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Nioh Alpha Demo Feedback

Nocturno999

Member
This demo sold me the game. So far I wish Ni Oh didn't turn his back so easily in a locked enemy.

PS4 definitely needs more exclusive like this.
 

SeanTSC

Member
Filled out the survey. Complained about the lack of Auto-hide on the UI (I couldn't find options for it anyways) and the horrifically bad durability system.
 
I've been playing this more and more and really love it.

I dislike that you can't make your own character though, or even name him. Please let us rename William.
 

Artdayne

Member
Just played a bit. LOVE the combat, hate the item durability. Why is item durability still a thing in games in 2016? It isn't fun and adds nothing but irritation.

I think it may be the way it is, partially, to balance the strength of blocking in this game. Blocking gives you 100% damage reduction so I think one of the trade offs is that blocking will damage your weapon. Now, I don't think they've executed it that well but that might be what they are going for.
 
I think it may be the way it is, partially, to balance the strength of blocking in this game. Balancing gives you 100% damage reduction so I think one of the trade offs is that blocking will damage your weapon. Now, I don't think they've executed that that well but that might be what they are going for.

Nah because once you learn how he game is played you will never have them break anyway. You get an ample amount of wetstones and glue from offering other items that you should never need to switch out, it just adds tedious micromanagement of your inventory.

I don't like the loot system broadly because the RNG based nature of the looting system makes all environmental loot arbitrary. Not once do you find anything especially remarkable in a secret location or something of that sort, and nothing unique is obtained that can't be bettered by mere RNG. It kills the incentive to explore and experiment that SoulsBorne features and I think they really need to resolve that before the games release.
 

Alastor3

Member
What sucks the most is when you have no more stamina, you can't do anything. It make fighting with multiple ennemies impossible. Can't even reach the first boss.....
 

Artdayne

Member
Nah because once you learn how he game is played you will never have them break anyway. You get an ample amount of wetstones and glue from offering other items that you should never need to switch out, it just adds tedious micromanagement of your inventory.

I don't like the loot system broadly because the RNG based nature of the looting system makes all environmental loot arbitrary. Not once do you find anything especially remarkable in a secret location or something of that sort, and nothing unique is obtained that can't be bettered by mere RNG. It kills the incentive to explore and experiment that SoulsBorne features and I think they really need to resolve that before the games release.

Well, that's what I was referring to it not being executed that well. You get enough drops and whetstones that you can simply repair or switch weapons out.

I don't mind the loot system. I don't think it's looking to take a SoulsBorne approach, it's more similar to Diablo. One thing that surprised me with the demo is that even though there were a lot of drops I thought the gear was well designed and had some aesthetic appeal.
 
Can't believe ppls response to overcoming an obstacle in a game is "take it out of the game"

Tap R1 to recover stamina panzies! Its not hard!
 

MMaRsu

Banned
What sucks the most is when you have no more stamina, you can't do anything. It make fighting with multiple ennemies impossible. Can't even reach the first boss.....

Regain stamina by pressing r1 when the bar is blue and filled up
 

Artdayne

Member
What sucks the most is when you have no more stamina, you can't do anything. It make fighting with multiple ennemies impossible. Can't even reach the first boss.....

When you don't have any stamina you can still move around, you just cannot block, dodge, swing your weapon because then you actually stop moving. I'm not sure if you're familiar with how stamina management works in this game since it seems you haven't been playing very long but if you press R1 shortly after a combo, you'll actually replenish the stamina you just used significantly faster, the stamina/KI icon will turn blue when you can do it.
 
Well, that's what I was referring to it not being executed that well. You get enough drops and whetstones that you can simply repair or switch weapons out.

I don't mind the loot system. I don't think it's looking to take a SoulsBorne approach, it's more similar to Diablo. One thing that surprised me with the demo is that even though there were a lot of drops I thought the gear was well designed and had some aesthetic appeal.

Oh it does, but I felt that exploring most of the level is made pointless because of it. Take the opening level for instance, you can explore the left half forest area, to get extra gear, some more souls and a utility item or two... or you could just kill some phantoms on the beach that're higher level than you, and get better gear, more souls, and have no risk of losing anything because you're close to a shrine.

I don't mind the armour drops but would rather have the ability to find better or unique pieces of gear within the environment, in order to justify exploration.

I also get that it might be taking a 'diablo approach' but I don't think that's right for this type of game. For example on one playthrough I dropped an axe that deals 299 base damage. It made the second level trivial in difficulty as I can one-shot most enemies, and even big enemies go down very quickly. On another playthrough the best weapon I found at this portion of the game has 169 base damage, almost half, making the experience vastly more difficult. It's a huge difference in gameplay that's entirely dependent on RNG and I think the game would play far better if it had more consistent environmental looting of good equipment with the existing loot based system supplementing that.
 

Aenima

Member
I dont like the R1 pressing at all for the stamina regen. I think all staces could have some kind of auto regen like the low stance has when we do a dodge. They could do the same for the other stances. But i managed to finish the entire demo all in middle stance without using KI Pulses so, dont think is a problem.

I hope ppl complain about the graphics department. Its a exclusive game with no AA and cant even stay locked at 60 fps at 720p? Team Ninja used to be masters of pulling jaw droping graphics with great performances. So i hope if many ppl complain, it encentivates them to optimese much better the game.

I also sugested more shortcuts for the items, fast travel between visited shrines, and a more user friendly way to go in co-op. Having to use a item to leave the area and go to the map menu, so u can join another player world is a dumb mechanic.

If they going to get inspiration in the souls games, at least they could do the basics right.
 

Harmen

Member
Given From Software goes in a different direction than Souls (and I assume BB with it, though Sony could do one), I hope this game will deliver. It instantly reminded me of Souls in many, many ways. But it does so without feeling like a ripoff, which is good. It also fills a bit of the Onimusha emptiness and definitely looks stylish.

Though I have to admit the difficulty may form a barrier for me, if it really is more difficult in the end. I can handle Dark Souls just fine and Bloodborne seems feasible thus far (though I am worse at that one). But significantly more difficult? I don't know.
 
I dont like the R1 pressing at all for the stamina regen. I think all staces could have some kind of auto regen like the low stance has when we do a dodge. They could do the same for the other stances. But i managed to finish the entire demo all in middle stance without using KI Pulses so, dont think is a problem.

I hope ppl complain about the graphics department. Its a exclusive game with no AA and cant even stay locked at 60 fps at 720p? Team Ninja used to be masters of pulling jaw droping graphics with great performances. So i hope if many ppl complain, it encentivates them to optimese much better the game.

I also sugested more shortcuts for the items, fast travel between visited shrines, and a more user friendly way to go in co-op. Having to use a item to leave the area and go to the map menu, so u can join another player world is a dumb mechanic.

If they going to get inspiration in the souls games, at least they could do the basics right.

Well, of course you can do that. Just like you can beat every enemy in the game with your bare hands if you want to... but it means your missing out on a big component of the games mechanical depth. Being able to sustain your stamina with ki pulse and weigh it against theirs allows for dramatic shifts in momentum in 1 vs 1 encounters allowing you to maximize your damage on every opportunity. Perfect Ki pulses also allow you to shift the arena back in your favour as you dispel negative ki auras.

You can just swing an axe at someone every few seconds between their attack strings, if you like, but if that's all you're going for, you're probably better off with a Souls game.

You also don't need fast travel between shrines because it doesn't make sense, the world is not interconnected and does not at any point require back tracking. If however, you do decide to backtrack, merely walking isn't especially far. The levels are self-contained and you're rarely more than 5 minutes away from the previous shrine. Generally speaking though, you rarely have much reason to go back.
 

GHG

Member
Eh sorry I don't see the point of that argument. Demons souls never had a bad camera problem. There might be a gem under all the shitty camera and controls but I don't think I can ignore the shortcomings to find out. I will give this a try if it comes out on pc and runs smooth 60fps like the souls pc ports does.

Yes it did and the games still do today.

I'm currently playing through Bloodborne and the Cleric Beast boss fight was basically battle of the camera. I died the first time because of the shitty camera (the boss itself isn't that hard) and beat it the second time because I learned to manage the camera effectively by constantly toggling lock on/off.

This game is far from perfect, but so are the souls games. So I'll ask again, what would you say to someone who gives up on one of the souls games in 30 minutes and then dismisses them?
 
Yes it did and the games still do today.

I'm currently playing through Bloodborne and the Cleric Beast boss fight was basically battle of the camera. I died the first time because of the shitty camera (the boss itself isn't that hard) and beat it the second time because I learned to manage the camera effectively by constantly toggling lock on/off.

This game is far from perfect, but so are the souls games. So I'll ask again, what would you say to someone who gives up on one of the souls games in 30 minutes and then dismisses them?

Yeah Souls camera is terrible, when the camera itself isn't a problem the bosses are just badly designed. A friend and I were running through DS3 recently picking the game apart critically and the third boss (first optional) is an especially terrible example.

You have to hit various weak points on the boss, but the bosses attack patterns are visually discriminated by his arms which are above you during this. You effectively cannot see what's going on with the boss, because the camera does not fit him onto your screen when you're anywhere close. It makes the entire fight feel clumsy, stupid and generally poorly designed - though it's a very easy boss so these issues are not prominent enough to become frustrating. That's just one example, there are countless others, and they pervade all Souls games, from DeS to DS3.

---

I think though, if someone dismissed the Souls games with valid criticisms like the ones above (obviously it's not me you were asking), I would say that that's fair. Even though everyone will tell you to simply 'get good' there are some pretty janky aspects of all Souls games and I can understand if someone couldn't tolerate them. It's 2016 and these games should be better, Souls included.
 

Slixshot

Banned
William is a terrible name. I want more grand Vistas. UI is quite complex and poorly explained.

Game kicks ass other than that.
 
Just beat the first boss fuck that was tough

on to the second!

oh shit wrong thread

well... I would like them to change it so we don't have to hold circle for the damn ladder

got me killed a few times lol
 
Just beat the first boss fuck that was tough

on to the second!

oh shit wrong thread

well... I would like them to change it so we don't have to hold circle for the damn ladder

got me killed a few times lol

Watched my friend die because one of the bloodstain summon things covered the bottom of a ladder and he accidentally summoned the phantom while trying to climb the ladder only to get beaten up by the guys following him, plus the phantom he just mistakenly summoned.

Pretty bad design, but funny.
 
Ha! damn that sucks.

Another problem I see is the summoning system, people can kill themselves just to troll. I summoned someone only to see him run into fire on purpose. And then once I got to the boss I used one of three ochokos I had left. I waited like 15 minutes for someone to come and the second he arrived he ran into the water and killed himself.

Eventually killed the boss myself but boy did that annoy me
 
Still have to try out the second mission, but these are my notes.

-Add a pause button
-Improve the camera
-Lessen the penalty for running out of stamina
-Adjust the power & health of the lesser enemies
-Streamline the loot system (Way too many items, and it's quite tedious managing them.)
-Make weapons & armor more durable
-A cosmetic equipment function (ie. The ability to equip a separate set of armor that appears on William that doesn't affect stats. The mix & match pieces look ugly a lot of times.)
-More interesting/dynamic looking equipment
-Add some color to the game (It looks a bit drab as is.)
 

ironcreed

Banned
Yes it did and the games still do today.

I'm currently playing through Bloodborne and the Cleric Beast boss fight was basically battle of the camera. I died the first time because of the shitty camera (the boss itself isn't that hard) and beat it the second time because I learned to manage the camera effectively by constantly toggling lock on/off.

This game is far from perfect, but so are the souls games. So I'll ask again, what would you say to someone who gives up on one of the souls games in 30 minutes and then dismisses them?

I actually prefer the camera and lock-on in Nioh. Instead of tethering me to the enemy, I have more range and freedom to run around. It is simply more flexible and does not go ape shit like the camera does in the Souls games or Bloodborne.
 

Slixshot

Banned
Ha! damn that sucks.

Another problem I see is the summoning system, people can kill themselves just to troll. I summoned someone only to see him run into fire on purpose. And then once I got to the boss I used one of three ochokos I had left. I waited like 15 minutes for someone to come and the second he arrived he ran into the water and killed himself.

Eventually killed the boss myself but boy did that annoy me

I actually don't want to pair up with randoms. I would love to have my buddy and I be a couple of bad ass samurai though.
 

john tv

Member
Posted this in the 8-4 Play thread, figured I'll drop it in here as well:

Whelp, played the ever-loving crap out of the Nioh demo and finally beat the boss (yay). Mark of the Conqueror DLC get! ...Is what I'd like to be saying, except I downloaded the demo from the US store and played through it with my JP PSN account, so I can't access the DLC. LOL. Looks like your save data is tied to your PSN account and you can only access the DLC when you're online. SIGH. (Not the game's fault, but it still sucks.) I tried DLing the JP demo as well just in case, but sadly, it doesn't recognize my save data.

Anyway, I liked the demo overall. Some misc. thoughts:

+ World setting is super interesting; love the old-school Japanese flavor; the game feels like a mix of Tenchu, Onimusha, Dark Souls and Bushido Blade
+ Music is very good too (especially if you like the Japan setting)
+ Combat is super satisfying. I found myself using high and neutral stances almost exclusively (I used an axe for most of the demo), but I love how you can easily switch between them and adapt to situations on the fly in the middle of fights
+ Also like that enemies tire out like you do. Watching their ki gauges and their armor adds an interesting tactical level to combat; you learn to approach different enemies in different ways depending on how they're dressed and what weapon they're carrying
+ Guardian system is interesting; didn't experiment with it too much (stuck to the same one the entire demo), but I like that you can call them back if you don't want to go recover your soul...err, amrita
+ Skill system seems pretty varied; I barely messed with ninja or magic skills, but put a lot of points into unlocking various samurai skills
+ Kodamas are adorable

- Game starts off way too hard. Would not have lasted long if not for Adam's video about going around and kicking the ladder near the starting point so you can farm dudes early on
- The menus are complicated and don't explain things well. They need user-friendly tutorials BAD. It's too bad, because they sometimes do some interesting things w/the menus (like letting you watch movies of every skill to see how they play out), but for the most part, they're messy and unintuitive
- Don't like that you can turn around when you're locked on to an enemy, ugh. I assume they designed it this way because they expect people to run a lot in combat but if that's the case, maybe they can set it so you can hold X for a second (like you do to search corpses) to break lock-on and run? Not sure what would feel best but I want to be able to always focus on my enemy when locked on
- There's too many equipment drops. I maxed out the 200 inventory limit like three times during the demo. Glad you can trade unwanted stuff for amrita, but I'd rather there was less of it to go around in the first place
- Despite my kodama love, the system seems a little thin; why would you ever take any blessing other than the one that ups amrita?
- No warning of any kind before boss battles suuuuucks (lost 8000 amrita because of this, ugh)
- Sadly looks like it's not going to be an open world... (minor spoiler:
beating the boss takes you back to the mission menu, which implies hub-style world rather than connected one
)

Kinda bummed I did all that and won't even get the DLC now, but oh well - seems like a fun game with some rough edges. If it really is an alpha and they really are going to take in feedback and make adjustments, I'll probably give the final game a whirl.
 

TheStruggler

Report me for trolling ND/TLoU2 threads
only two things about this game that i dislike
1. it may be due to witcher 3 combat however when locked onto and enemy or facing an enemy in witcher 3 Geralt moves more slowly so you can anticipate moves better, in this game when locked on or near and enemy if i push the analogue stick all the way my guy moves way to fast.

2. Much like witcher and bloodborne when the enemy commits to a move you can dodge it, to many times have I seen that an enemy attacks, i dodge out of the way and in mid attack he changes his stance to face me and still strike me, the tracking I feel is off.
 

Raven117

Member
I liked the camera actually and that you aren't 100 percent tethered. Going back to ds3 felt really restrictive in this regard.

I think the average enemies have too much health. I don't mind them hitting like trucks, but when you are fighting one simple enemy for more than 30 seconds, it becomes very tedious. (Even with ki pulse). A drop of enemy health would also make a group more manageable when you get ambushed. It's a bit frustrating when you are plugging away, get ambushed, and it's pretty much a wipe.

That weapon durability is way too irritating to be fun. Especially if there is no.vendor to buy whetstone a and glue
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
high stance attacks kills enemies in 2 or 3 hits, even with a crappy weapon. I don't think enemies have too much health, maybe you are using low stance attacks? if so, then yeah, that's not going to deal much damage.
 
My analysis of this demo is...it's fucking amazing, From better be worried, I love the atmosphere and Feudal Japan setting to death. There are some things that need to be corrected like summoning someone and not being able to send them away except by dying or beating area boss. Camera movement in small areas need to be addressed too. Other then that I love everything else about it from the different armor and weapons that unlike the soul series this has a lot of variety in not only gear but combat as well.
 
I just sent my feedback, feels good. I asked for a touchpad quick item menu like what Bloodborne does. Also that the demon fights need to be adjusted because they become more of a poke battle since you can't stagger them until their Ki bar is red and you can't parry them. I also asked for character creation/customization or at least model swaps like using Ryu Hayabusa or Nyotengu but I doubt they will listen to that one :p.
 
Man I hope they find a way to make using items more streamlined. It's really annoying having only 3 items, one of which will always be elixirs, that you can use without menus. There needs to be a way to cycle the shortcut slots, maybe hold R1 will cycle items instead of using them? Heck even holding down L1+R1 is fine. It's incredibly important that they fix this considering your ninjutsu and onmyo are items as well.

The only way to constantly face the opponent now is to slightly tilt the left stick which isn't very comfortable.

I used to want that too, but when you're against multiple enemies it's actually better that you can turn and stuff.
 

Atilac

Member
I hate the stance system, feels cumbersome amd unintuitive .
Camera feels funny and I can't put my finger on why, it just does.
Camera lock on doesn't feel right with player movement and being able to swing in the opposite direction of an enemy while the camera is locked on is fustrating to no end.
Weapon degradation is too severe, if it stays this severe then resting at a shrine should repair the weapons.
There is an active time reload system for the stamina? I had no idea and I believe such a system is misplaced, I am supposed to pay attention to stances and active reload? Ugh
 

ironcreed

Banned
I hate the stance system, feels cumbersome amd unintuitive .
Camera feels funny and I can't put my finger on why, it just does.
Camera lock on doesn't feel right with player movement and being able to swing in the opposite direction of an enemy while the camera is locked on is fustrating to no end.
Weapon degradation is too severe, if it stays this severe then resting at a shrine should repair the weapons.
There is an active time reload system for the stamina? I had no idea and I believe such a system is misplaced, I am supposed to pay attention to stances and active reload? Ugh

LOL, it's like Demon's Souls all over again. "WTF is all this shit? I am getting my ass kicked. Where do I even go and what do I do?" Man, I was struggling like hell and thought it was impossible... but I kept playing. The discovery of it, leveling up, overcoming and becoming more powerful is the beauty of it. Especially when you can revisit that first area and laugh in the face of all the bastards that killed you so many times. This will happen. I guarantee it.
 
beat the demo, went back to the first level and holy shit does it go fast. ten minutes tops and im already at the last shrine as compared to the 2+ hours it took me the first go around
 
tried it multiple times. didnt work :(

Did you play a version from a different region than your account? If so then you're SOL unfortunately :/

LOL, it's like Demon's Souls all over again. "WTF is all this shit? I am getting my ass kicked. Where do I even go and what do I do?" Man, I was struggling like hell and thought it was impossible... but I kept playing. The discovery of it, leveling up, overcoming and becoming more powerful is the beauty of it. Especially when you can revisit that first area and laugh in the face of all the bastards that killed you so many times. This will happen. I guarantee it.

The review thread will be glorious, I can already see this game getting 3s and 10s.
 

Hoje0308

Banned
LOL, it's like Demon's Souls all over again. "WTF is all this shit? I am getting my ass kicked. Where do I even go and what do I do?" Man, I was struggling like hell and thought it was impossible... but I kept playing. The discovery of it, leveling up, overcoming and becoming more powerful is the beauty of it. Especially when you can revisit that first area and laugh in the face of all the bastards that killed you so many times. This will happen. I guarantee it.

There is a level of complexity that might be a turn off for those that were expecting a simple Souls clone, but I'm personally loving all of it. The feeling of learning the new mechanics while being simultaneously mesmerized and terrified of the world in which it all takes place is just great. Like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I expect a lot of the complaints will fade and give way to admiration once those that were initially reluctant have managed to adapt.

The review thread will be glorious, I can already see this game getting 3s and 10s.

Eh, I'll be too busy playing and coming on here to check out the different builds and strategies. Hoping for a nice steel book edition with some traditional Japanese artwork.
 

ironcreed

Banned
There is a level of complexity that might be a turn off for those that were expecting a simple Souls clone, but I'm personally loving all of it. The feeling of learning the new mechanics while being simultaneously mesmerized and terrified of the world in which it all takes place is just great. Like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I expect a lot of the complaints will fade and give way to admiration once those that were initially reluctant have managed to adapt.

Exactly. There has not been a game since Demon's Souls that left us feeling this way. Dark Souls is a legend, but it did not have the new car smell the way this does. It's special and needs the Sony backing, plus the word of mouth. I know it when I see it and this is it.
 

DTJAAAAM

Member
Gave my input. Main complaints were certain camera angles being obscured when locked on to enemies and the inventory size limit.
 

Sande

Member
I love it. Sure it's still a bit rough around the edges but with a bit of polish I can see Nioh wiping the floor with the Soulsborne games.

The Ki pulse, the combos and the stances are amazing features that bring much needed depth and variety to the Souls style gameplay.
 
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