So what’s the Qt3 consensus on this game after a couple of days? I’m still on the fence about whether I should pick this up.
After playing the demo a few hours, the intro sure seemed really out of character. I was glad to be done with it. Not sure how far I am into the first real mission but it feels like I’m really getting the hang of it finally. Nioh definitely punishes the hell out of you if you overextend or miss a combo but it’s been a blast.
Well, it’s been one day unless you’re a streamer that has a hookup to get an early copy.
The internet consensus is mixed between Souls fans that find it really fresh and Souls fans that can’t possibly comprehend anything that isn’t exactly like Dark Souls, or they’re stuck on minor issues that miss the point, like the story and the bland levels.
I’m having a great time slicing and dicing and I look forward to the Diablo-style loot chase now that the full game is here. My only concern is that it’s too easy, as I suspected after playing the demos since I’m already past the learning curve. I’m already overleveled too.
I’m loving it so far!
Like Tim James said, the world design doesn’t seem to be a big selling point. That makes it a really different proposition than Dark Souls for me since that’s probably my favorite part of those games.
The level design is very similar with traps, surprises, tons of secrets, and memorizing levels to help pass them. It’s not an open world game, though, so you won’t be surprised that two completely different areas are actually connected.
The overall aesthetic feels a bit like a Kurosawa film with crazy demon’s thrown in. A lot of the enemies are peasants with over-acted animations that makes the game really feel like it’s a scene out of Ran every once and a while. I like the look a lot. There’s also a story with some characters that’s really silly. I think it mostly detracts from the game, but it hasn’t butt its head in too often.
The main reason I’m enjoying it so much so far is the combat is really interesting. It still feels slower, simpler, and more accessible than many fighting games, at least at the beginning. But it quickly ramps up with a lot interesting ideas. I think there’s 5 melee weapons in the game, each with three stances you can quickly switch between, and a heavy and light attack. So right away you have easy access to about six combos just by choosing a stance and heavy or light attack. Each of the weapons feels like it fits in the game in a really different way, but with all the stances and abilities you can unlock, there’s a ton of variability that allows you to find some way to use whatever weapon you want in a situation.
The stamina system is extremely punishing and rewarding. When you run out of stamina and then get hit, you go into a “dazed” state that can often lead to death. On the other hand, after a combo you can press a timed button to recover about 75% of the stamina used, allowing you to immediately go back on the offensive. This means when things are going well you can pretty easily stun-luck a few enemies with a continuous barrage of hits. It also means if you screw up once, they’ll all kill you.
I am also most concerned with how the difficulty is going to scale because the game does feel sort of easy with where I’m at now. It seems like this is the sort of game that will introduce a system to let the player choose to have harder missions for more XP / Gold / Drops or whatever, and I’m guessing that system will show up in a couple more levels.
I wonder if that’s a deal breaker for me, I just replayed Dark Souls 2 and it was a real slog.
I did like that the game shows the enemies stamina level too.
Because of a bandwidth hiccup I talked about in another topic, I’ll have to wait a few more days before downloading all of this. Looks like partial download (12G out of 40) is nice enough to let me play the first few levels.
Re-finished the first mission from the demo. I already feel like an old pro, but I might change my tune when some of the new stuff comes up. Nioh is a blast, but the game is still too damn dark. You probably won’t get much out of Nioh with your Ps Pro except that the darkness will be a bit more black.
Not much new to add so far, except there’s a new intro mission in the Tower of London and the opening mission reveals that Queen Elizabeth is using the power of magic stones to defeat Spain and conquer the world. Obviously.
semi-pro tip: don’t ignore the chirping of bats.
I finished the first mission but called it a night as it looks like a lot of options opened up. Will delve back in tonight and try to master the R1 Ki thing finally.
Apparently the first soft cap for most stats is at 10. It might be worth getting them all to that level.
I’m 6-7 levels overlevelled on the third mission. Its all still very easy, but I died to a boss fight 5 or 6 times until I remembered the trick.
I watch streamers struggle badly so I guess it’s hard to balance.
What weapons are you focusing on?
Unrelated: I find the difficulty has so far resided most prominently in the consistent patience and focus needed to get through extended sections. A mistake or two (anywhere along the route) can screw up a long run when a miniboss is at the end of it, blocking progression. Learning how to optimize has been both fun and slow-going for me so far. I have died quite a lot.
Just katana and spear. The spear still makes things very easy. So part of it is my own fault.
Katana and spear rock! Katana is good for 90% of stuff and the spear for when you need extra reach.
Dual katanas seem too weak, even considering how fast they attack and the axe is much too slow, but a finisher with it is devastating. The hook thingy is just kind of weird, but high stance strong attack has the longest range of any weapon, I think.
I started sword/spear, but tend to use best weapon I currently have… and man, a high-stance strong attack with a purple axe is a joyful experience!
So now I gotta stop putting points into heart and put them into strength. :P
Yeah, high Axe is what I love.
Kusarigama. That thing just shreds people.
I just realized all the gear typically tracks the level of the mission you’re playing, so maybe it’s impossible to get too overleveled. I’ll try to stop fretting about it. I’m still having a great time. Things pick up in mission 3.
I’ve been enjoying this so far too. Just a very flashy and exotic weapon. Also good against groups.
So - sell, disassemble, or offer?
Money doesn’t seem terribly valuable to me, so I would avoid selling.
I started disassembling a lot, but quickly found I had a huge number of every crafting material and also that the crafting recipes weren’t really enticing so far.
Offering at the shrine seems like the best bet for me. Their return on Amrita is pretty high and on top of that you get bonus items out of it.
I’m guessing the best way to play is to by default offer at a shrine. If there’s a high cost thing you want to buy, switch to selling till you have it. If there’s an item you want to craft, switch to disassembling towards that goal. But without a clear goal in mind, I think offering is your best bet.
I’m curious how you all are doing stats. I upped the Heart and Body stats (ki and hp, respectively) to 20 first thing and am not sure it was the right approach. Inspecting a bit more, I noticed I sometimes get a bigger boost to my damage output on spears and swords by raising Skill or Strength. I also noticed a time I got more HP from raising Skill than from Body.
Also, the guardian bonuses are really good. I think getting your spirit high enough to get all bonuses from guardians might be my primary goal going forward, then I’ll focus on the stat that has the best affect on damage, which looks like it will cause me to invest in a lot of stats.
The other factor I’m wondering about is how valuable Stamina would be. It raises your equip limit. Right now I’m running around in super light archer clothes or something to make sure I’m in the Blue range on equip and am not sure how valuable being able to raise that range would be. I’m not getting one shot yet.