Downloaded the alpha a few days in, managed to finish both areas and bosses.
All in all, blown away. Hard to describe, but coming off Dark Souls III (which I adored, mind you), where that was a very familiar and equally welcome experience with a franchise I love, it was Nioh that made me feel like I had to relearn the way these games are play. And I mean, I think the Souls comparisons are valid; there's very heavy inspiration from that series, right on the nose, from top to bottom. But the heart of the combat, the nuances in how to maximise your effectiveness and efficiency, to me felt like I was back playing Demon's Souls for the first time. Where Souls has been a sensible progression of game systems, Nioh was reminiscent of that first Demon's play where I really felt I needed to take time to learn and appreciate just how everything was coming together.
And I really, really appreciate that. The alpha was, for me, a clear example of a game heavily drawing upon vision and concepts popularised by Souls, but reimagining and rebuilding them in ways that give the overall package a very distinct and original flair. Kind of the opposite of something like Lords of the Fallen, which was in many ways a straight up Souls clone. Extremely refreshing, while drawing on familiar elements in Souls that attract me to the genre in the first place.
My only glaring criticism, other than the framerate which is still pretty spotty even in action mode, is the durability balance. I like it in theory and general practice; with a ton of loot drops and item management as a key feature, the idea is by the time your stuff breaks you should have found equivilent or superior gear. And if you haven't you need to use clay/whetstone to repair, or you've badly managed your resources and suffer with a downgrade. It also encourages a lot of weapon and armour swapping for different yet entirely valid weight builds. The problem occurs when you're throwing yourself up against a single powerful enemy required to progress, that you're having a hard time mastering. It's the same problem with Bloodborne's blood vials, and for me this was evident in Nioh's Nue. I had a lot of trouble with the fight. And that's okay, because my victory was through mastery and thus very satisfying. But the gameplay feedback loop results in rapid degradation of gear wherein the only solution is to just...stop fighting the boss and force yourself to do other grindy shit in order to secure new drops. And doing that isn't challenging or fun. It's literal grind, time wasting just so you can continue with the challenge you're actually up against.
That and the menus. The menus need a lot of work, particularly how item drops are arranged. Because by the end I had so much fucking shit (and was regularly selling) that browsing my loot was nothing short of a chore. Needs a total overhaul, or categorisation based on weapon type and then sub listing of the variants you have.
Otherwise yeah, utterly adored the alpha and will be buying day one. 100% sold, unless some serious shit is present in the final build.
