Well I said it several times before and I’ll say it again because I have to bring it up to every person, animal, and inanimate object I encounter in my life. Bloodborne is one of my favorite games of all time and one of the few games I believe deserves the title as a true masterpiece. This challenging lovecraftian inspired action RPG created by From Software could have been another Dark Souls, but instead what we got was one of the company's most well designed games of the last decade. With areas twisting back into each other, grotesque enemies that force that player to fight aggressively, and a world filled with discoveries, Bloodborne is a game that I have the utmost respect for. I have played Bloodborne about five times now ever since I got it back in late 2018, and there are very few games that I believe can hold up to the perfection it achieved. The only few I can think of are Shovel Knight, Hades, and Hollow Knight which are also very challenging games. What I'm trying to say is that I adore Bloodborne and Dark Souls. It’s very hard to try and recapture FromSoftware had achieved with their games.
Well some ideas can’t be left untouched, because if it’s anything I have learned from the game industry it’s that one idea can go on to inspire several other developers. From Doom kicking off the trend of first person shooters, to Metroid and Castlevania creating an entirely new genre known as metroidvanias. So what did Dark Souls start with? Thanks to the challenging nature of Dark Souls it showed it is still possible to make challenging games today without having to hold players by the hand. What some devs got instead was to literally copy the format of Dark Souls and put their own take on it. What we got were Souls clones, but they were eventually renamed to soulslikes. I wonder why we haven’t come up with a better name ever since? There are quite a few of them these days. There is Remnant: From The Ashes which is a co-op focused third person shooter soulslike. The Surge 2 which focuses on forging the equipment you need rather than grind for it. Then there’s Mortal Shell and Ashen which are literally trying to mimic the design and atmosphere of Dark Souls. However, there is one soulslike that is referenced by many. It is considered one of the best among the soulslike genre and spent quite a long time in development hell. The game I’m talking about of course is Nioh, developed by Team Ninja who you may recognize.
Before Nioh came into development Team Ninja created such series like the “stylish” fighting game Dead or Alive, and the modern hack n’ slash Ninja Gaiden titles. In 2004, Team Ninja eventually came up with the idea for Nioh and immediately began working on the project. The first build of the game sadly crashed during testing and all progress was lost. All that was saved was the main idea, a blonde man journeying to a land he has never been to before, and becoming a samurai. Around 2010, they tried to aim for a much faster action RPG similar to the combat from the Dynasty Warriors series. This idea was also scrapped and the development for Nioh started back at square one again. Eventually they decided to reuse elements from Ninja Gaiden to create an entirely new game and finally it worked! The team didn’t want to create a Ninja Gaiden clone. Luckily Dark Souls came out during the development of Nioh and the team was inspired with how well the game was made. They decided they wanted to make a game similar to Dark Souls, while keeping the main themes they had envisioned.
Nioh was announced in 2015 during a Playstation conference and hype for the game was pretty high. It was a new IP so not many people knew how to think of it, and seeing how Team Ninja made a deal with Sony to make the game exclusive for a short amount of time on the Playstation 4 it would hinder the audience at launch. Nioh came out in 2017 and the reception was shockingly great! One year before in 2016, FromSoftware released Dark Souls 3 which was the final entry in the series. After that there were no more Dark Souls games, so people needed other games to fill in the void. They discovered Nioh one year later and they instantly fell in love. The high octane combat and references to ancient Japanese history and folklore, everything was there to make Nioh fantastic.Being critically praised and considered one of the best games of 2017.
Earlier this year, Nioh 2 came out and I decided to check out the first game to see what the fuss was all about. I was told it was similar to Bloodborne and seeing how I was somewhat disappointed with Sekiro, I was excited to get the ancient Japanese soulslike I actually wanted. Little did I know that I would be beaten into the ground constantly and this game was harder than Dark Souls itself. I dropped the game around the midway point, but came back recently to finish the other half. Finally I have completed the game, what do I have to say? Nioh is pretty awesome. I mean it’s not as good as Bloodborne and theresome areas it crosses the line in difficulty, but it does a good job mimicking the source material. Today we’ll be talking about why I liked Nioh and why it deserves your attention. So sharpen your blades and prepare to slay some yokai.
Story
The game takes place in the 1600s during the Sengoku period, when Japan was on the brink of civil war. We follow the role of an Irishman named William Adams who sailed across the raging seas in search of what goods he may bring back from Japan to his home country of England. While there he discovers a strange glowing crystal substance known as Amrita, which has the magical ability to grant immense power. He brings a small handful of Amrita back to England and it grabs the attention of Queen Elizabeth I. The queen plans to send men over to Japan so that they can harvest mass amounts of Amrita and bring it back to England, because England is currently going to war with Spain and needs some more backbone if they want a chance at winning. William is one of the few individuals chosen to harvest the Amrita, but he fears England may use it for the wrong purposes and tries to spread the truth about the queen's misdoing. He is imprisoned before he can do so, but he is guided by his guardian spirit Saoirse.
Unlike most people in England, William has a guardian spirit who will protect him and aid in battle. He obtained Saoirse through many prayers during his childhood, and one day when his village is attacked by pillagers he is resurrected from death by Saoirse. Saoirse is the reason why William can’t truly die and he clutches onto her for the luck she has brought him. William and Saoirse escape from the prison cell and make their way towards the roof where they encounter a mysterious man named Edward Kelly. Kelly was a researcher sent over to Japan to study the region, but he died before the main game’s events and was resurrected through the use of Amrita. Kelly was tasked to harvest Amrita for England and stop anyone who gets in England’s way. Using the power of Amrita, Kelly begins transforming normal people into monstrous demons known as Yokai. The Yokai are formed when individuals use too much Amrita and slowly succumb to its side effects. William tries to fight off Kelly using Saoirse, but Kelly has a magic crystal ball that allows him to steal her and use her for his own doing.
Kelly makes his way towards Japan and William is knocked into the raging sea. However, Saoirse is still alive meaning William can still be resurrected after death. He catches a boat and begins to head towards Japan. Once there he realizes the country has now gone to civil war, and Kelly has begun to supply one of the clans with an army of Yokai. He meets a ninja named Hattori Hanzo who tells him that the only way to stand a chance against Kelly is to fight through each part of the land and slowly bring peace back to Japan. With the help of several Japanese generals, Hanzo, and a skilled woman named Okatsu, William shall journey through Japan slaying Yokai and hopefully stop Kelly before it’s too late. He may even earn the help of other guardian spirits.
Gameplay
The reason why I started this review off by talking about Bloodborne is because Nioh’s gameplay style strays more towards Bloodborne than Dark Souls. The enemies are highly aggressive, move around quickly, and there aren’t that many defensive options to protect yourself from hard hitting attacks. You have a health bar which dictates how long you get to survive and you have a stamina meter. Stamina is important in Souls games, because every action relies on it. Attacking, dodging, running, blocking, anything that requires force. When you press the button to perform one of these actions you can’t cancel out with another one, you have to wait for them to register and then press another. So you have to be careful when spamming abilities, because you don’t know when an enemy is preparing for a dangerous attack. You also don’t want that stamina meter to run low, because if something is about to happen you won’t have the stamina to run away or dodge. So you also want to learn when to conserve your stamina.
If you do take damage you can heal using an elixir, they are one use items that can be picked up off of enemies or replenished “somewhat” when resting at checkpoints. Checkpoints are where you respawn when you die and is where you go to level up. Whenever you kill an enemy you gain Amrita and with enough Amrita you can level up one of your stats. This includes stats like strength, stamina, dexterity, heart, skill, spirit, and more. Some of these stats even scale with weapon damage. Be careful when carrying around Amrita, because if you die you drop it off at the spot you died at. You do have the chance to recover it, but if you die again it’s gone for good.
All these mechanics and stats sound pretty normal if you are a Dark Souls player, but what does that spirit stat do? Well as you progress through the game you unlock guardian spirits. There is a guardian spirit gauge that can be filled when killing enemies and when activating it you enter a powerful state. You become invincible, your weapon gains an elemental buff, and you can spam a flurry of attacks onto your opponents for a short amount of time. I like it, because it’s a last resort if you are struggling during a fight. However, much like Amrita, when you die you lose your spirit and have to backtrack to the area you died to retrieve it. Unlike Amrita you can still keep your guardian spirit even if you die again or recall it while at a checkpoint. However, recalling it means you lose your Amrita permanently so it's a risk you want to consider.
Enemies not only drop off Armita, but also drop stacks of armor, charms, and weapons frequently. Each one has a specific rarity type and can be customized to your playstyle. Think of the loot mechanic from games like Diablo or Borderlands. Armor provides defense, but when equipping a full perfect set you may gain a special buff. I was never told this and never even tried it, but maybe you can try it yourself. Charms can give special buffs and increase your defense multiplayer, and I’m gonna be honest with you I have no idea what the f*ck that does. And weapons have familiarity, meaning the more time you spend using a weapon the higher the familiarity goes. When the familiarity with a weapon is full it’s attack power is increased. There are quite a few weapons in Nioh. Swords, duel swords, spears, hammers, axes, and swinging sickles.
Seems like a small arsenal, but what makes the combat special in Nioh is the stance system. There are three stances and by switching between them you change the way you fight. The low stance attacks in quick succession, uses less stamina, and is good for attacking enemies below you. The middle stance attacks at a moderate speed, uses a moderate amount of stamina, and is the most well rounded stance to use. The high stance is slow, uses up a lot of stamina, but can cut enemies down within seconds. Depending on certain scenarios you will have to switch up how you fight.
You are going to be gaining a lot of loot overtime, more than half of it you will never use. That extra loot isn’t entirely useless, because when at a checkpoint you can offer the weapons you don’t need gaining items and extra Amrita you can use to level up. Another mechanic to point out is Ki Pulse. Enemies will spawn clouds of fog that will slow down your stamina regeneration and the only way to get rid of them is through Ki Pulse. You perform it when timing it directly after an attack, but it can also be used to instantly regain stamina. Helps constantly keep you moving especially with enemies more frenetic than Bloodborne. At the end of each stage there is a boss that will require multiple attempts to beat. Some of them will have cheap one shot attacks and zoom around like lightning bolts, but with memorization you can defeat them. With your skills you should be able to bring peace back to Japan and save Saoirse.
Thoughts
Nioh is a game I found very hard to play and prep up for this review. I certainly liked the game and had a good time with it overall. The combat is faster than your traditional Souls game and takes a bit to get used to. You are always switching between different pieces of equipment, different stances, learning when to evade, and time your Ki Pulses correctly so you have enough stamina at all times. Once you understand how each component works you can start ripping and tearing through enemies. The setting of Nioh was fantastic as I got to learn more about Japanese culture and ancient folktales. Levels are full of secrets to discover despite their linear structure, the bosses are exhilarating, and due to the high difficulty curve the game gets the player to try out new playstyles and builds. At first I had a simple sword and spear build like what I do in most of the Souls games, but eventually I adopted dual swords and swinging sickle that made faster and more aggressive. I like some of the hand drawn cutscenes where they use stylized drawings and a variety of colors to explain the backstories of certain characters. The story was quite good, as William gets drawn into a war he never even wanted to deal with, but eventually he ends up helping those who are suffering from it.
The game has a ton of content and there is a high amount of replay value to have with the game due to it's combat and how every weapon has a different moveset with each stance. However, Id o have quite a few problems with Nioh that prevent me from saying it's great. As you can tell by now, Nioh follows a mission based where you go from level to level. It’s a nice concept and the missions tell you what character level you should be close to so you don’t get pummeled, but what made Dark Souls feel so magical is how you got to the area. Going back at Dark Souls 3, you traverse through a poisonous swamp, navigate underground catacombs, and rise back to the surface to find yourself outside of the snowy kingdom of Irithyll. Nioh is about a man journeying across Japan, but this mission structure makes his journey from each location feel weird. However, I do understand why they did this as each mission takes place at different times/dates.
I don’t like the elixirs and how the supply of them are handled. It’s like the Blood Vials from Bloodborne which are one use items you could occassionally loot from foes, but it’s also like the Estus Flask because it replenishes at checkpoints. However, they are not replenished entirely to the max carry capcity, meaning you have to farm them or find the Kodama in each level. Kodama are these little jelly-like creatures hidden in each stage that can offer certain buffs at checkpoints. One can increase the drop rate of health items and the other can be ignored.. No offense, but in a Souls game healing is important. Everytime you find five Kodama you can spawn with another elixir within a region. There are multiple regions and each one has 25 Kodama. It also doesn't help how you can only carry eight of them and bosses make you eat them up easily.
I don’t like the button layout. I've gotten used to how the attack commands are on the shoulder buttons on a controller, and luckily Nioh does allow you to change the setup to that format. However, the block button is on the square button, the stance button is on the L1 button, and the item button is on the d-pad. It feels awkward and they don’t ever allow you to map certain commands onto the specific buttons of your choosing. Finally there are the bosses which feel very cheap. They have a lot of hard to predict one shot attacks, and due to how fast the game gets they can be very unforgiving. Is it bad that I think some of the endgame bosses are easier than the first few ones? The first batch of bosses do a bad job welcoming the player to Nioh, and they may be a reason why not many players beat the game. Besides those major issues, Nioh is a great soulslike. The question as with other soulslikes is if it’s as good as the source material and the answer is still no, but it’s addicting, extremely rewarding, and will keep you hooked with it's core combat loop. In all honesty it deserves a nine, but overall I give Nioh is an 8/10 for being pretty good. In some way I do recommend it.
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