

18 people found this review funny 0 170 people found this review helpful18 people found this review funny

Not Recommended 81.9 hrs on record

TLDR:

Nioh was disappointing for me. A very good combat system undermined by pretty much everything else. The game is way too long for the amount of content it brings to the table, and it ends up recycling the same enemies, weapons, armors and level design over and over through the whole experience. If you wanna buy cause you heard it's like Dark Souls, i'd suggest you not to.



Review:

Nioh is overall a decent game, but if you wanna play it because you heard that it's like Dark Souls in ancient Japan, then the game might let you down.

I think this game indeed suffered a great deal by being compared way too much to Dark Souls, just because Souls-like games are quite in fashion lately, but other than the combat system, the similarities are over.



Let's begin with the good, and in my opinion, only redeeming aspect of the game: The Combat System with Stances. Brilliant, very well done, engaging and fun. You'll have access to 7 or 8 type of weapons in the game, all with their own mechanics, 3 stances each that can be swapped mid-combat and allow you to execute a wide range of attacks. The downside of this is that if you decide to go down the path of Odachis (heavy 2 handed swords), all Odachis are gonna share the same moves from start to finish, making the combat feel a bit stale after many hours.

Another good mention goes to the Ki Pulse and Purification mechanic. Initially i found hard to remember to do it after each combo, but after a while it becomes a quite interesting mechanic that makes combat a lot more technical and interesting.



Now the BAD parts or better to say the parts i didnt enjoy: Enemies, Exploration, Loot System & Weapons, Story.



Enemies: human enemies are jokes, they barely pose a threat in early levels, after that they are just meat for your sword. Yokai (Demons) are SO recycled it hurts. You'll see pretty much the same 2 or 3 types (sometimes recolors of the same version) with the same moves through 90% of the game. It's a shame! Bosses are cool overall, but they also get recycled in later levels, and that's a shame too, kills a lot of the uniqueness that a boss should have.



Exploration and Level Design: Some levels are good, but i feel like the designs make way too much use of the same type of shortcut "to be opened from the other side". It becomes really predictable and just lazy after a while. Few levels are really interesting and explorable, most of them are just straight forward, with a couple of shortcuts to open so you can access easily a previously discovered Shrine. I'll also add here that the fact the game is all structured in enclosed levels/missions completly disconnected from eachother is a bit of a let down for me and doesnt help at all for the athmosphere and world building.



Loot System: taken straight out of Diablo, which might sound good, but it certanly isnt for a game like this. Let's go back to the Odachi example i was making before. All Odachis have the same moves, so you'll never get attached to a particular one because you feel like you fight better with it. You'll find yourself switching weapon pretty much everytime you find one that does 1% more damage than the previous one. Weapons have also levels, so it's pretty much assured that you'll leave a lower level weapon for a higher one eventually, considering also that you'll find WAY TOO MANY! Seriously, through the game i had to empty my whole inventory (500 items cap) about 5 times, cause i couldnt pick up any more stuff. The game throws objects at you like it's a County Fair. Result: your items will have no personal value to you, you'll just look for which one is the better one at the time being.

One last thing. All Weapons of the same type look pretty much the same weapon recolored. JUST LAZY!



Story: Also here, Meh! I didnt emphatize with the story at all until almost the end, and even there it was just "meh!"

It all begins with Edward Kelley kidnapping your guardian spirit (which we saw for about 10 seconds before this moment) so it's really hard to care at all about this event. After this the whole setting moves to Japan where you chase Kelley for pretty much the whole game, meanwhile you do alliances with Shoguns, Ninjas, Magicians, and help them do whatever they need, for honestly no apparent reasons to me. The main storyline is honestly quite slow and uninteresting, if you add the tons of side-missions this game's pace becomes unbearable. I wanted to finish it and i did, but the later levels felt like a huge slog.



Overall: if this game was half as long as it is i think it would have been much better. The whole game suffers from a limited amount of ideas that are spread and recycled over an 80 hours game. If you buy and play it, just do yourself a favor and skip the side missions.

Again, my mistake was getting into this game expecting something like Dark Souls, and i got disappointed, so if this is the main reason for you to buy it, just dont.