by Andrew FarrellWhen it comes to post-Itagaki Team Ninja, there can be little doubt that the Nioh series has very much become the developer’s flagship property. The games have an incredibly dedicated fanbase that’s very vocal about its love for the varied, complex combat as well as its crushing difficulty. Nioh 3 is the fastest selling game in the series thus far, having moved over a million units this month alone, but it also does a lot to open the series up to new players that hadn’t yet experienced the games. However, these changes, which seem to be good for broad appeal, are also leaving diehards with a sour taste in their mouths.
So what does Nioh 3 do that’s so different? One of the toughest things about the previous games is that there were certain immutable rules, with one of the most major focuses being on stamina management (known as “ki” here.) Just like in the Souls games that inspired the series, attacking, dodging, and blocking all use up stamina. Running out not only leaves you defenseless to incoming damage, but can open players up to critical hits that can take them out of commission ASAP. Another feature is that each weapon has three stances to use, each with its own moves and rules that can vary pretty wildly between each.
Nioh 3, naturally, retains all of this. But the classic playstyle outlined above has now been relegated to Samurai style, which is very faithful to previous games. However, the game adds a new Ninja style that seeks to specifically make for a simpler, breezier playstyle. This style uses up significantly less ki for all things. Whereas the Samurai style expects players to carefully monitor their ki usage and quickly refill it with a timed button press called a Ki Pulse, the Ninja style has removed this entirely. Using this style, players can attack much more wildly, as well as spam dodges, all without having to pay nearly as much attention to ki.
Some series fans are, understandably, unhappy with a change that basically lets players completely remove aspects of the playstyle they love, but it doesn’t end there. The game’s weapons have been split between Samurai and Ninja, meaning that any Ninja-only weapons now have just one stance versus the three they had before. This is just another facet that simplifies the action by a fair degree further still. Personally, I enjoy these changes, even if it’s easy to understand why many fans don’t feel the same. But they all compound when taken alongside the fact that Nioh 3 just has a lower challenge level across the board.
The game starts out very manageable, with a lot of leeway for players who make mistakes or don’t quite know how to play the game yet. This changes from time to time, as the game still has challenging bosses, but even these are mostly far less punishing than the ones in Nioh or Nioh 2. For me, bosses in Nioh 2 had the tendency to take a couple hours or so of practice, as it was necessary to get their entire movesets down and find solid strategies to mitigate their many challenges. This game’s bosses, however, are proving far more manageable.
On top of the lower overall difficulty, there’s also the fact that Nioh 3 is obviously a far more open game, which allows players to make their characters far more powerful instead of focusing on the major tasks at hand. Even then, the more open nature makes it easy to just bypass enemies altogether. There’s simply a lot of room for players to interact with the game as they wish. Greater build diversity and replenishing some powerful Ninjutsu skills by hitting foes further emphasizes this.
Even bearing all of the above in mind, though, enemies in Nioh 3‘s maps are simply far less threatening, as weaker foes are the vast majority of who you’ll run into when out and about. The previous two games are unique in that they feel legitimately oppressive. Regular enemies constitute a powerful threat and the slightest mistake can lead to death, but many players (even newbies) might find that they’re rarely dying at all when out exploring.
It’s undoubtable that all of this has stripped the series of its identity to a certain degree. Before, if you wanted to be successful in a Nioh game, you really had to work for it, but this game just feels easygoing in comparison. On the other hand, though, the series still has some of the best combat around, so all of this is honestly great for anyone that wants to experience it without the crushing difficulty. I’m enjoying just being able to experiment and have fun fighting without running into any roadblocks, although I do wish there was a setting somewhere that would return the old feel.
This extends to what Nioh 3 allows players to do in regard to how they build their characters too. The game lets you reset your attribute allocation and what skills you’ve unlocked on the fly. Want to max out another weapon and try it for a while? You can, there’s no downside to swapping things out as you like. Previous games mostly required you to pick a weapon and stick with it for long stretches, so while there’s an argument to be made regarding sticking with your choices, I still prefer being able to try out everything I want whenever I want, as I can freely experience the game’s different weapons as much as I want.
In the end, I can’t blame fans for feeling like the game’s been watered down or that part of what made it so special is lost, but I still think there’s a lot of good to this approach. It may no longer be a crushing experience, but the combat and mechanics are still a fantastic time, plus I’m greatly enjoying the Ninja style. Whether the series will stay this course or try and pivot back to brutality seems up in the air, but I still think it’s great that new players can experience one of the best action systems gaming has to offer. I just wish the old fans didn’t feel so left in the dust by all the changes.