Nioh

I love this game, but I also love to read the negative reviews: "as a soulsborne player... blah blah blah, and this is why I cannot recommend the game". Hahaha. Nioh is trully the scourge of many "souls-wimps". Jokes aside, this game is pure gold and a true challenge until the very end.

me: "hell yeah I combo this enemy with so many combos/hits, now for the final strike"
KO'd you in one or two hits
me: "wtfajdbauiwdbiaw"

basically what is like playing Nioh

Dark Souls design/game mechanics mixed with Devil May Cry's combat mixed with Diablo's loot system set in dark fantasy version of 1600s Japan

Overally a great game held back by awful dlc
It's hard to say wether or not I recommend this game because I loved the base game from start to end. But then the DLC and bonus content became avaliable and absolutely destroyed everything.
What made Nioh fun , also made it awful. Ridiclous damage pool , dual bosses that are not intended to be together , difficulty curve that jumps from normal to a level where you need a ridicilous and I mean RIDICILOUS knowledge to actually be able to win. It's pure agony and nightmare what they thought was a ''good challenge''
And no I'm not coping because I suck. Some of these things mechanically do not work together and most people will agree that you are either a turbo nerd or need a cheese build.
Base game is great and challenging , story is cool and awesome to look at , levels and enemies are cool and bosses are great.
It's just that damn DLC.

I was close on thumbing it down because of it. Because you get so invested and want to play more until you realise that the game gatekeeps you 30-40 levels away from the recommended level mission so you get 2 shotted by average mobs. The boss fights in the DLC are fast-paced to the point where it's super annoying having to heal every 2 seconds because of how many attacks and HOW punishing they are for something like this. Truly an awful design. It sucks because I wanted to know what happens next but I also didn't want to start hating the game. Play base game until the dlc content unlocks then uninstall it unless you really want to torture yourself.

The difficulty in base game is great
The difficulty past base game is artificial.
Get it on sale

The game has an inverse difficulty curve for the most part. It starts rather challenging, then you slowly get access to more useful magic/ninjutsu, and then you overpower everything until it picks up at the end again.

Also don't try to play it with some other soulslike games, it's its own thing. For example builds don't come into play until the highest difficulty and your stats are best rather even until like 20 in everything basically.

Have fun!

A RPG for action junkies. Take the level structure of a soulslike (Fromsoft games still have better level design), the loot system of a typical Diablo-style ARPG and then incorporate a combat system with as much depth and variety as the best spectacle fighters. The combat is twitchy, fast and demands you time your attacks (Like Ninja Gaiden). Each weapon is useful and fun it's just a matter of mastering them. While definitely challenging (Sometimes cheap with an overabundance of ambushes) its satisfying to play. The story is hard to follow but when your gameplay is this good the story doesn't have to be anything special. The endgame can feel more grindy then you'd like and leveling up endgame gear is an odd process of recycling gear. These don't detract from this being an amazing RPG for us twitchy masochists (Team Ninja fans)

The game get compared a lot to dark souls, hence souls-like genre, but the game deserved its own place since you get rewarded for blocking more than i-framing through enemy attack. Granted its mission/level based game rather than interconnecting place, but the game offer a ton of replayability through its NG+ system. Upgrading equipment is pretty convoluted but when the game 'clicks' you'll get ton of enjoyment playing through. NG+++ (Way of the Wise) is required for platinum/all achievement run, finished mine on level 397/125 hrs in. Definitely recommend solid 8.5/10.