Nioh
Welcome back fellow Steemians, this week we take a trip back to much darker fantasy sixteenth century Japan, where demons and Samurai roamed.
Let's get this out of the way right at the beginning, yes Nioh was massively inspired and influenced by FromSoftware’s Dark Souls, except that this actually has a story line, something the folks there just don't seem to care about. So fair warning before you buy, it you enjoy some casual gaming then this is not going to be your cup of tea. However if you hate yourself and you have loads of extra Steem to buy yourself a new controller for every time you get so frustrated in this game that the only logical thing to do is, to throw your controller like a five year old who doesn't get his way, this game is for you. Well, it's not as bad as Dark Souls, but there were more than enough times I would get a tongue lashing from my other half, because I was swearing at an inanimate object out of pure frustration. Games do really bring out the children in people, and here we always thought that sounded like a good thing.
As much as Nioh's game style is fundamentally inspired, the developers have built an amazing game as well as a pretty original combat system. If you have played Dark Souls, I bet the first thing you are thinking is, does this game follow suit with re-spawning enemies every time you die? Yes, and to add insult to injury, every time you make it to a check point, they respawn as well.
Our story begins somewhere in the 1600's during a time when the clans of Japan were at war with each other.
Our hero, William is a blonde-haired Irishman who was one of many pirates that were contracted by Queen Elizabeth the first, to obtain Amrita, a mystical golden stone found in abundance in Japan. The British government needed the Amrita to help secure their war victory over Spain, unfortunately upon his return to England, he is imprisoned to keep the Amrita a secret. William escapes the Tower of London with the help of his Spirit Guardian, Saoirse, a being born from the prayers of his home village which saved him from death when he was a young boy, and now prevents him from dying. Just after he gets away he is finally confronted by Edward Kelley who is also looking for the Amrita, and has found a way to use the Amrita to corrupt people and have to do his bidding. Kelley tries to kill William after he refuses to disclose the location, so he then captures William's guardian spirit with the help of his own more evil spirit, and then flees to Japan with William in pursuit.
He arrives in Japan amidst an attack by the Oni who have been ravaging the area, and meets Hattori Hanzo, a very famous ninja and later master sword maker, who offers his help in finding Kelley in exchange for fighting Oni. William then sets out on his mission, accompanied by a Nekomata spirit, who tells him that the delicate balance between good and evil spirits has been disrupted by the past century of war in Japan.
"And so the days of the Samurai had ended. Nations, like men, it is sometimes said, have their own destiny. As for the American Captain, no one knows what became of him. Some say that he died of his wounds. Others, that he returned to his own country. But I like to think he may have at last found some small measure of peace, that we all seek, and few of us ever find." - Simon Graham
I love a challenge as much as the next person, but in all honesty, playing games is about relaxing and enjoying yourself.
I have had Nioh for more than a year, and I need to be in the right mindset to play it, and unfortunately still have not gotten through the entire game, it is a slow process. Then at the same time there's nothing quite as rewarding as finishing a boss fight that has taken you days, and you failed like thirty times, then finally by a stroke of luck you manage to come out victorious. Where this game shines brightest is when it comes to the combat system, it combines the slow paced and position based fighting with the precision and thrill of a fighting game. Something I only discovered much later on in the game was that inviting a friend to play makes thing tons easier, only I didn't really have friends who also had the game to play with. Visually the game looks great from a cliff side, with cave networks overrun with Oni bandits to the war torn villages in the countryside easily distinguishable from the last. The final bosses are especially impressive, from challenging encounters with stealthy moving humanoids to slow paced fights against massive demons that can end you with one blow. Here it's all about your tactics and strategy, there will be no hacking and slashing, and get used to dying, because you will be doing loads of that.
All in all Nioh could take you well over 100 hours to complete, if you decide to venture down the road and master all the side missions, which is something I just can't help not to do. The game is a challenge worth taking and the accomplishment of just finishing it is apparently worth all that frustration and effort, hopefully I will get there, one day.
Nioh, which in Japanese means "benevolent king", is an action role-playing video game developed by good people at Team Ninja.
Who, if you're not all too familiar with, have released a multitude of games, probably the best know is the Dead or Alive series which started back in 1996, as well as the Ninja Gaiden series, which I quite enjoyed at the time. It was first released worldwide in February 2017, available on PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. Nioh was originally set to be an PS4 exclusive, but the game received such positive reviews that the developers made a deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment, to allow for the release on Windows. The story was based on the life of historic Western samurai William Adams, which is the person the film "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise was based on. Interestingly enough, the game development for Nioh started back in 2004, and it went through multiple revisions and rewrites over the eight year period because the producer was never satisfied with the results, until it was finally handed over to Team Ninja.
Still worth it's salt, and at just over two years old you would definitely pick this up on a deal either online or your local game store.
I'm giving Nioh a rating of 6.5/10
In case you missed it, here is the previous game review
Thanks for popping in, hope you liked the post. Please leave me your thoughts and or opinions in the comments below, have a beautiful day.
Game review for ADSactly by MorkRock
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ADSactly
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