Current Events > How is Nioh? Worth full price on PC?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I love all soulsborne games btw. How does it compare? Is it say, as polished as bloodborne, or as well designed as dark souls 1 enemy design?
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This is probably too late but I have quite a lot to say on the subject.

It is not as polished. It is not as well designed. It has less enemy and weapon variety. Sound design is lackluster especially compared to Bloodborne (though few consciously care about this), as well as the soundtrack being lacking and marred by some repetition in overusing some tracks.

Variety in general takes a significant hit as you will see the same areas multiple times, refight some bosses several times as well.

It also has a pretty traditional approach to storytelling, nothing like Souls in that regard. And the world is not seamlessly connected - it is instead broken up into individual levels accessed via a map screen menu.

So, that's basically all the problems in the way of enjoying it out of the way. There ARE good points though. Going over those some: While the weapon variety is much smaller, you do have 3 different stances to use each in, each with their own moveset, and in addition you have a higher number of potential inputs to perform different attacks. Further, the game uses a more traditional aspect of character upgrading in the form of skill trees, basically, for each weapon class, where along with some passives you unlock various skills, just extra attacks basically. There is a degree of customisation as well, because there are many more skills for each weapon than possible inputs, and some skills you can even choose what stance(s) they are executed in.

Additionally, since there's far fewer weapon types, they tried to make each one not like...overly specialised, but without any of them feeling redundant. Because each has 3 stances and a myriad of extra moves to customise in as you progress, there's no situation where you'd be like "well dang I have a slow heavy weapon but I need to be swift" or "I have a quick weapon but I need to do some hard hitting attacks" - every weapon has tools for a very wide array of situations while also feeling distinct in its own way.

The combat system adds an extra layer of involvement because you can see enemy stamina under their health bar and enemies use stamina just like you do. This has serious ramifications because any human, yourself included, who takes stamina damage that depletes them to a negative value, is knocked into a state to be riposte/visceral attacked basically. Further, just taking damage, also does some degree of stamina damage. So if you get hit with no stamina left, you're in trouble, but similarly, if you hit a human enemy who has no stamina, they're in trouble. This allows all attacks an extra layer of complexity because it's not just about HP damage, but also stamina. So some might be good for one but not the other.

In general if you like a bit more input-complexity to your RPG action, Nioh does have that over From's Souls games. There's a lot of neat fluid combos to teach your hands to make the most of situations, and there's even weapon-switch transitional attacks you can unlock and bonuses for ki pulsing (basically a recovery cancel + stamina regain concept after performing attacks) and switching stances right after.

The game is also more mechanically complex and forward about it. Like, you can see the damage numbers of your attacks as well as attacks you take, but split to where you see the physical number, and then the elemental number is a different color. This helps inform you about EXACTLY how much that weapon buff is doing for you, for example. There's a lot of little neat things like that I certainly appreciated.

But a big thing I should have said sooner is, it does have a pretty much full blown Diablo style loot system, color-coded and all, sets with set bonuses, loot vomited out of everything. This might be a good thing, or a bad thing. Depends on how you feel about that. It IS a big part of the game though. It's one part Souls game, one part loot game (though a first playthrough won't feel close to the full force of this at least).
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One thing I really like, is the guardian spirit system. This is Nioh's closest approximation to human/hollow, body/soul form. Basically, there are MANY different guardian spirits you can choose, and all of them have different passive effects that can significantly change how things go for you in the game. The one passive they all have, is spirit protection. Basically, this means a global damage reduction. When you die, where you died your spirit is left, to guard your soul- Amrita. So, after dying, you lose all your spirit's passives, and are thus more frail. And of course, dying again, you lose that amrita, though your spirit will come back to you at least. It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't played, but, guardian spirits just are pretty complex and they can really personalise a playstyle because they have a complex series of stats, passives, and stats for "living weapon" which is like a temporary super mode you can go into occasionally that...goes through changes throughout the game. At one point it might seem like a fleeting but overpowered mode. Another time maybe kinda lackluster and a liability. By endgame, it's something that can be nice, but it takes commitment to make it truly shine skillfully.

But just... It's a souls game, but the devs clearly had plenty of their own ideas too, some of those ideas are ways to improve things to make it more user friendly or just nice, and some is just entirely new ideas. And I kinda find that inherently interesting. Just some things they do, make me go "oh, that's really a neat idea!"

For example, Nioh basically has Souls' bloodstain mechanic, except when you activate it, instead of seeing how they died (the grave itself will tell you instead), you summon an AI controlled version of them, and you fight them. Defeating them, they have a chance to drop the equipment they had equipped when they died. That's neat from a souls perspective, AND a Diablo style loot perspective.

They also have something sort of like covenants, called clans, except these afford pretty serious passive bonuses to you, and you can increase the strength of it by staying in it longer and doing certain things. Feels more meaningful than covenants tended to in Souls, especially 3 when it largely boiled down to "what color do I want my PvP spirit to be" >_>

...No invasions though, for the record. Pretty damn nice for coopers however. Coop summons get loot drops just like a host does, and then some. It's good times for jolly cooperation.


Anyway this is mondo rambly. Personally, I liked the game a lot, but it was also clearly very flawed and the endgame balance actually is kinda annoying and a lot of the DLC bosses and some enemies really seemed a bit over the top in the difficulty department. Plenty of Souls fans didn't like it that much, at least not enough to do more than one playthrough, but some did...it's honestly hard to say, to predict. I guess it depends on just...what is most important to you in a Souls game, and what is your tolerance for some things, like Diablo loot, and a lack of enemy variety and some repetition. Like if you hate Diablo style loot...that's gonna be rough.

But some stuff is kind of like a tradeoff. Like, areas are divided into levels on a map screen menu, but, you can replay them (and even cycle through all unlocked game cycles, no leaving New Game behind forever). So if there's a level you like, or a boss you want to fight to your heart's content, no need for a backup save, or bonfire ascetics or anything. You can just keep doing it over and over, and ther'es a lot of sub missions purely going "hey fight this boss one on one" so if you like boss fights, well, get ready for a lot of available boss fights.
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The simple version.

It was overly praised at release and overly criticized now. It's the best soulsborne clone out there, but still not on it's level.

What it lacks in world and enemy design it makes up with it's own spin on the gameplay. If you want to play it, it's worth checking out. If you're on the fence, it's not something you should rush to play.

I loved it on PS4.
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I have it on PS4 and enjoy it enough that I got it on PC. Granted, I got it for like $35 thanks to GreenManGaming, but still.
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Tmk posted...

This is probably too late

Thanks for the honest review. Honestly one of the more concise, but complete, I've seen on here. You honestly gave me enough information (That I confirmed with friends + videos online of the game) that made me pass on the purchase, and just keep playing through my backlog. It looks fun, complete, and cohesive for a game. I just know it's not some alarming must-have. I had similar feedback for The Phantom Pain, but bought that anyway, and regret it. Nioh seems like a very horizontal game, in that I'd get bored of the shallow content too fast.
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I have it on PS4. Nioh sucked. Don't waste your money. It's an ok action game that copies a bunch of dark souls mechanics but fails to incorporate them in a way that actually works. the more i played nioh, the more i realized WHY i like dark souls and how Nioh failed to emulate any of those things.
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I would just wait to see if it gets discounted on gmg or steam for black friday / winter sales
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CommunismFTW posted...

Thanks for the honest review. Honestly one of the more concise, but complete, I've seen on here. You honestly gave me enough information (That I confirmed with friends + videos online of the game) that made me pass on the purchase, and just keep playing through my backlog. It looks fun, complete, and cohesive for a game. I just know it's not some alarming must-have. I had similar feedback for The Phantom Pain, but bought that anyway, and regret it. Nioh seems like a very horizontal game, in that I'd get bored of the shallow content too fast.

Basically what allowed me to play it and enjoy it as much as I did was specifically my enjoyment of coop (helping people, to be exact), and Diablo loot. Nioh's take on a Diablo loot system is actually the most user friendly, forgiving take I've ever seen. It's the first game with this loot style that didn't end up driving me into utter despair. And to a lesser extent an intense enjoyment of like, mechanics and how they work together.

But it's lacking in a lot of areas where From's games are pretty strong. It's a weird mixture of games really, and it just happens to resonate with me well enough to overcome the flaws. For awhile anyway.
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I hear the PC version of Nioh isn't that good.
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Oh is it a bad port?

Actually does Team Ninja even have experience with PC gaming? I remember From's entry into that with DS1 was a pretty rough ride too.
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You might still be able to get it on GMG for $35 if you have a VIP account. If not, check cdkeys.

It's definitely a good, fun game, but it is nowhere near the level of a Souls game. It does play pretty flawlessly on my pc as well. Have an i5 6600k and a 1070. Running it at 1440p and it's a pretty rock solid 60fps.
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I hated the demo when it first game out. I watched some gameplay and it looked marginally better but still not great or anything
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