Nioh - Demo on PS4

The game is still balanced a little too much toward “punishing” instead of “challenging.” I’m not frustrated, I just get killed sometimes and think “I didn’t learn anything here.” Get the spacing a bit wrong and get killed by a single combo.

Maybe I’ll get used to it like the Souls games. At least reloads are pretty quick and the checkpoints are reasonably spaced.

Afraid you’re now gitting 'gud enough? Levels now also have extra hard twilight version, which are an annoying tinge of hellish red and most humans are replaced by the big demon dudes and some even worse, new demons. The first boss is the same, except a little miner zombie shows up at half health. “I’m just going to put that weak little dude here, not a problem, right? Too much too handle? Too bad.” One little guy makes such a difference when having your back turned for a second means being crushed from behind. Then they also throw in a skeleton archer at 33% health. Ooops.

It seems like the twilight levels are going to be accessible according to the days of the week. At least that’s the way it is right now. Not sure how I feel about that.

The twilight levels point out a problem with a lot of melee combat games where the basic humans are the most satisfying enemies to kill but they’re also the easiest. I don’t get the same audio-visual delight from the big brutes as I do from slicing and dicing the bandits.

It’s a nice option to have though, and should make co-op really fun. Limiting the missions might improve matchmaking. I don’t even worry about out leveling content by playing too many high level missions because everything is sufficiently difficult, and zipping through quickly is still fun due to the speed and impact of combat.

How did this thread fall off the face of the earth so quickly?

Anyway, what’s this I hear that if you can beat the demo, you get free DLC for the main game?

I guess I’m going to have to give it another chance this weekend.

It’s such a weird mix of Devil May Cry style combat along with the hardcore-ness of the Souls games combined together. You’re kicking ass, kicking ass, kicking ass, and suddenly you mess up and you’re dead. I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it so far.

Kudos for trying something new though. It’s not often that you have to learn a new combat system for an action game. Most have become variations on familiar themes.

I tried the demo but didn’t care for it. Too Ninja Gaiden-ish for me as opposed to Dark Souls-like.

Weird, I find it more Souls than Ninja Gaiden. You have to stick with it for a little bit to see it though, as you’ll want to unlock the various samurai skills on the weapons which the parry skills are trucked away under. The level design is full of kick down ladder shortcuts too.

I feel the opposite about my last post now: the brutes in the twilight levels are fine now that I do decent damage, but co-op is kind of a slog. If you want to do a full mission it can take quite a while. Then you die on the boss.

It’s really a combination of 3 or 4 games. It’s more Bloodborne than Souls because each weapon type has some depth to it.

Got through the first level and working my way through the second for the second Mark, just up to the first shrine you find, 2nd overall in the level. I like this game quite a bit, I’d stop playing and wait for the full release if not for the Mark of the whatevers you earn.

The Twilight version of the second boss was not so bad. Purple Raikiri for the win! I found it when killing another player’s ghost. It’s really worth fighting those that have lots of purple (maximum rarity) gear.

Turns out the main character is supposed to be the real life William Adams, the first “foreign samurai”, whom was not known for fighting fire breathing wheel demons. An interesting bit of pedigree nonetheless.

Well, I guess that’s it for the beta. See you on full release!

My only lingering concern at this point is a lack of interesting level design. It’s not like Dark Souls where seeing the next area is half the fun and helps pull you forward. This game is just one combat encounter after another.

Part of the problem could be the limited content in the beta. It’s going to feel like a grind when I play the same missions over and over. New story missions might help, or a few extra systems to spend time with to give me more downtime between missions. It should be okay.

I’m really glad you guys kept talking about this demo. I’d written it off because I’m not a fan of Team Ninja’s past work, but all the talk here made me feel like I was missing out on something. And wow! This game is really neat! The stamina system with recovery is really tense and allows some hyper aggressive combo-ing. All the different weapons feel very distinct, and all the stances for them seem to serve quite different purposes. I didn’t get that far and only played a couple of hours, but I think I’m going to hold off till this releases.

My biggest concern / frustration is screwing up a single time in any fight can mean instant death, even from full health. You really have to mess up to trigger these (run completely out of stamina surrounded by enemies), so it feels fair. I could still see it causing me to rage if I’m way out and overextend.

Yeah, a ton of mastering this game is about knowing your limits. It works both ways, too. Getting enemies into an exhausted state leads to easy kills.

I can’t decide whether to clear my save and start over from a fresh character to enjoy the beginning again. I should probably save that experience for the full game. I really can’t wait.

People are already doing challenge runs by killing everything with the wooden sword. I don’t think I’d stay at level 1 or go naked (too much of a grind) but using a weak weapon while efficiently using all your skills and techniques seems like a fun way to play.

Don’t burn out on the demo before the full game comes out. I put it down once I got the DLC unlocks, as it’s a sure buy for me at this point.

I think you’re right! I’m already locked back into DMC4 SE again anyway.

In Nioh I’ve just been goofing around and helping people kill the first boss. I also made it to the point where I felt comfortable enough with the game that I could start throwing out fancy combos. It always takes me so long to break out of that shell when it comes to brawler combat like this. I get so focused on dodging and simple attacks to the exclusion of everything else.

BTW, I hope you tried the optional 1v1 mission. If not, you’re in for a real treat when the full game comes out. Great fight.

XLHGladiator styling:

Just enough hype to make the wait until release unbearable.

Not till February 9th.

Damn it! But I want it now!

Note: if you’re afraid of spiders, you should probably give up now.

Boss/area spoilers

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xnKGBdgmjHs