Nioh: Feudal Era Dark Souls

[Silverfish]

Oh, that's a new one. But how does this loot system work in a skill based game? Seems like an odd match.

On a first run? Just make sure your weapon's and armor's levels are near the mission's recommended level.

 

[Multidirectional]

Point of comparison. If you jumped into Nioh at release, the easiest comparison was Dark Souls 3 and Nioh is much more difficult.

Dark Souls 3 is way harder to me than Nioh..

 

[Silverfish]

Dark Souls 3 is way harder to me than Nioh..

You should get a new controller if your dodge button doesn't work.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW do you get a torch at some point everything is dark as shit lol.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Just booted this on Epic breaking my sacred rule never to actually play anything on Epic. Now i feel dirty.

Still mulling over whether i should fork the 10 buckos of getting it on steam. Paid exactly that for Nioh 2 on the last Humble Choice thingy my inner Jew is kicking in.

Anyway, so apparently, in this game you play as Samurai Gerard. Tried kicking some guy in the face and he one shot me with an overhead charged attack. Had to do it over but now i'm running around in my undies with a giant broad sword in my hands.

What do? Continue and allow the Chinese to spy on me or get it on Steam?

I heard the sequel is an outright improvement maybe i can just get over the first quickly and move on to Nioh 2.

Stay with it. The story is dumb (although also silly fun), but the combat has way more depth than Dark Souls (each weapon type has 3 separate stances to learn that you can switch between on the fly to create combos, some weapons have parry windows, there's the whole spirit system which impacts gameplay, magic is awesome, and throwables are actually useful), just as there is way more build variety. And the game rewards playing through NG+, as NG+ changes the core gameplay enough to make it worth it.

When I played, I did a ninjitsu build, which was the most fragile glass cannon I've ever played in an ARPG. I could decimate bosses in 1 minute, but they could also one-shot me in one hit. It was insanity.

The only downside is that the crafting system is fucking work to farm the statuses you want and requires continual upgrades, which can be a chore. I had fun with it in Nioh but I ended up getting sick of it in Nioh 2 and Wo Long. It also assumes that you are going to be willing to grind waaaaaay more than the average Dark Souls player to get ahead, so prepare to replay the same missions more than once to farm what you need (although, most can be completed in 5-10 minutes, a la armored core).

But given the variety in builds, you can adopt a bunch of different playstyles. It's my favorite non-From souls-like. Nioh 2 is arguably better than Nioh 1 in terms of gameplay, but I still prefer Nioh 1, just because the story is better and it has lots of insane imbalances (like OP glass cannon ninjitsu builds) that Nioh 2 balances out.

 

[Haplo]

Note that you may not care at all about that "crafting" and "farming" at least untill NG++.

I certainly didn't (and after reaching the 3rd difficulty I've dropped it, because I couldn't be arsed to do it - even though it was quite interesting, with enemies getting new abilities and items getting new properties).
Oh wait, I've think I've once farmed a boss for an axe I wanted.

 

[Multidirectional]

The only downside is that the crafting system is fucking work to farm the statuses you want and requires continual upgrades, which can be a chore. I had fun with it in Nioh but I ended up getting sick of it in Nioh 2 and Wo Long. It also assumes that you are going to be willing to grind waaaaaay more than the average Dark Souls player to get ahead, so prepare to replay the same missions more than once to farm what you need (although, most can be completed in 5-10 minutes, a la armored core).

Sounds like autism issue to me as I don't farm in Nioh 2 and am fine just using whatever I get along the way while progressing to higher level content. I am not replaying missions to farm even on NG++++. Seriously people, stop doing this shit to yourselves.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i got out of the starting area and landed on shore and no achievement popped up yet. Can't seem to find any i guess Epic version doesn't have them. Not that i need them but, can't connect to Steam players and there's no achievements honestly who the fuck would pay money on Epic might as well pirate the games at this point.

Anyway, by the time i faced the jailer i had full plate armor and a big ass axe, so when i got the choice to pick weapons i opted for the biggus sword and axe but i should have known better to think i would have been able to keep my loot. I assume initial choices don't matter BTW. I also picked up the ghost doggo.

Took me a while to grasp the ki pulse thing. I was stuck in the tutorial for a solid 3 minutes before i figured out how to do that purify thing. Right now i kept the buttons layout on my controller in the default position, which means i have to fight off against my Dark Souls finger memory. Didn't try the alternative layout maybe that would have been better. Using the shoulder button to do that ki thing or switch weapons or stances feels a bit hawkard at the moment but i suppose i may get used to it eventually.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Ki pulse thing is weird. My main enemy in prologue and first map was literally it. Then somehow I mastered it and became a reflex. Even in second game I started doing it without any trouble.

 

[Multidirectional]

Ki pulse thing is weird. My main enemy in prologue and first map was literally it. Then somehow I mastered it and became a reflex. Even in second game I started doing it without any trouble.

Pulse seemed almost more than I could handle at first but then ended up getting used to it pretty fast. Took me a while before I started fluxing though. On my Odachi run in both games didn't feel like I needed it, only when I started learning Kusarigama in 2 did I finally graduate to fluxing. Mainly flux between high stance and low stance combos to keep posture breaking human bosses, effectively stunlocking them.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So what are those remnants, dead players?

Scouting around the first area here, died like a scrub when i tried to enter some kind compound and got chased by five enemies at once lmao.

So basically this is like Souls, you get everything back unless you die a second time.

Also, using weapons makes them stronger, so if you find a better weapon you gotta train it from scratch. Not sure how i feel about that.

 

[Multidirectional]

So what are those remnants, dead players?

Yeah they spawn from dead players. Also some of them are placed by developers.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright, i think i'm pretty much set to go. Still a scrub with this combat system, mostly just baiting enemies so i can dodge out of their attacks and follow with a big slam from my biggus sword but hey, baby steps.

Only thing i need to figure out now is where to spend Amra points. I see there's also skill points you can use on specific weapon types.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Changing fighting styles on the go is something you'll want to do, depenging on enemies and their abilities

 

[Multidirectional]

Only thing i need to figure out now is where to spend Amra points.

I wouldn't bother focusing on damage scaling early, better to get stuff that gives you more utility. Like Ninjutsu/Omnyo capacity. Also being able to equip heavier stuff is nice. Toughness is a good stat. In N2 I pump Stamina first, followed by getting Dexterity and Magic to 30 to reach capacity soft cap. Not sure if capacity is the same in N1.

 

[Silverfish]

Multidirectional pretty much covered it, but one thing to add is that armor pieces have stat requirements, so sprinkle in constitution, strength and skill as needed, but don't go crazy with any of them.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Wow, there's remnants everywhere. At first i tried to kill them all but now i'm sort of starting to skip them. Didn't expect there would be so many of them. I guess i just got to pick and chose what to kill based on the info you get when you get near one. Getting pretty good at killing them though as i'm slowly starting to memorize the various weapon combos (predictably, the heavy weapons are the easiest to avoid since they have short and easy to remember combos). Not sure where to spend those reputation points or whatever they are. Instinct is telling me to put them in Luck but i'm not sure yet.

Level design is not bad BTW. It's not that far off from Sekiro. It's linear but you still need to pay attention to where you are and there's a little bit of nooks and crannies here and there where you can find extra loot or those little guys. Far cry from the best Souls level design but at least it's not completely Call of Duty levels of braindead.

No bosses yet. I thought that big demon guy was a boss at first but apparently he is a special enemy. Maybe there's gonna be a boss in the boat.

 

[Multidirectional]

If you're actually going to be fighting all revenants you will be stuck in this game forever. I just ignore them altogether now, I'd much rather get to higher level missions faster and get better stuff there.
Level design actually seemed to be improved to me when i switched to Nioh 2, at least from what I've seen of 1.

 

[Haplo]

Changing fighting styles on the go is something you'll want to do, depenging on enemies and their abilities

High Axe worked fine for 90% of the content

 

[Haplo]

If you're actually going to be fighting all revenants you will be stuck in this game forever. I just ignore them altogether now, I'd much rather get to higher level missions faster and get better stuff there.
Level design actually seemed to be improved to me when i switched to Nioh 2, at least from what I've seen of 1.

The remnants drop some of the best stuff, though. Just pick the ones with armanents that suit your taste...

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright, first boss was in the boat after all.

So on my first encounter, i used some epic biggus sword i found off a remnant, a really ornate version with lighting damage. I popped the wolf thingy and nearly damn killed the boss without much of a sweat, which seems to bring to light a problem with combining the Diablo loot system with a combat based game but maybe it's just becuase it's the first boss. Since i wannna try to get a feeling for the combat sytem i decided to scale back with a regular weapon and no wolf power up thing:



Still trying to come to terms with this. First off, i still have no feeling for combos let alone switching stances. I'm using the heaviest attack i have and there's barely any room for a follow up. I could use lower stances but the result is just more attacks for less damage seems to be kinda the same i'm not sure. Getting a feeling for the hit box was tricky. At first i kept getting hit even after i "felt" i had successfully dodged an attack and took me a while to understand how to move around. Seems in this game the hit box is a bit more lose. Like, a few times i rolled out of an attack and got hit by the ball as it came bouncing back after his attack had already finished.

Second phase i just winged it. The fact i have to look up to do that ki pulse thing is pretty distracting, where as my fingers just don't want to comply the few times i tried to get that flux thing going. Souls finger memory is also still bugging me, as sometimes i hit the shoulders button to attack instead of Y or X.

So far the game is pretty fun all the same even though i'm still far away from grasping all the complexities. As far as the presentation goes i much prefer FromSoft games, but a lot of the stuff i thought was going to bug me isn't actually that annoying once you get to play the game. Like when i saw videos with all those magic stuff and numbers floating everywhere i was instantly put off but it's not really that big of a deal during actual play.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The hitboxes are tight, even AoE attacks are more lenient than they appear
This is Team Ninja, they are not known for jank


The basic gist of Stances are:

High Stance

> high damage
> high Ki consumption
> high Toughness (i.e. Poise) damage
> highest wind-up and recovery animation frames
> your evasive move is a slow, but extensive roll with a high amount of invincibility frames
> Perfect Ki Pulse gives you a damage buff for your next attack
> your attacks aren't deflected against blocking enemies (i.e. your attack isn't interrupted and you can continue your combo) - need at least a B in Toughness
> combat moves gained by skills are usually big, damage heavy attacks with AoE properties and with no regard for your defence

Overall the stance with highest risk/reward disparity
Watch out to not get Winded (i.e. stagger state after losing all Ki - William will become imobile and out of breath, enemies can that the opportunity to deal a critical hit)

Mid Stance

> average damage
> average Ki consumption
> average Toughness damage
> average wind-up and recovery animation frames
> your evasive move is a quick dodge that covers a few meters - but if you quickly input the evasive move a 2nd time, you will perform a roll (though not as "powerful" as the one from High Stance)
> Perfect Ki Pulse gives a buff that makes your next guard cost no Ki
> lowest Ki consumption when guarding
> attacks are wide (well suited for group management) and feature plenty of support skills
> for odachi and axe only: your attacks aren't deflected against blocking enemies - also needs a B in Toughness at minimum
> combat moves gained by skills are usually parries and counter-attacks

Overall the stance for defence and group fighting

Low Stance

> low damage
> low Ki consumption
> low Toughness damage
> low wind-up and recovery animation frames
> your evasive move is a fast, but short, step-dash that can be quickly chained together until your out of stamina (the wind-up and recovery animations are very small unlike the other 2 stances) - also very few i-frames
> Perfect Ki Pulse gives you a buff that makes your next evasion cost no Ki
> attacks are low performance but very fast, they are essentially pokes, useful for wearing down an opponent so you can then follow with a more powerful move and good for applying debuffs as well
> also, you can guard while evading in low stance
> combat moves gained by skills are usually intended for "versatility" (influencing the enemy's state and position)

Overall a cautious stance, good for quickly moving in an out of groups and if you're confident, sticking close to an opponent while keeping out of harm's way

Also, for human opponents, this is a good rule of thumb: High beats Mid > Mid beats Low > Low beats High

The combat will really shine once you get a nice and varied setup of skills

 

[Lyric Suite]

Oh wow there's a skill that does that pulse thing while dodging wish i had seen it sooner lol.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, presentation of this game definitely feels cheap compared to FromSoft. I'm sure they focused on the things that matter but there's a latent blandness to a lot of the surrounding elements besides the combat. I never played the old console generation of actions games but i suspect there's likely a continuity with those. Could also be a budget issue, all though when the ninja pulls the cat out of his chest i knew the developers aren't actually taking this shit seriously at all lmao. That was the most "why? 'Cause Japan that's why fucker" moment i've seen in a game in recent memory.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The game doesn't have any fantastical locations like From games if that's what you're referring to
But it nonetheless has plenty of aesthetically pleasing corners and scenes
You're still in the early game, give it time

all though when the ninja pulls the cat out of his chest i knew the developers aren't actually taking this shit seriously at all lmao.

It was comic relief, but still:

https://time-issues.org/cats-eyes-clock/

https://www.kouka-ninjya.com/la_en/column/chie/