Nioh 1 and 2 both dealt with “amrita,” which is a substance referred to in Indian religion/mythology and associated with immortality. Sometimes it’s called an elixir and sometimes (modernly?) associated with sexual alchemy/fluids.
This time around they seem to be leaning hard into themes of Chinese alchemy and taoism which conveniently have a lot of the same stuff, unsurprisingly, considering the heavy traffic in religious and philosophical ideas between China and India. So the thing he swallows is the pill/elixir of immortality, which in the intro we are told is something that went badly for the yellow emperor (the mythological patron of Chinese alchemy and I believe just civilization period). To my eyes this stuff belongs in a Chinese setting way more then the amrita stuff belonged in a Japanese one.
Nioh and Wo Long have story? I thought there they were just QTE sequences where I pressed Start before getting on with kicking demon ass in the next locale. :D
I think Nioh and Wo Long are kind of like Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors. Same general genre and feel, one is Sengoku Japan and the other is Three Kingdoms China, slightly different features.
Though what makes me excited about Wo Long is that it feels like the next evolution in the awesome combat that Team Ninja always improves upon, and I loved all of their games this far, so I’m sure I’ll love this one.
To add to this, (one of? I didn’t play it to the end ir even close) the bad guy in the first Nioh was Edward Kelley, angelic scrying partner of John Dee and a European alchemist of some repute. So clearly whoever is behind these games’ stories is just a big old alchemy nerd.
I didn’t see mention of stances in the demo. But if you ever pick up Nioh again, the general idea is:
High: Hard hitting, tends to be slow and leaves you vulnerable.
Mid: More rounded, tends to have some area options on some weapons.
Low: Lower damage for greater mobility.
In terms of when to use what, it just depends on the situation. If I have to dodge a lot of stuff and stay mobile so I don’t get squished, more time in low stance. If I have an opening on a boss or another creature, high stance, etc.
That’s how I felt going into Nioh 2 but you can safely ignore changing stances and just stick with mid for a long time. I didn’t start changing stances until I had dozens of hours logged.
I’m tempted, but maybe I’ll play a bit in English to first see how extensive subtitles are - if they don’t cover secondary quips and shouts, for instance, I’ll probably leave it in English and maybe leave Chinese for New Game+.
I tried it for a bit, but there was too much chatter in the middle of fights for me to have to look at subtitles all the time. Plus the self-serious English voice acting is kind of amusing.
Um, yeah… I was determined to kill that tiger… and did, but it cost me a smidge of my sanity. I need to figure out when its best to guard vs dodge. Also, this game suffers from the post Elden Ring “extra long wind up on specials” timing thing.
Like Nioh, do both! Took me a bit to remember, but you can guard + dodge at the same time. That way if you mistime your dodge, you can still block the attack. I’m trying to get in the habit of holding LB when I dodge and I think I’m slowly building the muscle memory. :)
Yeah for sure, Nioh throws a lot at you. What worked for me was taking it one thing at a time. The whole first map, I never left Mid stance. I started getting comfortable with that one, where I didn’t have to think too much about what I was doing and just had the muscle memory for the moves.
On the second boss, I was finding myself having to dodge around a lot so I started using low stance. I just started going through the whole level clearing it with that, then trying the boss. Eventually I started getting the hang of it, and then I had two stances I could switch to depending on the situation!
If you like complicated, do Nioh 2. If you like Soulsbornes, or the stance system sounds overwhelming (and it can be!) go Wo Long. That would be my take.
I fee like Nioh 2 is better then Nioh 1 in most every way, so I would skip that one until you figure out if you like the series or not.
