Video Game Reviews

Nioh 1 Review

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I have a very mixed opinion on this game, at times its fun, at times its annoying, and I...

I dropped this game twice, due two different reasons and I will explain why when it comes to those moments.

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Premise:

Nioh is a Soulslike game developed by Team Ninja, the creators of both Nioh's sequel and Wu Long: Fallen Dynasty, and published by Koei Tecmo. Nioh is based on real world events that happened during the early 1600's during Japan that took place during two wars. Nioh however focuses solely on the mythology of Japan namely Yokai and Spirits while mixing in the details of actual history but did there own thing with it.

One of the biggest examples is with the main character William, who is based on actual person who went to Japan and became a Samurai. William travels with a spirit by the name of Saoirse, who is taken by one of the antagonists of the base game: Edward Kelley, who is a boring villain, which I think was the point, given the fact that the real villain is John Dee who has become a Yokai himself turning into a creature called Hundred Eyes. Throughout the story, we see that Edward Kelley is trying to collect Amrita, the life force of Yokai and of humanity, with his main goal being to strengthen the English Empire, or whatever it was called at the time, I gave up on the story, which is another one of my issues which I will discuss later. After you defeat Edward Kelley, you defeat John Dee and find out that War is coming again to Japan, and return.

The DLC's: Dragon of the North, Defiant Honor, and Bloodshed's End, all follow one complete story, with the main antagonist being several historical figures all of them trying to gain control of Japan, while being manipulated by a Spanish Ninja named Maria. Yes, Maria, and yes you do fight Maria but I prefer the Bloodborne Maria because she was more fun and less annoying to fight. The bosses in the DLC however are much better then the base game and the final boss was an amazing fight, and one that I will talk about, now let me discuss the gameplay because... oh boy, I have a lot to say about that. 

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Gameplay:

The gameplay of Nioh doesn't really follow the Soulsborne game mechanics, which is to be expected.

You have the light and heavy attacks that your used to, but that's kind of where the similarities end. You have access to four different inventory slots to use during battle, most of the time they will all have elixirs, basically the Estus Flask for the game. These slots can also be filled with basic tools or unlocked abilities.

In Nioh, you have access to several different skill trees, with each of them having a different skill point. Samurai, Ninja, and Magic.

Samurai is for all melee weapons: Swords/Katana's, Dual Swords, Spears, Axes, Kusarigama, Odachi, and Tonfa. Each of these weapons have there own movesets and there own skill points, so if you put your skills into one skill tree it will stay in that skill tree but sometimes it moves over to other skill trees on certain occasions. 

Ninja skills, are fun little tools that make you feel like a ninja, using smoke bombs, paralysis, and a bunch of other tools, I never did really use the ninja skill tree, and when I did it was either for paralysis, a second life, or strengthening my stats for a temporary amount of time. 

Magic abilities were the more fun side of Nioh, with the ability to slow down opponents, summon lightning, restoring health, make flying swords around you, and a lot more fun tools, which made the game easier to go through, and much more fun, allowing for me to actually stand a chance.