@NightMiroir I'm not big on Final Fantasy personally. I was always more into SMT or other niche games like Lost Odyssey, Shadow Hearts, Resonance of Fate and such - generally the more tonally "somber" games, with obvious expections like Persona 3-5 (1+2 were pretty somber though actually ^^) or TMS#FE.

Anyways, I did play some of the earlier FF on NDS as well as VII and XII and as you say, the demo for FF VII Remake was rather glorious. I think the game will be substantial even if it only covers the Midgard section of FFVII. Square said the they significantly expanded upon the original content and that it will be comparable in length to other mainlaine standaline FF games. I do expect and hope to get like 30h out of it, esp. since I'm the kinda of player who meticiously checks ever nook and cranny.

My only concern is that the demo was super easy. But FFVII if I recall startet out rather easy as well, so here is hoping to things picking up later on.

As for Nioh 2 I'll say that it is proper brilliant. There are small design flaws here and there, but overall it's everything you could ask for in a game like this and in my view it is Team Ninja at their absolute best. The most important aspect is that virtually all of the game can be played in co-op (there are some 1-on-1 missions as well as the Dojo missions that afaik you have to play solo, but most other submissions as well as all mainmissions work) and that's really a great deal of fun. The co-op is also straightforward. One player host a match for friends, those can simply join the lobby, a mission is selected and then things get underway. Progress is shared between coop and single-player, which is crucial to me, since I hated how in Bloodborne progress counted only for the "hosting" player and the whole system was super obtuse to initially setup. Be warned though, that currently the PSN is broken during the day, so at least for me an my buds, we can only play after like 11 p.m. at night.

It's basically Sekiro meets Diablo. For many players, that will be a dream come true. I think it's a fair bit easier than Nioh 1 to be honest, but that may be in some part due to me "learning the ropes" in Nioh 1 as well as co-op of course, having played Nioh 1 only solo. Still, even in Solo missions I tend to take bosses within 1-3 attempts, when in Nioh 1 I often took a dozen tries.

I also think the game is ALOT easier than Sekiro in my book. I've beaten all the bosses in Sekiro except the final one since sadly my vacation ran out then, I haven't gotten back to the game since, but I do remember that some fights took me like a whole day to nail down, like the fight against Owl for instance. I think I am 2/3 through Nioh 2 now (the 1st run at least), and none of the bosses took me more than hour, with several of them going down 1st try - definitely in co-op.

Be aware though (although you probably know this already having tried Nioh 1), that Sekiro and Nioh 2 are vastly different games, despite some similiarites. Parrying for instance works entirely different, with completely different timing windows, additional effects skewing these windows even further and in general ... I don't parry in Nioh 2 at all. I dodge or block as the pay-off in Nioh 2 is not worth the risk. It's way more important to get your burst counters in, which more about positioning than timing though (at least with Brutes and Ferals).

In general, I absolutely addored Sekiro, but I also love Nioh 2. Both share a commong setting and some mechanical similarities being both "soulsborne" games, but Nioh 2 in many ways is much closer to Demon Souls than Sekiro actually. Still, some aspects still flat out do not work in Nioh 2. The level design ins subpar compared to Soulsborne. The way the world is split into small areas accessible as missions kinda of kills the sense of place. Both of which makes the environmental storytelling barely existent and really hurts the atmosphere. Nioh 2 is also super grindy compared to your typical Soulsborne. You have not just levels to worry about, but weapon familiarity as well as Skill proficiency for Ninja/Samurai/Shiftling and Magic skills individualls as well as for each weapontype seperately.

THe way way Nioh 2 is structured is more like a game like Diablo. It's "real" meat is the endgame content/ New Game+ where all the real good gear awaits and the game opens up giving you tools for proper builds and min-maxing. That is not everyone's cup of tea and I say as a single-player game, you play only once start to finish to experience the world and the story, Nioh 2 is inferior to Sekiro in many ways.

As an extended experience, where you try dozen of different builds, optimize your gear and play a fair bit of co-op, it is clearly superior to Sekiro, which had no multiplayer and only a very limited NG+, that was - in my view - aimed at hardcore fans, offering little new options over your 1st run expect to experience a tougher challenge (the game was plenty tough already though imho) as well as to experience the other endings.

The story in Nioh 2 is pretty hard to follow if you do not have extensive background knowledge of Japanese history in the Sengoku period. Times, places and famous individuals are heavily referenced and prominently featured in the game, but if you only go by the cutscenes between missions you will have a hard time really "getting it" nor will you be invested in what is happening. Nioh 2's storytelling is entirely unlike Soulsborne, but given the games particular structure I feel the game is poorly severed by this traditional linear cut-scene heavy storytelling.

It's something that did not really work for me in Nioh 1 and it sitll doesn't work here. Given the games qualities, as I elabored above, plus the excellent combat mechanics (allowing like Demon Souls did for ranged combat builds, with magic or Ninja skills for instance as well as very cool melee combat), that is something I can easily forgive though. I don't think people spend 200h with Diablo 3 for the story either ...

Long story short, if you look challenging, fast paced action games, set in the setting of Sekiro, you'll like it. If you liked Nioh 1, you will like it. If you like Team Ninja games, you will like it. If you like loot-and-min-max'ing heavy games like Diablo, you will like it.

I'd say it stands overall toe-to-toe with Sekiro. Both games focus on different aspects on the Soulsborne genre. But both largely succeed in their particular endeavours. Final note: Like I said, if parrying ain't your thing in general, do not worry, blocking, dodging is the name of the game in Nioh 2 and the only areas where parry comes in is burst countering, but that is far, far, far, far, far more forgiveable than Sekiro. If you could handle Sekiro you will be more than fine in Nioh 2, trust me. Compared to that, it's a cakewalk. If you ever want to play Nioh 2 (or just talk trash ^^) feel free to hit me up on PSN (Ralek_US) btw.

As for Caligula, I read as much in other reviews as well, particularly about how long the encounters take and how many there are. I feel like combat is really cool, but from what I've seen and read, it does not evolve all that much and it lacks the "snappiness" and style of, say, Persona 5, which made each fight feel like the coolest thing, and it was very brisk at it as well.

I bought Culdcept already. Not sure when I'll get to it, but it sure looks very much down my alley. I do love deep cardbattling systems and it seems to have that in spades, plus some cool twist to it. Looking forward to immersing myself into it eventually.