Nioh Alpha Demo Available

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

Fucking christ, that demo was a god damn train wreck.

The game just fucking lets you walk right into fire and basically instantly kills you unless you get out immediately, not even any staggering when you hit the damaging area.

Yeah, I died when I walked into a fire once. The damage is insane.

All of the miniboss yokai are in the worst fucking spots to fight them.

I wouldn't know. The first thing I did when I fought the first Oni was run outside. Every Oni after that was actually pretty easy to kill. The second Ninja Oni gave me some trouble, but otherwise they were pretty easy to take down.

Every enemy does way too much damage and you dont get enough healing potions every time you rest to heal it all.

Again, I wouldn't really know. I didn't have to heal that much unless I was fighting a mini-boss or the main boss. And you get more elixirs when you trade in a large amount of items. Went into the boss fight with 9 of them. All from trading in useless weapons.

Every enemy except for the basic human enemies dont telegraph their attacks nearly enough.

I disagree. The only enemies that don't telegraph enough are the super aggressive Remnants.

Everyone seems to have the poise of Havel the fucking Rock, so barely anything ever staggers when you hit them and that makes you trade frequently for massive damage.

The only enemies I know of that don't stagger are the warriors with helmets on, the enemies carrying heavy weapons, and the mini-bosses. The best way to take on the Helmeted Warriors is to get them to waste their Ki. They do it a lot. The heavies don't stagger when in the middle of an attack, so it's best to wait until they use their easily dodged attacks and then take 'em out.

There's apparently no i-frames in the dash or roll dodges, so that and the lack of stagger means that you're frequently going to take massive damage regardless on whether or not you're attacking or dodging away.

I never noticed this. The only time I got hit when I dodged was when the armor slowed me down or I didn't dodge properly.

Your stamina/ki doesn't regenerate fast enough for you to block as frequently as much as the game seems to expect you to,and trying to do ANYTHING that takes ki/stamina when you're at zero forces you to stop dead in your tracks to catch your breath for like half a second, all but guaranteeing that you'll die.

I don't mind the punishment for running out of Ki, but I very rarely ever run into that problem. Even against the boss. As for blocking, I dodge because blocking is costly.

There are only 3 weapon movesets in the entire game and all of the weapons you get are all just flat statistical upgrades on one another. So no more do you have to consider the differences in speed, damage and staggering potential between a one handed straight sword and an ultra-greatsword, or the fact that one UGS has a stabbing thrust for a strong attack while another has a lateral sswipe. ope, just slap the one with the biggest numbers on and call it a day.

Well, there are 9 movesets, technically. 3 types of weapons and 3 stances for each type. I almost exclusively use the Mid-stance Katana.

The enemy variety is also pretty bad. I think I counted only three types of enemies. Human samurai dude with a weapon. Zombie guys. And the Yokai mini-bosses. I think there's almost double that in the first real level of Dark Souls 3 alone.

I don't have a problem with this.

And that first boss is a perfect summation of all of those problems. First off he just looks like a bigger version of the mini-bosses, so all that atmosphere and tension that introduction cutscene tries to build is wasted when you see that it's just another one of those enemies. You can't use your shitty dash to dodge anything and still stay close because every other attack he does is a 360 degree swipe that takes up a good chunk of the area. You can block it (yeah, block a giant iron ball bigger than you are with a fucking katana, that makes sense,) but the combo takes up so much stamina that your guard is going to break and you'll be left fucking defenseless if you decide you want to attack. The only reason I beat the damn thing was because I used one of those drinks that practically gave you instant stamina regeneration.

The way I see it, the only way to properly fight the boss is to poke it a bit and back away. It took me almost 15 minutes to beat the guy, but that's only because I wasn't particularly aggressive. While re-watching the boss fight I noticed multiple moments where I could have gone in for some damage, but didn't because I was nervous as hell.

Then phase 2 starts, the balls go free and he starts throwing them, only now you can't block them anymore for whatever fucking reason, so you're forced to dodge. Only he can just decide to fucking throw them in whatever direction he fucking wants no matter where he's facing or where the animation implies that the ball SHOULD be going. One time I think I was standing directly behind him when he let go, and I STILL got hit by it. And unless you;re paying attention to him SUPER INTENTLY. you're still likely to get caught off guard because all of his moves come out so fast you barely have any time to react, and all of those moves take off at least 60 percent of your life with each hit.

I wouldn't know anything about the aiming, because I've never been behind him when he throws the ball, and they're ridiculously easy to dodge. And whenever he goes to grab the ball he ignores everything else, so it's easy to get some quick damage off of him before getting ready to dodge. And he telegraphs all of his attacks so clearly.

What a fucking terrible game.

I disagree. I wouldn't know how it compares to a Souls game, though.

 

[Kaimax]

What a fucking terrible game.

I disagree. I wouldn't know how it compares to a Souls game, though.

The only thing that I got from this guy was, "I suck at this game, so it's bad", and then complain that it's a copy of dark souls, while ironically saying it's not "Dark souls enough".


Already cleared both mission more than 3 times now. IMO, it's like Ninja Gaiden using Souls's death/souls mechanic.
Didn't have any trouble killing the Onryouki in the first mission since I grinded to lvl 30 before actually fighting him.

2nd mission was kinda difficult since you now have roaming Yokais, which mean they will respawn. Nue the boss for the 2nd mission gave me some trouble since it can OHK if you get hit by his thunder, most of the time I got killed because of the small arena and obstacles blocking my escape route.

I spent the first 10 mins "summoning" those dead guys at the red sword spots and getting my ass kicked. I did beat one of them though and that allowed me to declare victory and move on. Are they other people playing the demo?

Yes, but the Red names ones are NPCs made by team Ninja, and will always appear every time you restart the mission. There's a red name grave for "Nukenin Kasumi" referencing KAsumi from DoA, and Raidou, who's Remnants literally didin't wear anything besides pants and tries to punch you to death... lol

By this time though, my Katana had almost completely fallen apart. I can live with weapon durability in games, but my god it should last longer than that. I haven't yet figured out how to repair it.

Nikawa Glue for Armors, whtestones for Weapons

My biggest problem with the game (and maybe it's just me?) is that I can't see what the hell is going on. It's dark and the camera messes with me a bit and I just struggle to actually see what's happening around me. Also, my health bar seems far too big considering a bunch of guys are 1-2 shotting me.

The Length of the Health bar is actually fixed, so your character having max health of 1000 or 2000 will have the same length.

bonfire (or whatever we're calling them in this game)

Shrines

Edit 2: Beat the first boss and I'm loving it.

Now go try and beat the 2nd boss.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

Already cleared both mission more than 3 times now. IMO, it's like Ninja Gaiden using Souls's death/souls mechanic.
Didn't have any trouble killing the Onryouki in the first mission since I grinded to lvl 30 before actually fighting him.

I was level 25 when I fought him, using the Raikiri sword I got off of a remnant. As soon as I beat him and put one more point into the skill stat, the attack of the Raikiri went up by 103. Nearly twice as powerful as it was when I fought Onryouki.

After you beat the second boss, can you replay the missions and fight the bosses again, or did you just start over with a new game?

2nd mission was kinda difficult since you now have roaming Yokais, which mean they will respawn. Nue the boss for the 2nd mission gave me some trouble since it can OHK if you get hit by his thunder, most of the time I got killed because of the small arena and obstacles blocking my escape route.

Oh dear God, 1 hit kills. The bane of my gaming existence. x.x. I don't mind the roaming Oni, though. I just got some purple gear off of a remnant that died right next to the first shrine. All amazing gear with low weight. I'm not scared of anything but archers and the boss.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Oh dear God, 1 hit kills. The bane of my gaming existence. x.x. I don't mind the roaming Oni, though. I just got some purple gear off of a remnant that died right next to the first shrine. All amazing gear with low weight. I'm not scared of anything but archers and the boss.

Man, now that's something that could break the game: drops from Revenants. The Raikiri is supposed to be a drop from the Nue, but if you get lucky with a Revenant and get that then the 2nd level is a lot easier. Admittedly those weapons also require stat investment, but that's something KT should look into so the difficulty doesn't get snapped in half. I do like the Revenant system though because it adds a new layer to the idea of passive online interaction plus you get rewards if you beat the Revenant as well (though HOLY SHIT the developer Revenants like Shibusawa's are a pain in the ass)

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

Snip

Well, that's interesting. As I've said before, I've never played a Souls game of any kind so I can't compare Nioh to any of FromSoftware's games, but what you describe is pretty interesting. I'd say Nioh is just trying to do something different. Sure, it's using Dark Souls' sormula, but that doesn't mean it's going to copy every aspect of the game.

It's also worth pointing out that this is an alpha demo. The final product may change quite a bit.

Snip

Oh, yeah, they really need to look into that. If I had increased my skill stat by one more, the Onryouki Boss Fight would have been much, much easier. I don't know how well that sword is going to serve me against Nue, though. That sword is also freaking me out right now, because I know Nue's affinity is lightning and whenever the sword is out all you hear is electricity. Makes me nervous as hell. Like Nue is waiting somewhere to attack me.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Oh, yeah, they really need to look into that. If I had increased my skill stat by one more, the Onryouki Boss Fight would have been much, much easier. I don't know how well that sword is going to serve me against Nue, though. That sword is also freaking me out right now, because I know Nue's affinity is lightning and whenever the sword is out all you hear is electricity. Makes me nervous as hell. Like Nue is waiting somewhere to attack me.

If you're leveling up when need be you should be fine; the second stage is harder but shorter and the Raikiri's sheer, raw damage more than compensates for its lightning infusion.

 

[Kaimax]

That sword is also freaking me out right now, because I know Nue's affinity is lightning and whenever the sword is out all you hear is electricity. Makes me nervous as hell. Like Nue is waiting somewhere to attack me.

No need to worry, the Raw power of the Raikiri is enough to kill it, even though you'll see that your lightning damage will be zero.

And yes you can retry the missions as many as you want, and receive the mission rewards as many as you want to.
The reward for Mission 2 is the Tonbo Kiri, Since I already cleared it 3 times I have 3 different Tonbo Kiri. One has a strong Wind element, the others have higher drop rates or Lower Ki usage.

Yeah, the Nue can One shot you if you're not moving around. At that time, I was around lvl 30, My health was around 1500. The Nue's thunder attack can hit over 2000 easily, it's easy to dodge but the one time you got unlucky it'll kill you.

In short, I'm shitting on it because it's trying to be Dark Souls, and failing hard at it. You know, I haven't played Lords of the Fallen yet, but from what I've seen it has to do a better job at being a Souls game than Nioh did.

But they're not trying to be "Dark Souls". They're just using some parts that is identical to Dark souls.

Your type of complaint is like when God Eater/Soul Sacrifice/Toukiden was released, every MH Fanboy called them clones, when the fact is they've added more to their games to successfully (putting aside Sales/popularity) distinguish themselves from Monster Hunter.

Also Keep in mind, it's still in Alpha from a game miraculously and curiously revived from vaporware.

 

[LookingGlass]

Well, I really liked the first boss (Onryoki). Took a few tries but he was fair -- if you're good, you can avoid taking any damage whatsoever.

The second boss (Nue) however, is complete bullshit. He can kill me in 1-3 hits depending on the attack. My best run in about 10 attempts against him, I got him down to maybe 80-85% health after a bunch of hits. If he didn't have the crazy ranged attacks, or if he didn't do a million damage per hit, or if he didn't have the world's biggest health bar, he'd be alright. But with those three things I don't feel like it's a "tough but fair" fight, which is what I'm after. It's just hard for the sake of being hard.

The rest of the game is pretty damn good though. Maybe I'm missing something with this fight.

 

[Kaimax]

Maybe I'm missing something with this fight.

Nue, is actually fair, but you probably didn't get his pattern since he's kinda "random" + New Boss Nervousness.
Personally, I had to do like 15+ tries, even resorting to summoning people, which sucked since it lags (don't know if it's jsut my connection or their netcode)

Nue is managable once you know the pattern (like almost every boss lol), the part with his Health feeling too large is just because you have a weaker weapon, once you get Raikiri, that health goes down fast.
His lightning only does 2000+ damage lol, but at the level (30-40) your health is probably hovering around 1500-1700 which will one Shot you anyways.

Nue basically does this:
-He spawns, roar once, but will follow up with 1 Thunder strike to himself.
-If you're close:
a.If you're in front, he'll do the double slash claws, maybe followed by his rolling attack which summons thunder on it's pathway
b.If you're behind him, he'll do the spin attack
-if you're mid range
a. He'll try to Breath poison at you
b. Sweeping laser attack
-If you're Far
a. He'll do his thunder attack, 4 Times before stopping, better Run and watch out for walls. This will mostly One shot you.
b. He'll do this side jump, and will land on his side, not dangerous perfect time to wail on him

My tactics agains him.
-Mainly, Mid stance sword, 3 normal attacks and Ki Pulse. Repeat and rinse.
-Go Living weapon once he's Stamina is gone, don't get carried over, he'll do a thunder strike to recharge his stamina.
-Run around, don't stop.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well, I really liked the first boss (Onryoki). Took a few tries but he was fair -- if you're good, you can avoid taking any damage whatsoever.

The second boss (Nue) however, is complete bullshit. He can kill me in 1-3 hits depending on the attack. My best run in about 10 attempts against him, I got him down to maybe 80-85% health after a bunch of hits. If he didn't have the crazy ranged attacks, or if he didn't do a million damage per hit, or if he didn't have the world's biggest health bar, he'd be alright. But with those three things I don't feel like it's a "tough but fair" fight, which is what I'm after. It's just hard for the sake of being hard.

The rest of the game is pretty damn good though. Maybe I'm missing something with this fight.

I actually had a harder time with Onryoki but I think that was because I was still struggling with the games systems i.e using no magic or items and not really understanding where to dodge.

I just beat Nue the best strat I found was to stay close to him and dodge into him slightly to the side and just keep wailing on him while ki pulsing and dodging just watch out for his howl most of all if he does that get away from there and run. I used one of the talismans that clears yokai pollution then broke his guard by constant pressure switched to mid sword stance activated living weapon and hammered square non stop I got him in stunlock and took off over 80% of his health killing him while he was helpless.

It can take some luck or planning to get the lock off on your own but damn that was satisfying and turned it from challenging to a cakewalk since there is literally nothing he can do as long as you dont pause and allow him to do his howl to regain his stamina.

I think if you want to really cheese it you summon another person and 2 of you can stunlock him a lot easier.

Just gone back to the first area and exploring more while enjoying my comparitively godly invulnerability although 6 people on one still took me down lol although it didnt help I was ambushed by them due to me feeling myself.

Just found a nice shortcut it would have been risky as hell before but now it allows me to get further this time in 2 minutes than I did in 90 last time.

Overall I really like the game its pulled me in in a way no other game has in ages prob not since Bayonetta 2 although I wish the framerate was higher I died a few times due to eaten inputs or sluggish buttons. Darksouls was the same only with the speedier combat here and combos its felt more keenly. Apparently there is an option for visuals or framerate or will be which is good I just hope they sacrifice what they need visually to get a full 60 fps. Still think the durability system sucks though, its manageable most times but its just a nuisance that adds very little and takes away some enjoyment of the game.

Also fire shuriken are godly against the Yokai wish I had invested earlier.

Side note but does anyone know what the weapon imbuing does i.e fire burns enemies so what does water, earth, wind and lightning do? are they worth using?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Side note but does anyone know what the weapon imbuing does i.e fire burns enemies so what does water, earth, wind and lightning do? are they worth using?

That's still a work in progress; lightning seems to slow movement on enemies while earth slows Ki recovery. Interestingly if you manage to get two elemental effects on an enemy (though at the moment this only seems to work on Yokai), a THIRD effect represented by a Yin Yang symbol and purple clouds on the enemy will appear and it will:

-Completely drain an opponent's ki
-The enemy cannot regain that ki using the Yokai Zone and
-They take almost double damage.

I discovered this while doing another playthrough of the second area, first using a fire shuriken (and yes, those things are GREAT) and then going into a low stance with the katana to built up the lightning effect. If you can get it to work it is ABSOLUTELY worth it because they're at you're mercy. Again, this is a nice dichotomy between human and yokai enemies; the latter have big advantages like flinch resistance and the Yokai Zones, but if you drain their stamina you can WRECK them.

 

[Ryallen]

I am so bad at this. I don't even know where I am, and I keep dying to rando bandits because I keep forgetting to block. I don't like that you have to buy the parry with level ups, but I suppose that's mitigated by the points being given so liberally. What also bothers me is that the elixers heal the equivalent of 1 to 2 hits. I don't remember if Dark Souls's Estus healed that little, but I don't think it did. And, yes, the durability system is complete bullshit.

EDIT: I suppose that I should clarify, as I just noticed this, that I actually like the game quite a bit. I'm just terrible at it.

 

[LookingGlass]

Thanks so much for the tips people.

I don't know what the hell I was doing last night on Nue. Tonight, first attempt I took him down near half health. I think three tries later, he was toast. Once I figured out his patterns (including how many attacks I can get in before running away) and made sure to keep moving, he wasn't too bad at all. On my last attempt I barely got hit and probably could have taken him down if he had twice as much health. I didn't even use a living weapon.

This is almost a sure day one purchase for me.

 

[Kaimax]

Now, I'm going full Dex and Be a Ninja...10 Fire Shurikens is Godly...

 

[2HF]

I don't play Dark Souls.

I downloaded this demo just cause.

I walked up to a pile of ash or something not 30 seconds into the game.

I "revived" someone I guess?

Before I could even process what had happened I was sliced and diced so fine I could be served on a pizza.

I came back to life, revived that same dude, managed to find a block button, and because flesh and bone don't block a katana I was sliced and diced again.

I then turned it off and went back to watching Netflix.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Now, I'm going full Dex and Be a Ninja...10 Fire Shurikens is Godly...

Yeah, the Fire Shuriken are by far the best Ninjutsu (which pull enemies, cause good damage, and cause the fire status effect for even more damage); the powders take too long to get working, the caltrops are situational, and the regular shuriken are only good for pulling enemies (which makes them obsolete when you have a bow that can one-shot humans without helmets).

Also, here's an interesting video going over some advanced tactics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrklfM4nrC8

 

[Kaimax]

What also bothers me is that the elixers heal the equivalent of 1 to 2 hits. I don't remember if Dark Souls's Estus healed that little, but I don't think it did

Actually, The Elixirs heals around 500 Health, Estus heals 300 health before upgraded (Max 800). You probably felt it lacking because the Health bar has fixed length in Ni-Oh. Turn on the numbers to make things a bit clear.