Nioh

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JaySevenZero
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Nioh

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Nioh for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Buskalilly
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Re: 542: Nioh

Post by Buskalilly »

I'm a big Dark Souls fan and a huge nerd for Japanese history, architecture and aesthetics. Nioh's mix of real-world samurai figures and brilliantly realised yokai enemies really spoke to me, and I enjoyed it for a while. In the end, though, the difficulty just wasn't pitched right for me; challenges never felt good to overcome, just frustrating to bash my head against and they left me empty when I put them behind me. Maybe if I watched some youtube videos, got gud, and played it like it was my full-time job for a few months, I could see this through, but I don't think I'd enjoy my time with it and there are several other, more highly regarded, samurai games I want to get to on my shiny new PS4. Sorry Nioh - you were cool, but I guess I wasn't.
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MattL
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Re: 542: Nioh

Post by MattL »

As a admittedly huge fan of Souls-likes (yes, take a drink), I was eagerly anticipating Nioh. I played all three demos, the Alpha, the Beta, and the Last Chance trial, for hours and bought the game the release week.

I found Nioh's combat, much like others Souls-likes, to be tough, but fair and the Diablo-esque use of loot drops was an interesting take on the genre and I spent hours tweaking, comparing, and disassembling gear to find that perfect set. I even purchased the Season Pass about two weeks after purchasing Nioh, which something I had never done before (I believe the $25 pass was on sale for $16). I spent dozens of hours in Nioh in the next month platinuming the game.

However, I began to notice something was off in the last 5% to 10% of the game. Enemies were hitting too fast and too hard and had vastly larger health pools and I found those last few levels to be an absolute slog to complete. The fun had disappeared and I was left with an abject feeling of unfairness. This feeling continued into all three DLCs, two of which remain incomplete, as well as Nioh 2, which I had to quit after the sixth level.

Looking back on Nioh, I'm of two minds. I loved most of my time with the game, but the difficulty of the last 10% of the game, plus the DLC and the sequel is what I sadly most remember and why I have a hard time going back to this game. I want to love Nioh and it's sequel, but I can't.

Three word review: Excessive Enemy Stats
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Kos or some say Kosm
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Re: 542: Nioh

Post by Kos or some say Kosm »

Nioh seemed like a natural progression as a massive soulsborne fan and I needed something to scratch that itch. I wasn’t following Nioh in it’s production and wasn’t eagerly awaiting it’s arrival but once the reviews drops I had to play it!

The story was a none factor, didn’t care for it at any point and basically zoned out or checked my phone whenever a cut scene started.

Gameplay was where Nioh’s biggest strength laid. Enemies were brutal and you had the figure them out like a puzzle similar to other souls games but once you knew how to defeat them they were cannon fodder. Bosses were in the same boat. Even tho combat is the best part of Nioh it wasn’t in the same league as souls games, the 3 stances I never really bothered with. I would just stay with the middle stance as that seemed the logical step when you didn’t want to muck around with the stances. Overall I enjoyed my time with this game but after getting the platinum for it I had no desire to go back to it. Maybe the PS5 remaster including 1 & 2 can draw me back in. But at the moment I have no desire to leave Elden Ring anytime soon.

Three word review: Not quite Souls
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Rhaegyr
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Re: 542: Nioh

Post by Rhaegyr »

Didn't get on with the story, levels and environments were repeated too many times, the game doesn't explain itself and its' systems very well and the Diablo-style loot felt out of place for me.

The quality of the combat however made most of that redundant - it felt like the true successor to Ninja Gaiden I've been waiting on for over a decade. Fast, graceful, stylish, complex and above all a real challenge with a ton of variety and methods to play with. Ki Pulse (along with Living Water) and the Yokai Pools also added an extra layer of strategy to your movement/dodging which upped the ante even further. It just feels so fluid and smooth to play. Loved it.

I played most of the game in co-op with a friend using the Torii gate system; the shared health bar was a clever addition I didn't think I'd enjoy but it really forced us to cooperate, stay close and look out for each other (instead of wandering off and doing our own thing). Great stuff.

Reminds me I need to play the sequel!
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Kos or some say Kosm
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Re: 542: Nioh

Post by Kos or some say Kosm »

Also I small story to share about this game… I’m a Correctional Officer (prison guard) in Australia in a maximum security prison and 1 day an inmate was playing Nioh in his cell, I started chatting to him about the game and how I have the platinum for it. I then said he should get into the Soulsborne game if he likes Nioh. Another prisoner chimed in by saying ‘nah dark souls is crap, it’s like an old pc game’. Neither the less in inmate gave Dark Souls 3 a go and absolutely loved it then the rest of the series! Now he always talks to me about gaming whenever I see him. So Nioh got this violent criminal into the soulsborne and gained me some rapport with him! Good times ha
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ThirdDrawing
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Re: Our next podcast recording (23.10.22) - 542: Nioh

Post by ThirdDrawing »

I was interested in Nioh because I liked the setting. I thought it was a natural extension of what the Onimusha games could have become. However I suck at Souls games. I bought the "complete" edition of this in Hong Kong as I have travelled to Japan several times and am a fan of games like Tenchu, Onimusha etc. and was immediately taken with the setting. I haven't finished it, but games like this and Sekiro are the types of games I strive to get better at, even when I'm not very good. I like that it tries to set itself apart from Souls games by being a little grittier, even if it's just as fantasical as Souls games.
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Taz
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Re: Our next podcast recording (23.10.22) - 542: Nioh

Post by Taz »

I was excited to try Nioh as I'm a big fan of the Souls games (I think everyone's post here starts like that...) but I only played the first few levels of the game. The combat was exciting and had a lot of depth to it, I loved the aesthetic, but what I found missing was the free-roaming world made up of interconnected areas that FromSoft's games have. By splitting the game down into a linear, mission based structure, I found that a key ingredient was now missing. I realised that, to enjoy these games, I need more than tough combat. In Souls there are multiple ways to overcome the challenges you face and a lot of these boil down to exploration - if one area is too tough for you, maybe you need to go somewhere else first. Often you find items and weapons in one place that are invaluable elsewhere. If Lordran's areas were split into a series of linear missions instead of being presented as a singular world that you can explore as you see fit, I think a lot of the magic would be lost and ultimately that's why I tired of Nioh very quickly. Which is a shame because there's so much here that the game does well.
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