Nioh Last Chance Demo January 21

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Just a couple days ago Koei Tecmo had announced that Nioh, their dark Sengoku fantasy RPG, had gone gold. To commemorate that and to give players a final chance to get the Alpha and Beta rewards as well as a final reward. The demo will be available for download today (January 18) on the PSN, but it will not activate until January 21 wherein you will have 48 hours to finish it to get your rewards. The Demo includes Tutorial Missions, the Futamata Stage, The Futamata Twilight Stage, a Tachibana Muneshige duel, and online multiplayer. Keep the save data from the demo and access the Boons at the shrine in the full game to get your goodies.

For those who don't know, Nioh is a dark fantasy RPG by Koei Tecmo that is essentially Dark Souls but setting in Japan's Warring States Era. The player is cast in the role of William Adams, an Irishman who heads to Japan seeking a man named Kelley. Along the way he encounters famous figures of Japanese history such as Hattori Hanzo, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Ishida Mitsunari as well as a LOT of freaky yokai and other Japanese monsters. Two demos had been released last April and August in order to get feedback from the community and the final demo is what the final retail release will play like. Time to die, die, and die some more.

 

[PapaGreg096]

Okay at this point they might as well just open the demo indefinitely or until the game comes out

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Demo is now live for play. One stage with a Twilight variant and a duel with Muneshige (that bastard). I must say, the kusarigama weapon is very unique, great for zoning and crowd control. The skill tree is even bigger now and there's a new stat called "toughness" which seems to be like Poise from Dark Souls. You can also craft equipment now.

 

[Fox12]

Any major changes from the last version?

 

[Maximum Bert]

Going to give it a go in the next hour. Really looking forward to it as I loved the alpha and beta even if I did have my annoyances with them (especially that weapon degradation nonsense in alpha).

Going to go with a more Ninjitsu build this time and see what happens.

edit: Ok so done all of the last chance trial. Took me a few mins to get back into it literally died about 3 times to the first two mobs lol but after that it was smooth sailing.

Beaten the normal and twilight missions as well as the samurai dood (in one hit thanks to the barehanded strategy). Killing him like this just felt so good after the pain of last time.


Plus it makes you feel like a total badass.

Really liked the level and boss tbh I still think the vampire one is my favourite so far however. Twilight mode is great in this I loved it last time except the extra mobs on bosses which I despised and if the Ogress is anything to go by they have taken that out of boss fights and just made em hit harder and be tougher which is fine by me. The lock on system appears to be improved as well.

I still dont really understand the reforge system and feel maybe it could be easy to break the game? they have limited the ninjitsu items so I could not test here but I reckon I could have been a near unstoppable badass with more smokebombs, fire Shurikens and Posion shurikens but then I did put all except about 4 points into Ninjitsu (never buffed health or Ki).

Really looking forward to this game but I am worried if I get it I will not be doing anything but playing it which I really cannot afford to do.

Hopefully we get a different Twilight mission tommorow like the beta. Still the most fun I have had in a game in a long time. Think the last `game` to hook me like this wasnt even a game but a visual novel called Steins Gate (still got Steins Gate 0 sitting there looking at me but cannot spare the time atm and I know I would give it anyway if I opened it).

Oh I used the chain thing and Axe exclusively this time as I wanted to try something other than swords and together they worked great. The axe worked amazing on the ogress twilight mission to destroy her stamina. I still dont know how to dodge her crazy berserker barrage attacks tho at least reliably.

Oh and the shamisen players stay dead even if you go to a shrine now which is good as they can really mess up ypur day if their are a few revenants nearby. It was a bit of a chore to take em out over and over last time now they are more like gate demons which I like more.

Tengu demons remind me of the ones in Ninja Gaiden which I suppose is not surpising considering the developers. I wonder if Ryu Hayabusa and Ayane show up? part of me wants them not to and another part of me does mainly because Ayane is one of my favourite characters lol.

EDIT: Just saw that they have actually translated Honour as Honour instead of Honor good show Team Ninja I wonder if it is the same with the american version or if that is honor there? If they have taken pains like that for the localisation I am impressed and hope for something special on release.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Any major changes from the last version?

Not really just quality of life changes I suppose such as better lock on system slightly better camera (from what I can tell although still far from perfect).

Other things may have changed but really it feels more of a refinement than anything if you hated beta odds are you will hate this one but if there were just a few things bugging you then maybe this has fixed it for you.

Other than that this one has a new area and boss from alpha and beta and there are new weapons and skills.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Finally beat Muneshige and got through the Twilight Mission. Seems to me they've buffed enemy health a bit, though that might be because I was using the dual swords and kusarigama which aren't big on shot for shot damage. The latter had some nice stamina draining moves like the double kick though, which is great for the Ogress. Crafting has also been introduced as enemies will drop items that allow you to make weapons and armor.

Also, word of warning: to get the Ogress Mask in the full game keep the demo on your PS4.

 

[Faaip]

I'm glad they did one last demo since I missed out on the last two.. I really enjoyed it though. I'm looking forward to the release!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I got to finally try out the coop with a friend of mine today. I have to say I really enjoyed it.

Getting the coop going is quite a bit harder than Dark Souls, but I would say on the whole it works a lot better. The enemies in the zone get tougher along with the boss, and it seems they even change enemy positioning in a few places when you have a coop partner. So while on the whole playing with another person is easier, it's not quite the cakewalk that coop Dark Souls becomes.

All in all I had a lot of fun with it.

Now if only they went the Dark Souls 3 route and allowed friends to play together regardless of level. I couldn't get a level 10 friend of mine into a game with me when I was level 1. In Dark Souls 3 if the coop partner is a higher level than the host the game bumps that person's stats and equipment down to match the level of the host. It's really smart and I would love for a system like that to be implemented in this game.

Obviously I'm going to play through the game solo and beat every boss on my own at least once, but coop is a great way to keep the game fun and fresh.

 

[PapaGreg096]

Game is pretty good so far, I'm probably going to buy it but I have 2 problems with it.

1. The enemies kinda feel a little damage spongy- Sure the enemies in Dark Souls were kinda hard but they went down reltevaly quick and even some of the more durable enemies didn't soak up damage as much as the ones in Nioh.

2.The environment is kinda boring- Yeah I know Feudal Japan and they probably won't have any interesting environments but the environments are mostly either Temples, Mountains, or Caves

 

[Maximum Bert]

Just rebuilt my character to try a different build and went with all stats into heart except 9 in body and strength to be able to use the warrior of the west gear. I did not find it as fun but cant say it was any harder or easier just certain parts were harder and easier with this build so at the very least it looks like a few builds are viable from early impressions anyway although it definitely looks like it pays to focus your build rather than go jack of all trades (like I did last two times).

Nice they actually put a reset item in there and from what I can tell it is in the same place everytime in here it was on the tower near the temple on a corpse in twilight mode. I wanted something like this in last time so glad they have it as now I dont have to worry about screwing up my build much or starting again if I want to try something different.

Game is pretty good so far, I'm probably going to buy it but I have 2 problems with it.

1. The enemies kinda feel a little damage spongy- Sure the enemies in Dark Souls were kinda hard but they went down reltevaly quick and even some of the more durable enemies didn't soak up damage as much as the ones in Nioh.

2.The environment is kinda boring- Yeah I know Feudal Japan and they probably won't have any interesting environments but the environments are mostly either Temples, Mountains, or Caves

I had the same problem with bullet spongy enemies when I first played but after a while it did not feel that way gear seems to help a lot here even more than souls regular enemies are fine but demons take a lot more as you would expect. That said if you are not in high stance some still feel very robust (I use high stance about 80% of the time) bosses are another matter especially at first but after a while you get to know their weaknesses and can destroy them fairly easy in most cases. Hardest one I think is the lightning dog in alpha.

The environments arent bad I feel but they dont really make you stop and go wow at least so far but compared to Dark Souls the environments are definitely lacking but I feel that was a something DS did very well soa lot of games would come up short there. I did feel the arena challenge in the beta was a very bland area myself. Not a deal breaker for me as I love the core gameplay but definitely not a strength of this game from what I have seen. That said I feel enemy placement and the way they change the level from normal and twilight is great.

Also found out how to dodge the Ogress crazy attack when she screams and does about 10 swipes either stand very far away from her (obv) or stand literally right next to her as in hugging her then it all misses. Basically I just stood right next to her the entire match in high stance doing combos with the axe or sword as long as you roll away when she jumps (under her) and to her side when she digs her claws in while getting rid of the yokai pollution she makes with ki pulse you will be fine. Def easiest boss so far imo.

Im done with it now anyway just gonna wait for full release. I wonder if those areas were the starting ones? from the level indicator it appears they might be. Actually found all the kodamas this time as well.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

My reservation has been locked since last fall when they first came up. There's also going to be DLC down the road with new stages. I'm looking to go Dual Katana and Kusarigama build in the full game as the latter is REALLY fun when the skill tree starts opening up and you get the more advanced skills, allowing for a highly varied moveset. There are also some small things I like about the game that make some surprising improvements to the experience:

-Soul match, which means if you get a really awesome piece of equipment you can keep it viable by boosting its level with a throwaway piece.

-Being able to change the appearance of equipment so you can have great stats while still being fashionable.

-Crafting system, which encourages replaying stages in order to get materials (as well as giving you an excuse to take petty vengeance upon enemies that pissed you off earlier)

-Rerolling item abilities to complement your play style.

-Items that give you ninja and onmyo points, letting even min-maxers dabble in skills that could complement their play styles. I personally liked using the power pills to boost by strength and then using the weakness talisman to to cripple their defenses. Made for some really good burst DPS

My only big gripes are A) Elixirs taking on the Bloodborne system of them being consumables. I will say at least the ones in the storehouse now refill your count at shrines. Plus I find it weird how they can't be bought at the shop between missions and B) money should be more plentiful considering the soul matching system for gear costing quite a bit (especially for rare pieces like the Warrior of the West set). Overall though I still find it to be the best Souls-like to date that emulates the experience well, while still maintaining its own identity and making some really interesting innovations to the formula.

Also, you wanna see some REALLY high-level technique, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS0vGOCTwyg

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The environments arent bad I feel but they dont really make you stop and go wow at least so far but compared to Dark Souls the environments are definitely lacking but I feel that was a something DS did very well soa lot of games would come up short there. I did feel the arena challenge in the beta was a very bland area myself. Not a deal breaker for me as I love the core gameplay but definitely not a strength of this game from what I have seen. That said I feel enemy placement and the way they change the level from normal and twilight is great.

I agree with this. The environments aren't bad, but they're pretty samey and there's nothing to really make you go wow, nor is there anything to really make the different environments stand apart from one another.

Not all of the areas in Dark Souls were winners, but at least they were all unique and different from each other.

I'd say the armor in the game has the same problem, it all looks very samey.

Take a look at the armor page on the Nioh Wiki: http://nioh.wiki.fextralife.com/Armor

If you un-focus your eyes just a little a lot the armors just look like recolors of the same armor. Again, Dark Souls armors weren't all winners, but they were unique enough that "fashion souls" became a thing. In this game it seems like you can mix and match any armor and in the end you character will always look roughly the same (with a few exceptions). Youngblood set looks really nice though.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I'd say the armor in the game has the same problem, it all looks very samey.

Take a look at the armor page on the Nioh Wiki: http://nioh.wiki.fextralife.com/Armor

If you un-focus your eyes just a little a lot the armors just look like recolors of the same armor. Again, Dark Souls armors weren't all winners, but they were unique enough that "fashion souls" became a thing. In this game it seems like you can mix and match any armor and in the end you character will always look roughly the same (with a few exceptions). Youngblood set looks really nice though.

Cant say I disagree some look very different but really only when going from different types i.e cloth to metal (as you would expect). However while I do not know what their design ethic was I am assuming that they did not have as much free reign as something like Souls which is entirely fantasy. Here while it is fantasy it (appears to be) mixing this world and Japanese folklore i.e Yokai, Guardian spirits etc so I would assume that they were trying to pay a bit more attention to historical accuracies without being a slave to them in design to certain areas such as weapons and armour in an effort to keep it grounded.

My hope is that there will be more heroes and special fights you can face against enemies wearing really unique and cool sets that you can then gain but I am not expecting this. It feels very different gaining a new weapon in this and DS much less special here but also more fun in experimentation due to its ease.

I would compare the loot more to Borderlands than DS.