsu items. Nioh offers a large array of weapons for you to slaughter demons with. Starting from light, fast weapons such as katanas and samurai swords, to slow heavy weapons such as axes or hammers. You will also collect many different pieces of armour in 3 different classes, light, medium, or heavy depending on your preferred play style. All weapons and armour are upgrade-able through a blacksmith you unlock in game.
During combat you can switch stances, high, mid, or low adding even more depth to the basic combat. High dealing more damage but leaving you more vulnerable, mid giving decent damage and a better ability to block, or low offering the least damage but faster attacks and the ability to dodge attacks easier. Combine this with the many different weapon styles and the possibilities are endless on how you can take on the many dangers you encounter. There is also an ability known as Ki pulse, that is activated at the end of a combo, using proper timing of a button press that will restore your stamina. This combined with the fact you are able to see the enemies stamina bars as well, this allows you to control the battle more using their own stamina against them, while maintaining yours, as stamina is required to attack, dodge, or block.
After clearing the mission areas Nioh also includes brutal and difficult boss encounters, to test your skills and your patience in combat. I do feel there is a bit of an imbalance in the difficulty of the mission areas compared to the rather difficult boss fights of which most can one shot you with even the smallest mistake, inducing several rage quit moments on my part, but found myself jumping back in sooner than later. Your success will certainly come through trial and error while learning patterns and attacks of your enemies.
Nioh offers an all around solid experience, and intense fun gameplay, that should draw fans of the genre and new fans alike. Due to the many ways you can approach the game, it should have a high replay factor offering many hours of fun, or possibly frustration while offering a good sense of achievement after success. I look forward to continuing my journey through the dangers of Feudal Japan.
