Nioh is by far the worst soulslike I've played. The level design is awful, there's no sense of exploration because the levels are very linear, yes there's twisted paths but that's merely an illusion to convince you it matters which way you go. Its mission based instead of one connected world like Dark souls and the environments are bland and uninteresting and lack any flair to make up for the boring level design. There's no sense of discovery either because items are absolutely useless, you get a ton of loot from every enemy you kill but the only item that matters is the healing potions and its never fully explained how it works, unlike Dark souls you don't get a fixed amount of healing potions (elixirs) every time you die and respawn at a bonfire (shrines), sometimes you will have 4, sometimes 3, sometimes 0, then you offer all the useless loot at the shrine and it will give you more elixirs. There's also a way to get blessing which will increase the elixir drop rate but how to actually put points in these blessings is very unclear.

As for the combat, its much more complex than Dark souls and significantly less fun because of that. There's three stances low(fast). mid and high (heavy) and each stance can have its own special moves for different combinations. There's separate skill trees for every playstyle (ninja, magic and samurai) and every weapon has its little quirks that makes it advantageous against certain enemies. You can drain an enemy's ki(stamina) but half the time that's just a bad idea, just slash and dodge. There's also an ultimate move that slowly charges over time and once its full, you can go invulnerable with insane damage, you can actually beat every boss this way, it takes away at least 60 percent of their health bar which is necessary because the bosses are easy but maliciously unforgiving. Every boss has multiple one shot moves and you will die many times simply because the game hates you and not because you're bad. This approach to boss difficulty is definitely more inspired by Ninja gaiden than Dark souls. I do not appreciate it because all it does is frustrate you. The game isn't too hard other than boss battles however, because there's like 9 total enemy types, you will soon realise that despite all the complex combos its best played as if its Dark souls and the enemies are boring to fight anyway, they never surprise you, every enemy seems to have a basic 3 hit combo and ranged enemies fire with tracking projectiles disguised as arrows.

There's no sense of progression or accomplishment on a grander scale, its always "oh finally beat this boss lol". Every mission has a recommended level and there's side missions for you to grind these levels. The side missions are set on even worse maps than the story missions and generally involve loot collection or checklist gameplay. Its mindless grinding like Diablo but you can do it with a friend although that makes a game a bit too easy, you can try the twilight missions with a friend though, The story is pretty uninvolving and is mostly told through still images with chat boxes. Its not a reason to buy this game.


Nioh is a repetitive slog that's only fun for the first 10-15 hours and because it lacks the mystery, and the magical exploration of Dark souls, the repetition really shows. I don't recommend it. If you want a ninja dark souls, play Sekiro. Its 10x more fun.

Nioh is by far the worst soulslike I've played. The level design is awful, there's no sense of exploration because the levels are very linear, yes there's twisted paths but that's merely an illusion to convince you it matters which way you go. Its mission based instead of one connected world like Dark souls and the environments are bland and uninteresting and lack any flair to make up for the boring level design. There's no sense of discovery either because items are absolutely useless, you get a ton of loot from every enemy you kill but the only item that matters is the healing potions and its never fully explained how it works, unlike Dark souls you don't get a fixed amount of healing potions (elixirs) every time you die and respawn at a bonfire (shrines), sometimes you will have 4, sometimes 3, sometimes 0, then you offer all the useless loot at the shrine and it will give you more elixirs. There's also a way to get blessing which will increase the elixir drop rate but how to actually put points in these blessings is very unclear. As for the combat, its much more complex than Dark souls and significantly less fun because of that. There's three stances low(fast). mid and high (heavy) and each stance can have its own special moves for different combinations. There's separate skill trees for every playstyle (ninja, magic and samurai) and every weapon has its little quirks that makes it advantageous against certain enemies. You can drain an enemy's ki(stamina) but half the time that's just a bad idea, just slash and dodge. There's also an ultimate move that slowly charges over time and once its full, you can go invulnerable with insane damage, you can actually beat every boss this way, it takes away at least 60 percent of their health bar which is necessary because the bosses are easy but maliciously unforgiving. Every boss has multiple one shot moves and you will die many times simply because the game hates you and not because you're bad. This approach to boss difficulty is definitely more inspired by Ninja gaiden than Dark souls. I do not appreciate it because all it does is frustrate you. The game isn't too hard other than boss battles however, because there's like 9 total enemy types, you will soon realise that despite all the complex combos its best played as if its Dark souls and the enemies are boring to fight anyway, they never surprise you, every enemy seems to have a basic 3 hit combo and ranged enemies fire with tracking projectiles disguised as arrows. There's no sense of progression or accomplishment on a grander scale, its always "oh finally beat this boss lol". Every mission has a recommended level and there's side missions for you to grind these levels. The side missions are set on even worse maps than the story missions and generally involve loot collection or checklist gameplay. Its mindless grinding like Diablo but you can do it with a friend although that makes a game a bit too easy, you can try the twilight missions with a friend though, The story is pretty uninvolving and is mostly told through still images with chat boxes. Its not a reason to buy this game. Nioh is a repetitive slog that's only fun for the first 10-15 hours and because it lacks the mystery, and the magical exploration of Dark souls, the repetition really shows. I don't recommend it. If you want a ninja dark souls, play Sekiro. Its 10x more fun.