Nioh Cinematic Playthrough
0Your guardian spirit has been kidnapped, (spirit-napped?), and William will stop at nothing to recover her. Go to war and forge powerful friendships with intimidating allies in order to wield power that rivals Kelley's to win back your spirit!
Steam link here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/485510/Nioh_Complete_Edition/
Steam review here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/fefnirirl/recommended/485510?snr=1_5_9__402
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FefnirIRL
If there's a game that you want to see, feel free to leave a comment and I'll check it out!
Review: 4/5
I think Nioh was the first unique souls-like I had the pleasure to play. After the success of Dark Souls, it amassed a large cult-like following and it increased the demand for challenging games. Plenty of developers took to creating their own "Dark Souls" type game, but a lot of them lacked heart, or originality, and were ultimately just pale imitations, (see Lords of the Fallen). Team NINJA then turned the genre on its head once more by taking the core mechanics of Dark Souls, (leveling system, bonfire-type checkpoints, currency lost on death with one shot to recover it), and infusing their own creativity and vision into it, resulting in an entirely new and incredible experience.
The visual design is astounding; I love that Nioh feels more closely grounded to real life than Dark Souls, and its aesthetics match the feudal era of Japan that the game is largely inspired by. Combining that with the mythical yokai as William's main adversaries, Team NINJA pulled off a brand-new look that manages to stay true to its artistic influences while also adding an air of the ethereal.
Combat in Nioh is one of the most satisfying systems I've touched. There are several weapon classes, each with their own unique movesets, and you can switch between low, medium, and high stances on each weapon in order to tune the playstyle even more to your liking. Each stance and weapon presents different combo possibilities, and you can even switch stances mid-attack, which is incredibly difficult and rewarding to master. You've also got the ki pulse system which allows you to cleanse yokai-tainted areas and also more quickly recover your stamina and keep up the offensive.
The enemy design is very cool; there is a lot of mythological and spiritual influence, and I think it combines very well with the game's setting. All of the yokai represent terrifying and realistic interpretations of ages-old paintings and stories, and I think it's cool to see a modern telling of it. A very prominent feature of most yokai is their horns, which, once broken, immediately stunned the monster and gave you a prime opportunity to punish them. This feature is awesome, as it rewards the player for going out of their way to tackle an encounter in a different way, and it's done in a way that makes sense with their design.
Honestly, I think Nioh presents a master class on how to take the soul of a genre and really make it your own. While some of the key features are reminiscent of Dark Souls, it's done in a fresh way that makes Nioh stand out far above the cesspool of trashy, copy/paste souls-likes that you can find littered all over Steam. I'm excited to get to the second entry!