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Nioh |OT2| You Can Be My Yojimbo Anytime

mcz117chief

Member
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DEVELOPER: TEAM NINJA
PUBLISHER: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT | JP: KOEI TECMO
PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION 4
RELEASE DATE: FEB. 8th, 2017 (PAL) | FEB. 9th, 2017 (JP) | FEB. 7th, 2017 (NA)
TECHNICAL INFO: Please refer to the "PS4 classic vs Pro" part of the OT
DOWNLOAD SIZE: 39.3GB | 12GB needed to play while downloading.
REVIEWS: You can find the NeoGAF Review Thread Here
GAME LENGTH:
70 HOURS
on average according to the game director Fumihiko Yasuda
DAY ONE PATCH: whole 88 MB so be ready

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Nioh is a third person action game for PS4 with emphasis on melee combat and punishing difficulty.

Ranged combat is provided as an option as well as spells, ninja gadgets and a plethora of other items.

The story takes place in a fictional world of 16-17th century Japan where legendary and mythical monsters are commonplace. It is based on an unfinished script from a famous filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

The player assumes the role of an Englishman named William Adams, who shares similarities with a historical person of the same name.

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Apart from standard bandits, rogues and other low-life of Japan you get to fight mythical monsters of all shapes and sizes. There is a huge variety of Yokai in Japanese mythology and a number of them is brought to life in Nioh. If you wish to learn more about individual Yokai, I suggest visiting http://yokai.com/.

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The game controls are very simple but allow players to develop their finesse and skill leaving a colossal gap between beginners and masters. Since the game is designed to be challenging the player needs to control not only his opponents and environment but also needs to master the controls to achieve victory. This game just won't hold your hand if you struggle. Either you get good or you go home (and if you already are home then congrats).

The gameplay itself is very straightforward: fight enemies, gain experience and equipment, improve yourself through leveling and getting familiar with the mechanics of the game and progress through the level until you reach the end, which is generally a boss or a gauntlet of enemies.

Weapon classes available in the game are: swords (one in two hands or one in each), axes, spears and a sickle with chain, ranged weapons are bows, rifles and hand cannons.

When wielding melee weapons you can switch between three stances:
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High stance: deals the most damage but is also the slowest, ki is also consumed at a very high rate, dodging and blocking are affected as well.

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Mid stance: the middle ground between high and low stance, higher damage than low stance and faster than high stance.

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Low stance: attacks are fast, consume the least ki but also deal the least damage per attack. Blocking and dodging is the fastest in this stance.

The game primarily requires patience. Enemies deal massive damage and are relentless in their attacks. Thus the player needs to assess the situation, strike with precision and, if needed, disengage quickly. And if you die it's usually because you're too slow to react. So remember:

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One interesting feature that makes Nioh stand apart from other third person action games is called "Ki Pulse". In Nioh, stamina is ki (which is used for attacks, evading and other activities) and this technique allows replenishment of said ki during combat with a precise press of the block button at the right time. If the Ki Pulse is performed properly then the player can restore a portion of its stamina without significantly slowing his offensive actions.

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Enemies can be put into a stunned state by depleting their ki. Heavy attacks and some special attacks excel at depleting the enemy's ki. Once the opponent's ki is depleted any attack will stagger the opponent. At this point, summoning a guardian spirit or engaging with maximum ferocity is advisable.


Another unique feature of Nioh is the ability to summon guardian spirits. Each guardian spirit provides different stat boosts when summoned and also provide unique effects simply by having them on stand-by. These guardian spirits can be changed any time the player visits a shrine. Also, the moment they are summoned William's HP/ki bar are replaced with a special power bar that depletes slowly by itself or when William takes damage.

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Shrines are placed around the level that serve as checkpoints, if William falls in battle he is restored at the last visited shrine. At the shrine a player can sort his equipment, spend points to level up, change his guardian spirit and do other activities. Also, players can summon other players to help them out on missions from shrines.

After leaving a mission the player is returned to a hub menu where a significantly larger amount of services are available than at the shrine. Here the player can pick a new mission or re-play an old one while retaining his equipment and level.

Lastly, the player is able to use onmyo and ninjutsu. Basically onmyo are spells in form of talismans and ninjutsu are special items like smoke pellets or throwing stars. These skill sets can be changed while visiting the shrines.

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Amrita serves as the game's xp system. Every time an enemy is defeated the player is rewarded with amrita that can be exchanged at the shrine to permanently increase William's attributes or, as they are commonly known, stats.

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BODY: increases life, damage with spears and resistance to paralysis and poison
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HEART: increases ki and damage with swords and bows
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STAMINA: increases life, carryable weight and damage with hand cannons
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STRENGTH: allows you to gain bonuses from weapons and armour sets and also increases damage dealt with axes
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SKILL: allow you to gain bonuses from skill based weapons and also increases the damage death with dual swords and rifles
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DEXTERITY: improves the effectiveness of ninjutsu and its capacity
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MAGIC: improves the effectiveness of onmyo and its capacity
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SPIRIT: increases the power of guardian spirits

When improving your stats William gains skill points that can be spent on unlocking new skills, onmyo talismans and ninjutsu items. Each weapon group has it's own skill tree and each skill can drastically change the way you play. Some are more defensive in nature, while others allow players to attack with new, devastating combinations.

A COMPREHENSIVE AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SKILL SYSTEM CAN BE FOUND HERE

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Coop is available quite early in the game. You can only participate with someone in a coop if you yourself have already finished the mission you are trying to help with. That means that two people can't play the same mission without at least one of them having it done already.

Basically the system works like this:

"I need help": go to a shrine, select "summon" (which costs 1 ochoko cup which can be gathered from revenants/player graves) and the game will start searching for another player to join you.

"I want to help": in the mission select screen, highlight the mission you want to help with, press X to select it and then square to "become a visitor". Or you can go to the "starting point" menu and use the option called "torii gate". Here you can either pick "yokai realm with a companion" (in this mode players can revive each other) or "random encounter" (the same as "become a visitor").

"I want to play with a friend": this mode requires players to set the same password so that the matchmaking pairs them together.

A COMPLETE GUIDE AND EXPLANATION CAN BE FOUND HERE


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Clan battles is an online component of Nioh which is available once the player unlocks the "hidden teahouse". Here, players can swear allegiance to one of the clans. Each clan provides different benefits to the players and allows them to purchase special equipment, gestures and skins for "honour".

Honour can be gained by defeating revenants/player graves around the game.

By participating in these clan battles, players rank up, thus improving the benefits the clan provides.

A list of all available clans as well as their benefits can be found HERE

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A complete comparison can be found in this Eurogamer article. A quick overview, however, is in order.

The game comes with two options: action and movie.

Action settings emphasises performance, while on the other hand movie settings puts emphasis on visual quality.

PS4 CLASSIC:

Action - 60 fps at 720p (resolution increases in less busy scenes up to about 1728x972)

Movie - 30 fps at 1080p (almost never drops)

PS4 PRO:

Action - 60 fps at 1080p (rarely drops as low as 720p)

Movie - 30 fps at 2160p (occasionally drops as low as 1440p)

In general, adaptive resolution is much more significant on the PS4 pro.


One thing that both systems have in common is the fact that loading screens after failure/death are almost non existent, they usually take lees than 5 seconds (so now you can die in record times).

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Last Chance trailer

PSX 2016 trailer



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Season Pass includes multiple post launch DLC missions/content, so far we know about:

  • Dragon of the North (will include new weapon types [plural], missions, guardian spirits, characters and enemies)
  • Japan's Best Soldier
  • Peaceful and Tranquil
  • Defiant Honor
  • Bloodshed's End

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  • PS4
  • Third person, Fast Action Play
  • like dem Souls games
  • so it's kind of hard
  • digital download size is 39.3GB
  • No character creation (limited character customisation is available)
  • Medieval Japan with mythical monsters
  • choice between 30 fps (high iq) or 60 fps (lower iq)
  • no pvp (yet) but coop is available from shrines
  • has unique features like Ki Pulse and guardian spirits
  • it's legit good
  • waifu smith included (I can't believe they didn't give us Muramasa :/)
  • review thread is here if you care about what other people say
    (I don't, I play Yaiba)

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This OT2 is dedicated to Akira Kurosawa and Iustus Takayama Ukon
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Looking forward to the DLC missions/content and more coop later on. Nioh will be played throughout the year.
 

Espada

Member
man i love this game. hopefully the dlc will provide more challenge. enemies need immunity to bullshit skills and tactics.

So we need more Tachibanas that just hyper armor their way through our attacks? That is not the way to add more challenge. Simply add new enemy types and give the old ones new moves. The standard red Yoki enemies should have different moves based on their held weapons (they should've given different weapons to the ninja yoki too).
 
I wish the end didn't feel so tacked and lazy compared to the beginning of the game.

No new enemy variety, repeat bosses (one of my least favorite things in video games),
 
I'm gonna respec for a chain and sickle/Axe build. What's best to level up for the Chain and Sickle weapon? It doesn't say which attribute does that when i go to level up, or i'm blind.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Dumb question: IF hypothetically a player maxes out all stats(99), will they ever need to respec? It seems like an obvious no, but I read something about different weapons level scaling based on specific special effects and wasn't fully sure how that would work or if it would play any part in this equation.
 
Dumb question: IF hypothetically a player maxes out all stats(99), will they ever need to respec? It seems like an obvious no, but I read something about different weapons level scaling based on specific special effects and wasn't fully sure how that would work or if it would play any part in this equation.

Only if you want to change what Onmyo/Ninjutsu you have learned. Even with 99 dex and 99 magic, there aren't enough points to max out the Onmyo/Ninjutsu skill trees.
 
So we need more Tachibanas that just hyper armor their way through our attacks? That is not the way to add more challenge. Simply add new enemy types and give the old ones new moves. The standard red Yoki enemies should have different moves based on their held weapons (they should've given different weapons to the ninja yoki too).

i didn't talk about hyper armor. yes, there are tons of ways to add novelty. you can also add new resistances to old enemies.
 
I got it on my 7th run with 248 Luck.

Just got one! Under 10 runs as well, with (probably) less luck. Glad that's over.

Now is there a way to tell if the accessory is... working? It's equipped but my other pieces of Fanatic still say 3 pieces equipped.
 

jeffram

Member
How rare IS the Yasakani Magatama (sp?) thing in Trail of the Master using that refresh twice thing?

I didn't realize it was so rare. I didn't farm for it either. I got it, and thought, I hope i get another soon.

I got mine in region 1 of NG+, I run high luck though. Devine (+1)
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Only if you want to change what Onmyo/Ninjutsu you have learned. Even with 99 dex and 99 magic, there aren't enough points to max out the Onmyo/Ninjutsu skill trees.
I see, thanks. Why are Onmyo points so damn hard to come by? lol
Gut feeling says cause they break the game much easier/faster.

Its the better game though.
We're not gonna do this in the Nioh OT.
 
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