Nioh

[Glongpre]

No one seems to be discussing this new announcement (although apparently this game was announced before many years ago under a different name).

The game is called Nioh, and I am getting really strong Ninja Gaiden and Onimusha vibes from it. Here is the teaser:

Spoiler: Nioh

The Onimusha vibes should be obvious with the demons and him being a samurai, and the general supernatural elements.

The combat though seems very similar to Ninja Gaiden Black to me. He has blocking, dodging, counters, a charge move, and the combat is fairly defensive but the animations are quick. I am excited because I have been waiting for a successor to NGB for awhile. Not only that, but I have always wanted a samurai game with the beautiful NGB gameplay.

I have seen others compare it to Dark Souls, and I honestly don't see it. Just because it has demons and a dark atmosphere does not make it Dark Souls. Dark Souls to me is a game that tells you something through the gameplay (which no ones knows if it will do that yet), and the gameplay is generally slower (in the sense that every action has a lot of weight on it).

What does everyone think about this game?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Full history of this:

The game was originally announced by Koei back in 2004 (before they merged with Tecmo) and was supposed to be a PS3 launch title. It had a prerendered trailer at E3 2005, but 2006 rolled around and passed with no Ni-Oh in sight. No word of it showed until 2009. So why were Koei so goddamned determined to finish it? That's because it was based on an unfinished screenplay called "Oni" about the half-Western son of a warlord. And it was written by AKIRA FREAKING KUROSAWA. Kinda obligated to finish it with that pedigree. During the initial phase it was even supposed to have a companion film called "Oni" directed by Kurosawa's son, but those plans have clearly fallen through.

As for the video itself, I'm getting more Dark Souls than Onimusha. Aside from the setting and use of Japanese mythical creatures, there's not a lot of Onimusha in there. The emphasis seems to be more on the ominous nature of the world. The pop-up in the corner is emulating Dark Souls, the flashes foreshadowing the boss like in a horror movie, the bizarre, malevolent designs of the monsters (which are pretty accurate depictions of youkai/yuurei/bakemono/yousei as seen in Japanese artwork), and the foreboding lack of music. All that definitely gives a sense of dread, a haunting atmosphere like Dark Souls it's just set in the Sengoku Jidai and has a WAY faster fighting engine clearly.

 

[mysecondlife]

Geralto San is very kawaii dane!

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Geralto San is very kawaii dane!

I know right? There's looking similar, then there's chucking some Eastern Armor on a white guy and calling it a day.

OT: So it's basically Dark Souls: Onimusha Gaiden Editon.

Again, that's a holdover from the original Kurosawa script where the protagonist was the half-Western son of a lord.

 

[Glongpre]

Full history of this:

Oh ok, thanks for bringing that up. It has quite the interesting backstory. Now I am more interested.

Still though, I don't get the Dark Souls vibes. Maybe it is just the speed of the combat animations that is throwing me off. It does have a dark, haunting atmosphere, but the Dark Souls type games seem to have an almost oppressive atmosphere. All there is, is horror, death, etc. This teaser seems to show there is still humanity left.
But I can see how someone could think that now.

I was getting the Onimusha similarities from the demons, and when he had that spirit fly around and empower his sword. That kinda supernatural stuff.

 

[Hartland]

Full history of this:

Oh ok, thanks for bringing that up. It has quite the interesting backstory. Now I am more interested.

Still though, I don't get the Dark Souls vibes. Maybe it is just the speed of the combat animations that is throwing me off. It does have a dark, haunting atmosphere, but the Dark Souls type games seem to have an almost oppressive atmosphere. All there is, is horror, death, etc. This teaser seems to show there is still humanity left.
But I can see how someone could think that now.

I was getting the Onimusha similarities from the demons, and when he had that spirit fly around and empower his sword. That kinda supernatural stuff.

The biggest difference between Onimusha and Dark Souls is mostly just whether it is an adventure or an repeating nightmare. We'll need to know more of the over arching game play to decide which applies to Ni-Oh.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Oh ok, thanks for bringing that up. It has quite the interesting backstory. Now I am more interested.

Still though, I don't get the Dark Souls vibes. Maybe it is just the speed of the combat animations that is throwing me off. It does have a dark, haunting atmosphere, but the Dark Souls type games seem to have an almost oppressive atmosphere. All there is, is horror, death, etc. This teaser seems to show there is still humanity left.
But I can see how someone could think that now.

I was getting the Onimusha similarities from the demons, and when he had that spirit fly around and empower his sword. That kinda supernatural stuff.

The demons are nothing like Onimusha's; Onimusha's demons were original creations that were meant as a metaphor for Western encroachment (which is why they all had names taken from Shakespearean or Western sources). even if they were called "Genma" they had very little to do with Japanese sources. And again, the way they're presented is meant to be unsettling, eerie, almost like a horror game (which again goes back to Dark Souls). Furthermore, we're also talking about the Sengoku Jidai here, one of the BLOODIEST eras in Japanese history. There was death and horrors for leagues.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Level layout(what we seen of it anyway) looks very Dark Souls, combat isn't as slow but it looks close, and the final giant boss roster again reminds of the very boss focused DS.
I'm guessing a game in development hell for this long picked up what the popular kids of the same type are doing, and DS is right in their back yard with hell of a lot of success.

 

[joest01]

Looks like TN's spin on *.souls to me.

I really hope this turns out well.

This and the new Nier could sway me to finally pick up a PS4.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

new details emerged (along with a gameplay video in the comments section).

http://gematsu.com/2015/09/nioh-details-online-element-first-screenshots

That's definitely Dark Souls. I'm just glad to see more Japan-centric games.

 

[Glongpre]

That's definitely Dark Souls.

Ok yea, definitely very Dark Souls inspired.

.
.
Here is the gameplay video that was in the comments:

Spoiler: gameplay

It looks like a lot of fun! The stance switching looks like an interesting addition, but I hope they can make it so it isn't cumbersome to use during combat. That could easily become a huge annoyance.

 

[joest01]

OK, I'll say what everybody HAS to be thinking

WHERE'S THE FUCKING IZUNA DROP?

Right?

 

[Glongpre]

OK, I'll say what everybody HAS to be thinking

WHERE'S THE FUCKING IZUNA DROP?

Right?

I wasn't thinking about that at all. It just isn't a move that I would expect a samurai to do.

So far it looks like they nailed the samurai style. Seeing him transition from a high stance to the low stance is so cool. It is the little details that really make the difference.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I wasn't thinking about that at all. It just isn't a move that I would expect a samurai to do.

So far it looks like they nailed the samurai style. Seeing him transition from a high stance to the low stance is so cool. It is the little details that really make the difference.

Yeah, it definitely gets the kenjutsu feel, having several different styles based around offense, defense, and even iaido. The dev team said they wanted to focus on the action aspect instead of the RPG aspect (hence why the game runs WAY faster than Souls and Bloodborne) so I wouldn't be surprised if there are fewer weapons at the expense of more depth with each of them.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

never heard about this until now, defintely color me intrigued, but as other comments in the video had mentioned, there is "atmospheric dark" and "I can't see shit" dark

it's way too much of the latter, I get really annoyed with games like that, maybe it'll be different on a nice big LED IPS screen.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Certainly shows a great deal of promise. And it does have a lot of Onimusha in it with its hefty looking combat and OG medieval Japanese setting. It's been a long time since I've seen some nice "traditional" samurai action in media.

 

[joest01]

OK, I'll say what everybody HAS to be thinking

WHERE'S THE FUCKING IZUNA DROP?

Right?

I wasn't thinking about that at all. It just isn't a move that I would expect a samurai to do.

So far it looks like they nailed the samurai style. Seeing him transition from a high stance to the low stance is so cool. It is the little details that really make the difference.

I am not familiar with the background of the story here. is there a strict limitation to a traditional samurai build? From a renegade Samurai it's a small step to a Ninja. And we all know Ninjas LOVE to Izuna drop the crap out of opponents!

 

[Glongpre]

I am not familiar with the background of the story here. is there a strict limitation to a traditional samurai build? From a renegade Samurai it's a small step to a Ninja. And we all know Ninjas LOVE to Izuna drop the crap out of opponents!

I am not denying the cool factor of the izuna drop, but when have you seen a samurai do it? I think there is a traditional samurai build. To me they don't have anything really fancy, aside from their sword skills and some cool judo throws. Ninjas are more well known for their "mystical" abilities.

I feel there are enough games where you can play as a ninja, and there you can izuna drops fools to your hearts content.

 

[sageoftruth]

Huh. Pretty neat trailer. Can Koei exceed my expectations and produce something that isn't merely mediocre? If so, I'll probably have to get myself a current gen console. I've already learned not to trust them when it comes to PC ports.