I am very much the kind of gamer who gets discouraged when games are long as hell, especially modern AAA games where the length is mostly grind and not new gameplay mechanics. The fact that Nioh 2 made me want to keep coming back to it over and over despite how many hours I had dumped into it (and the fact I'm considering a second playthrough with a new weapon) is definitely a testament to its quality.
Nioh 2 is a game that doesn't really serve much on a platter to you, keeping it true to the Soulslike root of its gameplay and the Ninja Gaiden roots of its developer. There are like a million mechanics which are not really explained and you just kind have to figure them out, which makes this game seem incredibly daunting at first. After watching some Youtube videos and good ol fashioned trial and error, however, it clicked. The stances, the burst counters, the grapple, the Yokai abilities, its all absolutely nuts when you figure out how to use them properly. If you showed me how I would be playing this game for the final boss to me when I beat the first level, I would have been convinced I somehow became a god gamer in that time.
However, the game does have flaws that can't be made up over time. One, this game is too fucking long and drags like crazy before the last few missions. 80 hours just to beat the game when the gameplay isn't that diverse is a tough pill to swallow, and I recommend to skip the side missions even if they feel like the only way to get to the "recommended level" for the main missions. Secondly, I found that the navigation got a little annoying sometimes where there were like 900 paths and finding the correct one never felt as satisfying as other games with this design.
Otherwise, I loved this. I called this "Monster Hunter for Soulslikes" to a friend and I can see the way I come back to this as similar to how I come back to MH.
Nioh 2 is a game that doesn't really serve much on a platter to you, keeping it true to the Soulslike root of its gameplay and the Ninja Gaiden roots of its developer. There are like a million mechanics which are not really explained and you just kind have to figure them out, which makes this game seem incredibly daunting at first. After watching some Youtube videos and good ol fashioned trial and error, however, it clicked. The stances, the burst counters, the grapple, the Yokai abilities, its all absolutely nuts when you figure out how to use them properly. If you showed me how I would be playing this game for the final boss to me when I beat the first level, I would have been convinced I somehow became a god gamer in that time.
However, the game does have flaws that can't be made up over time. One, this game is too fucking long and drags like crazy before the last few missions. 80 hours just to beat the game when the gameplay isn't that diverse is a tough pill to swallow, and I recommend to skip the side missions even if they feel like the only way to get to the "recommended level" for the main missions. Secondly, I found that the navigation got a little annoying sometimes where there were like 900 paths and finding the correct one never felt as satisfying as other games with this design.
Otherwise, I loved this. I called this "Monster Hunter for Soulslikes" to a friend and I can see the way I come back to this as similar to how I come back to MH.