Nioh’ Preview
Nioh is the latest title coming from Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo, and is another entry in the “Souls-like” genre. Players are thrust into the role of William, a samurai who is very loosely based on William Adams, and are tasked with conquering all sorts of nasty demons in ancient Japan. Demons aren’t the only creatures that you will encounter, as you’ll be dealing with other humans as well, and the combat presents a wide range of options for you on how to proceed. During my hands-on with Nioh, I found out about the stance system. This is a unique mechanic to Nioh, and allows you to approach combat a few different ways. You can make use of punishing high attacks, a mix of both speed and power with medium attacks, or go for full on speed with low stance attacks. They all have their merits and their drawbacks, but only by mixing between all three will you be able to conquer what lies in front of you.
The combat in this game is straight up punishing, and is going to encourage your focus. I’d logged some quality time with Namco’s popular series, but from what I can gather so far with Nioh, it feels much tougher, and I’m quite ok with that. The combat is a well-tuned machine, and mixing up stances on the fly as you cut down all sorts of enemies leaves you feeling like a serious badass. The game can just as quickly turn the tables on you though, as Oni, the primary type of demons you encounter in the game, spawn corruption that can sap your stamina if you don’t purge it yourself. These encounters are still very much beatable, but they effectively shut off an area, forcing you to adapt your tactics. In the case of the demo, I ran into a hulking skeleton samurai that was doing some serious damage, so I opted to make use of the Medium Stance attacks to do what I could. Eventually, the corruption and sheer strength of this enemy made me change my approach up, and after using hit and run tactics with the High Stance, I was able to wipe it out with much less trouble.
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“The combat is a well-tuned machine, and mixing up stances on the fly as you cut down all sorts of enemies leaves you feeling like a serious badass.”
At no point did it feel unfair, though. I’m used to these sort of games, but Nioh was a serious test at some points, and I look forward to seeing what more can come of Team Ninja. The game is pretty easy on the eyes, featuring some gorgeous vistas and seriously cool enemy design. Terracotta warriors, cyclops-like brutes, and the aforementioned samurai skeletons are just some of the enemies seen in the trailer, and the Oni encountered in the E3 Demo that is dropping later in August is no slouch itself, both visually, and in ability to beat your ass two ways from Sunday. Overcoming it leaves you with that feeling of immense satisfaction that has made this style of game so popular, and I’m sure that Nioh will be in no short of supply of both in dizzying highs, as well as brutal difficulty. This game will not mess around, so bring your A game.
As mentioned before, the Beta demo is slated to drop in August 2016, and you’ll be able to get your hands on what I managed to try out during E3. Nioh has had a bit of a rough development history, but this game is shaping up to be one worth keeping an eye on, as I’m sure fans of the Souls-like genre won’t be disappointed in the slightest with this. Nioh is exclusive to PS4, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled on COGconnected as more information on this game comes to light. It may be a Dark Souls-inspired title, but the aesthetic is seriously cool, and I’m eager to see more of this title, as Nioh’s gameplay stands on its own two feet just as well as the popular Fromsoftware series.
