Nioh: Feudal Era Dark Souls

[Siveon]

So, being a non-PS4 guy, how is the game compared to Souls, Onimusha, etc?

 

[Morgoth]

Watched some videos, and it looks like a clunky Souls-ripoff with PS3 graphics and PS2 animations.

 

[ghostdog]

The dark souls of onimusha gaiden, another great entry in the hall of fame: https://twitter.com/xmeetsdarksouls

 

[Hobo Elf]

Game is not clunky at all, the gameplay is very fast and fluid. I'm going to go sleep now so I'll post some impressions on the game and post a look at the game systems and mechanics (with pictures) when I wake up, if someone else doesn't do so while I'm asleep. All I'll say for now is that it feels like Dark Souls with an actual combat system. The influences are there and they are blatant, but the game also adds its own spin on things by having a layer of Team Ninja's brand of Hack n' Slash gameplay and mechanics, like customizeable combos, skill trees for the weapons with unlockable moves and so on. It's good fun. Game is also brutally hard, but in the same way like it felt playing Demon's Souls for the first time.

 

[eric__s]

Someone's streaming on Youtube here, the game looks really good but I'm not a huge fan of the randomly generated equipment. I guess I'll be getting a PS4 soon. The area design is extremely open, I can't tell what the goal is or where the guy is going.

 

[Hobo Elf]

As promised, a look at NI-OH, NIOH, Nioh, whatever man.

Lets start out with all the similarities that the game shares with Souls:

-The UI
-"Bonfires"
-Souls used to level up your stats
-Leveling up in the Bonfire
-Dropping all your souls upon death; retrievable unless you die again on the way there
-The stat system itself
-The way you attune magic spells
-Summonable co-op bros
-Online invasion, I think. Right now there are summonable Revenants of other players, although they are NPCs. They have the same gear as the player and supposedly try and mimic their play style.

As I said, UI is very similar to Souls. I highlighted the most important aspects here. First off, the icon within the Yellow Box shows you which Animal Spirit you are bonded with and also acts as your "Devil Trigger" (called a Living Weapon in this game). Once the gauge fills up and you press Triangle + Circle you imbue your weapon with the elemental property of the Guardian Spirit . It's pretty sweet. The Guardian Spirit you are bonded with also grants some passive bonuses but more of that later. The Red Box is your Stances. You have 3 of them which anyone who has wached any weebshit with Samurai will be familiar with. High Stance for heavy damage but slow speed, Mid Stance for medium damage and medium speed, Low Stance for shit damage and high speed. Apparently you're supposed to switch through Stances based on the situation you are in, or even switch stances mid-combat, but from my experience Low Stance is just plain awful, High Stance drains your Stamina (Ki) really fast and Mid Stance just wrecks everything without any problems.

Blue box has your Amrita (Souls) but there's also a currency for normal money as well. The only use I've found for money is activating passive buffs at the Shrines (Bonfires) for more loot drops.

This is the Guardian Spirit menu which can be accessed when praying at a Shrine. There's 4 spirit animals in the demo that cover the basic elements: Fire, Water, Wind and Lightning. I'm sure there will be more animals to be found as there are other elements within the game. They all give various different passive upgrades to your stats. Also, when you die and drop your Amrita your Spirit Animal will be waiting at your death point.

This is the level up screen. The first stat I have highlighted is called Body. It's the generic Health stat, although Spear damage scales off Body. One thing that might catch your eye are the Skill Points stats for Samurai, Ninjutsu and Onmyo. Otherwise it's pretty familiar stuff for any Souls player.

This is the menu where you go and spend those Skill points. Samurai Points are for your martial weapons (Katana, Axe and Spear in the demo), Ninjutsu for Ninja magic (Shurikens, Exploding Shurikens, Caltrops, Poison and Paralysis Bombs) and Onmyo Magic (Elemental Weapon enchants, slow spell, antidote spell). The Samurai Skill Trees have passive buffs like increased Stance damage, decreased Ki usage when blocking or attacking as well as unlocking new moves.

When you learn magic you can attune them the same way you'd attune them in Souls games. You can see my Guardian Spirit peeking at the bottom of the screen.

And this is where you can customize your move set.

So far I think it's a pretty sweet game. The only thing I'm not wildly excited about is that loot has random stat rolls so it's going to be a Diablo-esque loot whoring experience for many people. The big question for me is if Melee is a must with all character builds or will it be possible to make characters that focus more on ranged attacks? I'll try making a Dexterity character who focuses on Ninja magic to find that out after I finish the demo with my current char (it's quite long-ish, the demo, and you get a DLC reward for beating the demo).

 

[Talby]

Downloading the demo now. I'll post some impressions once I've played for a bit.

 

[Malpercio]

Loot is a hot mess, tons of useless stuff with +%12 damage reduction, +10% fire damage, etc you know the drill.

I played a bit, died a lot. It seems more akin to BB than Souls, you have to dance around with stances and shit. Fighting 2+ enemies is pretty brutal so far.

 

[Ent]

Bows do nice damage in this game. I can finally use them for something other then aggro-ing some fucker in a crowded area.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I replayed the first demo level with a new char. This time all points in Dex. Of course games are easier when you familiarize with them, but my god the Exploding Shuriken ability is powerful. Kills a Ninja Oni in 2 hits and those guys are really mean mofos otherwise if you try and engage them in melee. Took me 20-30 min to kill my first Ninja Oni. Now it took me 20 seconds.

Edit: After playing with my Ninjutsu build in the 2nd level the scaling seems to drop way down so that I can't carry myself any longer with just the Ninjutsu spells. So unless there's a weapon that scales with Dexterity or there are some Ninjutsus that aren't in the demo, this wont be a feasible build to use within the full game. Also, I haven't tried it myself, but going for a Spirit build and utilizing Guardian Spirits seems to wreck both boss fights in the demo 100-0 without any effort as you wail on them with your Living Weapon and this keeps them stunlocked.

One interesting thing I noticed is that Gerlat-san is almost 99% not going to be the only playable character. As you are in the level selection map, on the left side of the UI there's a large pic of your character and his name hogging nearly half the screen. This screams "character selection screen" to me. If there's a new character or characters in the full game then the obligatory Team Ninja big titty ninja will be here.

 

[sullynathan]

Ah, fuck. I didn't know there was a time limit. It won't let me play the Alpha anymore. Hope there's a beta or a demo soon.

 

[Talby]

Ah, so the demo expired before I had time to play much of it. Dumb. Oh well, from what little I did play it belongs on the same garbage pile as Lords of the Fallen and Bound By Flame.

 

[Martius]

Ah, so the demo expired before I had time to play much of it. Dumb. Oh well, from what little I did play it belongs on the same garbage pile as Lords of the Fallen and Bound By Flame.

Really? After playing other Team Ninja games I expected better from them.

 

[Abu Antar]

The game is great and is not in the Lords of the fallen, Bound by Flame tier. This was an alpha tests demo and they said multiple times that this was a timed thing.

I found combat to be fast, responsive and tactical. I like what I played. I was pissed at first, but once you get a hang of it, it's fun to take on more than one enemy at a time.
I people hate random loot, then that is unfortunate as the loot is randomized a la hack n' slash games. I didn't mind. especially not after I found a great spear.

 

[Villagkouras]

I didn't get to play the demo. Is it true that when your stamina depletes completely, your character remains still? That would be very lame...

 

[Hobo Elf]

I didn't get to play the demo. Is it true that when your stamina depletes completely, your character remains still? That would be very lame...

If you deplete your stamina completely, you go exhausted and start gasping for air, effectively becoming stunned and a free hit for the enemy. Letting that happen is your fault and is their "fix" for spam rolling in Dark Souls. It's incredibly easy to avoid it if you know how to play, however. For example, after each combo, you can press L1 (the button to switch stances) to release a little burst of Ki to instantly regen a portion of stamina back. Then there's of course the stat that increases your Stamina (Ki) and passive abilities that decrease the amount of Ki your attacks and evades consume. Basically just don't keep hammering that dodge button like a mindless idiot and you'll be fine.

 

[Villagkouras]

Ok, that makes sense, because a review, I think in Kotaku made a very big deal of it.

 

[Abu Antar]

Ok, that makes sense, because a review, I think in Kotaku made a very big deal of it.

It's a big deal... if you mash buttons. Just try to keep calm and you should be fine. In the beginning, I lost my stamina all the time. Once I got the patterns of enemies, it makes things much easier.

 

[Lyric Suite]

because a review, I think in Kotaku

Indeed.

 

[toro]

No iframes. This looks interesting.

 

[Hobo Elf]

No wonder he had such a hard time with the game. He's absolute garbage.

 

[Abu Antar]

Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja will release a second downloadable demo for Nioh in August following the success of the Alpha Demo in April, which was downloaded by more than 850,000 players, the publisher announced.

Additionally, Koei Tecmo released a new trailer for Nioh revealing a variety of locations, unusual mythical creatures, sinister enemies, and mysterious allies that will cross paths with the game’s protagonist, William. The video provides further insight into a a world enveloped in “mystery and mysticism,” hinting at William’s powers and motives as he sets out on a path that takes him to the far end of the world.

Nioh is due out for PlayStation 4 in 2016.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Hopefully they fixed Ninjutsu.

 

[Ash]

So, is there more to the game that combat, build types and exploration? As in is there Onimusha-style puzzles, Ninja Gaiden-style platforming, or anything of the sort?

 

[Hobo Elf]

No, it's a straight up Souls clone.