Hi guys! Today I will talk about Nioh. As always, the review will have four parts, firstly I will talk about the storyline, then about the gameplay, afterward, I will talk about the visuals and finally, I will tell you my personal thoughts and give you a rating for the game from 0-10 (10 being the best).
Table of Contents
Storyline
The story of Nioh is average. It’s good that there is a story but you probably won’t care much about what’s happening. I am not really sure what’s the reason that I feel this way about the story of Nioh. I guess one problem is that the protagonist almost never speaks and he doesn’t show almost any emotion.
Also, the voice acting doesn’t sell the story. There are some good voice actors in this but overall it was a mediocre story and voice acting.
Personally I don’t believe you should get this game if you are looking for an amazing story. There are some historical figures that you will meet in the game that will make you enjoy some parts of the story but beyond this, there isn’t much else.
The reason you should get this game is the gameplay experience which is amazing as I will explain in the next section.
Gameplay
As I said in the previous section, the reason you should get this game is its amazing gameplay. First I will talk about the weapons and equipment that are available.
Nioh gives you the choice to fight with different kinds of weapons and each of them has its own skill tree that will allow you to use different kinds of combat abilities with that specific weapon.
The game also allows you to switch between two melee weapons and two ranged weapons so in total you have four weapons at your disposal.
Besides the weapons, you can also unlock abilities from 2 different “classes”. The first class has ninja skills and the second has onmyo skills. Both classes are very important for different reasons which I will not explain here because this isn’t the purpose of this article.
One tip that I shall give you though is to invest points in dexterity and magic stats early in the game so that you get points to unlock skills in those two classes. Ninja and Onmyo abilities are extremely useful in this game and you need them because without them the game gets extremely hard.
Besides dexterity and magic, there are another six stats that you can put points on. I recommend reading carefully what each stat does before you put points on anything.
One more thing I should mention when it comes to weapons is that for each weapon there three different stances you can switch between. High stance offers more damage at the cost of attack speed and mobility, low stance offers high mobility and attack speed at the cost of damage and the mid stance which is balanced.
You have to think carefully which stance is best for your playstyle, the situation, and the weapon you are using, and that is one of the new elements that make Nioh so special.
Nioh also has a pretty complex RPG system and it will take some time to get used to everything. The game has a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of the system the game becomes very fun, so you need patience.
As for the enemies that you will face I have to say that Nioh has a big variety of enemies and each of them feels unique and moves differently. You won’t be disappointed by the enemies that’s for sure.
That is also true for the bosses. There are around 35 bosses in the game and some of them are optional. Each boss feels unique and the boss fights get pretty intense sometimes.
Now the important question and the thing most hardcore players care about. Is it challenging? The answer is yes and it gets more challenging in NG+ modes. The difficulty is similar to Dark Souls 3 and it’s easier than Sekiro in my opinion.
The crucial thing when it comes to Nioh is learning how the skill trees work and what the stats do. Once you learn those things the game becomes manageable. I didn’t know the importance of ninja and onmyo abilities at first and I thought this was the hardest game I had ever played but once I learned what everything does, the game became easier.
For those of you that want to know about how long it takes to beat the game, it takes around 60 hours to do complete the main story and the DLC.
The game also has a lot of replayability with new gear rarity levels becoming available to you after you complete NG.
Lastly, there are some technical aspects that I would like to mention. First, don’t buy the game if you don’t have a controller. Mouse and Keyboard won’t do for this game. The game isn’t optimized for mouse and keyboard controls and I tried downloading programs that would help play the game with mouse and keyboard but they weren’t good enough.
Second, you might experience some game crashes. I played the game on an i7-7700, with 16GB Ram and GTX 1070, and still experienced some crashes. They don’t happen often but they can happen at the worst times. For example, I remember beating a boss and after I beat the boss the game crashed and I had to play the boss fight all over again(that happened in two different boss fights, my bad luck I guess).
Visuals
The visuals of Nioh are excellent even by today’s standards. There are some beautiful scenes that will truly amaze you by how good they look. One thing is for certain, you won’t be dissapointed by the graphics.
One thing that Nioh has and no other souls-like game has is that there is an equipment transmogrification system, meaning that you are able to change the appearance of any armor or weapon you have to the appearance of another weapon or armor you have gotten in the game and keep the item’s stats.
That is something that I want in every souls-like game I play and unfortunately no other souls-like game has it. Being able make your character look cool without sacrificing stats is something that every game should have in my opinion.
Final Thoughts
The game is amazing and you should definitely try it out if you are the type of person who loves challenging games. It has some shortcomings like the story and the technical issues I mentioned, but they aren’t enough to make this game not worth your time.
It has one of the best combat systems out there, for me it’s second only to Sekiro and its way better than Dark Souls combat system.
The visuals are very good even for today’s standards and it also has a lot of content and replayability.
Still, I would recommend waiting for a sale since Nioh 2 has already come out. I also recommend that you get the DLC story expansions too. You can pay full price if you can’t wait, I believe the game is worth it.
Final Verdict
Storyline: 8
Gameplay: 10
Visuals: 9
General Rating: 9
That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.
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