Nioh PS4 Review - Samurai, Spirits, Demons and Japan

[The Ga[M]er.]

Nioh is a PS4 exclusive massive Japanese themed game held in war raging era shattered by demons and creatures by Team Ninja. It starts with a journey of a Western Samurai who is on a mission to acquire what is missing. The game does not perplex players with too many twist and turns, instead of progress quest in a straight line aided by an uncomplicated map to refer. There are no out of sight things to swallow a huge chunk of time, which according to me is sufficient to stay occupied. Nioh demands learning skills with persistence and employs them in tactical mode against the bosses. 

Striking cinematic, magical powers, true ninja dexterity, etc. all is well compiled into a nice-looking game. After playing it for few hours, I gradually feel getting trained with my moves and proficiency that become better with time. This is the crux of this game. Character stats are an important element tied up with a choice of right weapon. On the other side, observing enemy’s style of action occasionally escorts a trouble-free win. From my views, Nioh is a challenging and a fine option after RE7, only if you are not in rush to reach the ending soon. 

The easy going plot contributes a lot to the gameplay in which a western samurai William Adam’s visits various regions of Japan and fights with demons to free the place followed by a boss fight, is enough to summarize Nioh. The game gave us a big list of bosses who appears after a dramatic cinematic mostly at the end of almost all Main missions and a few one in Sub-Missions. Each of them is poles apart and holds some uniqueness in the way they fight. That is the energizing point I see. The weapon choices and abilities are unlocked after spending the in-game currency can slow you down a bit, but once you know very well what can help you, in the matter of time you can upgrade the character with higher strength. There are checkpoints in the form of shrines, always available when you need them. 

All mission and submission hold rewards. These can be magic unlocks, weapons, armors, skills, etc. After completing almost two regions of the game, I felt to play more, but a standard gameplay where I hunt the demons repetitively of different forms and strength turns tedious.  Thanks to the end bosses whose challenges keeps the interest intact. My expectations were very high when I started, but as I said that after getting deeper, I found that yes I can do this easily and that kills the fun. The mission and submission hold a similar game mechanics, you need to fight demons clean them out, find a path to wrestling boss and over. I don’t see this as a low point of the game, well you get expert after every level. Still, certain twist can justify the interest of keep on playing. 

Location compass is annoying in Nioh because it does not clearly show the exact path and the map are limited just to select a mission. So many times I felt myself wandering round and round in a maze. This could be less time consuming if the compass can guide well or the map can tell me my exact place with a marker to a final location. The character customization part plays a vital role in reducing impact against attack vulnerability of protagonist. Bosses and demons drop weapons after they die, you can gather them and use it via a menu.