Nioh Beta Demo Up

[Fox12]

It's pretty amazing how much your impressions are the same as mine. I didn't try the alpha, played this for the first time yesterday, but I was not impressed.

Bar DS2, I've beaten all other "Souls" games (including Bloodborne, in that) and whilst I have found them to have parts that can be cheap, nothing in all of those 4 games I've played was ever a cheap as just playing up to the first boss in this beta, it was terrible. As it's been stated above, I just didn't understand the Ki Pulse thing and having it in there whilst you're in the heat of battle is just stupid. And yeah, the stamina drain is crazy, especially how you'll get totally locked when it's full drained. Some of the first boss' attacks totally drained my stamina in one hit and then, just continuing his combo, he killed me in another. Granted I was rushing, I was streaming and wanted to move things along so I didn't take time to grind like I would have in a Souls game but most of my gripes come from the base gameplay and the way it works. I'd have to sink like 30 levels into stamina for it not to drain at such an insane rate!

And yes, fuck those ogre enemies, seriously, fuck them.

Those ogres aren't too tough, just git gud. And Ki Pulse restores stamina, your gripes come purely from not knowing what's up. I haven't played this beta, but I cleared the Alpha including the optional boss, and this game is gonna be way better than Dark Souls. Rather than just iframe dodging being a fix for literally every situation, this game puts you on the ropes and forces you to fight for your life. It only feels unfair because you don't know what your character can do.

Of course, you haven't cleared the best Souls game anyway, so your taste is probably way different from mine.

But he said he already beat DS1.

So far I've really enjoyed it. It's borrowed some ideas from Dark Souls, but it also seems to be carving out its own identity. It seems like a lot of the complaints I've seen are fixed once you understand the combat system.

 

[sXeth]

I didn't have stamina problems, but then again, I was doing the Ki Pulse at least occasionally. Despite my criticism of its implementation as a constant quicktime event with visually poor indicators. I'm sure you could probably just learn the timing as a combo memorization. I got by well enough to take out the first boss. Prettymuch just using the light stance and Attack-Attack-Roll like any bog standard brawler.

I did get my buddy to test out my initial impression of the weightlessness of the combat though, by having him play with the numbers turned off. Thats really the best way to convey what I mean when I say the combat feels really off and like there's no actual hitbox or smoothness to it. Its troublesome to even figure out whether you hit or not in some fights.

I also could attack a downed guy fine. Unless they arbitrarily cancelled out of the stab animation immediately into their own attack without standing up in between. Which seemed to be a 50/50.

 

[Kaimax]

Also it might be due to the person being a mook but the guard is pretty damn broken

It's because they're mooks, In mid stance you can just guard the living shit out of the mooks until they run out of stamina.
But Don't dare try to rely on guarding for Bosses, those guard stuns may kill you, when they decide to instantly follow up with another attack.

Try Fighting Muneshige lol.
Btw, killed the onryouki when I was lvl 20 and killed hino-enma when I was lvl 30. The game still allows easy farming of Amrita through weapon/armor skills.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

Today was a relatively good day for me. Just before I decided to take on Onryuki I found a Revnant with Raikiri on it. 168 attack at 0 Familiarity with a max of 999, easily outclassing anything else I had. Onryuki was a pushover. Beat him on the first try at Level 16 with an overpowered weapon. Well, overpowered for the first stage.

I decided to do the side mission next. I only died once, in the first area, but I may have cried a little while fighting the two monk yokai. Just a little.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Finished the second boss almost got her on the second try had her slowed she was one hit away lined up my rifle when she was in the air and I died instantly was absolutely gutted think slow must have worn off just as I pulled the trigger and she got me with the needles. After that took me about 6 more tries usually got her down to the final few hits and then I died but eventually beat her at lvl 16.

Then tried fighting the guy in the grass and lol yeah that did not go well best I did was get him to half health usually he cut me down really really fast he just keeps going no matter what you do. Levelled up a bit now tho am about 28 and am at the last bit of the twilight grass mission think ill have that down pat after a few more goes doesnt seem to bad except the final two phases of it.

Still cant beat the swordsman guy tho frikkin had him pressed to throw a bomb in his exhausted stupid face and somehow got a smokebomb instead of my mega bomb whereupon he recovered and killed me on his spec of HP. Gonna level up and prepare a bit more and spend some damn points have 23 points to spend in talents for weapons atm.

Hoping to clear everything by the time the demo ends but I have the other DLC now anyway regardless. Really enjoying it just like last time but I still wish that there were shrines near every boss it just got tedious running past everything to fight the vampire biddy each failed attempt. Managing loot can also be tedious but I have never liked that in any game and tbf its not to bad here just annoying offering stuff up or selling it.

Finally finding some decent weapons and armour now. I can actually take a hit from an oni without dying now.....usually.

 

[Kaimax]

Then tried fighting the guy in the grass and lol yeah that did not go well

Lol Tachibana Muneshige is you but 10 times better.
-His guardian spirit summon Attack is very annonying, especially when he goes into phase 2
-his Iai Attack is very deceiving both in range and damage, don't try to guard it, just get as far away as you can lol
-His Double Overhead Attack has Superarmor, get away from it.

I beat him this way
-Used a Spear
-Cast the Slow Talisman before the fight
-wait before he attacks, counter him with a 2 normal attack combo with High stance, this is my normal approach
-Spam my fire shurikens whenever he charges a Power up
-After stabbing him when his stamina is down reapply Slow
-try to dodge everything he does
-And Pray to god that nothing wrong happens lol

After beating him you have A chance to get his armor and weapons. His armor has high defense while being low weight.

 

[PapaGreg096]

To those having trouble with the game, its suuuper easy to get the high class weapon.

1. Make sure you get the luck charms
2.Fight the dead swordsmen
3.If 2 fails respawn until you get the weapon

 

[Maximum Bert]

-Cast the Slow Talisman before the fight

Tried that it lasts about 2 seconds before it wears off (worked great against the vampire tho) admittedly I dont have a high magic stat so maybe that effects it. I only got the sloth talisman to fight the vampire biddy and then realised I found it easier without it as I had already learnt her ordinary speed attacks and did not have to worry about it suddenly wearing off mid fight and throwing me off.

Tried spears on him and this was my worst attempt although personally I hate spears but may be worth another go. The guy seems to have super armour on near everything lol. Found dodging the lai attack by moving toward him works best as I find it very difficult to run away from it (again very low stamina). Had the most success with the axe but the guy is definitely beatable with any weapon I just feel some of his moves are a touch to good like how some attacks just keep going and seemingly auto track and how his lai attack can hit behind him (seriously that is infuriating). Blocking anything from him is gonna get you at least half killed I found as well.

So far he is my least favourite boss fight after the lightning dog thing from the alpha while the vampire is my favourite by far. Gonna have another go at attempting to get good tonight anyway and thanks for the tips. Just out of curiosity what is your magic stat? I have mostly been a ninja build (awesome in general but doesnt help much here).

Edit: Beat the twilight grass mission a lot faster than I beat the regular one although the last phase took me a few tries. Also finally beat the swordsman guy at lvl 31. I eneded up just using the katana in mid stance mostly and getting one or two hits in when I could but even now I find him extremely difficult to read some of his attacks are obvious but its not obvious if he will follow up with anything which is extremely annoying. The amount of time I thought he had no ki only to attack him for him to dodge and go into some massive attack was ridiculous. I didnt feel much achievement from beating him tbh definitely my least favourite part of the demo just did not find him very fun to fight.

On the other hand I did like the twilight mission for the first area (hope 2nd is unlocked tommorow as apparently they rotate daily) and just blitzed it in a very satisfying manner. Only thing I did not like were the bosses having extra mobs show up sporadically with them I felt that was a bit cheap. Ideally I would like the bosses to have a slightly different pattern or be different entirely. Just seemed a lazy way to increase the difficulty especially when the rest of the level has enemies redistributed so nicely when they could have been lazy and just upped all the HP and damage values.

I would like a way to respec though in the final game sometimes a skills usefulness is not always apparent until you use it. Only other complaint I have is some funky hitboxes on occasion sometimes I swear I should have hit or been hit only for it to miss. I have also had sneak attacks miss seriously why? I didnt put points into the skill to sneak up press the button miss the enemy while I am locked in animation for them to turn around and hit me.

Overall though I am loving it. Said it before with the alpha but no game has sucked me in like this in ages.