Hi guys! Today I will talk about Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and Nioh. I will do a comparison between them and I will let you be the judge of which game is better. First I will talk about the storyline of those 2 games, then I will talk about the difference or similarities in their gameplay, and lastly, I will compare the visuals and tell you my final thoughts. Now let’s begin.
Table of Contents
Storyline
When it comes to the story I believe Dark Souls 2 wins by a very small margin. In general, I don’t really like story-driven plots in games but I can’t deny that Dark Souls 2 has an interesting story. Even though I prefer character-driven plots in games, Nioh doesn’t have a story that is memorable.
Nioh’s story has some interesting parts when certain characters appear but beyond that, it’s very mediocre and forgettable. In the end, neither game’s story left me satisfied but I believe you will enjoy more the Storyline of Dark Souls 2.
Gameplay
Both games have great gameplay but for different reasons. I believe the best thing in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is the dual-wielding system that it has and it the best combat system the Dark Souls franchise had in my opinion. Unfortunately, they changed it in Dark Souls 3, and I never understood why they did that. I hope that in future FromSoftware games we will see it again.
Nioh on the other hand has the stance system, where you can change combat stances while you are fighting enemies and each stance has its own moveset and skill tree. I had a lot of fun with this system and I can’t wait to play Nioh 2 when it comes to PC or when I get a console.
Of course, there are other systems both games have that are interesting but I discuss those in the separate reviews I made for those games. I don’t want to bombard you with information. The purpose of these comparison articles is to give you a summary of the important systems and features each game that I compare has and to help you make a decision on what to pick.
As for the enemies that you will face, both games have a variety of mobs that you will find in the areas that you will pass through and you will not feel like you are fighting the same enemies over and over. Also, both games have a variety of bosses but Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin has more bosses for you to fight.
Finally, it is important to know how challenging both games are. I believe both games are equally challenging and I can’t really say that one is more challenging than the other.
Visuals
The visuals of Nioh are superior to those of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. This is natural since Nioh was released two years after Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and in general Dark Souls games were never really known for having amazing graphics.
That said, I don’t think the difference in graphics is big enough for someone to add this as a pro when deciding which of these two games to pick. Of course, if you can’t decide based on the other things I said and you need to nitpick to make a choice then you have to consider them.
On the customization department, Nioh wins again since it has 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.
In Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin there are some amazing looking armor sets with good stats so not having a transmogrification system isn’t as big of a problem as in other souls games but it is a very important feature for me and I think every RPG must have it since it makes the experience of playing the game much more enjoyable.
Final Thoughts
Let me summarize what you should remember from this article.
First, when it comes to story Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin wins but generally I wouldn’t recommend including the story aspect in your decision making process on which game to pick since I don’t believe either of those games is worth getting for the story.
As for the gameplay, both have their strength and weaknesses but personally, I believe the combat has more depth in Nioh because of the combat stances(you can unlock skills for each stance too) and the variety they give to the combat.
One thing is for sure, whichever game you pick I believe you won’t regret it.
Finally, Nioh has better graphics and more customization options than Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin.
Whatever you decide I recommend waiting for sale.
That’s it for my article guys. I hope you liked it. What game do you think is better and why? Write down your opinion in the comments below. See ya in the next article.
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Follow @GamerWelfareHere are the links for the images I used:
https://www.igdb.com/games/dark-souls-ii-scholar-of-the-first-sin/presskit