Board 8 > Best of the Two-Pack: Nioh Collection

(+) Yeah! (+)

If you need some nominations, I looked at my backloggery (game collection site) to see what some marketed/retail multi-game packs I had or games I have that were later packaged into a collection:

8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I
Borderlands: The Handsome Jack Collection
DOOM Slayers Collection
Darksiders: Fury's Collection - War and Death
Dishonored & Prey: The Arkane Collection
Far Cry Compilation
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition (DLC was standalone, so I figured it is eligible given BioShock)
Hitman HD Collection
Jak and Daxter Collection
Ori: The Collection
Prince of Persia Trilogy HD
Quantic Dream Collection
Ratchet & Clank Collection
The Banner Saga Trilogy
The Sly Collection
The Tomb Raider Trilogy
Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor
Wolfenstein: Alt History Collection
Yooka-Laylee: Buddy Duo Bundle
inFAMOUS Collection

This should be a good start

I just finished Nioh 2 and yeah, it's pretty much better for everything. Difficulty curve isn't as screwed-up and confusing, all the new shift mechanics are fun, co-op is fun, and the Underworld is fun, unlike the Abyss, which I only did the minimum of as almost the last thing in the game.

Someone attempted to talk me into skipping the first, too, but it's not my style to do that.

paperwarior posted...

Someone attempted to talk me into skipping the first, too, but it's not my style to do that.

Now go play stranger of paradise

Nioh 1 > 2

Nioh 2 is literally a copy paste job of Nioh.

Nioh 2 is everything Nioh 1 was but better and much more. It's as much of a straight upgrade as really exists in gaming. I legit don't see an argument here unless you simp for William for some reason or really, really like boring Living Weapon spam.

Nioh 2 is a prime example of how not to design a Souls-like game. It makes base Dark Souls II blush when it comes to terrible enemy placements. At one point I got flanked by more than 8 enemies on screen in a rice paddy field to the point where the FPS dropped to PS3 Blighttown levels.

The environments in Nioh 2 straight up reuses the first games assets (very very lazy) and even the boss rush area towards the end of the game (where I face palmed hard). The story is forgettable except (Hideyoshi sucks in this game and I had no sympathy towards him by the way) even more so than William's tale. The bosses are far far less memorable than Nioh 1's and certainly not better either except for the Final Boss of course.

If anything, I'm confused by the overwhelming love Nioh 2 gets when its laziness in game design should be an example of what not to do in future entries.

Nioh 1 blew me away by being the best recreation of a Souls experience (limited enemy variety and all) but Nioh 2 was just a lazy deja Vu experience which has no identity of its own. I do admit I had a good time with Nioh 2 as well because you really can't do too wrong with that formula.

Holy cow, I disagree with literally everything in your post! That's pretty amazing. To each their own, but I think Nioh 2 is actually better than many of From's own offerings and has vastly better level design than Nioh 1. (You can tell because a lot of the worst levels are side quests copied from Nioh 1!) Then there's the gameplay itself which totally blows Nioh 1 out of the water with all the Yokai/burst counter shenanigans, but I feel like that goes without saying.

Xiahou_Shake posted...

Nioh 2 is actually better than many of From's own offerings

Lmao. Nioh 2 is closer to Code Vein and The Surge in quality than Dark Souls II. It can't even sniff the other FromSoftware games' jock. But yeah, to each their own I guess.

Xiahou_Shake posted...

vastly better level design than Nioh 1.

Maybe a little bit more varied environments than Nioh 1 considering it is reusing almost all of Nioh 1's assets.

But level design? The endless death pits scattered all over dark areas, fighting the insanely fast Yokai Ape enemies in enclosed spaces (that boss trek to Enenra). The countless Yokai realm battles which makes your stamina slow down to a crawl? The archers everywhere in wide open spaces. These level design?

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

Now go play stranger of paradise

That's the plan. I haven't gotten to the expansion because I was busy with this.

I don't think 2 had in total enough to match the instant-death dread of the Umibozu level, but there were still a lot of really disrespectful deaths to bottomless pits I legitimately didn't see in front of me.

If I dislike SoulsBorne but love Ninja Gaiden, will I like Nioh?

My main issues with SoulsBorne games are the clunky combat and the unclear objectives. Like in Bloodborne, how the hell was I supposed to know the gatling gun hunter was an optional boss? How was I supposed to know that I needed to get killed by a certain enemy to access the prison area?

Also, how are Nioh's load times on PS4?

I guess gameplay is somewhere in between, but Nioh is a mission-based series. You pick missions from a menu. You don't have sidequests or NPC interactions or anything like that. What you have for ambiguity is bad translations (especially in the first) and terribly unclear mechanics. The Fextralife wiki is also useless for 1 and not exactly great for 2. Also the aforementioned strength curve in 1. Recommended level shown is a thing that doesn't mean anything in that game, and you may have to dip into higher difficulties to gain enough power for the harder parts of lower difficulties.