I wanted to take a look at the game during its initial alpha demo, but due to a horrifically incapable internet connection I instead uploaded a video depicting my struggles simply trying to connect with the game's servers--to no avail:
I never expected that video to hit the triple digits in view count, considering I only have about a dozen and a half subscribers and only advertise on my private social media accounts. Now that I'm on a somewhat decent internet provider, I decided to try out the Last Chance trial two weeks before the game released. Well, mostly. Here's a link to that video:
All joking aside, I do have a few thoughts on the overall feeling of Nioh. Comparing this to Souls is a bit misguided; in general I feel like this game is much more similar to Team Ninja's famous Ninja Gaiden, with combat focusing on precise movement and elaborate combo strings. Whereas Souls encourages players to learn the intricacies of their weapons and choosing a handful of the dozens of weapons to develop a character, Nioh narrows down the choice by having most weapons in a given style play the same with the big differences typically being in attack reach and speed.
What separates Nioh from Souls is an in-depth skill tree which can augment combos or grant new skills to players, similar to picking up scrolls in Ninja Gaiden. This is more than enough to give Nioh its own personality and, in my opinion, sets it apart from games like Lords of the Fallen, a totally shameless Souls clone. Nioh is Team Ninja down to the core, and that depth in skill choice is going to be what keeps players coming back for more. Players can also implement stances which prioritize power, speed, or a balance of both. Think two-handing in Dark Souls with completely different attributes; in fact, I'd say it's a natural side step from both Bloodborne and the weapon arts seen in Dark Souls III.
Gear in Nioh is similar to loot-based systems, with rare items dropping from enemies at random. Bosses seem to drop several items at once with a better chance at rare drops, while players can customize kodama creatures found in each level to drop more weapons, armor, or provide passive benefits. Each piece of gear has between one and four passive skills, such as stronger parries or adding fire damage, and a blacksmith outside on the world map can swap passive skills or forge weapons using items found in levels.
Another huge surprise comes in the form of standard action levels, a feature no other Souls-type game has experimented with. Rather than the open exploration found in games like the original Dark Souls, Nioh takes a fully mission-based approach with the world map acting as a level select screen. Unlike Demon's Souls, Nioh appears to have several dozen missions, with the demo mission being listed as the fifth in the game. Despite the smaller size of levels, each one appears to be fairly open with multiple paths leading to the boss of each stage. It feels far more like a classic title this way, giving players a main objective to seek out while exploring the intricate missions. Shortcuts and traps litter the demo stage, and if it's any indication one would expect the entire game to be like this. Checkpoints in the form of shrines appear hidden in key locations, giving players a reason to explore.
As much as I love the overall design of Nioh, a few decisions are a bit baffling. The most egregious example of this is in the game's stamina system; rdespite players a bar that can be extended through leveling, the stamina usage in Nioh dwindles extremely fast. To counter this, after every combo the player can press a button to use their Ki Pulse, which grants faster stamina recovery and if timed right, refunds a percentage of stamina immediately. What gets me about this is that while it's a fine system, the fact that each weapon swing--in a Team Ninja game focused on intricate combo strings--drains stamina very quickly. While I do feel that it gives the game a much-needed sense of urgency and quick decision-making, I'm not impressed by just how quickly the stamina gauge depletes after one simple combo. I don't know how this will turn out at later stages of the game with a highly-leveled stamina stat, but at early parts of the game I felt like my options were extremely limited. Ki Pulse works fine, but during hectic combat encounters I found myself unable to even make time to recharge. Thankfully there are skills that allow players to use Ki Pulse while dodging which highly improves combat flow, but this is mostly dedicated to the character's low stance.
Even for someone as hard to impress as myself, it's hard to find much to fault in Nioh. There's even an option to prioritize framerate or resolution--or if you have a PS4 Pro, you can choose best of both worlds, though the framerate in the completely unlocked mode is apparently far from perfect--assuaging potential graphics curmudgeons upset that this game is likely going to be console exclusive. While I'm not too happy about Ki Pulse, this is a mechanic I'm going to withhold full judgment on until I make my way through the game on a high-level character to see if this complaint fixes itself over time. Playing the demo has me far more excited for the full game, despite a week ago considering skipping it altogether. Nioh might be a game of the year contender, though with other games like Nier Automata and Zelda: Breath of the Wild to contend with, that's going to be a hard-won fight.
Speaking of Zelda, keep an eye on this blog for a forthcoming retrospective of the series. I'm going to try and get as many games covered as I can before Breath of the Wild releases in March, so stay tuned!
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