I have recently returned to a very early file in Nioh 2, which I started when it came out right at the beginning of the pandemic (March 12th!). Team Ninja just released the final DLC for it a few weeks ago, so now seemed like a decent time to jump back into it. They're also planning to release PS5 Remastered versions (and PC ports) of both Nioh games in February (and owners of Nioh 2 on PS4 can get a free upgrade, I believe).
Anyway! I never played much of the first Nioh beyond a couple demos, but by all accounts Nioh 2 is more of the same but better. One reason to pick up the DLC is it includes 2 new weapon types available to pick from the start: the splitstaff (think like, Goku's power pole), and fist weapons. There is a staggering amount of weapon types in this game, and I would say that's by far the biggest draw for this series compared to FromSoft's Souls games. It has: Swords, Dual Swords, Odachi, Spear, Axe/Hammer, Hatchet, Hand Cannon, Kusarigama, Tonfa, Switchglaive, and aforementioned Splitstaff and Fists.
Nioh is also an RPG, which means each of these weapons have stat scaling that improve their damage, very much like the Souls games, but they have a broader range of stat scaling in these games, so there's usually 3 stats that contribute to damage for a weapon type (they don't all have the same weight, of course). Team Ninja also decided to throw in Diablo-style loot, so every piece of gear comes in a rarity with a mostly randomized collection of modifiers. This stuff is easy to ignore for the most part if you just concentrate on the core number like damage and defense, and as is typical with that style of loot system, it only really becomes relevant if you want to do an endgame gear grind.
Other than the gear system, the other big thing that sets Nioh apart from the typical Souls-em-up is that there isn't one contiguous world. Instead, the whole game is mission-based, which in my opinion is both good and bad. Sometimes it's nice to have a more bite-sized Souls-em-up experience, especially when so far most main story missions take me about 3 - 3.5 hours to finish, which is a nice chunk of time for a serious play session. The level design is pretty good, and so far I haven't had any complaints about the encounter/enemy design, though it definitely skews a bit more towards throwing multiple enemies at you at once than FromSoft's games do.
The story is not much to care about, at least not yet (I'm still not that far, but, I doubt it's going to get anywhere interesting). You play the blankslate offspring of a Yokai mother and human father, and you meet a traveling... merchant, I suppose, who's in the business of finding and selling Spirit Cores from evil Yokai. Your encounter with him awakens your own power to temporarily assume a Yokai form, and presumably you're also interested in finding out who murdered your mother and why. The best thing about the story is the character creator, honestly. It's pretty impressive! And also it's a big selling point of going straight to Nioh 2, since the first game has a predefined character who's boring. Anyway this also means another feature of combat is you get a gauge that fills up over time and when it's full, you can transform into your Yokai form, of which there are 3 different types that have different styles of attacks.
So... that's it! The director of Nioh 2 recently said in a Famitsu interview that there are no plans to produce a Nioh 3. So these two games are all there is for now.
Anyway! I never played much of the first Nioh beyond a couple demos, but by all accounts Nioh 2 is more of the same but better. One reason to pick up the DLC is it includes 2 new weapon types available to pick from the start: the splitstaff (think like, Goku's power pole), and fist weapons. There is a staggering amount of weapon types in this game, and I would say that's by far the biggest draw for this series compared to FromSoft's Souls games. It has: Swords, Dual Swords, Odachi, Spear, Axe/Hammer, Hatchet, Hand Cannon, Kusarigama, Tonfa, Switchglaive, and aforementioned Splitstaff and Fists.
Nioh is also an RPG, which means each of these weapons have stat scaling that improve their damage, very much like the Souls games, but they have a broader range of stat scaling in these games, so there's usually 3 stats that contribute to damage for a weapon type (they don't all have the same weight, of course). Team Ninja also decided to throw in Diablo-style loot, so every piece of gear comes in a rarity with a mostly randomized collection of modifiers. This stuff is easy to ignore for the most part if you just concentrate on the core number like damage and defense, and as is typical with that style of loot system, it only really becomes relevant if you want to do an endgame gear grind.
Other than the gear system, the other big thing that sets Nioh apart from the typical Souls-em-up is that there isn't one contiguous world. Instead, the whole game is mission-based, which in my opinion is both good and bad. Sometimes it's nice to have a more bite-sized Souls-em-up experience, especially when so far most main story missions take me about 3 - 3.5 hours to finish, which is a nice chunk of time for a serious play session. The level design is pretty good, and so far I haven't had any complaints about the encounter/enemy design, though it definitely skews a bit more towards throwing multiple enemies at you at once than FromSoft's games do.
The story is not much to care about, at least not yet (I'm still not that far, but, I doubt it's going to get anywhere interesting). You play the blankslate offspring of a Yokai mother and human father, and you meet a traveling... merchant, I suppose, who's in the business of finding and selling Spirit Cores from evil Yokai. Your encounter with him awakens your own power to temporarily assume a Yokai form, and presumably you're also interested in finding out who murdered your mother and why. The best thing about the story is the character creator, honestly. It's pretty impressive! And also it's a big selling point of going straight to Nioh 2, since the first game has a predefined character who's boring. Anyway this also means another feature of combat is you get a gauge that fills up over time and when it's full, you can transform into your Yokai form, of which there are 3 different types that have different styles of attacks.
So... that's it! The director of Nioh 2 recently said in a Famitsu interview that there are no plans to produce a Nioh 3. So these two games are all there is for now.
