Nioh 3 Review
Nioh 3 was really fun. 50 to 70 hours of content with fast-paced combat, a variety of available combat styles, and a creative reimagining of Japanese characters, both of fiction and non-fiction roots. If there was one thing about the design that made me feel a bit annoyed, it was its uneven difficulty scaling and lack of true variety in the enemies you can encounter.
Combat, and PrOgression
Nioh 3 is an action RPG made by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo. If you have ever played Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, the game is extremely similar to it in many ways, especially since both games were developed and published by the same teams.
The game’s main selling point is its combat, which allows for different playstyles to be tested and used by players to fit their tastes. I, in particular, liked the Odachi for the Samurai Style, and the Kusarigama for the Ninja Style.
The variety in playstyle is inherent in its design, with the Samurai–Ninja Style duality that players can switch in between during and out of combat, as well as the multiple weapon types that each allow different basic combat moves and abilities.
More than that, spells and summons from talismans can be used.
The only limitation here is that there are stat requirements for the talismans, as well as equipment (except for weapons) that players can use.
I haven’t played the older games in the franchise, so I do not know if the weight and dodge system has been in place the way they are long before the 3rd entry, but these two systems play similarly to FromSoftware games, where dodge distance and window are heavily affected by the weight of the equipment the player currently has. Inherently, Ninja Style has a longer dodge than Samurai Style, but both are affected by equipment weight as well. Fortunately, the equipped items vary for both styles, so players can have a heavier set of armor in one style compared to the other.
More on the dual-style system of Nioh 3, both encompass a set of weapons that can only be used when using one style over the other. Both styles have 7 weapon types each, and every one of these weapons has both shared and unique sets of moves and abilities, which I absolutely love.
I believe that Nioh 3 has one of the deepest combat systems I have ever played without sacrificing accessibility in both learning and simply picking it up in-game. The game allows so many abilities that you can combo moves and abilities by switching in combat between four equipped weapons (2 in each style) and the two styles (Samurai and Ninja Style). I honestly see it as something bordering Devil May Cry’s combo system.
Mobs and bosses
There is also great variety in the enemies you encounter, at least until the 3rd map. From the first to the third map, there are different enemies you will encounter, from Wasps and Gakis to Yabamikos and Mermaids. These are only a few of them, and different variants of these monsters show up later on in the game, but essentially, their core gameplay is the same. Aside from monsters, human enemies can also be encountered, and they mainly use swords, bows, and guns. Every now and then, you will encounter more “elite” mobs who are bigger or on horses.
Bosses in this game are very fun too. Both main and side quest bosses are designed pretty well, visually and gameplay-wise. There is a great mix of bosses that serve their purpose as a roadblock or a mild inconvenience for the story’s sake. However, as you progress further into the story, I got disappointed that some of the bosses I fought earlier were reused multiple times.
To be fair, it kind of makes sense. Some of the earlier bosses seemed pretty tame, and they don’t have any characterization to them at all other than “oh, they look menacing.” Later on, the bosses become much more significant in the story, being Japanese historical figures or major mythological creatures that actually affect reality or the world in their respective lores.
Setting, Themes, and COncepts
As previously mentioned, Nioh 3 features and takes great inspiration from various Japanese history and myths. The game takes place across different eras in Japanese history, and your character is basically a time-traveling hero who is seeking to create everlasting peace while fighting against some figure that is spreading corruption all throughout the history of Japan.
There is some philosophy or cycle that is seemingly lost on me, as I am not familiar with Hiruko and Himiko’s actual mythology, but they are recurring figures in the different eras you go into in the game.
All of the locations you time jump to are in Japan, from 1572 CE to 1864 CE, and there is great variety in the way each location is designed from one another. There are 5 maps in total in the game, all of which feature different themes and designs such as forests, icy mountains, lava-filled lands, the city of Kyoto, and much more.
The world design is not open-world, but rather large interconnected regions with multiple paths that can be used to travel between areas.
The game is a bit linear in its main story progression, and the map is explored kind of linearly by way of paths being locked the first time around and having to be unlocked from the other side of the region. This allows for shortcuts from starting points to deeper locations, and intertwining paths that I find incredibly creative.
My Frustrations
There is only one frustration that I’ve mentioned under the combat section, which is the lack of true variety in its enemies, but there are a couple more that I had trouble dealing with in Nioh 3.
One frustration I had is the uneven scaling of enemy strength in the mid and late game. Enemies in the latter half, from the 3rd map until the 5th map, are a mixed bag of damage sponge enemies that honestly are pretty weak but just take too long to die, or enemies that can kill you with one or two attacks.
The only one in these two that I find really unbalanced and unnecessary are the meatbag enemies that honestly just serve no purpose other than wasting your time. Enemies that are very hard-hitting? That I can make up for with better gameplay skills, which I honestly don’t try to hone too much because I hate “trying hard.”
These two combined, along with enemies grouping together, make the game nigh unplayable at times and honestly do not add much to the experience. I know there should be a reward for overcoming difficulties, but I find that when these frustrations are all present in one location, it becomes a drag.
The last one in my list of frustrations is optimization.
It seems there is a common optimization issue with games created and published by Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo, and that is frame rate drops and forced slow-motion. When there are too many assets on screen or in the background, frame rates naturally drop, but I can’t seem to get a feel for how to mix-and-match the graphic settings so that I never hit below 30 FPS. Unfortunately, no amount of fiddling with the graphic settings fixed that for me, and sometimes during fights or just mindless exploration, I get hit with that sudden choppy feel.
Do not even get me started with the slow-motion effect that happens when the game tries to maintain the set resolution but effectively sacrifices framerate for it. This results in gameplay slowing down and everything is just, well, slow. This really ruins timings and beats for me, especially in close moments or hard boss fights.
Is Nioh 3 A Good Game? Is Nioh 3 Worth it?
Yes, Nioh 3 is an incredible game, but I wish people would stop saying it is a Soulslike—I find that any game that is difficult just loses a great deal of its identity when it is tagged as a Soulslike.
Rather than a Soulslike—while it does have similarities with such games—I feel that Nioh 3 is more akin to Devil May Cry with its high-paced combat and opportunity to weave attacks, spells, and abilities to create long combos and bait reactions from the enemy continuously and seamlessly.
The game also visually looks amazing, and the character models are very good-looking from a design standpoint and in their quality of rendering.
The voice acting is also really good in both English and Japanese voice settings, but the pronunciation of names in the English voice setting irked me a bit, and I hope there is more training in how to say Japanese names.
With that said, maybe Japanese names really are just hard to weave into the English language in conversations.
Nioh 3 FAQs
Does Nioh 3 still have Stances?
Yes, Samurai Style has three stances (not including the fourth which is sheathed). The stances are High, Mid, and Low. All of which provide certain advantages over the others.
Does Nioh 3 have a Parry?
Yes, there is a parry mechanic and perfect dodge mechanic in this game.
Will Nioh 3 have DLC?
Yes, but right now, there are only cosmetics you can buy like armor sets and weapons. The Nioh 3 Season Pass features two DLCs that will be released in September this year and February next year which are Hell Rising and Bloody Insurrection, respectively.
Does Nioh 3 have Yokai Shift?
Yes, but I believe it is now called Living Artifact.
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