Nioh - Review

Nioh - Review

The wait is over: we can finally talk freely about Nioh, the latest effort by Team Ninja for Sony Interactive Entertainment and Koei Tecmo. A year and a half have passed since its presentation at E3 2015, well, plenty of water under the bridge has passed. The game has changed a lot over time, those who have played the alpha version and then the subsequent demos will certainly have noticed and here is the question: Will the game be able to convince us? Here you are served!



Nioh - Review

In a different era

William is a man who finds himself prisoner in the Tower of London during the year 1598 AD The reasons why we must help him escape are not clear but on the contrary, it is clear the reason that pushes him to undertake his journey. Thanks to a guiding spirit, the man escapes from the dungeons of the prison and finds himself having to face a dark individual who, with the use of a mystical stone, awakens a mighty executioner from death, transforming him into a demon over two meters high. Thanks to the guiding spirit we spoke of earlier, our knight has the upper hand, but the evil hooded man stuns William and steals his spirit. With a catchphrase, it disappears into thin air. At that point our hero dives from the wounded cliff, determined to seek revenge: after almost three years of navigation, he arrives on the coasts of Japan, with a diary of those lands that he finds in the hold of his ship. We are in the middle of the Sengoku era and the country is in turmoil due to internal struggles not only between human beings but also between supernatural beings such as Oni (demons), Yokai and Kappa in addition to the gods themselves. Reading the diary found during his journey, William familiarizes himself with Japan and in particular, during his two years of travel, deepens his knowledge of the Samurai warriors and learns as much as possible about them. William's story is a story about revenge and redemption: it is not the deepest plot that can be conceived but overall the story in which the events of the game occur, turns out to be enjoyable and not trivial.



Nioh - Review

Oni, Yokai and Dark Souls

Entering with a straight leg, we immediately tell you that: yes, the game is an Action / RPG in Souls Like mode, that is, it takes up the styles of combat, level advancement and the type of approach directly from the progenitor of the genre, Dark Souls precisely. Having overcome this obstacle, we confirm that the game has many similarities with its inspiration but also manages to do more: the combat system is very dynamic, thanks to the fact that each weapon has three types of handle which are divided into high, medium and low. The subdivision of the handles completely changes the move set of our hero who will perform totally different actions based on how the command will be given. Most of the time we will use a medium grip but in confined spaces such as a room in a house or in a cave we may prefer the action of rapid descending or ascending swipes. Each position will allow us to access different skills, which we will unlock as we use the same position: there is a whole tree of skills to be completed, which is divided into generic skills and skills peculiar to a certain position. During the fight it will also be possible to recover the Ki, consumable energy that is used for anything like parrying, running, attacking and dodging. To recover the Ki it will be necessary to press the R1 key suddenly, at the exact moment of the end of the combo. If we learn to master the descent and ascent of Ki (in the Ki rhythm game) we will be very advantaged in the clashes and we could lead the game to our advantage. In addition to the skills related to weapons and their handle, William is able to learn the fundamentals of Ninjutsu, a discipline that regulates the production of weapons and bombs peculiar to the Samurai and Ninja of the Sengoku era. Using a certain skill tree, we could choose whether to become experts in the art of throwing Shuriken or in the production of powerful bombs and poisonous traps. It will be over here you might think: and here is Nioh surprises us again! There is a third skill tree, linked to Onmyo magic: this will allow us to be true masters in the art of illusion, paralysis or the enhancement of our resistances. If all this were not enough, know that we are only at the beginning.



Nioh - Review

The amount of weapons included in the game is very varied: there are Katanas, Double Katanas, Spears, Axes, Kusarigama (a very special Japanese weapon, consisting of a sickle tied to a chain at the end of which a weight is placed), Bows, Rifles, Cannons and even bonus sets! Each weapon has its own "level" which increases with the progressive use of the aforementioned. The more we are able to use a certain weapon, the more it will increase in power. The guardian spirits that we can have at our side are many: the three main ones are Kato the wolf, Isonade the Shark and Daibawashi the bird. Each guardian spirit can be activated once the appropriate sphere of energy is filled and will unleash its power from time to time different. To level up, just pray at a shrine: here we could increase our stats, sell items, change our guardian spirit, receive the blessing of the Kodama (a passive ability that ranges from increasing item finding to temporarily increasing stats), summon one of our allies (system similar to that already seen in the Souls series) upgrade our equipment or forge new ones thanks to the blacksmith option!

Nioh - ReviewTechnicalities and Visual Impact

Nioh's gameplay is very customizable: once you learn when to quickly switch weapons everything becomes easier, but it is very much related to the player's skill. It is definitely a game that rewards a player's audacity and wit. Opponents should never be underestimated, any oversight can be fatal since if you run out of Ki, you will find yourself stuck for at least two seconds, more than enough to pass away. Contrary to what happens in the Souls series, here we could not be invaded by other players: we could however evoke their avatar and accept to challenge him, while it is under the control of the AI ​​There is, for the moment, a real PvP therefore but it is not to be exclude that it can be proposed later. Aesthetically, the game does not shine much for its graphics that appear rather dated: water and setting are well characterized but often you notice strong drops in frame rate on enemies or objects placed in the background or we could say that many textures on the enemies are low resolution. The feeling is that the title was also intended for Sony PlayStation 3 and that it was not designed only for PlayStation 4. At impact, the game is still beautiful and enjoyable. Sound is not excellent but it is not what you are looking for in a title like this.



Nioh - Review

Nioh

The literal translation of the term Nioh, from the Japanese is King Benevolent: probably a better name could not have chosen. As positive notes about the game we can tell you that it is really deep, the title manages to amaze and customize a genre that perhaps few would be able to improve. Don't be surprised if you spend up to twenty minutes deciding where to insert one statistical point over another: every choice you make will count for a lot, so be careful. Negative notes can be a graphic sector not exactly in line with current standards, an uncomfortable choice of the position of certain attack commands (fighting with square and triangle in a similar title is stressful at first, then you get used to it). But what we found really boring was the excessive punishment of the mistakes made: on many occasions we die for a trivial distraction or because the enemy on duty hits us with two hits. Making a mistake is bad and we accept that but dying from two single attacks is often frustrating. We found the arcade gameplay very realistic which, when used properly, will allow you to instantly kill enemies.

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