Nioh Review
Played on PlayStation 4 (base)
Developed by Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo
Released 7th February 2017
Nioh, The Surge, Code Vein, Lords of the Fallen, Remnant From the Ashes, and Crash Bandicoot are some of the most notorious Souls-likes to exist. They all hold a special fragment of what made FromSoftware's masterpieces glow bright and they twist on it in ways that many didn't know they wanted. Are they as refined? No. But these games, especially Nioh, are what I, among many, would consider a successful souls-like, to the point it feels discriminatory to label it as just that.
Story
The story of Nioh centres around William Adams as he pursues a sorcerer named Edward Kelly. The two's feud revolves around the final battles of the Sengoku period in Japan and the appearance of Yokai, supernatural demons. With an intriguing focus and tale to be told, I couldn't find myself to be interested in the plot. This could be due to how this is my first souls-like game and it mostly shifted my attention to gameplay, however, there is another factor to consider. Its performance. The concept is great, and the unique blend of the history of samurai (done in an Assassin's Creed fashion), and the mythology of Japanese folklore is fantastic. But other than that, it's played off as a semi-light-hearted fantasy story that should be told with a straight face. A part of me feels like I shouldn't count the story into the score as I've been negligent to it, but simultaneously, that's the flaw within it - it's not captivating enough.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Nioh is incredible. This action RPG consists of some of the most challenging, yet enjoyable moments I've encountered. The gameplay focuses on the stance-switching action of randomised loot drops, the mastery of abilities and powers, and the overall precision you contain in slashing and hacking your enemy to bits. First of all, the game has a fluid stance-switching attribute, which adds to the stylish sword action you would expect of a samurai game while being practical and effective. The player can switch from high-stance, a Ki (stamina) draining and slow yet powerful set of attacks to a balanced mid-stance to a swift and weak low-stance. These stances allow for a certain skill level to be achieved and add unique playstyles to each player and weapon equipped. As great of a mechanic it is, I found myself mostly using the low-stance through about the majority of the game, not finding any reason to switch as every fight was winnable, only slightly varying in difficulty.
As I've mentioned in my Outriders review; I hate randomised loot drops as they detract from the relationship you can build up with your weaponry, and that goes double with this game as every enemy will drop an overwhelming amount of items that either won't be needed for the whole game, or I can equip for about 5 minutes, before switching it to something different and better. Combined with the intense amount of stats you'll have to acknowledge, it just becomes annoying to a certain point and is only somewhat redeemed by how some weapons have cool features like the Ravenwing rifle from one of the boss fights.
Other than this, the game manages to nail every other aspect. The level design is so well done, from the intricately designed secrets to the looping shortcuts and pathways that maximise your survivability. The game manages to also add additional ways of dealing with enemies if axes, swords, rifles and bows weren't enough. The skill trees of this game allow for new moves to toy with weapons like the axe's continuous spin, or katana's deadly parry, plus adding some bonus of Omnyo Magic and Ninjutsu, which range from paralytic shurikens to lightning coating on your weapon. I could go on and on about the depth this game takes in combat, from Ki pulses to Living Spirits and more, as this game is jam-packed with brilliant features that I love to the fullest and add that extra mastery to the challenge-filled game.
Talking about the challenge, what in the Japanese hell is this? The game doesn't consist of a learning curve but instead, a rocky graph made up of spikes going down to "Oh I beat this area and boss first try", to "I swear to God, this is some RNG bullshit". While there does appear a nice balance at times, the game fluctuates between these two peaks too many times to be considered a difficult trial alongside the Dark Souls trilogy and other Souls-like games.
Bossfights
The bossfights are incredible sections within this game (especially in the first half). The majority of the fights feel unique, fresh and amazing and challenge the player in the right way - no gimmicky sequences or basic enemy redesigns, only proper fights. However, in some instances, the bosses failed to captivate me in certain aspects. For example, the Gasha-dokuro had an immense & phenomenal design and build-up but lacked innovative forms of gameplay, being more of a fight consisting of "attack the massive hand they swung down to win". Another example of this is Saika Magoichi, sub-par design and environment but damn is the fight fun and challenging as hell.
The bossfights are also plagued with alternating peaks of difficulty. One of the first bosses you encounter, Onryoki, became my nemesis as I spent an exaggerated amount of time on him, only to see the boss appear again later, defeatable in my first attempt. Either muscle memory kicked in, or the complimenting arenas to the bosses affected this, as Onryoki's first arena was claustrophobic on the player and his long-range & wide attacks made the fight much more frustrating. As much as I love the bosses in this game, they were considerably flawed, but the ones that aren't, like Oda Nobunaga and Ogress, were some of my favourite bosses to duel.
Characters
The characters of Nioh are similar to how I perceived the story: great and unique in their own rights, but not outstanding enough to capture my attention. While I was negligent to the main campaign, I realised how terrible an antagonist Edward Kelley is; the stereotypical dark sorcerer who doesn't have an ounce of charm or individuality. This also applies to the protagonist William Adams as he portrays the small joke-cracker who is there with a "save the world" mentality and feel. The other historically accurate characters like The Dark Samurai (Yasuke) and Oda Nobunaga feel like they were presented the best way possible, at least according to my Japanese history knowledge.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is what is to be expected of a Souls-like game - brilliantly executed. The alternating levels bring a certain life to the game, especially in the more visually impressive levels like the burning villages, maze-like luxurious insides or rain-bombarding mountains. The sound design is clear-cut and has the generic blood burst sound effect when hacking and slashing your opponents apart. The music rarely varies but what is delivered is either the eerie, doom-impending battle music or calming, lotus-like rhythms. No technical performances halted or displeased my time playing.
Story- 6/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Bossfights- 7/10
Characters- 6/10
Atmosphere- 8/10
Good
There is a reason why people consider Nioh to be the king of Souls-likes, and while I think that statement is a tad bit overrated, it could be mostly blamed on how this game is my entry into such a world.
