Nioh: Feudal Era Dark Souls

[Damned Registrations]

The thing about the fire monks is I can't tell when they'll go down or not. If it's in a predictable spot and I can do the exact same thing over and over I know what will happen and can open up with a move that knocks it down after some trial and error. But if I meet it in a different spot or whatever, the same attack that flattened it before now just hurts it and then it rolls into me and I die or get brought to like 100 hp + on fire. I thought it was just using a big enough attack but that seems wrong, I thought it was hitting the glowy bit behind them but that's either wrong or my attacks have weird hit detection. And I just don't remember them being an issue the first time I played. I'd just walk up after they whiff an attack and they'd fall over and die.

As for the skeleton guys...

Now, granted my stats are shit between being underlevelled from dying too often and being spread out so I can do all the stupid dojo quests and not sticking to a single weapon. But even so, I can't imagine having enough stats to drain all his stamina in one swing when this is where I am now.

What should I be doing with my stats anyways? I invested a bunch in spirit but that seems pretty crap in retrospect, and I guess I only need enough magic for maybe like 2 or 3 elemental enchants, purification and extraction, which seems OP as fuck. Should I throw everything else into one stat and get a weapon that scales off that? Spread out enough to get whatever current level armour needs?

Being rusty on all the enemy patterns is definitely a problem, I got merked by a stupid statue guy because I forgot he does a fast upswing after the slow ass attack. But even knowing their moves doesn't help much if it takes countering their whiffed attacks like 4 times to remove half their stamina and then they can just get it all back by shitting on the floor. I also wish I had a punching bag to test shit out on, because trying to figure out which attacks do more ki damage or break more guard or whatever is hard when the enemy is doing random shit and will one shot me just as I finish the combo I want to compare to another combo.

 

[Hyperion]

Stats - Body 25 minimum, this is when it stops giving massive HP gains per level, of like 30 - 40.

Spirit I think is 23 or something for the highest Guardian in main game(Also a big, BIG determining factor for damage - Kato or Kara-Jishi for best overall, easy to understand damage before any specific builds come into play pre-DLC). Switching your GS out for Kato will be an enormous damage increase by itself. He's also Fire, so you won't suffer from an Elemental Shift. Personally I prefer Lightning and Water, however. Earth on your weapon may be your best bet if Ki Damage is an issue

Stamina - 18 is enough if you're wearing heavy armor. Match your Strength as well if you're wearing plate. Max Ki is worthless since Pulsing takes care of that, plus the max Ki bonus from your Titles will be more than enough

After that, points should start going into weapon scaling. Kusa is Skill / Dex I think.

Skeleton Warrior weak point is his head. High Stance Strong Attack from Kusa should take care of that no problem. Most weapons have a yuge overhead swing of sorts. Shooting one in the face with a gun or bow makes them instantly crumble into a sack of shit, too. Doesn't necessarily break their Ki, but you can get a few free whacks when they're on the ground.

Wheel Monks sometimes turn, especially when breathing fire, so it's easy to miss their weakpoint.

Edit: Yeah completing the dojo quests suck, and you need 20 in the respective stat for the last one, but once its done, you can buy a respec tome (you get TONS, plus oodles of cash later dont worry) to optimize yourself

 

[Damned Registrations]

Hmm, I went ahead and upgraded my equipment and then ran the twilight mission as a test. Things seem generally quite a bit easier even though the level difference isn't that much. Fought the giant spider lady and rifle-batman, both took quite a few tries but they weren't one shotting me and my damage wasn't total garbage.

What makes Kato so good for damage? I like Nezumi just for the retardedly fast gauge refill rate, but switched to mizuchi for the moment because the set gives a pretty sizable attack bonus for using him. Atlas bear has a better close combat bonus, is the skill damage really that important? Do skills tend to do way more damage than normal combos?

 

[Hyperion]

5% close combat damage, which stacks with the % you get from your weapon (Eventually), and skill damage both stack. Kara-Jishi gives a buff (shows up on your buff bar) when you use a skill, which can be better than Kato when you get to the soft cap of CCD and SD before Guardian Spirit bonuses take into effect.

Everything that's not considered a basic attack that has a tab on your Weapon Panel falls under the 'skill' category, and will get modified by both CCD and Skill Damage (additively I believe). That's why it generally gives more damage than Atlas Bear to boot. You're getting double the damage bonus as long as you're hitting with skills, which is most of the time.

 

[Emmanuel2]

is the skill damage really that important? Do skills tend to do way more damage than normal combos?

Depends on the weapon and the skills available along with if you built for it or not, and if not you'll still be using normal stance attacks for damage because of how many dual bosses there are in the end game and how fast they attack. Skill builds are not at all cheap too due to reforging shenanigans.

The high-tier builds that can easily clear NG+8 (Way of the Nioh), along with its S T A C K E D (full row buffs) bosses/elites/frequent dual boss stages, are mostly fast skill builds like Iai for Sword/Dual or Living Weapons builds for normal attacks (kusa/spear) or skills (axe/spear) which are absolutely game breaking, not a lot of builds can touch their clear speed.

 

[Damned Registrations]

So I defeated the and now the game is even more bullshit. Trying to fight the nue + two tengus (because one wasn't enough amirte?) and every fucking thing inflicts a status ailment that lasts so long I may as well restart my computer rather than try to wait it out. I have to start the fight like 6 times to get the RNG for an opening that lets me get two combos off on the tengu quickly enough to set up the discord thing and kill it. Then I die fighting the Nue anyways when it decides to randomly rear up and instakill me with double lightning bolts while I'm beating the shit out of it. Because giving that a tell would be unfair or something.

The whole premise of the combat system is fucked: you need to attack relentlessly to build up a status effect or deplete an enemy's stamina, but the only way to do that is to start a really long combo that will get you killed unless you're lucky. The only way skill actually enters into the fights is if you poke something in the .5 second safe window that happens every 10 seconds and manage to keep that up for 30 minutes until it dies of old age.

 

[Shackleton]

Nah, not frustrating, just boring & repetitive.

Give me the exact same gameplay & challenge, just don't make me spend hours of my life walking over & over the same ground to get to that gameplay & challenge, time & time again.

Most of these Souls type games suffer from the same thing. To me it's the one biggest improvement they could make.

Nioh feels a step backwards from DS3 in that respect.

So I'm up to Region 6 and I've got to say this is an absolute bullshit reason to criticise this game. Falksi I don't know which way around you were running to get to the bosses but I've not found one I couldn't get back to inside a minute, and most are seconds. 'Hours of your life'? FFS, hyperbole much? Umi-Bozu and Saiko the first time in Immortal Flame are the only ones that require any time at all and it's honestly less than a minute.

Fair enough if you don't like it, taste is subjective and yours is clearly, a bit shit. But stopping playing because the shrines aren't sitting right next door to the bosses is just bizarre.

In other news, settled on Kusarigama as high stance is just that good against basically everything. Nioh joined the rare club of games I've spent more than 100 hours on and it's still awesome. Gasha-Dokuro was still a pretty rubbish boss though.

 

[Falksi]

Nah, not frustrating, just boring & repetitive.

Give me the exact same gameplay & challenge, just don't make me spend hours of my life walking over & over the same ground to get to that gameplay & challenge, time & time again.

Most of these Souls type games suffer from the same thing. To me it's the one biggest improvement they could make.

Nioh feels a step backwards from DS3 in that respect.

So I'm up to Region 6 and I've got to say this is an absolute bullshit reason to criticise this game. Falksi I don't know which way around you were running to get to the bosses but I've not found one I couldn't get back to inside a minute, and most are seconds. 'Hours of your life'? FFS, hyperbole much? Umi-Bozu and Saiko the first time in Immortal Flame are the only ones that require any time at all and it's honestly less than a minute.

Fair enough if you don't like it, taste is subjective and yours is clearly, a bit shit. But stopping playing because the shrines aren't sitting right next door to the bosses is just bizarre.

In other news, settled on Kusarigama as high stance is just that good against basically everything. Nioh joined the rare club of games I've spent more than 100 hours on and it's still awesome. Gasha-Dokuro was still a pretty rubbish boss though.

Hino Enma for one. She's a few minutes away from the nearest respawn point.

Umi Bozi less so, but you still have to do the same thing over & over to get there. It's just that repetitive action of walk round back of hut, climb on to hut, walk across rooftop, drop on to boat, kill enemy, walk across to next hut, avoid enemy, enter gate. I've not touched the game since I last posted on here, and the pattern is pretty much burned into my memory.

It's the same reason I dislike games like TW3 - "get quest, run to point on map, use Witcher senses, fight something, go back to quest giver & tie up quest" - over & over. That can be surrounded by all the fluff it wants, but Ithe actions I find myself doing are just the same ones over & over & it gets dull.

Repetitive patterns in games get very old very fast for me. Adventuring is something I like to keep things fresh & constantly introduce new elements, not simply repeat things.

 

[Hyperion]

Hino Enma for one. She's a few minutes away from the nearest respawn point.

You missed the hidden shrine on the ledge. Its above the ladder with the bomb throwing undead.

Drop down 2 ledges, turn, and run for the hallway with the bats. Done and done.

 

[Falksi]

Hino Enma for one. She's a few minutes away from the nearest respawn point.

You missed the hidden shrine on the ledge. Its above the ladder with the bomb throwing undead.

Drop down 2 ledges, turn, and run for the hallway with the bats. Done and done.

Cheers mate.

See that's where the game shoots itself in the foot. There's no need to hide a shrine next to the boss, there's no positive in that, just ballache.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Cheers mate.

See that's where the game shoots itself in the foot. There's no need to hide a shrine next to the boss, there's no positive in that, just ballache.

That's called rewarding adventure, exploration and patience.

 

[Falksi]

Cheers mate.

See that's where the game shoots itself in the foot. There's no need to hide a shrine next to the boss, there's no positive in that, just ballache.

That's rewarding exploration, patience and adventure.

It's not, it's punishing anyone who misses it. It's no reward to not have to trawl through the same area over & over. That's like your girlfriend saying your reward is to not have to fix the shelves. A reward would be a blowjob.

 

[Lyre Mors]

It's not, it's punishing anyone who misses it. It's no reward to not have to trawl through the same area over & over. That's like your girlfriend saying your reward is to not have to fix the shelves. A reward would be a blowjob.

It's a reward when a key aspect of the gameplay involves carefully exploring your surroundings so that you may optimally traverse a particularly challenging part of a map. Just because you got impatient and wanted to beat it as fast as possible doesn't make it bad design. It makes you impatient and that's about it. If having to learn and explore your surroundings to make a difficult encounter easier to approach is too much, then yeah, the game doesn't suit your taste. Otherwise, the tools are at your disposal to address your complaints.

 

[praetor]

Falksi

dude, you're arguing that by default games should be easy mode. what's next, you're going to argue that games should have an skip-all-hard-content-so-i-can-watch-cutscenes mode? or should games just have an awesome button?

dear god... this is the fucking codex, not reddit or the bioware forums

 

[ERYFKRAD]

He positively "thrived" on kurwa 2 what else do you expect.

 

[Shackleton]

It's almost as if they should have put in some relatively long-lasting spell that lets you know when you're near an item, enemy or shrine by putting a coloured dot on your mini-map...

Do people really not use Divination constantly in their first playthrough?

 

[Falksi]

It's not, it's punishing anyone who misses it. It's no reward to not have to trawl through the same area over & over. That's like your girlfriend saying your reward is to not have to fix the shelves. A reward would be a blowjob.

It's a reward when a key aspect of the gameplay involves carefully exploring your surroundings so that you may optimally traverse a particularly challenging part of a map. Just because you got impatient and wanted to beat it as fast as possible doesn't make it bad design. It makes you impatient and that's about it. If having to learn and explore your surroundings to make a difficult encounter easier to approach is too much, then yeah, the game doesn't suit your taste. Otherwise, the tools are at your disposal to address your complaints.

It's not mate, because a reward is a treat, something positive. Not something which is key to making things enjoyable in the first place.

All bosses fights, in all these types of games, should have a respawn point bang next to the boss which you can't miss IMO. Walking for ages to get to the boss then be "one-shotted", is simply no fun.

Falksi

dude, you're arguing that by default games should be easy mode. what's next, you're going to argue that games should have an skip-all-hard-content-so-i-can-watch-cutscenes mode? or should games just have an awesome button?

dear god... this is the fucking codex, not reddit or the bioware forums

Eh? No I'm not. Where have you pulled that from?

I'm saying that once you've found a boss then, to save retreading old ground over & over, have an unmissable respawn point next to them.

Don't have to change the difficulty or make things easier. Just cut out anything which stops players getting to the meat of the game.

He positively "thrived" on kurwa 2 what else do you expect.

 

[praetor]

Falksi

dude, you're arguing that by default games should be easy mode. what's next, you're going to argue that games should have an skip-all-hard-content-so-i-can-watch-cutscenes mode? or should games just have an awesome button?

dear god... this is the fucking codex, not reddit or the bioware forums

Eh? No I'm not. Where have you pulled that from?

I'm saying that once you've found a boss then, to save retreading old ground over & over, have an unmissable respawn point next to them.

yes, that's exactly what you're arguing. "i suck at the game and die at the boss repeatedly, so it should be easier to get there by default". you want an easier time? then fucking explore and earn it, you decline-enabler.

"i want everything served on a platter" is just the next logical step from your shitty ramblings, you peasant

 

[cruel]

I was pretty fond of myself when I found this secret shrine on my own. Rewarding exploration is pure incline.

BTW, if you manage to beat Hino Enma, then you can probably finish whole game.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Nutmeg]

yes, that's exactly what you're arguing. "i suck at the game and die at the boss repeatedly, so it should be easier to get there by default". you want an easier time? then fucking explore and earn it, you decline-enabler.

"i want everything served on a platter" is just the next logical step from your shitty ramblings, you peasant

The whole idea of "just spend enough time doing easy things and then the thing you want to do will be easy too" is backwards because a player should be rewarded with greater challenge as they learn and grow not less.

 

[Falksi]

Falksi

dude, you're arguing that by default games should be easy mode. what's next, you're going to argue that games should have an skip-all-hard-content-so-i-can-watch-cutscenes mode? or should games just have an awesome button?

dear god... this is the fucking codex, not reddit or the bioware forums

Eh? No I'm not. Where have you pulled that from?

I'm saying that once you've found a boss then, to save retreading old ground over & over, have an unmissable respawn point next to them.

yes, that's exactly what you're arguing. "i suck at the game and die at the boss repeatedly, so it should be easier to get there by default". you want an easier time? then fucking explore and earn it, you decline-enabler.

"i want everything served on a platter" is just the next logical step from your shitty ramblings, you peasant

No-one's wanting it easier. I ENJOY the boss fights, whether I die or not. I just want to spend more time fighting them, and less time walking over the same old parts of ground.

Umi Bozu's nearest shrine is as bad.

If you're a tard who are so backwards you can enjoy doing the same thing over & over like a Lemming then fine. I'm not.

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Suicidal]

I can understand hating to run back to the boss every you die. I actually hate it as well and wish you would just restart at the boss. But for some reason I didn't hate running back to bosses annoying in this game. Maybe it's cause the game is very generous with checkpoints (more so than Dark Souls for example).

 

[Hyperion]

Umi Bozu's nearest shrine is as bad.

You missed another shrine, dude. You drop down from above while scaling the roof. Open the barred door, look right, backstab the skeleton archer, then maybe the mini umi-bozu that pops out to your left if you're so inclined (easily skippabru), run straight ahead, hang a right and then you can run past the gunner skeleton in the center area with the hanging boat and the elevated platform directly to Umi's room.

Haven't played in well over a year, still have the general rundown of most areas pretty well drawn in my head. Except the goddamn level with trench warfare and the arrows though i eventually got 100% projectile resistance and just walked through them lolololololol.

 

[retinoid]

Nioh was a slow burner for me.

Picked it up on release day and loved it for the first few hours while I played it like Dark Souls like some fucking retard, then got bored and put it down for a few months after the Samurai dude in the underground temple. Came back and gave it another shot with a different perspective, cleansed of the Souls cancer which plagued my ability to play ARPGs with any semblance of depth to the combat system, and I am so happy I made that decision. The number of systems to the combat, all seamlessly integrating with one another is honestly a thing of beauty. I'm not a DMC fag nor have I played Ninja Gaiden so I've got zero clue if they are similar to Nioh in this regard (I would assume Ninja Gaiden might given it's Team Ninja) but for someone who has traditionally stayed away from high tempo action games, I was seriously impressed.

Nioh 2 just needs to fix the level design and enemy variety to be fucking god tier. I'm fine with Diablo loot as that's what makes the builds so diverse and theory crafting extremely satisfying.