With simply two video games, the Nioh collection has already cemented its place among the many better of the soulslike style, thanks to its uniquely fast-paced motion, deeply customizable builds and playstyles, thrilling boss battles, and a sure fluidity to its fight that appears like Staff Ninja’s personal signature contact. Based mostly on my 5 hours of hands-on time with a brand new preview construct, the upcoming third installment is shaping up to proceed that development of excellence, staying true to the core of what has all the time made the collection so profitable, however shaking up simply sufficient to problem veteran gamers to rethink how they method its many troublesome fight encounters.
Very like Nioh 2, Nioh 3 is shaping up to be an iterative sequel that doesn’t change a lot in regards to the core methods that had been established in Nioh 1; as an alternative including model new layers on prime of that core to reinvigorate the fight system and drive gamers to have interaction with it otherwise. Nioh 2 did this by including in burst counters and yokai shifts, and Nioh 3 does this primarily by giving the participant two types that they will shift between on the fly: Samurai and Ninja type.
Once I first performed Nioh 3, again when it was supplied up as a restricted time demo, I used to be a little bit not sure of how I felt about this break up. Samurai type, in spite of everything, is mainly simply the way in which you’d usually play Nioh, minus the power to use Onmyo Magic; whereas Ninja Model simply felt like a a lot quicker and DPS oriented stance that comes with the substantial drawbacks of not having the ability to use Ki Pulses to regain your stamina, and not having the three sword stances to change between, that are each two staples of Nioh’s gameplay. Not to point out that having two totally different types means almost twice as a lot stock administration, since they each have their very own utterly separate units of substances, and if there’s one recreation collection that already has greater than sufficient stock and loot administration, it’s Nioh.
Whereas loot stays a difficulty, throughout my playtime, one thing clicked with me with regards to Samurai and Ninja type. Not solely did I acquire an understanding of what every type was good for and after I ought to swap to one versus persevering with with the opposite, however extra importantly, I bought a grasp of the sheer quantity of choices that having two scorching swappable types every with their very own gear loadouts and talent timber brings to the desk.
Whereas in Samurai type, you after all have entry to the three stances – excessive, medium, and low – and the entire abilities that come from every of these stances. You are also ready to to use Ki Pulses to restore spent stamina with out having to look ahead to it to recharge, making it nice for sustained offense the place you’re ready to form of simply plant your ft down and stand and combat towards a troublesome enemy. There’s additionally a brand new Arts Proficiency Gauge that fills up as you deal harm and efficiently guard, however decreases everytime you get hit. As soon as it’s full, you’re ready to use a powered-up model of your heavy assault, which provides a pleasant little reward for enjoying nicely with a cautious steadiness of offense and protection.
Ninja type alternatively allows you to go completely wild. Your dashes go loopy far and are tremendous quick in contrast to the dodges in Samurai type; as an alternative of stances, you’re ready to equip up to three ninja instruments; you’re ready to in a short time sprint to an enemy’s bottom to deal additional harm; and a lot of the weapons reap the benefits of the truth that Nioh 3 provides a soar button, permitting you to even punctuate your floor combos with a soar cancel, letting you tag on much more harm with air combos. On prime of all of this, for each types, you even have your guardian spirit transformations, guardian spirit abilities, Soul Core abilities, it’s simply quite a lot of instruments to take with you into each battle.
In fact, all of those added choices in Ninja Model come on the aforementioned price of not having the ability to use Ki Pulses to restore stamina, so I did discover myself having to rein in my lust for aggression – it’s nonetheless a stamina-driven soulslike in spite of everything – however I felt a stage of artistic freedom in fight expression that I sometimes really feel in a superb character motion recreation, and I eagerly anticipate getting my fingers on the total recreation and seeing what a high-level character can do as soon as the talent timber begin getting maxed out.
Soul Cores additionally return in Nioh 3, however they’re a bit totally different this time round. They nonetheless seem as random drops from enemies and will allow you to use that enemy’s signature assault, simply to offer you but another choice when it comes to the way you select to dispatch your foes. Nevertheless you may have two decisions of how to equip them. Once you relaxation at a shrine, you may put them in your Onmyo Field in both the Yin or the Yang place. The Yin place is what I simply talked about, you’ll acquire some stat will increase and the power of the monster to use in fight. However when you place a core within the Yang place, you’ll as an alternative find a way to get spells and objects added to your stock that may refresh each time you relaxation at a shrine. One of many Soul Cores had a reasonably underwhelming talent, however after I outfitted it in a Yang slot, it gave me invisibility scrolls that I might use to sneak previous powerful enemies. It’s an exquisite change to an already wonderful system, and I can’t wait to fiddle extra with it within the full model.
The opposite massive new tentpole characteristic for Nioh 3 is the addition of non-linear open field-type ranges, full with sidequests, a wide range of factors of curiosity with distinctive challenges and rewards, and huge open environments rife with alternatives for exploration. That is in distinction to Nioh’s typical linear ranges with the occasional non-obligatory branches off the overwhelmed path that finally loop again round. I bought to expertise one in every of these in my hands-on time – the frozen area of Kamigamo – and whereas Nioh 3 doesn’t appear to do something shocking with its extra open stage design that hasn’t been achieved earlier than, the shift was a refreshing change of tempo. Straight away, the very first thing I did was a fight problem known as a Crucible Spike. This was a sealed-off fight area with a number of waves of enemies that I had to defeat so as to proceed. Clearing the Crucible Spike improved my Spirit Drive, which is a brand new useful resource that governs your utilization of Spirit Abilities, and additionally gained a brand new spirit talent for one in every of my guardian spirits.
And that’s actually what makes me enthusiastic about these open area ranges, as a result of these Crucible Spikes, together with different sorts of factors of pursuits, are strewn everywhere in the map, the challenges are enjoyable, and the rewards are nice – which is all the inducement I want to search them out. Each time you full one in every of these factors of curiosity, your exploration stage will improve, and every time it will increase, you’ll get an additional bonus, from extra icons being revealed in your map to offer you some course on the place to discover, you might get an added stat bonus when you’re in that particular space, or you might get talent factors to spend in your Samurai or Ninja talent timber.
All in all, Nioh 3 is shaping up to be precisely the identical form of iterative step above its predecessor that Nioh 2 ended up being. The type switching between Samurai and Ninja is a wonderful addition that provides new layers of depth to an already stacked fight system, and the brand new open fields supply up much more incentive to discover than ever earlier than, with enjoyable challenges, mini bosses, and secret treasures to uncover in each nook. All of it ran extremely easily as nicely, making me neglect for a second that this recreation remains to be a methods off, with a deliberate launch in early 2026.