I came into Nioh expecting it to be a kind of decent dark souls game with not much worth noting, considering I've been recommended to skip this title and head towards the supposedly better sequel. Much to my surprise though, it turned out to be an excellent action game with a lot to differentiate itself from dark souls, so much so that I don't see the comparison when this game launched initially.
For being an action game, it has an incredible amount of depth in its gameplay. At first I imagined that the stance switching mechanic wasn't going to be all that impactful. All it did was switch your moveset, so why not just se the high stance so I can get the most damage output? After getting my shit stomped in the first area by common enemies, I learned that different stances have different dodges, which I couldn't see how impactful that was; I'd just stay in mid stance all the time since it seemed to have the most iframe-distance-endlag ratio. After dying to the first boss multiple times, I'd found myself switching my stances all the time to avoid certain attack patterns. That stayed true for the entirety off the bosses later in the game and even when they started introducing tougher enemies. I could talk about my discoveries using all the mechanics this game gives you, but the review would go on forever, so just know: This game does give you more depth that what you will ever need.
The level designs in this game are nothing to write home about. I don't dread going into a level, in fact its kind of easy to navigate, but they do nothing interesting in the levels that they all blend in together. They're not quite hallway-to-hallway linear though, so there is some exploration to be done. But to be honest, I'd probably prefer hallway levels over what the game have.
There's a lot of loot in this game, but my god is there not a good inventory system. You have to painstakingly sort your equipment while deciding which weapons you want to keep and discard while also comparing it to your own equipment and other similar equipment to keep track of the skills. That would be fine, I don't mind spending ten minutes of my time managing my inventory every so often. After finding 100-200 pieces of loot per level, it becomes a major flaw in this game, especially without an auto-discard option.
Finally, the last point I'd like to touch on: As you get towards the end of the game, its becomes a button masher rather than playing it carefully aggressive. It becomes a matter of "how good your equipment is" than "how good your skills are". In the last 1/3rd of the game, I've probably died twice to bosses. I'd go in there, use my guardian spirit and wipe out 1/2 or sometimes 2/3rds of their HP and usually beat them on my first try. Not saying I completely shut my brain off when fighting bosses, but they've become quite significantly easier.
Though in this review I've mainly talked about the negatives about this game, it goes to show how good the actual gameplay is. It hard carries the mediocre level designs, the lackluster music, and the frankly boring story.
For being an action game, it has an incredible amount of depth in its gameplay. At first I imagined that the stance switching mechanic wasn't going to be all that impactful. All it did was switch your moveset, so why not just se the high stance so I can get the most damage output? After getting my shit stomped in the first area by common enemies, I learned that different stances have different dodges, which I couldn't see how impactful that was; I'd just stay in mid stance all the time since it seemed to have the most iframe-distance-endlag ratio. After dying to the first boss multiple times, I'd found myself switching my stances all the time to avoid certain attack patterns. That stayed true for the entirety off the bosses later in the game and even when they started introducing tougher enemies. I could talk about my discoveries using all the mechanics this game gives you, but the review would go on forever, so just know: This game does give you more depth that what you will ever need.
The level designs in this game are nothing to write home about. I don't dread going into a level, in fact its kind of easy to navigate, but they do nothing interesting in the levels that they all blend in together. They're not quite hallway-to-hallway linear though, so there is some exploration to be done. But to be honest, I'd probably prefer hallway levels over what the game have.
There's a lot of loot in this game, but my god is there not a good inventory system. You have to painstakingly sort your equipment while deciding which weapons you want to keep and discard while also comparing it to your own equipment and other similar equipment to keep track of the skills. That would be fine, I don't mind spending ten minutes of my time managing my inventory every so often. After finding 100-200 pieces of loot per level, it becomes a major flaw in this game, especially without an auto-discard option.
Finally, the last point I'd like to touch on: As you get towards the end of the game, its becomes a button masher rather than playing it carefully aggressive. It becomes a matter of "how good your equipment is" than "how good your skills are". In the last 1/3rd of the game, I've probably died twice to bosses. I'd go in there, use my guardian spirit and wipe out 1/2 or sometimes 2/3rds of their HP and usually beat them on my first try. Not saying I completely shut my brain off when fighting bosses, but they've become quite significantly easier.
Though in this review I've mainly talked about the negatives about this game, it goes to show how good the actual gameplay is. It hard carries the mediocre level designs, the lackluster music, and the frankly boring story.