Nioh Alpha Demo Impressions

Samurai are cool—katanas as long as your leg, meticulously assembled armour, a general “don’t fuck with me” attitude. Samurai are dead cool.

Team Ninja know how to make action games. If you’re about my age, you’ve no doubt heard of the Ninja Gaiden series, and the high acclaim by which the first two are held. On their release, they were renowned for their challenge, lightning pace, and intuitive design. Building from similar foundations, their upcoming title, Nioh, could be the return to form fans have been waiting for since 2008.

Not much had been seen of Nioh since its debut trailer at Sony’s TGS keynote presentation last September. Team Ninja’s first original IP for PlayStation, and a console exclusive, there was a lot to look forward to for players on that platform. On 26th April, the Alpha demo went live and gave gamers their first taste of this punishing, Japanese action game.

I felt like I had to get all that out of the way. If you’re not a keen follower of all the goings on in the industry, this may have been a game that passed you by. I want to sit you down today and make sure it doesn’t slip by unseen. This is a game worth watching.

So Nioh is basically Ninja Gaiden meets Dark Souls. There’s no beating around that bush. From the very first glimpses, it was clear where much of its inspiration came from. The slow, methodical dance between the player and the enemy, waiting for the other to open a crack in their defense—that’s Dark Souls. But wait, there’s more: you drop a pile of your accumulated amrita when you die that you will want to fight your way back to. You can summon in helpful phantoms to engage in some bloody collaboration. The world is a spiralling expanse that loops back on itself on many occasions. There really is no avoiding the comparison.

Then what does Nioh have that’s unique? Well, I would say that Nioh holds one of the most interesting evolutions of Dark Souls combat since Bloodborne. In typical Japanese action game style, you can switch between multiple weapon stances on the fly, changing your moveset and available skills to match the encounter. With every weapon class bringing three different stances, there are a multitude of combos and techniques to learn.

In the demo, there are a fairly limited number of weapon types but the enemies drop items so frequently, you shouldn’t worry about growing tired. You start with a katana, but are soon packing an extensive arsenal of spear, axes, and hammers. By holding down R1 and pressing one of the face buttons, your man (I’m not convinced he has a name) will move between Heavy, Medium, and Light Stances, each with the expected advantages and disadvantages. I am giving no prize for guessing which one does the most damage per hit, and which one allows a more constant flurry of weaker attacks.

The dudes you’re fighting seem to be ransacking a remote island village, so when you come rocking up on the beach sporting your fishermans rags and Geralt haircut-beard combo, they’ve already wiped out the locals and you’re free to slash and smash at will. Not that you will be carving your way through this new temporary population in too much of a hurry, as the combat does take some getting used to. Common sense dictates that merely holding a sword across your body is not an adequate defense, but here, it is. Braving out your opponent's onslaught before retaliating is a fairly beginner strategy, but with time and levels, you’ll soon be dashing, parrying, and comboing your way through this small forested region, leaving a trail of dismembered corpses in your wake.

I have a real fondness for the pace of Nioh’s combat. Every fight is a tense battle of attrition, wanting to wear down the opponent’s Ki (stamina) to the point that they can’t defend and sweeping in for the kill. For this reason, you’ll want to avoid grabbing the attention of more than one attacker at a time. Just a small distance from the start of the demo are two warriors who took more than a chunk out of my ego after swiftly dispatching the first enemy with ease. Use stones, or later, a bow, to attract them one at a time, for a fairer fight.

Every few hundred amrita or so, it’s worth running back to the shrine on the beach, or any others you’ve found on the island. Serving in a similar fashion to Dark Souls’ bonfires, you can level up and upgrade one of your key stats. In addition, you will earn Samurai Points that are spent on new moves for your stances: parries, combo finishers, damage buffs, and the like. You can also summon the aid of another player here, if you’re finding Nioh particularly difficult.

Despite its glaring similarities to other games, there’s a lot to like about. The setting alone was enough to pique my interest last year, but after a few hours with the combat, I’ve found there’s a depth to each weapon that is unmatched. Team Ninja created an absolute classic back in 2004, and I think they might do it again.