Nioh 2

[Damned Registrations]

My main gripe with Nioh's combat was that it's too stat focused. If you don't have the right stats, you can't block shit without losing all your ki, and you can hammer on an enemy guard all day without using theirs up at all. But tip those scales and it's a no brainer game of letting the enemy exhaust themselves or just hammering them down. The nice middle ground you get in the training dojo fights is tiny.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

feels like your standard PS2-era arcadey action.

I take 100 of those over one standard PS4-era exclusive.

Besides it's become more and more apparent ever since Bloodborne that From has been moving away from exploration and atmosphere and focusing on combat.

If you don't have the right stats, you can't block shit without losing all your ki, and you can hammer on an enemy guard all day without using theirs up at all.

You're not meant to block every fucking enemy attack like in DS and then spam R1.
Block it's for parries or to defend yourself from 1/2 attacks when you're put in a situation you can't resort to other defensive strategies.
Nioh is game that wants the players to be active rather passive.

 

[Damned Registrations]

What exactly is the point of being able to block 2 attacks in a 12 hit combo and then counterattack into an enemy with full ki that spams block himself? You can't be 'active' against an enemy that can ignore anything you do short of cheese. The entire fucking system is based on ki, being unable to make a humanoid enemy run out of it limits your options to like 5% of whats out there.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

If you are unable to make an enemy run out of ki, that's your fault as the game gives the player much more ways to influence the opponents ki than the other way around, there's no cheese here.
If you want to break an oponents guard or "starve" him out of ki switch to high stance.
If you want to properly block, or better yet parry, use mid stance (not to mention unless it's a high power attack or special enemies, blocks usually interrupt an enemy's combo - and this isn't DS3, few enemies have 10 hit combos).
If want to quickly recover ki, apply status effects and quite simply evade then obviously take the low stance.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yeah I know all of that shit, it doesn't matter if your stats are too low. You can be in high stance and hammer away and the enemy loses almost no stamina. The only way to beat enemies with better stats is cheesing them with a million buffs or living weapons, skills that ignore block, parries, etc. at which point the mechanics of stances and ki don't matter anyways, aside from giving an enemy a lovetap when they use it up on their own. You can see it really clearly looking at different people fighting the same boss in youtube videos; one will be able to just drive his ki to 0 with generic mid stance attacks and do a grapple over and over, while another can hit him with high stance attacks and do less damage while spending twice as much ki.

And stance doesn't really matter for blocking, it only lets you regen ki while blocking, which is pretty much irrelevant. You take the same amount of ki damage. Which will be your entire bar for 90% of the attacks from bosses. Even a super early boss like Tachibana has like 4 attacks that will break your guard and 1 that will 'only' take 80% of your bar. He has literally nothing you can safely block and counter at a reasonable level. If all his attacks simply ignored your block completely the fight wouldn't be any harder.

 

[cruel]

Blocking is directly related to Toughness / Armor. If you go with light armor, blocking barely works and frequently is even dangerous. If you switch to medium, it gets better, but if you start using heavy armor, suddenly you can even block bosses (most of the attacks at least). All of this at the cost of mobility and Ki recovery of course.

My first playthrough through Nioh 1 was Dual Swords and Light Armor. I was afraid to block, the Ki drain was not worth it, and too frequently I got staggered.
Second playthrough - heavy armor and Axe - and suddenly the game plays completely different. Regular sword attacks barely scratch you, and some of the bosses that were a problem before suddenly became a breeze, because you can block most of the stuff.

 

[Silva]

34% off on PS4 right now.

I'll consider it. Reports of better levels and less silly story give me hope.

Fake edit:
In case I get it: any tips for a noob, any types of weapons that are easier to start with? I deleted all Nioh 1 experience from memory. I just remember the Kusari-gama was cool as fuck and I wiped the floor with it.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Even a super early boss like Tachibana has like 4 attacks that will break your guard and 1 that will 'only' take 80% of your bar. He has literally nothing you can safely block and counter at a reasonable level. If all his attacks simply ignored your block completely the fight wouldn't be any harder.

Nigga pls, this dude is not at all proportional in difficulty to the other stuff you fight at that stage in the game. He's a "come back later" deal like Black Knights in DS. Terrible example.

 

[Damned Registrations]

But that's just it, black knights are ALWAYS cunts. You can come back with 60 more levels and +10 weapons and you'll still bounce off the shields and get your guard crushed. Because you're meant to fight them by dodging their obvious windups and getting a backstab. The only difference is later you're more of an hp sponge. But the fight mechanics are the exact same. Imagine if you could beat havel by just hitting his shield over and over with a longsword once you levelled up enough. That's what Nioh is like.

 

[cruel]

34% off on PS4 right now.

I'll consider it. Reports of better levels and less silly story give me hope.

Fake edit:
In case I get it: any tips for a noob, any types of weapons that are easier to start with? I deleted all Nioh 1 experience from memory. I just remember the Kusari-gama was cool as fuck and I wiped the floor with it.

Hmm... Kusarigama is still good. The best one is probably Odachi, heard good things about Switchglaive as well. Avoid Sword, seems boring and weak. Overall, I recommend using two different weapon types at once - something quick with good DPS paired with something heavier, with good range and damage per hit worked for me nicely. Some enemies are clearly better fought with quick weapons, some are not.

Random tips:
1. Don't pick the dog as the first guardian spirit. Hardest Burst Counter to perform (I used the bird).
2. Don't get annoyed with Dark Realm. Invest ASAP in skills that reduce Ki recovery penalty, makes life a lot easier
3. Use ranged weapons.
4. Ninjutsu seems much stronger than Onmyo magic, poison is excellent and helps a lot with some of the bosses
5. Use and utilize Yokai Abilities / Soul Cores
6. The option to unlock 3 or 4 shortcut wheels is in the game options menu (in case you need it later)

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

34% off on PS4 right now.

I'll consider it. Reports of better levels and less silly story give me hope.

Fake edit:
In case I get it: any tips for a noob, any types of weapons that are easier to start with? I deleted all Nioh 1 experience from memory. I just remember the Kusari-gama was cool as fuck and I wiped the floor with it.

Hmm... Kusarigama is still good. The best one is probably Odachi, heard good things about Switchglaive as well. Avoid Sword, seems boring and weak. Overall, I recommend using two different weapon types at once - something quick with good DPS paired with something heavier, with good range and damage per hit worked for me nicely. Some enemies are clearly better fought with quick weapons, some are not.

Random tips:
1. Don't pick the dog as the first guardian spirit. Hardest Burst Counter to perform (I used the bird).
2. Don't get annoyed with Dark Realm. Invest ASAP in skills that reduce Ki recovery penalty, makes life a lot easier
3. Use ranged weapons.
4. Ninjutsu seems much stronger than Onmyo magic, poison is excellent and helps a lot with some of the bosses
5. Use and utilize Yokai Abilities / Soul Cores
6. The option to unlock 3 or 4 shortcut wheels is in the game options menu (in case you need it later)

Actually it's the easiest to perform. And the most forgiving to use for counters as well.

 

[NJClaw]

I'm still unable to play this game (and I will be for another couple of weeks) and I need an answer to my second most important question: does the bird guardian spirit still completely trivialize humanoid bosses?

 

[mogwaimon]

But that's just it, black knights are ALWAYS cunts. You can come back with 60 more levels and +10 weapons and you'll still bounce off the shields and get your guard crushed. Because you're meant to fight them by dodging their obvious windups and getting a backstab. The only difference is later you're more of an hp sponge. But the fight mechanics are the exact same. Imagine if you could beat havel by just hitting his shield over and over with a longsword once you levelled up enough. That's what Nioh is like.

I dunno man, I think the black knights are a bad example too because once you've got some experience under your belt and know what you're doing, you know that the black knights can be defeated pretty easy by hugging them and running circles around them until backstab, backstab, backstab, since their turnspeed is so low that 95% of the time it's the safest option and you don't even have to dodge anything because the AI will barely throw any attacks out

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

34% off on PS4 right now.

I'll consider it. Reports of better levels and less silly story give me hope.

Fake edit:
In case I get it: any tips for a noob, any types of weapons that are easier to start with? I deleted all Nioh 1 experience from memory. I just remember the Kusari-gama was cool as fuck and I wiped the floor with it.

Switchglaive is a good starting weapon. Didn't play with it too much except for grinding mystic arts. But it was fun. Good weapon because of the stances. It basically a different weapon in each stance

 

[Somberlain]

I didn't realize the maps had hidden items in them before I started NG+ now

 

[cruel]

As usual, people playing with naked dudes already able to beat all the bosses without taking any damage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-FzfgxaxWc

 

[NJClaw]

Downloading it right now, can't wait to play!

I want to try both the scythe-thing and the little axes and I really hope my birdie boy still is in the game.

 

[cruel]

First DLC is coming today. And, we have a new weapon - Splitstaff.

DLC is supposed to be balanced around level 120, we'll see.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Suicidal]

When's the fucking PC port already.

 

[cruel]

The DLC seems to be good. Played for 1h or so - already see even more enemy types, including sort of magic-wielding Enki. Was going to complain that it's a little bit too easy, but then got killed by a crab - so everything is OK after all.

 

[HoboForEternity]

any news of pc port yet?

 

[cruel]

Taken from reddit, all assumptions based on first Nioh:

-feb 2017 Nioh 1 on PS4, may 2017 1st dlc, july 2017 2nd dlc, sep 2017 3rd dlc, nov 2017 PC port

So if everything were to stay the same

-mar 2020 Nioh 2 on PS4, july 2020 1st dlc, oct 2020 2nd dlc? jan 2021 3rd dlc? mar 2021 PC port?

March 2021 for PC version sounds realistic.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Started playing this and its definitely kicking my ass. Feels like there's more stagger to attacks than before, so if I eat one hit I almost always eat 2 or 3. Then again I'm using light armor compared to medium before so that's probably why.

In Nioh 1 it felt like armor did nothing, everything kills you in 3 hits or less, upgrades were pointless, I stopped even bothering to change out my armor after I had a set I liked. Figured I'd go light + magic this time for a change but so far all the cool spells are locked behind ??? missions so I'm just a squishy weakling with no benefits. I'm still having fun though.

I do get annoyed AF when some bandit looking guy flails his sword around like a tool and it somehow takes off half my health in one hit, while he takes a full combo from me and still has health left. Good old Nioh.

 

[cruel]

Second DLC coming October 15. And, we are getting another new weapon - Ninja claws:

https://www.destructoid.com/stories...aws-with-darkness-in-the-capital-605083.phtml

 

[sullynathan]

So when I look up this game on YouTube, it's negative primarily from these two videos: