The Nioh series has been deemed harder than all the Souls games combined, so have Team Ninja embraced that idea, or do the additional changes to Nioh 3 given us a more approachable experience?

This is my first Nioh experience, and I won’t lie, I was extremely overestimating my skills. Granted, I’m newish to stamina management combat in some of these games, but I recently platinum’d both Lords of the Fallen and Elden Ring, so I’m not a complete noob.

Nioh 3 has combined so many little titbits that it’s hard to shoehorn it into what it actually is.

So let’s try…

Everything is Taken Away…

Like all good action-adventure games, Nioh 3 starts with you losing everything. The year is Genna 8, and you, Tokugawa Takechiyo, are next in line to take on the mantle of Shogun and rule Edo Castle. However, your younger brother, Tokugawa Kunimatsu, falls into a jealous rage. Consumed by hatred, he makes a deal with sinister forces, casting the world into chaos.

Take a Look in the Mirror

Having never played a Nioh game before, I’m not entirely sure if Tokugawa Takechiyo is from previous games, but this time around you are able to customise your hero, and boy its in-depth.

One of the new additions to Nioh 3 is being able to switch between two different combat styles: a Ninja and a Samurai.

Each one can be customised to have a completely different face and hair.

It looks amazing switching between the stances!

Choose Your Fighter

As I mentioned before, Nioh 3 is my first time experiencing this franchise, and I must say Team Ninja has done a fantastic job at slowly drip-feeding you different mechanics that are involved in combat.

First off, Nioh 3’s combat is a dance of juggling stamina management, blocking, parrying, dodging, changing stances, using skills, memorising combos for the dozens of weapons, all while trying not to be decimated by Yokai.

With so many different things to try and keep track of, I felt very overwhelmed and found the first few hours extremely difficult.

The two different stances play extremely different to each other and being able to switch between them instantly during combat by pressing (R2), I found myself getting into trouble trying to do things that stance couldn’t do.

Your stamina is called Ki. Ki is used to attack, dodge, and parry. The Samurai has a special move called a Ki blast. Pressing (R1) right after you land an attack will start a Ki recharge. The ninja does not have this, and when you run out of Ki, you just stand there exhausted.

That doesn’t mean the Ninja doesn’t have its share of tricks. Instead of the Ki blast the ninja can cast a clone, which will distract the enemy for a split second. You are also able to use a number of thrown items like gunpowder bombs and kunai.

The combat is fluid, and everything flawlessly flows, and when mastered, you feel like an absolute badass.

Everything is about Ki. The enemy also has Ki bars, and the quicker you can drain that Ki bar the more damage they start to take. When it’s completely drained you can do a grapple that causes extreme damage. Just be careful because if your Ki is empty, you can be on the receiving end of a grapple and it’s not fun.

During combat the enemy can do a power attack, which is indicated by a flash of red. If you can hit (R2) at the correct time you will do a stance switch counter, which will leave the enemy open to take some huge damage.

Choose Your Weapon.

Both the Ninja and Samurai have their own sets of weapons and armour that can be equipped.

The Samurai can not use the Ninja’s weapons and vice versa.  

Each weapon has its own set of combos that can be unlocked by collecting ponytails. These ponytails work as skill points and can be spent on upgrading weapon combos and skills.

Each piece of armour has different perks attached to it. There were so many trying to mix and match them all got out of control quickly. Instead, I decided to just focus on my base armour, and the perks were a bonus.

There are full set bonuses too. If you can find and equip all the pieces, you get a bonus. I never found the bonus to make any real difference, so again, if it matched then it was a happy accident.

The loot system is RNG and reminds me of Diablo. There is so much, each with perks that are negligible. They are organized into rarity through colour. White, Yellow, Blue, and Purple.

Honestly, there was so much that I couldn’t keep up with it all. So, I went to the accessibility options, and there is an auto-pick-up and an auto-offering according to colour. I set it to blue. So everything that wasn’t purple was auto-crushed every time I went to a shrine.

You are able to offer your unused weapons to the Kodama at the Shrine in exchange for Amrita. Amrita is a spirit essence used to level up your main perks.

Something that Nioh 3 has smashed out of the park is the ability to add the missing Amrita needed to level up straight from the level-up screen. No longer do you have to exit the shrine. Open your inventory. Find the appropriate item. Use said item. Then go back to level up.

Now. Oh, you need 5000 more Amrita to level up? Just press (R3) and boom! Done

Can I Keep Your Soul?

As you progress through the world, killing everything in your path, enemies will drop glowing red orbs. These are what’s left of their soul, called a soul core.

You can equip these in your Onmyo Box and summon them during combat. Some of the more powerful souls will require certain stats as well as completing certain tasks to unlock their full power.

Guardian Spirit

Along with collecting souls during your adventure, you will start collecting Guardian Spirits.

These cute AF little creatures seem to be connected to each of the main NPCs, and as you please them, they will come along with you. These Guardian spirits can also be summoned during battle, and you will take on the form of a Guardian spirit. While active, the Guardian will stop enemy attacks from killing you and will imbue your attacks with elemental damage.

When the gauge is depleted your transformation is undone. You need to keep an eye on the gauge because if it runs out, you will instantly be open to receiving damage again.

Open-ish World

Nioh 3’s map is massive. It reminds me of one of my favourite Ubisoft games, with all the icons covering the map. While it’s not exactly open world, Nioh 3 takes more of a linear open world approach. Funnelling you through small open areas connected by paths.

It’s well worth exploring the world. Because while most of the Yokai are bad and want to eat you for lunch, there are also good ones. You will hear cute little beeps and bops all around you. These are the calls of the Kodama. These little green dudes have wandered away from home and gotten lost. When you find them, they will return to the nearest shrine. When you find enough of them the will help you make your elixirs more potent.

There are also enemy camps, wandering world bosses, and side quests that need to be completed for that next piece of loot. There are also flying foxes that love to be shot. So don’t be shy, if you see one flying around, shoot it.

Verdict.

Team Ninja has done a fantastic job of bringing a demon-ravaged world to life. It’s grim, but not too grim. The Yokai are such an interesting enemy, and I find myself pausing and trying to find which enemy I’m fighting. The Onry? They’re terrifying, and I’m more than ok sneaking around them.

I played Nioh 3 on the base PlayStation 5 and did not have any serious problems, a frame drop here and there, but nothing serious. I did notice, and I’m not sure if it’s a bug or if it’s supposed to, but when you level up, every time I selected a point it would give me different stats. Not complaining, just odd.

While Nioh 3 was a very big learning curve, with lots of different stats and combos to keep track of. I’m not going to tell you how long some of the bosses took me, but once I had it semi-figured out, it was fantastic fun.

Gamer Social Club was supplied a code for this review.

Nioh 3 was reviewed on PlayStation 5 and will also be available on PC on the 6th of February.