Dark Souls is a series of games known for its crushing difficulty, impressive boss fights, and tactical action gameplay. Ninja Gaiden is a series of games known for their crushing difficulty, whacky stories, and heavy Japanese influence. Team Ninja is a development team comprised exclusively of fucking sadists. Here’s my review of Nioh.

In all seriousness though, Nioh was in development for 13 years before finally getting released. Taking inspiration from Japanese yokai folklore and soulsborne-style gameplay, this samurai action game has been a long time coming.

In Nioh you play as William, an Irishman with the ability to see spirits and escape death thanks to his guardian spirit, Saoirse. He took part in a war against Spain in which England used the power of magical crystals called Amrita to defeat Queen Elizabeth’s enemies. 

However, in an attempt to keep Amrita a secret from the rest of the world, Elizabeth has imprisoned or killed all who were involved and William is now locked up in the Tower of London. 

He escapes his cell, only to have Saoirse stolen by evil alchemist and presumed Hot Topic patron, Edward Kelly, who leaves for Japan in an attempt to start a war from which he can reap the power of those slaughtered. 

William gives chase, lands in Japan, meets some ninja, hangs out with a ghost cat, and decides that while he’s there he might as well save all of Japan from its endless wars and yokai attacks. You know, as ya do…

So yeah, there’s almost no way to discuss the story without mentioning that it’s basically the ultimate weeaboo wet dream. A white dude travels to Japan, becomes a magical ninja samurai, has the sexy ninja girl fall in love with him, saves the entire country from the flames of war, and is generally well respected by every single person he meets. It’s pretty crazy. But what’s even crazier is that most of this has its roots in reality.

William Adams really was the first Englishman to travel to Japan and one of the only Western samurai to ever exist. Sure, he didn’t have magical powers and for some reason the game makes him Irish, but it’s a pretty cool alternate history with a supernatural twist. Many of the main characters are also famous Japanese historical figures, with some of the settings and plot elements being pulled straight from the history books.

That said, the reliance on history can be just as harmful as it is helpful. It’s cool to meet up with famous historical figures like Hattori Hanzo and Oda Nobunaga, but the game trusts the player’s knowledge of Japanese history way to much to make any sense. I mean, I know enough about Japanese history to be able to listen in on a conversation about it and occasionally know what’s going on, but this game goes overboard.

Characters are introduced and killed off so quick that even using the word character is a bit of a stretch. Sure, there are the text pieces that can be unlocked to give a bit more backstory, but that’s probably the laziest common trope in modern games and breaks the important storytelling philosophy of show, don’t tell. It’s kind of hard to get into the action when I don’t really have much of a reason to care.

Even William is a pretty bland character. He’s a stoic man of few words that’s really good at killing stuff and that’s all you really need to know. Sure the developers try to give him some inner conflict by asking if he’s doing all of this for Saoirse or if he actually wants to help people and he even has a couple of small quips to throw out, but overall it just feels like surface level character development with nothing to really get invested in.

The graphics though, man they are beautiful. Environments are well designed and look gorgeous. Lighting effects are wonderful and keep things atmospheric. And those character models are downright incredible. The only real downside is the lack of variety in the scenery with only the winter level standing out as being unique, but that’s a nitpick in an otherwise beautiful game. It does have to be downscaled a bit to run at a full 60 frames per second, but even then it’s a treat.

All of that’s without mentioning the yokai. Twisted demons of Japanese folklore have infested the island nation and they are awesome! Menacing and massive, these guys are a joy to see while fighting. Although the lack of variety definitely sinks in towards the end as the game goes for the old trick of having mini bosses become normal enemies instead of actually creating new and interesting designs, but the real bosses more than make up for it. 

Some bosses are just plain old humans with a guardian spirit helping them out, but the demon yokai man, those are cool. You have a giant ogress, a vampire lady, a... blob monster… Okay, well they’re not all winners. But at least there’s Nue. I love his big derpy face.

The music is also a real winner here. Much like the environments and character models, it can get a bit repetitive, especially that stupid tune that plays when you die, but aside from that it’s great. Fun, bombastic tracks compliment the levels while tense and even frightening overtures play during boss fights, making an already tense situation even more heart pounding.

The combat of Nioh is the real star. Having never played any of the soulsborne games all I know about the genre is that it’s known for slow, tactical combat and crushing difficulty. And honestly, it’s not as bad as I thought.

Don’t get me wrong, I died. A lot. But it was really rare for me to die in the same way twice. Mix that with the late game items and abilities that make boss fights much easier and Nioh as a whole didn’t really crush my spirit like I expected.

The game starts you off by introducing its main mechanics. You have a quick attack, a strong attack, block, dodge, and ki pulse to start off. The ki pulse is used to regain stamina after every attack, making it a key mechanic to stay alive since getting hit while out of stamina leaves you at your enemy’s mercy for a couple seconds while William recovers.

There are 5 main weapon types to choose from. You have the standard swords, dual swords, axes, and spears, but also the really cool kusarigama. Each of these has a specific use. The dual swords are pretty weak, but quick. Axes pack a lot of punch, but take a lot of commitment to each attack. Kusarigama are useful for crowds and distance. Swords are pretty middle of the road. And spears are the best weapons in the game. 

No seriously, they’re the best. I looked up a couple of walkthroughs when stuck on a boss and just about every one of them said to use a spear if you’re struggling because that’s basically easy mode. I went ahead and powered through using the sword and axe anyway because I ain’t no quitter, but it’s undeniable how overpowered the spears are.

There’s also ranged combat which, while slightly useful for taking out ranged enemies is pretty whimpy when going up against a boss. Headshots will do more damage and they can even stun mini bosses, but the inability to get more ammo from a shrine and limited drops within a level had me sticking to melee combat for most of the game. Still, using a cannon to straight up Mulan a dude into oblivion feels as awesome as it sounds.

Onmyo magic and ninja skills are also around to lend a hand. Ninja skills typically involve having extra projectiles or poisoning your weapons. These aren’t incredibly useful, but they can have some purposes in niche situations. 

Onmyo magic is used to give weapons special abilities as well as debuff enemies and boost your abilities. Many of these can be useful when you know what the specific powers are capable of and some are just straight up godly, like the sloth talisman slowing down enemies.

Lastly, there’s the living weapon. After killing enough enemies, William can harness the power of his chosen guardian spirit and use it to go to town on enemies. During this phase, health and stamina are combined and damage output is increased, making William invulnerable and nearly unkillable for the duration of its effect. 

This is a cool addition to the game, but the fact that you need to kill enemies in order to charge it up means that after losing a boss fight, you need to go around slaughtering mindless opponents over and over to get the gauge back in order to use it on the boss again. Honestly, it just becomes a grind at that point.

Levels consist of running through an area killing enemies to gain amrita and level up in preparation for a boss at the end. When starting the game up, enemies are bulky and hit really hard. Even the standard humans can kill you in one or two blows. And the Yokai are just plain terrifying.

There are even traps laid around to keep you on alert at all times. Enemies pop out around corners, floor switches hurl arrows your way, and treacherous walkways can send you tumbling to your horrible demise of drowning… in knee high water.

Many of the levels have unique elements as well, ensuring that the experience is usually diverse, even if the aesthetics are repetitive. There’s a ninja mansion with hidden passageways, a level with crystals that heal enemies everywhere, and even a poison cave with air vents around that need to be turned on to clear the air. 

Some of these, like the first two, work well in creating a varied and fun experience. Others, like the aforementioned poison cave and the level with pitfalls into deadly water everywhere, are tedious and don’t really offer anything new in terms of a challenge.

Each level also has a few Kodamas around to find and collect. Finding these little frogs allows you to get extra elixirs at shrines and an additional passive effect. There’s one for more elixir drops, one for extra Amrita, and 3 more that no one gives a shit about. Seriously, I think the other three categories exist solely to give finding the other 15 Kodamas per region the illusion of having a purpose.

Then there are the armies of enemies littering the battlefields. There’s your typical fodder like humans, skeletons, and dwellers that really only exist to be annoying while you fight their bigger siblings. They’ll do things like hurl grenades or shoot at you from a distance while the tougher enemies fight you head on.

And then there are the yokai. Unfortunately, after about the 5th level, there aren’t many new yokai to see outside of the bosses. There’s the red yokai, the cyclops, hot wheels, and monks that populate the general areas, but seeing anything outside that small pool is pretty rare. At first they’re all cool to learn about and figure out how to fight, but eventually they just become damage sponges that take way too many hits to go down for how easy they are.

Even worse,most of the enemy AI is just terrible. They’ll walk into walls until you hit them, some notice you at an angle while others don’t, and the variety in their movesets is sorely lacking, making later levels a breeze since new patterns and enemies are rarely encountered. Still, the little touches like hitting off someone’s helmet with an arrow instead of killing them are neat and much appreciated.

Wrapping every level up is a boss and these are a complete mixed bag. Some of them, like the Ogress and Elsa over here offer the perfect balance of challenge and fun with diverse move pools, multiple phases, and tricky timing. Others, like moth man and the spider lady offer very little challenge, but can still be fun to fight. And a select few are just absolute bullshit.

Look, I don’t want to rag on a game for being difficult and I especially don’t want to seem like I’m whining about a boss just because I found it hard to beat, but parts of this game are just broken. Sometimes enemies can just warp their bodies around to face you even when starting an attack in a different direction and it never feels like a natural hit. Some of the hitboxes for various attacks are completely off the mark and I swear I was hit while in the middle of a dodge more than once. I’m all for a challenge, but it has to be fair and when fighting bosses like Okatsu and Umi Bozu it certainly doesn’t.

Still, if a boss fight is giving you too much trouble you can always call in a visitor to help out. Doing this makes boss fights a complete joke, but the comradery and gestures make it fun anyway. Although it can certainly take a while to find someone nowadays, it’s a cool addition that can relieve some of the pressure of a tough fight.

Outside of the main game there are also side missions, and these are usually really entertaining. Some give you an AI companion, others send you on a treasure hunt, and most offer a new twist on a familiar level. If you’re struggling with a certain stage, backing out and taking on one of these smaller challenges may be the perfect way to bulk up before heading back in.

So far, everything I’ve talked about has been mostly positive. The combat is tight and fast, the levels are well designed, and the bosses are, for the most part, fun and unique. I’ve mentioned a few nitpicks here and there, but I haven’t even gotten into this game’s real issues: micromanagement and lack of information.

First, the game throws a lot at the player in very little time. There are weapons and items being dropped all over the place and they have stats up the ass. In fact, the first thing the game asks you to do is select a guardian spirit like it’s a Pokemon starter as well as the two main weapon types you’d like to specialize in with very little information about what these decisions mean.

The issue is that it doesn’t do a great job explaining what certain weapon attributes do, when certain moves can be used, and how certain aspects of the game work. Hitting the options button in an item screen explains a little about what certain buffs do, but many are cryptic and certainly could have used more of an explanation.

One of the most irritating examples of this is the elemental attacks. I had to look online to figure out exactly what certain elements do to enemies. Having a lot of combat and customization options isn’t very useful when the game does nothing to explain how they work. 

The game also never mentions that getting hit can stunlock William for a short time and that the only way out of many enemy combos is to block, something that’s essential to beating an significant portion of the late game bosses.

Another is that the wall enemies can be appeased by performing the correct gesture in front of them, something I wouldn’t have found out if I didn’t happen to be paying attention to the randomized loading screen advice! There are just too many things that should have at least been alluded to that have little to no mention in any kind of text or tutorial, which is a shame since many of these mechanics are creative and fun to use.

This ties into the game’s other major issue of miniscule upgrades. The game has so many options available it can be incredibly overwhelming. There are the various weapons and their abilities, armor, weight, special titles, familiarity, and charms. Each of these comes with its own tiny set of abilities and honestly, not much of it matters. None of the weapons have something unique enough to make it stand out and every single ability granted is so unnoticeable it’s completely dwarfed by simply finding a more powerful weapon.

For example, there’s a blacksmith in the game, but until the post game she’s completely useless! Why reforge a weapon to have better abilities or buy something new when I’ll just find a better one in the next level? How about soul matching to improve the weapons I already have? Nope! Wayyy to expensive for the point I’m at in the game.

Look, I’m sure you could spend hours managing your inventory to give yourself the slightest edge in the fight ahead, but in the end it’s completely unnecessary as most of the game relies on skill, which is good, but I wish they had either explained everything properly or streamlined it a bit more.

The most important aspect of a game like this is the controls and I’m happy to say that in Nioh they’re almost always great, with a few exceptions. Some notable glitches include the moonwalk while gesturing, the inability to close the gesture box, and the most annoying- running instead of dodging. 

The ability to dodge on cue is essential to successful combat, but about one in every ten times I tried to dodge an attack, William decided to run in that direction instead. I understand running is necessary to dodge certain attacks as well, but dodging is quicker, snappier, and keeps the momentum flowing. 

This one control glitch caused me more damage than many of the bosses’ trickiest attacks on their own. It’s just a shame that such a great combat system is marred by these easily fixable issues.

Nioh is a fun game. It’s challenging, frustrating, and has plenty of issues, but even with all of that it’s a blast. Even after all of the cheap deaths and even more deaths that I rightfully deserved I’m still tempted to jump back in and play. That’s why Nioh for the PS4 gets an 8 out of 10. I don’t think we’ll be getting a sequel any time soon, but for what it is, I think it’s definitely worth a shot. 

That being said I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, be sure to like and subscribe to see more mighty reviews, dissections, and other gaming content. And as always, have a mighty nifty day today!