Nioh 2

[Reinhardt]

Heads-up, Green Man Gaming has a 22% off discount code valid now you can use on Nioh 2. (As at 08/01/2021).

Takes it down to £38.99 for me, pulled the trigger.

Spoiler

And only 20$!

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Every single Japanese game that's NOT anime has been p. much my gaming nirvana - Souls, Nioh, MGS5, Dragon's Dogma

Does not compute

EDIT: cvv the implication is pretty clear, you say you don't like anime yet you like those games, half of which are less subtle than most anime

 

[Silverfish]

Any particular reason? "The Japs are mechanically sound, but aesthetically dubious when left to their own devices" seems pretty reasonable.

 

[LESS T_T]

Will this be the first proper PC port from KT?

 

[Wunderbar]

Will this be the first proper PC port from KT?

the first Nioh wasn't all that bad on PC.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Didn't know where to post this, so here it goes

Apparently Tomonobu Itagaki has decided to come back to the industry and open a new studio Itagaki Games
And like back in the early 2000's he will have some sort of partership with Microsoft

https://www.siliconera.com/itagaki-games-is-devils-third-director-tomonobu-itagakis-new-studio/
https://pt.ign.com/ninja-gaiden-mas...regressa-com-novo-estudio-e-pisca-olho-a-xbox
https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/notic...e-nuevo-estudio-honraria-trabajar-xbox-792983

 

[Wunderbar]

Finally, a long-awaited sequel to Devil's Third.

 

[Dodo1610]

PC gamer wrote a preview for the PC port.
https://www.pcgamer.com/nioh-2-pc-port-impressions/#comment-jump

Nioh 2 looks good on PC, but still needs some work to be a worthy PC port
By Wes Fenlon 43 minutes ago

Brutal ninja action? Yep. Locked 30 fps cutscenes? Unfortunately, also yep.

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)
I was so engrossed in Nioh 2's character creator that I was tempted to stay in it, tinkering endlessly, and never actually play the game that comes after it. It's a great character creator: Every time I hit the randomize button I saw a new face that I liked, or that at least made me laugh. After almost an hour, though, I pried myself away from the character creator to get to the combat at the heart of Nioh 2 and test out how it runs on PC. For the most part, it's good, with some surprising PC-exclusive features. But there are also some surprising problems that I hope Koei Tecmo fixes before release.

Like the first Nioh, this port comes about a year after its release on the PlayStation 4. It's out on February 5. The preview build I played a few hours of on Steam ran without major issues—I didn't encounter any crashes in the first level, though I did get flattened by a giant monkey demon several times.

I've been cruising through Dark Souls 2 lately and beat FromSoftware's Sekiro in December, but the skills I put to use in those games don't really carry over to Nioh 2, which demands even more careful timing of your attacks and punishes you immediately for overstepping. A regular guy with a spear skewered me when I dared swing at him three times, exhausting my stamina. The real up-front challenge of Nioh 2 is that it gives you tons of combat systems to juggle. At any time you can switch between fast/guarded/aggressive combat stances, which affect your stamina recovery and weapon damage (and completely change your attack combos).

Stamina, aka ki, depletes extremely quickly, and the only way to keep attacking is to perform a Ki pulse (by tapping R1 on an Xbox controller) just after finishing a combo, which refills the meter. It's a lot to remember on-the-fly, and my instinct to block after a combo instead of using the Ki pulse has not served me well in Nioh 2 so far.


As with Sekiro, though, I can feel the outline of a great combat system here that I haven't trained my brain to react to. In a review last year, our sister site GamesRadar+ said that combat "eventually clicks into a fluid rhythm" while remaining "on a knife edge."

I'm looking forward to surviving long enough to find that rhythm, and glad that Nioh 2 is playable on PC with much better image quality and higher framerates than it had on consoles—though I was surprised that my PC couldn't max out its performance.

PC performance
With an Intel i7-7700K and an Nvidia RTX 3070, my PC averaged about 70 fps in the first level of Nioh 2. This was at a resolution of 2560x1440 with all of Nioh's settings maxed out (and motion blur disabled), and the framerate capped at 120 fps. On the PS4 Pro, Nioh 2 could run at 1080p, 60 fps, or at high resolution at 30 fps. As demonstrated in this Digital Foundry video, though, several of the game's graphics settings were turned down to hit that 60 fps, and the resolution sometimes dropped too to hold things steady.

The image is much, much sharper on PC. But I was surprised that a brand new RTX 3070 GPU—vastly more powerful than what's in the PS4—didn't run closer to 120 frames per second. It would often run at 80 or 90 fps, then dip back into the 70s with more action on the screen. On my G-Sync monitor I didn't notice any stuttering or tearing, so the framerate fluctuation didn't get in the way of Nioh 2's precise combat.


More disappointing is that all of Nioh 2's cutscenes are locked to 30 fps, as they were on the PS4. Pre-rendered videos I'd understand, but these cutscenes feature your custom character so are clearly done in-engine. There's no good reason for them to be locked to 30 fps in 2021.

PC graphics settings
When it comes to options, Nioh 2 is an odd case, offering extreme customization and surprising features in some places, and disappointingly limited options in others. For graphics settings, you get the bare minimum required for a decent PC port.

Nioh 2 supports borderless windowed mode, and there's a rendering resolution mode if you'd like to run the game at a lower-res and upscale for better performance. There are only a few graphics settings, and none are very detailed:

• Shadows: Low/Medium/High/Off
• Motion Blur: On/Off
• Dynamic Reflections: On/Off
• Ambient Occlusion: On/Off
• Texture Quality: Low/High
• Effect Quality: Low/High

The framerate cap doesn't have an unlocked option, only 30/60/120. Normally I'd assume that this is a limitation of how Nioh 2 was programmed, with certain aspects of the game, like animations, tied to the framerate. But the PS4 Pro offered an unlocked framerate mode that fluctuated from 30-60 fps or so—I don't know why an unlocked option isn't available on PC.

There is one unique feature here, which is support for Nvidia ShadowPlay Highlights. Turn this on, and Nioh 2 will automatically capture short video clips for you at certain moments. Weirdly, despite having it on and getting notifications that it had recorded clips, they don't seem to be in my GeForce Experience library.

Nioh 2's developers have noted that a couple other options either aren't displaying yet, or aren't working properly in this preview build: Nvidia DLSS, HDR, and ultrawide resolution support. Ultrawide and DLSS especially will be great options to have, so I hope they're working smoothly by February 5th.


Outside the sparse graphics settings menu, Nioh 2 is bursting with options. Head to the basic game settings menu and you get five pages of options, including what stats are displayed, how many icons you can have on-screen at once, how lock-on works, and whether the game mutes when you Alt-Tab out. It's an uncommon choice, and a welcome one.

There's a whole other settings menu for a specific save file where you can tweak things like pressing or holding a button to make a selection and what color each tier of loot is. You can turn off notifications for receiving trash-tier loot and change individual font sizes. It's ridiculously detailed, and I think most players will just ignore these options. But both Nioh games have been criticized for having way too much loot, so it's a pleasant surprise to see so many options here devoted to making it a bit less obnoxious.

Nioh 2 currently falls short with its mouse and keyboard support, but Koei Tecmo's PR has told me that the issues I've run into should be fixed before release.

In the preview build I played Nioh 2 does have M/KB bindings and the option to rebind keys… but it only shows PS4 button prompts in-game, which is pretty jarring. Many games today can smoothly switch between keyboard and controller prompts based on the last input they've received. Touch the controller and you get controller buttons; touch the keyboard, and the A button turns into the Spacebar. But Nioh 2 doesn't even have a manual toggle to let you display keyboard/mouse prompts.


Worse, it never hides the mouse, so regardless of whether you're playing with a controller or keyboard/mouse, the cursor stays stuck in the center of the screen. It'll jitter back and forth as you move the camera with the mouse, or just sit there motionless if you play with a controller. It's an awkward side effect of translating the game to PC, and I'd be very annoyed to play the full game this way. Hopefully both flaws will be gone by the release on February 5th.

I'd still like to see Nioh 2 offer an unlocked refresh rate and more detailed graphics options (including Xbox button prompts), but with those two glaring issues fixed it will at the very least be the best-looking version of Nioh 2 around, playable at up to 120 fps.

One last tidbit: How cool is it that your custom created character hangs out on the title screen, wearing whatever armor you last had equipped? Now that's a neat trick.

 

[cvv]

I was so engrossed in Nioh 2's character creator that I was tempted to stay in it, tinkering endlessly, and never actually play the game that comes after it.

Yep, always a reliable sign of plutonium-grade gaming faggotry.

 

[Deflowerer]

Well, the character creator is pretty amazing in this game.

 

[cvv]

Well, the character creator is pretty amazing in this game.

Playing with a stupid character creator so much you don't even wanna play the game is faggotry, full stop. You might as well start playing with dolls if you prefer that from slaying yokai.

 

[Reinhardt]

Creating many different characters because you don't like how they look outside of creator with ingame lightning is peak rpg.

 

[Deflowerer]

Well, the character creator is pretty amazing in this game.

Playing with a stupid character creator so much you don't even wanna play the game is faggotry, full stop. You might as well start playing with dolls if you prefer that from slaying yokai.

Eh, it's just a common game jornulist figure of speech to emphasize how good something is.

 

[NJClaw]

Creating many different characters because you don't like how they look outside of creator with ingame lightning is peak rpg.

My character is so hot she would probably look good even in the Fallout 3 engine.

 

[karoliner]

https://www.thegamer.com/team-ninja-interview-fumihiko-yasuda-nioh/

Team Ninja Interview With Fumihiko Yasuda On Nioh, Ninja Gaiden, Spicy Food, Sexy Yokai, And Much More

Nioh franchise director Fumihiko Yasuda gives us an idea of what is happening behind the scenes of Team Ninja HQ.

BY DAVE AUBREY2 HOURS AGO
When given the opportunity to interview a staff member from a reputable Japanese studio, I cannot say no. Team Ninja made its mark many years ago with the likes of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, and while the latter tends to be better known for an ecchi minigame collection now, that still does not diminish the impact that Team Ninja’s games have always had on the action game genre as a whole.

Which brings us up to the Nioh series, yet another bold step forward for action games and Nioh 2 is absolutely no different. With the game’s upcoming launch on PC and Steam, we were given the chance to chat to Nioh director Fumihiko Yasuda, who gave us some valuable insight behind the development of the franchise that you just can’t get anywhere else. For example, the potential sexy Yokai that could’ve made it into the game as enemies, or the fact that difficult games are akin to spicy food. For all of that and more, filtered through a translator via an international Zoom call, just read on below.

Nioh was announced back at E3 in 2005 but didn't launch until 2017. Can you give me the short story of what happened in those 12 years? Was the team just too busy with other projects?

[Fumihiko Yasuda] As you noted, the game was announced in 2005 at E3, and it went through a lot of different design changes. Over those years, Koei and Tecmo merged into what you have today with Koei Tecmo as one company, and it was much further down the line when Team Ninja was chosen to be the development studio that would actually take on making the game right. So, eventually, that was released in 2017. So, that was the process from the initial announcement to the merger of the two companies and, eventually, it becoming a Team Ninja developed title.

Nioh followed the story of William Adams, a historical figure, but Nioh 2 follows a character that you can create. What made the development team make that switch from an established historical figure to a created protagonist?

[FY] With the first Nioh, you had a historical character, William Adams, as the main character, and that gives you one type of game where you have a specific story that's being told with a specific protagonist that all the players can share. But with Nioh 2 the dev team wanted to give players the agency to be able to make their own character freely and to experience the story in the way that they would like to with their own original protagonist. But the story is the same in the sense that they're going through a lot of the same actions, so they do get to share the same story, the same kind of adventure. But really both of the games share this really immersive action gameplay that's the core of both titles. And we really feel that's a very important aspect that both titles share that all players can experience regardless of the title and regardless of the protagonist, it's just that very immersive action gameplay that ties them all together, and it's a very key core aspect of the games.

I think a lot of players would agree with that as well. However, I have to say, I do really like the aspect of a historical protagonist. I personally had a hope that Oda Nobunaga's African retainer Yasuke was going to be in a potential future Nioh game, does that mean that's never going to happen now?

[FY] That's definitely something to consider for the future, not necessarily Yasuke, but just utilising historical figures as the main characters. But I am a fan of Yasuke as a character, like William he came from a country outside of Japan, in this case, Africa, and then came to Japan and became a samurai. So that's also a point that they share and it's also something that's really interesting to me, but in terms of them being a character in a new game, there is a possibility for a historical protagonist to take up the role in the future, but that's all it is right now.
It has been said that there are currently no plans to make a Nioh 3, is there any particular reason for that?

[FY] In terms of a sequel right now, Team Ninja would like to focus on working on new titles, so there really isn't a plan for Nioh 3 at this point. But after creating some new projects and gaining some new experience and skills from those new potential projects, I would like to go back to the series at some point, utilise all the experience and new skills that we gain from some new projects, and then potentially, go back into the series at that point, and create an even greater game to surpass Nioh and Nioh 2 and to create something even better.

Absolutely, absolutely. And what about a potential Ninja Gaiden sequel?

[FY] Nothing to announce or note specifically this time, but if the Ninja Gaiden series hadn't existed, then there wouldn't have been a Nioh series. So that's a really important series to Team Ninja. While we don't have anything specific to announce at this time, I would like to say just look forward to some potential news for some kind of announcement in the near future.

RELATED: Team Ninja Says Nioh 2 Is The Last Game In The Series, Multiple Projects Due To Start Development In 2021

That's good. So how does the team balance the difficulty of Nioh with all of the mechanics in the game? Is that a game of just trial and error, or did they have a really good idea of how this was going to work in the beginning?

[FY] The main way that we're balancing the game is really through a process of trial and error. But of course, we want to make sure that we have a specific goal, or a specific kind of idea, or thought process in mind when going about balancing. And there is a wealth of systems and gameplay elements in the Nioh series. It really is just a matter of trial and error, and making sure that we have some kind of idea in mind when going forward with the balancing process.

Are there any weapons, fighting styles, or bosses that got cut from development in Nioh 2, or is it as content complete as the initial vision?

[FY] So in terms of the stances, the skills, and weapons, we're really happy with all the content that's been added in. But in terms of the Yokai, there's a lot of different creatures and monsters from Japanese folklore that didn't make it in. In Japanese folklore there's a lot of incredibly powerful Yokai, there's also a lot of comical ones that could have been interesting to add, and a lot of sexy Yokai that could have appeared in the game, but there are just so many to add and only so much development time. So that's definitely an area where there were some ideas that were floating around that maybe didn't make their way in.

You were kind of making it sound like an X-rated Yokai Watch then, but that's good too. How does Nioh distinguish itself from the likes of Dark Souls while still taking inspirations from FromSoftware's franchises?

[FY] So, the Team Ninja staff are fans of the Dark Souls series. So it's not by coincidence that there's influence there, they're all big fans of the series, and that's definitely something that they take to heart. But in regards to your question, a few points that definitely stand out would be, for example, the interactions between the player and enemies during those really intense battles. Other points would be that Team Ninja's very famous for the way enemy AI is designed, so you're going to get a really high level of variation in how the enemies are going to react to the player, which gives you a wealth of different experiences every time you play. That is something that's a very big Team Ninja staple. And also we added in a lot of elements from the hack and slash genre, for example, going and collecting different loot drops, equipment, and weapons as you go along. So that's something that is very important in the Nioh series, as well as taking on those elements of the hack and slash genre.

Why do you believe that this brand of difficult action game has become its own genre in recent years?

[FY] I really feel that, with the Souls genre and the masocore genre in general, some of the reasons for it getting so popular would be that it really allows the player to choose their own strategy and overcome challenges and obstacles. So it's that level of satisfaction for completing or overcoming a challenge mixed with the fact that you can come up with your own strategy or your own method of tackling those different obstacles. So there are games that take a more casual approach to games, or more streamlined approach. And that has its own flair. It's great that there's a wealth of different other titles out there. The Soulsborne or masocore genre, in general, gives players something that no other genre is really giving them at this time. And that for players that try one of these titles, and then overcome a big challenge in there, that feeling of satisfaction and achievement is the reason that they get really invested in it, and then just continue to play it and love it for, potentially, the rest of their lives, and just become big fans of the series. So those are some of the key elements for sure.

[FY] Just to add one other little caveat to your question, though... If you think about spicy food, anybody can make something that's incredibly spicy. But to make something that's spicy and delicious is quite more difficult, right? So, if you're eating something that's just spicy, you're not necessarily going to come back to it. But if it's spicy and very delicious, there's an aspect to the game that's not just about the challenge - or the food in this case - that makes you want to come back to it. And that's a really important part of Soulsborne and masocore titles, in general, is to have something that keeps the person, either eating the food or playing the game in terms of the player, coming back to that experience.

Good. I actually love that analogy. Are there any secrets in Nioh or Nioh 2 that players haven't found yet? Or are there any new secrets to be found in the PC version of Nioh 2?

[FY] Players should keep an eye on the names of the Bloody Graves that you can find scattered throughout the Nioh games, if you go up to some of them, specifically the preset Bloody Graves that the dev team had put throughout the game, there'll be some characters or enemies appearing from them that have specific names that contain inside jokes from the dev team. So I would like everybody, including yourself, to go through and look through all of those preset graves and try to see if you can find the little jokes that are hidden in there through the character names.

Nice. How has Team Ninja found working on the new Xbox Series and PS5 consoles and do you think these machines will change the kinds of games Team Ninja develop?

[FY] We're releasing Nioh 2 Complete Edition on PS5, so we've had time to work with the newest hardware, and after getting a chance to develop a title for the newest hardware we're seeing the improvements with the SSD and just how much faster the load times are on the newest hardware. I would like to try and take on an open-world style game in the future. So that's definitely something that I think this new hardware will give us the ability to try out.

Excellent. So how many members of Team Ninja are actually qualified as ninjas?

[FY] There are 200 staff members in Team Ninja, and they are all ninjas.

Excellent. Great to hear. I have to ask, do you have an opinion on which is better: Naruto or One Piece?

[FY] [Laughs] Naruto.

Yeah, it had to be, you are Team Ninja, after all.

[FY] Yeah, there are also voice actors from Naruto that take on roles in Nioh as well. In Nioh 2 specifically, Naruto's Kakashi [Japanese VA Kazuhiko Inoue] also performs the voice of Oda Nobunaga.

Excellent. Can we expect to see Ryu Hayabusa in a new game anytime soon, Ninja Gaiden or otherwise? I keep asking about Ninja Gaiden, I'm sorry.

[FY] Yeah, so that character is the most important character from all of our franchises. So, considering he's so important, I would definitely like to have him make an appearance again in a game coming soon, and I would like to announce details about that in the future, as soon as possible.

Sounds great. How has the Coronavirus pandemic affected the workflow of Team Ninja?

[FY] In regards to the process in general, there were a lot of effects of the Coronavirus on everybody's work style. Particularly for Team Ninja, there's a big process of working from home, and not working from the office as much. So there was a process of transitioning to that new work style for Team Ninja in the beginning. We really wanted to make sure that we took into consideration the health of all of our staff, that being of utmost importance. But I feel that now that so much time has passed, and we've really gotten the hang of working amongst this new environment that the world is in right now, it feels like we've achieved the same process that we had before COVID as well. So we've really gotten the hang of how to work in this new environment.

Well, that's really good to hear. I am running low on questions, which I'm sure is a relief. I just want you to know that I would absolutely play a side-scrolling beat 'em up with the Dead or Alive cast. I know that's not much of a question, but you had to know.

[FY] Yeah, that would definitely be, from a design perspective, very retro. I would definitely like to consider making something like that, but I'm not sure we could make it anytime in the near future though.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, I'm just gonna finish off by asking if there's anything you think that I should know or that our readers should know.

[FY] I wanted to note that the Nioh series is where it is right now thanks to all the fans and everybody that's played it up into this point. Thanks for all of that support. The complete edition of Nioh 2 will be released very shortly on February 5, coming up very soon. I hope that both the existing fans of the Nioh series try the game, try the complete edition of Nioh 2, and also people that have never experienced this series as well, hopefully, they come in and give the game a try. Team Ninja is working on a lot of new titles that are coming up, and I hope that everybody can look forward to those, and keep an eye out for all the future news, and try those games out in the future.

Perfect. Well, thank you so much Yasuda-san for taking the time to chat with me today. I really, really appreciate it.

[FY] Thank you so much.

 

[Deflowerer]

Who the fuck wants to play as a black man in Nioh? Fuck off.

 

[ADL]

 

[cvv]

Looks sexy.

Btw is there a 60 FPS nu-gen update for PS5?

 

[ADL]

You can already do 4K/60 on PS5 via boost mode but they're putting out an update alongside the PC version in the "Nioh Collection" for both games that'll support resolutions up to 4K and 120 frames per second.

If you decide to buy the PS4 version of Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition, upgrading to the PS5 version is free. However, if you own just the base game of Nioh 2, then you can upgrade to Nioh 2 Remastered on PS5 for free and are entitled to free versions of the DLC packs you already own.

 

[Sentinel]

Drops to sub 60.

 

[Falksi]

Bought this a few days back

Prob play at some point over the next few weeks

 

[Tyrr]

Every single Japanese game that's NOT anime has been p. much my gaming nirvana - Souls, Nioh, MGS5, Dragon's Dogma. I fucking wish I didn't loathe anime so much, alas I can't help it.

I have bad news for you.

Spoiler

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Drops to sub 60.

The release version is supposed to have DLSS 2.0, which should help significantly, although there's zero reason this game should not be able to run at 4K 60fps without DLSS. The graphics aren't that great. Hopefully they will optimize it and won't just use DLSS as a crutch.

 

[ADL]

I'm really starting to hate DLSS. It's awesome technology but the way people are using it to justify and ignore blatant performance issues are out of their fucking minds. Especially considering it's vendor locked and exclusive to the obscenely overpriced 2XXX series and the 3XXX series that no one is able to purchase yet.

 

[jungl]

game looks good but I rather have ghost of tsushma ported to pc