Ready to die? Experience the newest brutal action game from Team NINJA and Koei Tecmo Games. In the age of samurai, a lone traveler lands on the shores of Japan. He must fight his way through the vicious warriors and supernatural Yokai that infest the land in order to find that which he seeks.
The Complete Edition contains the full game, as well as the three expansions with additional story chapters: Dragon of the North, Defiant Honor, and Bloodshed's End.
Dragon of the North
This expansion opens up the Tohoku region, where the "one-eyed dragon" Date Masamune is secretly gathering spirit stones.
Defiant Honor
Fight your way through the Siege of Osaka's winter campaign as you follow the story of one of Japan's greatest generals from the Warring States period, the brave Sanada Yukimura.
Bloodshed's End
Join the summer campaign of the Siege of Osaka as the Warring States period draws to a close in this, the final chapter of William's tale.
Steam User 196
My #1 favorite ARPG. Deepest and most flexible combat system among third-person games. Gameplay mechanics and replayable missions differentiate it from the "soulslike" genre.
Don't let the Diablo2 loot system or skill trees fool you, it's very difficult and temporary to gimp your character and you'll quickly learn inventory management just by reading the input tips. Nearly all items can be re-obtained and nearly all equipment can be extensively modified at the forge.
There are many character builds possible and that only expands into NG+ cycles. The NG+ system doesn't require full story completion, only a set amount of missions to open progression.
Don't listen to people complaining about the loot system, the filters and selection shortcuts make for very quick sorting, reading, locking and cleaning your inventory. Nioh's options menu is very extensive as well, make sure to use it to deeply customize your experience with the menus and controls. I take 0-2 minutes to sift through hundreds of items easily.
COOP multiplayer is 2 player and allows most of the story to be progressed without leaving the session, or if desired you can summon a volunteer for your current mission. You can also become that volunteer and queue for summoning to any mission, or to specific ones. There is also an endgame arena mode where 2 players can be summoned allowing for 3 player combat through increasingly difficult areas for special loot. Summoning assistance is never required, though greatly recommended to keep the community alive.
PVP is NOT forced and there is no drawback to avoiding it. It is in its own mode and its rewards are entirely cosmetic titles that appear on your graves when you die. When players die, at the location of their grave other players can summon an AI controlled copy ("Revenant") of that player and fight them for items similar to what they were wearing, as well as special currency and items required to summon assistance. Fighting Revenants often is great practice and loot.
Steam User 189
Please port Nioh 2 to PC
Steam User 172
You play as Weeaboo Geralt and travel to Japan to rescue your waifu. I'm not even joking. That's the plot. 10/10
Steam User 111
Waiting for Nioh 2 on PC is killing me.
Steam User 113
I recommend it with some caveats.
First off, this is NOT a Soulslike. This is more akin to Ninja Gaiden meets Diablo. The loot game is pretty much half of what this game provides. The other half is the gameplay. It also is a Koei Tecmo game a.k.a. "it gets more and more difficult until it is straight up unfair - and then it keeps going".
The graphics are fine. The game looks pretty good and runs somewhat well. This is not a good port. It will keep your PC on a razor's edge if you play on 1440p. A very wide edge but still. This game uses up far too many resources for what it actually needs. Killing 2 enemies and getting loot from them at the same time can tank your fps for a moment. Very wide areas with many NPC's can produce noticeable but managable stuttering. Despite that the game is remarkably stable. With over 400hours playtime it never crashed once, even with frequent alt+tabbing.
Speaking of which, you will have to do a lot of that if you want information, because the game has about 10 times as much content as information about said content. The wikis are borderline useless. I will provide links to some resources down below.
The gameplay is brilliant (with caveats). Every weapon has exceptional combos, modifiers and special techniques to take on the masses of enemies. Every piece of armor can be customized for whatever you want it to be. Accessories can not be reforged but those are minor bonuses in comparison, at least until later on.
This game has one of THE finest combat systems ever put in a game. The sheer volume of gameplay possibilities is almost overwhelming, but you are never overwhelmed because you won't be able to use a lot of skills in the beginning. You grow slowly by leveling up and every skill is a noticeable improvement. Watch some videos to get an idea.
Pure Onmyo builds are never viable, don't waste your time. Shinobi builds can be very strong but need a bit of time to become effective. Melee is where it's at. Where in the beginning you can get by you should try using all the resources at your disposal. Onmyo Magic itself is terrible but the buffs and debuffs it provides quickly become essential. Same with Shinobi skills but with far more utility and non-terrible damage(if you skill it). By completing Dojo missions you unlock more techniques. You should prioritize those.
Regarding the story: it is fine. The storyline itself is rather unremarkable. What IS great is how the actual history of Japan is used as a context for everything happening in Nioh and if you have some rudimentary knowledge it is enjoyable enough.
But you really shouldn't expect anything outstanding. It is not a story driven game.
The games is structured into missions in (mostly) unique locations with cutscenes providing context and story. It is NOT an open world game. This layout is designed for farming a specific mission or enemy.
The game also has a post game challenge: The Abyss. There you fight your way through side areas to get rid of debuffs which would befall you in the boss area before fighting said boss and progressing one layer deeper. There are 999 floors and they become VERY challenging very quickly. Only for enthusiasts. The game has a ton of content you may never see even outside of the 5(!!!) new game modes and the abyss. The game does not give a sh** wether you miss anything but it gives you tools to make it possible to NOT miss anything.
There are some large negatives that really pull this game down. Almost all the levels are great. Some may be a bit maze like but one can manage. The bosses are on the other hand are a mixed bag. Some are very easy while some can be a hard wall. The very first boss in the tutorial is weaker than some of the preceeding normal enemies. The first real boss has AoE attacks that pretty much one-shot you and are difficult to avoid for new players. If you unlock "Invitation from the Warrior of the West" ignore it until you have cleared AT LEAST the next 2 areas.
Most human enemies play by the same rules you do: they have Ki, they can be guard broken, they share your moveset (but not necessarily your techniques) and every weapon they use, you could too. The same with Revenants, spirits of other players who died and left a grave you can interact with in your world.
All this flies out the window with most of the human bosses. Some ignore a few of the rules the game laid out at the beginning. One very early optional boss in particular is infamous among the playerbase for having an immense amount of cheats, like unblockable attacks or infinite buffs. Others, DLC bosses especially, are simply not fun for the most part. The fights tend to devolve into you running away and chipping away at their infinite Living Weapon, them reading your inputs, using your own moves but unblockable and undodgeable, etc.. I didn't find a single DLC boss enjoyable, except for the second to last one in the last DLC. The levels get worse too. They devolve into areas crammed full of hyper buffed enemies which swarm you and one-shot you. The DLC's are not worth it if you don't value unfair challenges. Good thing you get them on top of the game. The side missions especially can be very frustrating in both the base game and the DLCs. All your techniques and skill become borderline worthless because the game FORCES you to cheese it to stand a chance. Rather low enemy variety. Far too many enemies quantity-wise at some points in the game. It can get EXTREMELY unfair to the point where you really shouldn't even bother.
You can obliterate pretty much any yokai-boss by afflicting them with confusion (any two elements or more at the same time) because it not only completely drains their stamina but also disables their stagger resistance and increases the damage they take by 20%. Dual Blades with Water Sword+Confusion+Weakness Talisman = Win (doesn't work on human bosses).
Reforging and Soul-Matching, the main ways to upgrade your weapons or keep old ones relevant, grow too expensive very quickly if abused which means you are either forced to farm gear that is up to par or forge it yourself - if you have the smithing texts that drop from certain enemies and bosses. The game can be very grindy but really, you knew what you were getting into.
Despite the wall of text detailing only *some* of my misgivings I still recommend this game. It is an enjoyable Hack'n Slay with nice loot game and great gameplay that gets pulled down by terrible designchoices later on.
Some useful Resources:
Reforge table for which stats can be on gear at the same time:
Smithing Text farming ( POTENTIAL SPOILERS):
Abyss Boss List (Definitely Spoilers):
Abyss Item Defilement Info (Vital if you aim for late game):
Steam User 101
Don't try it if you are trying to quit smoking.
Steam User 83
This game is super fun. People call it a "souls-like" but that is only half true. The combat system is in-depth as heck and gear, including weapons, have random stats on them. Eventually gear starts to have set bonuses and you can do some silly stuff.
If I had to label this game I would describe it as Bloodborne + Diablo + Ninja Gaiden. The initial game can be seen as tedious etc. so if you are NOT in to looter / gear set / build creating type games you probably won't enjoy it post game. If you are, though, you are in for a treat.