Nioh First Impressions- Imitation Done Right- Spongesoak

If imitation is the biggest form of flattery then Team Ninja must be trying really hard to Impress From Software. Nioh is a game no not that Neo this Nioh. And No its not Geralt from the Witcher series. Its actually Williams Adams who was actual person. This major deviation from the souls formula of storytelling puts Adams into a historical context rather than a fantastical context.

But then it gets weird when you’re a White sailor hacking and slashing Japanese invaders, zombies, and demons. The story in this demo is largely told from character dialogue that you pick up from corpses.

The game play combines the hack and slash gameplay of a Devil May Cry Game with the complex formula of a dark souls game. Shrines are bonfires. Souls are Amrita. Elxirs are Estus.  Death drops currency and returns you to the last checkpoint. Healing items are replenished at checkpoints. Bodies contain item pickups. Special Items are found in chests. There’s Jolly Cooperation.  Intricate level design rewards exploration. Melee weapons, magic, and special items can be used in combat. Combat is a ballet of blocking and dodging memorizing the opponent's moves.  And you die alot.

But don’t just think that this game is a dark souls clone. As it takes that dark souls formula and uses it as a springboard for a new experience. I feel that this should show the gaming industry how to take a pre existing idea and build off of it to make something new which is something you don’t see very often. You can’t just run through this game like it's a souls game. Somehow the leveling system is even more complicated than dark souls. I could go into the minute details but hey this game is unique as heck.  

Overall, I am optimistic in what new Nioh can do but cautious in its overall design as dark souls was a japanese game made for western audiences Nioh is a Japanese game not really made for a specific audience. A lot the dialogue is in japanese and the menu design and just the way the game plays screams japanese design philosophies. The story might be well removed from the player and might not be engaging as its based on a true person. As true as a sailor turned samurai fighting demons and stuff. A criticism that I have is that some of the enemy animations aren’t good. Some of them seem like they are missing frames and this causes unfair attacks on a person. That is what Dark Souls does well. It’s animations are rock solid and tell you exactly what is going to happen. But what does that all matter? I’m mean I’m just a  sponge.