This game is pretty hard and so far feels nothing like Dark Souls, but on its own merits I think it’s pretty good so far (very early on).
I’m not sure I can provide as much encouragement and support as the army of Souls fans in the Souls threads recently. But I’m happy to try! Let me know if you have questions.
I don’t have any questions yet. I just basically seem to randomly get my ass handed to me, and the weapon ranges seem very short, and the animations clunky at times (sometimes attacks seem to flow and sometimes…not). I’m mainly using the kusarigama because I’m tired of using swords and spears in games.
The early game is rough like a lot of action games. The kusa is definitely a tricky weapon to start with. I never really got the hang of it. You might be missing some skill upgrades that smooth out the combos or some cancels you can do. Not sure.
For a unique weapon that makes a bit more sense, consider the tonfa.
I haven’t come across one of those yet.
But the skill thing is a good point and part of what’s made getting used to this game so odd so far: there is a tediously detailed tutorial mission, but it is totally silent on weapon skills, which the game mentions extremely briefly during the first real mission and doesn’t truly explain, and most of the stuff the tutorial mission does explain was already gone over during the intro sequence takes place before it. Bizarre.
Also I’m not sure online is working for me, as I believe all the revenants I’ve come across have been developer-placed, and the “summon visitor” menu item at shrines is greyed out. Is online unavailable in the first mission or am I doing something wrong?
EDIT: Nevermind, I had to press R3 at the shrine to go online, I guess? Another thing that has so far gone utterly unexplained I this whole Agyo/Ungyo thing, with prestige and titles and…???
I forgot the tonfa is in DLC, not sure if you have that.
The active skills are basically extensions or modifications to your normal A-A-A-B (for example) combos. It’s pretty straightforward if you look through the menus or experiment. Normally I’d say ignore all that and stick with the basic light and heavy attacks (and different stances) while you get used to the rest of the game. But you specifically mentioned attacks that don’t seem to flow right.
The kusa is a bit odd. I think someone else here started with it, so no big deal.
You can ignore the prestige stuff too for now. It’s basically mini achievements that give you a different type of skill point to invest in an entirely separate system of incremental upgrades, like an extra 0.5% gold received. Very minor side system that most developers would’ve cut.
Yeah, the new player experience is kind of weird, with the order things are presented to you not making much sense. I remember having some of the same confusion. Anyway, Tim is steering you right. Just focus on getting the feel of the combat before you worry about the other systems that layer on top of it.
The Kusarigama is really fun once you get used to it, but it’s definitely more complex than most weapons. If you stick with it you’ll probably be fine though. Tonfa is also a bit on the odd side as a starter weapon because it’s so focused on wearing down the enemy’s stamina rather than dealing normal damage. I wound up liking all the weapons in the end, but the earliest ones to start clicking for me were the Odachi and Spear.
That’s true, the tonfa is a bit unique that way. But it’s also one of the key differences from Souls, so maybe it’s still a good choice if he has the DLC.
I almost mentioned Odachi and Spear, but we’re really kind of limited by not wanting to play with swords and spears, hah.
The axe is very Soulsy too. I never liked it much. Maybe for that reason.
Anyway, you have two slots with no equip penalty, so swap back and forth. You might like one weapon for bosses and one for regular enemies. That’s what I always did. (High stance spear is a boss killer.)
Yeah, that rules out 4/7 of the weapon types, including all the relatively straightforward options. And yes, the Axe is pretty slow and clunky.
I mean I’ve been using dual swords a bit, and I would use a spear but I haven’t found one. I do not have the DLC; I got it from PS+ so it’s base game only.
Guilty.
I also want to add that combat is a lot more stacked against the player relative to DS series - ttk in the first one or two difficulties is significantly longer than you’d expect based on how much damage your character takes from each attack and this feeling doesn’t really go away until you start putting together equipment sets with skill bonuses that support your playstyle.
I had a lot more fun with the game once I switched to a ninja throwing build rather than try and slowly whittle enemies down one by one.
I played a bit of this a couple weeks ago. Made it outside the starting building and got killed by some guard who hit pretty hard. I’m curious how the game is laid out. Is it separate levels where once you finish you are done with it, or is it an open world like Dark Souls where everything interconnects?
Also, is trying to explore every nook and cranny rewarded, or should I just focus on meeting my objective - like escaping from the prison grounds I appear to be in?
It’s discrete levels, though you can jump back into them. Exploration is usually rewarded.
That’s right, although you’re not missing much in the tutorial level you’re in. Just move forward and find the boss.
I picked this up during the Steam summer sale, after adding/removing it from my wishlist probably 4 times in the last couple years.
I like it. I feels a lot easier than souls games to me. I switched to the Kusarigama pretty early from the spear and it made things a lot easier. I suppose it could just mesh with my playstyle. I usually play heavy armor/weapons in souls games, but I decided I was going to try light armor and haven’t had any issues.
I’m on the 5th region and other than a couple early bosses, most of them are going down in the first or second try. I haven’t used visitors yet, which I’d imagine would make the fights trivial.
The reuse of the areas in all these missions are wearing on me a bit, but I’m still having fun. Good enough that I’ll pick up the second one whenever it comes to steam.
You people love the kusarigama! I never liked it much but it seems very popular.
It sounds like you’re doing really well! If you want a challenge, the DLC is pretty damn hard. Not to mention the double boss fights everywhere.
I think Nioh 2 does a much better job with environment variety. I was tired of playing tweaked versions of areas in Nioh 1 as well.
The Kusarigama gives me that longer range attack that allows me to keep my distance in many situations. I’m not the best at these types of games, I mainly overcome through persistence, so that range is nice to have. And for human enemies, the leg sweep is absolutely awesome. Other weapons may be more efficient if you are better than I at the combat.
I’m also definitely not using a lot of the facilities. I’m in high stance about 98% of the time, even though there are some really cool sounding abilities in the other stances. I’ve started toying with some of the other weapons, but the respec is way too expensive for me to really play around with my build right now.
Cool, that’s good to know.