Board 8 > Nioh beated! Another amazing Souls experience. [mini-review and boss rankings]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Let me get this out of the way. Nioh is the best game I've played this year. Better than what I've played of Zelda and RE7 the other two behemoths which are amazing games in their respective genres. I'm even gonna go so far as to say it is as good as Dark Souls III. My favorite game from the previous year. But I'm gonna get into that later.

At this point the Souls formula/mechanics in a video game really can't go wrong with me. I say this with a little grain of salt because I'm one who always thought (and took pride in thinking) video game series should try different things and have new mechanics and engine everytime a sequel releases (reason why the FF series is my favorite). I absoultely hate games like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty which refuse to change their formula and release one or two games every year for easy cash grab. But the Souls formula whether it be a FromSoftware game or some other developer is something I don't mind seeing frequently and I absolutely think it is something which doesn't need change unless it is a few tweaks to make it even more fun that it actually ia.

Nioh is not just another Souls clone developed by the renowned team behind Ninja Gaiden though. Said tweaks I mentioned in the previous paragraph is something Nioh has in spades. The combat in particular is more fun than even Bloodborne but because of its own depth it starts breaking the game midway making otherwise challenges easier. I had to stop using Onmyo magic because after a while I really started to feel like I was cheating against my opponents and went in full-on No Magic Souls style, making the game more challenging and fun.

- to be continued
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Now lets touch the subject of atmosphere and lore. Nioh's lore is that of feudal Japan or more accurately for gamers... Onimusha. That's right you are gonna be seeing a lot of Characters you might already be expecting :)
The story is also strikingly similar to Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (the best game in a great series I might add) and while it doesn't quite have the depth of the Souls series, it is more upfront and plentiful if that's the sort of thing you prefer.

The variety of atmosphere in Nioh is outstanding by any other game's standards but a bar set as high as the Souls series have, is difficult to surmount. Nioh doesn't quite reach that bar. The metroidvania aspect being absent in place of a mission-based structure could be the cause of that.

Enemy variety. Now that as far as I know is the biggest complaint by most people about the game. I personally think it is overblown but in comparison to the Souls games, yes, it is a valid complaint. The variety of enemies in itself is actually more than plentiful but the game makes the mistake of introducing too many enemies too early in the game so by the time you're halfway or less past the game, you already know the moveset of 80% of the enemies. So it takes away that unknown and mysterious venturing-in-the-new-area aura the Souls series is so well known. I do agree that this is the one flaw of the game.

To end this on a high-note, lets talk about Bosses, another all important aspect of the Souls games. To put it in a sentence, if you are a fan of hard hitting mammoth-like figures and lightning quick foes that can end you in seconds, you will absolutely love this game.
IMO Nioh has overall more challenging bosses than the Souls series but only if you abstain from using an Onmyo magic called Sloth which really trivializes a lot of fights. I stopped using Onmyo after realising how broken it was and immediately had more fun with the game.
A particular optional sub mission boss fight against two insanely hard bosses put together stands as the hardest boss I've faced in the Souls series. Ever.

With that I conclude my review and highly recommend Nioh to anyone who loves the Souls series. It is a masterful fusion of Souls, Ninja Gaiden and Onimusha yet it is very clearly a Souls game more than anything at its core. It is also a very long game. I've logged a total of 61 hours doing everything in the game on a first playthrough. That is more than I took in any of the Souls games.

Stay tuned for bosses ranking. I'll spoiler-tag it of course but I highly suggest people who haven't played the game yet to not view it since it does contain a lot of plot relevant characters.

To rank Nioh among the Souls games:

Dark Souls > Bloodborne > Dark Souls III > Nioh > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls II

To be fair Nioh and Dark Souls III are almost equal.
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I platinum'd Nioh. It's one of my five favorite games of all time. For me, Nioh > Dark Souls III > Dark Souls > Bloodborne > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls II
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I realized my rankings for Tazzyboy's Dark Souls II Areas and Bosses are still pending so I'll post the Nioh Boss rankings after I'm done with that.
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digiiiiiiiii posted...

I platinum'd Nioh. It's one of my five favorite games of all time. For me, Nioh > Dark Souls III > Dark Souls > Bloodborne > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls II

I can certainly see myself doing a Way of the Strong playthrough in the future but for now doing all the Main, Sub and Dojo missions are enough for me. I have way too many other games to play and with Persona 5 being only two weeks away, a second playthrough doesn't seem possible for the time being.
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To be fair, I got the platinum the week it came out. So I cleared it well before all these other incredible games hit.
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digiiiiiiiii posted...

To be fair, I got the platinum the week it came out. So I cleared it well before all these other incredible games hit.

What the hell, and I thought I went into no-life mode this past week. How many hours were you playing daily on average? Jesus christ.
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You didn't mention any multiplayer
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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

digiiiiiiiii posted...

To be fair, I got the platinum the week it came out. So I cleared it well before all these other incredible games hit.

What the hell, and I thought I went into no-life mode this past week. How many hours were you playing daily on average? Jesus christ.

it was more like two weeks to be fair, and i cover the nfl for a living. the super bowl had just wrapped up. nioh was my vacation.
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foolm0r0n posted...

You didn't mention any multiplayer

Sorry. I barely play games online. The internet in my country is not that great.
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I played a fair bit of multiplayer. I enjoyed summoning people to help, and I enjoyed being summoned to help. I also enjoyed the clan battle system that they don't even reveal to you until like halfway into the game. Fighting the phantoms/ghosts/dead players was also very fun and a great way to get good loot.
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How did you find Muneshige/Tadakatsu?

The pair was the greatest challenge I faced in these games. They were harder than Yuki/Nobunaga, who according to general consensus is harder but I found them easier than the two before them.
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The only real issue in that fight is when the guy uses his electric spirit and it dashes at you from off-screen. But I did struggle with it initially and, like you, I found it harder than the other fight you mentioned .. until Way of the Strong, and the latter fight is muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch harder.

That said, do you use magic? The sloth magic is pretty much a godsend in both those fights.
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I was forced to use Sloth for that fight. The two of them together was too much to handle. That and the latter are the only two fights where Sloth felt like it had to be used unlike all the other boss fights in the main game where the fight was trivialized. I generally abstain using magic in these games but I have used Carnage on a regular basis. Other than that I mostly restrained myself from usig Ninjutsu and Onmyo.
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