E3 2016: Of Course Nioh Is Crazy Difficult, It's Like Ninja Gaiden Dark Souls

Koei Tecmo's Nioh has had a rough start… to say the least. While it is clearly influenced by the unforgiving design of FromSoftware's Soulsborne series, Nioh likely didn't start out that way. Its development actually began in 2004, five years before Demon's Souls released, and was supposed to be based on Akira Kurosawa's film, Oni.

Through multiple iterations, delays, missed release dates, and silence from Koei, Team Ninja cautiously took over the project in 2010, attempting to redesign the game and figure out how best to pair its signature fast-paced Ninja Gaiden series with the punishing levels and enemies of the Soulsborne series, especially when the initial concept was thrown out for being too similar to Ninja Gaiden. The result is an action-driven, sword-slashing new IP that delves into Japanese history and folklore while having no qualms about killing your character over and over and over again.

If you’ve seen playthroughs of the game's alpha test on Playstation 4 from late April to early May, the analog to the Soulsborne series is transparent. In a private interview, developer Fumihiko Yasuda didn’t shy away from saying that a healthy portion of Team Ninja’s team is enamored with Dark Souls. So it comes to no surprise that the game's shrines act like bonfires, amrita act as souls, attacks consume stamina, and enemies can wipe your character out in about four attacks if you’re not careful.

Where Nioh distinguishes itself the most is in its speed—not Ninja Gaiden speed, but much faster than Bloodborne. Some slow enemies like undead soldiers that spring forth from the ground only take a simple circle strafe, maybe a dodge, to find an opening. Small spirits that spew fireballs aren’t much of a match, either.

But when two ninjas circle around you, combat becomes extremely intense. It’s easy to run out of stamina, just through successive dodges and blocks, and attacking one ninja leaves you wide open for his friend to flank you from the side. On top of that, your lock-on targeting system can become untrustworthy as they scuttle around you in unusual patterns. While I didn't have a hold on my character's ninjutsu powers or magical abilities, I was able to dispatch them both and quickly heal with a few healing items. In comparison to the giant oni that appeared after I finally dispatched them on my third try, the oni was a vacation.

The other point of difference focuses on the character-driven mission-based storyline, set in the Japanese Warring States Period and dramatizes the adventures of the real-life Western samurai Williams Adams. As you play as Adams in the main campaign, you'll take on various missions that have you purifying evil throughout the Kyushu region and finally the infamous Battle of Sekigahara. These missions are non-linear in fashion, so the world is not a continuous one, and will have you plundering catacombs and villages crawling with undead and other vengeful spirits.

I was worried, though, that playing strictly as William Adams would neuter the multiplayer and the PvP with everyone slashing each other as the exact same character, even if you can swap out different masks to distinguish players apart. Currently, the team is focusing its energy on co-operative play, allowing you to call for aid from other players by using the temple shrine. They're still looking on “invasion”-style multiplayer, but for now, Nioh is looking to be a friendly multiplayer experience. Perhaps this is a good thing if they keep it, as a point of distinction from their inspirations. But don't worry, PvP fans, there will be some kind of customization for multiplayer characters… which means that there could be separate mode for PvP multiplayer.

Nioh will have a beta in August, and with the success of the alpha, there's sure to be a lot of players who will want to check this out. It will arrive exclusively for PS4 in 2016, barring no delays.