Nioh 3 Hands-On Gameplay Preview: A Nioh-death experience

While I can't claim to be a fan of the Nioh series, nor have I ever played one of the other games in the franchise, I did enjoy Team Ninja's Rise of the Ronin more than most. I liked the open world even if it was a bit lacking compared to some of the genre's best. I enjoyed the story, the characters, and devotion to Japanese history even if it played fast and loose with some events for the sake of gameplay. There was a certain charm to it, an element that's hard to describe but made the game difficult to put down.

It shouldn't surprise you when you know Nioh 3 was developed alongside Rise of the Ronin that both of the games share this intangible factor that makes them so difficult to step away from. In a stuffy basement in a lovely hotel in Paris, I was battling right up until the last minute in order to get the most out of Nioh 3. Even if there were some elements that didn't impress, as we'll get into later, the overall feeling I took away from my time with the game was that it really keeps you hooked, despite a difficulty that if implemented in other games could easily cause you to rage quit.

If you're not yet clued in, Nioh 3 takes us on the journey of Tokugawa Takechiyo, the grandson (or daughter depending on your appearance) of Tokugawa Ieyasu as they ascend to the role of Shogun. You'll meet historical figures and face off against varied and demonic yokai throughout the game, accompanied by guardian spirits you can use to unleash some devastating powers. Apart from the protagonist change, this likely sounds a lot like past Nioh experiences, but Team Ninja changes things up a bit elsewhere.

The biggest change comes from the new stances. Switching between samurai and ninja stance not only grants you a new look, but also comes with vastly different gameplay options. Samurai is a heavy hitter, designed to work with the game's parry system to meet enemies head on, while ninja darts around foes, dodging for extra i-frames and getting in quick hits before getting out of danger. You can rely mostly on one stance for the time you spend in Nioh 3, but certain bosses require you to switch stances to block some of their attacks, meaning it's probably best to balance a mix of both. I at first found the ninja a bit tricky to use, but by the end of my time that was my way to play, with a steady mix of samurai used when I was facing some bosses that couldn't really be dodged. It might take a couple of hours to really get a handle on the system, as there's a bit of overload, but once you've got it down the gameplay shines.

Nioh 3's other major selling point when it comes to gameplay is the inclusion of open fields. Allegedly, the map is made up of explorable zones which take place in different eras of Japanese history. I say allegedly because we only really got to see one zone, and it didn't feel open or explorable in the way you may have hoped. There are different paths leading to some side objectives and loot, yes, but otherwise it's pretty clear what you have to do to progress and there's only one way to do it. From what I've seen so far, I can't really call that open, which might be music to some Nioh fans' ears, but the jury is still out as I've not yet seen the full game. It's not wrong to go for a more linear approach, but I didn't get the sense I could explore properly when playing, which didn't make me think of open fields.

The meat of Nioh 3, that being the combat, is as difficult and as punchy as you'd expect. The aforementioned stance switching can really help you understand the rhythmic flow of a sword fight and once your blade is singing to the tune of your opponent, you'll feel like a warrior fit for history. Some enemies are way more annoying compared to others, but that's just the way things are in soulslike games. I will say we were apparently overlevelled for our time in Nioh 3, and even then bosses still proved a major challenge. Team Ninja has tuned up the difficulty here, and unlike in Rise of the Ronin you can't rely on AI allies to keep pressure off you while you heal. As I don't know when certain bosses appear in the game, I can't say whether the enemies I faced were unfair or not, but you can expect a good deal of death to come your way even if you're a seasoned Nioh veteran.

Unfortunately, it seems a few of my major problems with Rise of the Ronin remain in Nioh 3. Largely, I'll bundle these problems into one big complaint about overload. There are so many systems in Nioh 3 it simply was impossible to understand everything in the hours I had with it. Spirit powers, spirit summons, skills, armour, weapons, stats, character builds, appearances, they all matter in incremental ways that add up to give you a tougher or easier time with the game, and so I hope that in the final release there's enough onboarding to prevent you feeling like you're not playing right if you don't spend four hours reading menus.

The other big sin of Nioh 3's overload is in the loot. Meaningless slop of different colours is thrown your way whenever you defeat a batch of enemies, and most of it is worse than what you've already got on. It's a nightmare to sort and it makes items and weapons feel meaningless, which is a shame considering the weapon variety is very solid. This makes it all the more frustrating when you're barely picking up any healing items from enemies, as you've got to sift through another stack of terrible boots in order to figure out you've gained nothing exciting from yet another loot pile.

Besides those worries, I'd say that Nioh 3 feels a strong action game. If you can withstand information and item overload, you'll have a great time with its new stance-based combat and detailed levels. Difficulty has been tuned up for diehards, and while that might sound like it'll put some players off, each death felt like a lesson in Nioh 3, and I'll not soon forget them.