Developed by Team Ninja, the first Nioh was released in 2017 after being in development for 14 years. What began as a project based on the unfinished works of director Akira Kurosawa became a game based on the real-life English Samurai William Adams. Heavily influenced by the likes of and , the resulting game was a big hit among fans of the genre and is arguably the best Souls-like game not developed by FromSoftware.
To say that its sequel was a highly anticipated title would be an understatement. Set before the events of the first game, was released in early 2020, bringing with it some new gameplay mechanics and features. So without further ado, let’s take look at 5 of the best and 5 of the worst things in Nioh 2.
10 BEST: The Ro𝓀bust Character Creation Options
One of the most controversial decisions made by the developer in Nioh was forcing the player to progress through the game as the predet📖ermined hero William. As endearing and likable as he was, there were many players that would have preferred to 🗹have chosen their own gender, race, and characteristics.
Realizing how important this is in a Souls-like action RPG, Team Ninja has included one of the mꦏost robust character-creation systems in a Souls-like since Bandai Namco’s . Just like that game, there will be ꦰmany players tinkering around with the customization sliders for hours before they even jump into the game.
9 🍬 WORST: The Silent Protagonist
Sadly, one of the biggest downsides of players being able to create their own character is that it usually comes with the drawback of being a s♒ilent protagonist. In a game where the story is bullet-pointed by its cutscenes, it's difficult for a silent protagonist to not look like they are just tagging along for the ride next to some of the more charism🐽atic characters in the game.
While this isn’t immersion breaking when it comes to the game's story, the player's personalized character doesn’t seem as involved as William was in the first Nioh.
8 BEST: A Bet🧜ter Story
Even with a silent protagonist, one major area where Nioh 2 definitely improves over its predecessor is the storyline. Technically, Nioh 2 is a prequel and is set during 1555 in the early stages of Oda Nobunaga’s - the real-life feudal Japanese lord - goal to 🐻unify Japa🎉n.
Interestingly, Koei Tecmo also publishes the historical Japanese strategy series Nobunaga’s Ambition, and Nioh 2 puts a more supernatural twist on these same historical accounts. The campaign is lengthy and filled with interesting side-quests to flesh♈ o🉐ut the characters, story, and world.
7 WORST: Artificially♈ Padding Its Length
Nioh 2 is a huge game it’🐬s even bigger than first one. Here, many of the missions can feel overly long. It’s str🐻ange then, that one of the most baffling design decisions the developers made was to unnecessarily and artificially pad out the game even more with recycled content from the first game.
As a result, Nioh 2 can feel overly familiar to returning players who'll just feel like they're retreading old ground. Meanwhil🐷e, newcomers may find the gameplay needlessly tedious and repetitive.
6 𒀰 BEST: Fast & Flu🍰id Combat
It's true that Nioh 2 is easily considered one of the best of Souls-like games on the market. However, where Koei Tecmo’s franchise separates itself from Dark Souls and even is its incredibly fast and fluid combat.
As mentioned above, the story and characters in Nioh 2 are great, but it is the combat that will keep players coming back. Each and every fight with even the lowliest of enemies is like a dance of swords stringing together complex combos, different stances, and speed that is more reminiscent of Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden series than Dark Souls.
5 WORST: Loot Loses Its Usefulness Far T🌄oo Quickly
In Nioh 2, there’s a big emphasis on loot aไnd players will quickly become overwhelmed in common and rare items very early on. Thankfully, players can make offerings to the Shrines to get rid of any unwanted spare gear that has outlived its usefulness.
Unfortunately, due t🏅o the fact that the game is so generous, players will find that 𒉰any new loot they find will quickly outlive its usefulness in a matter of hours. As a result, the need to make offerings over and over again will quickly become something of a chore.
4 BES🎃T: The New Yokai Abilities
The biggest addition to Nioh 2’s combat system is the new Yokaiꦍ Forms and Soul Cores. This time around, the player is part human and part Yokai, which gifts them with demonic powers that they can use in battle and save them from desperate situations.
Each Yokai form has its own sets of stats and abilities and allows players to build up a meter so they can briefly transform into their chosen Yokai form rendering them invulnerable for a short duration. In addit𝄹ion, th🐭e Yokai is used to trigger Burst Counters which can deal massive damage to the enemy’s stamina – known as Ki – to create openings for bigger attacks.
3 WORS✅T: The Overly Complicated RPG Mechanics
Nioh 2 has added a lot of new complexities and depth to its fighting system and role-playing mechanics. While there will be many gamers that are going welcome this kind of attention🦹 to details, there will be those that will find these additions unnecessarily fiddly and complex.
In what is ultimately a third-person action game the menus and item management will be overwheꦇlmi﷽ng for a lot of gamers that just want to get into learning the mechanics. One can’t help but feel that having some sort of automatic option for the game’s many stat placements would have been a welcome addition.
2 💖 BEST: The Yokai Design
One of the main aspects of the Dark Souls series and indeed Bloodborne and is the developer’s FromSoftware’s ability to create fantastic monsters and demons. Whether it’s the bosses or their weaker minions, every creature in𒈔 those games is memorable.
Thankfully, Nioh 2 developers Team Ninja are no slouches in the artistic department either. Their demon and monster designs look just as memorable and weird as anything FromSoft has created. In Nioh 2 the demons or supernatural manifestations are known in Japanese folklore as Yokai. Furthermore, defeating them in battle will mean they drop Soul Cores whicꦑh can be used to assign new special abilities to the player’s own Yokai form.
1 WORST: The B🍷൲oss Battles Can Be Very Tough
As with all Souls-likes, their quality is often measured by their difficulty and Nioh 2 is without a doubt a very difficult game. This, of course, is a matter of tastes for gamers that enjoy this kind of masochistic style of action game but even the most seasoned Souls veteran will have a tough time doing battle with the game’s bosses.
The boss fight themselves are, for the most part, punishing because it takes a very long time to chip away at their health. Even the smallest mistake can prove costly and can invite frustration when the player is just one hit away from winning the fight. On the flip side, this is exactly the kind of challenge fans of Nioh expect from its sequel.