So I’ve been putting some time into that Nioh Beta and at the moment I hate it. I hate Nioh. I hate how tough it is. I hate how I keep dying. I hate how I can barely take on more than 3 enemies at a time, but I especially hate how much I want to keep playing it. There’s this sadomasochistic twang that Nioh has, where it is gripping me firmly by the gonads, squeezing harder and harder as I puzzlingly scream for more.

I’m a bit like Paul Gascoigne in that 1988 clash with Vinnie Jones right now, except I’m actually enjoying it:

Nioh is learning from only the best

Once you play Nioh, it’s influences do become ostensibly apparent; the game is teeming with genre defining Dark Souls mechanics, crossed elegantly with the intense pacing of Ninja Gaiden that developer Team Ninja is acclaimed for. As such, Nioh finds itself quite far from anything remotely original; even its heavy steeping in the Japanese occult isn’t too far removed from the likes of Onimusha. Somehow though, Nioh still manages to deliver something tantalisingly refreshing. Its punishing yet addictive nature is sublime; granting an overwhelming sense of achievement if you persevere and push through its challenging demeanour. You are certainly swimming against the current with this game and the learning curve is harsh but manageable.

Despite the obvious influences from Dark Souls and its other third-person predecessors, Nioh does showcase some of it’s own unique mechanics fairly competently though. The most interesting of these is the ‘Ki’ system. Nioh’s hero, the no-it’s-not-Geralt Samurai William, is constrained in his attacks and movements by a depleting Ki bar – essentially a stamina bar. Each swing of his sword and dodge of an attack takes away what limited amount of Ki William has available.

Now a stamina system such as this isn’t especially unique and fairly commonplace in most games of this nature, but what Nioh does with it here is quite something. If timed correctly, you can perform what is called a ‘Ki Pulse’ just after an attack. This Ki Pulse recovers whatever stamina you lost while performing a combo, readying you to launch another instantaneous barrage of punishment on your enemies without hesitation. Upgrade this Ki Pulse and it can have certain effects on combat, like granting you a temporary strength boost for your next attack.

Another of Nioh’s interesting gameplay traits is how much control you have over William’s stance. You are able to switch out how William holds his weapon on the fly, having access to Low, Middle and High stances at any one time. Low Stance makes you fast and nimble, but susceptible to damage; High Stance gives you strong attacks and strong defense, but slows your ability to dodge; and Middle Stance offers up the perfect balance of the two.

You can learn a variety of combos for each stance and for each weapon available to William, providing a nice variety of tactical options for any given foe. Such variation allows you to dictate the pace of enemy confrontations and leaves room for the most crazy of hardcore players to perfect some insane combos. If you’re persistent enough to master it, you can switch from a Low to High stance mid-combo, earn yourself a temporary attribute boost in the process, and combine it with a well-timed Ki Pulse to easily remove the head of anything that stands in front of you. I’m not that persistent however, so I’m still struggling to master the timing of a Ki Pulse without bashing my skull in with the blunt end of my DualShock 4.

Therein lies one of the strongest aspects of Nioh though – despite my incompetence and impatience with it, I am still finding ways to get through the game. Nioh punishes you just enough so that you learn from your mistakes, but not so much that it makes you turn your back on it. This bitch of a game dangles that carrot just so; where your fingertips barely graze it the moment before you fall flat on your face.

This balance Nioh has found in its gameplay loop has taught me that instead of taking enemies on 3 at a time, I should draw them out, separate them and use the Ki pulse to take them down in seconds. It’s taught me that I can grind the system by facing off with Remnants (ghosts of other players who have fallen) in order to level-up and make my time spent dispatching enemies a little easier. It’s taught me that if I am persistent, that carrot gets a little closer each time I reach for it.      

All-in-all, Nioh seems to be shaping up to be quite a game, moulding together the best parts from iconic third-person melee games and sprinkling it all with a light dusting of its very own unique flavouring. Team Ninja seems to be doing a fine job thus far and if this beta is any indication of what we can expect from Nioh, then we may have something rather special waiting for us on the horizon.

I still hate it though. Can I have my balls back yet Team Ninja?

The Nioh Beta is available on the PS Store until 6th September, so go see if you hate it as much as I do!

Full Release Date TBC