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I don’t particularly like Souls-likes. I’m good enough to finish most of them (given enough time), but the dying and retrying schtick does get old fast. When the first Nioh debuted so many years back, it breathed some life into the genre with its innovative take on combat. Now Nioh 3 is back, with a refined formula… and a much loftier goal.
While I did try out the game at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, the limited demo and our hectic schedule (we were running around like headless chickens trying to get to our appointments and try out games) didn’t really impress me. I didn’t try the gameplay demo that preceded the game’s release too, for fear of being influenced.
Well… now it’s finally time to give the game a shot.
Does Nioh 3 disappoint?
What is Nioh 3?
Nioh 3 is an open world action RPG Souls-like. Developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo, the game is available right now on the PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.
Our review copy was awesomely provided to us by Koei Tecmo! Thank you!
We’re using two different gaming rigs (and a notebook) to review the game.
Here are the specs in case you’re wondering:
Desktop 1 –
– MSI B550M Mortar WIFI
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24G
– Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z 64GB DDR4 RAM
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD
– NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1
– Lian Li LANCOOL III RGB case
Desktop 2 –
– MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
– AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D with Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB cooler
– Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB
– G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO 32GB DDR5-6400 RAM
– Samsung 990 PRO 2TB SSD
– Corsair RM850x PSU
– Lian Li LANCOOL 207 Digital
Notebook –
MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V
– Intel Core i9 14900HX
– NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
– 32GB DDR5 RAM
– 1TB SSD
While our gaming review rigs aren’t the best money can buy, they’re still more than powerful enough for current games. Nioh 3 is wonderfully optimized on both NVIDIA and AMD hardware. I ran everything maxed out at 4K (with no frame generation), using DLSS and FSR and the FPS locked to 60. Apart from a slight FPS drop during stealth attacks (which is weird), the game remains buttery smooth throughout with no visible framerate drops.
That’s a testament to how well the game runs on the PC, especially in this day and age of sloppy, unoptimized PC ports.
Koei Tecmo’s Nioh series can easily be classified as a historical Souls-like. Sharing many of the mechanics that are familiar to fans of the genre, the series has tried to innovate by applying unique mechanics to the fights. Stance switching, recovering stamina with timed button presses and the like. Nioh 3 takes the formula to new, loftier heights.
What sets the game apart is its setting.
This time around, the bulk of the game takes place during Japan’s Sengoku era. Warlords from across the country vie to unite the land. It’s a much-storied time, with numerous historical figures making their mark on the country’s history during that time.
Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Takeda Shingen… you’d be familiar with many of these names if you’ve ever played one of the games in Koei Tecmo’s Samurai Warriors series. Playing as the time displaced grandson (or granddaughter) of Tokugawa Ieyasu, you’re transported back to the midst of the Sengoku era as Tokugawa Ieyasu is besieged by Takeda Shingen and his army of Yokai…for starters.
The plot might be a bit more outlandish this time around, but it’s still familiar ground when it comes to playing the game, though Koei Tecmo has gone under the hood and made tweaks to the gameplay. Nioh 3 is still a Souls-like at its core. It’s a punishing game and unforgiving as hell. Mistakes are punished harshly and almost always have you dead or limping away with massive damage.
Nioh 3 isn’t a game for casuals.
Fighting in the game’s just as tight and gripping as in the past. Managing your Ki Pulses in the heat of battle takes practice, but it’s still a great mechanic.
Difficulty in the game is definitely more on the easy side this time around, at least when you compare it to Nioh 2. That’s not a bad thing at all. Nioh 3 is still very much a Souls-like. It’s just not as insanely difficult as other games in the series. That teeny drop makes it much more bearable and frankly, more fun for me.
Oh, you’ll still die. Over and over again, but it’s because you played stupidly, not because of game’s super punishing difficulty.
It’s nothing new to the fans of the genre… so far.
Nioh 3 isn’t just content to ride on the coattails of the previous games. Sure, the mechanics are mostly similar – the Ki Pulses to recover stamina, purification of yokai, the massive skill trees for the weapons, but there’s a lot of things that have been tweaked or are completely new to the series here.
For starters, there’s an open world now to explore. Taking cues from FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, Nioh 3 opens up the map for you to explore seamlessly. You do not get a mount (which is sorely missed) and the world isn’t as expansive as Elden Ring’s but the shift to open world is definitely for the better for the series as a whole.
Once you’ve finished the prologue (with one of the hardest and tankiest boss fights in the game), you’re pretty much free to go off as you please. While the regions are still gated by leveled enemies (there’s no level scaling for enemies thankfully), you can go into those regions from the outset if you’re good enough.
Each of the different regions looks visually distinct too, which makes exploration fun every time you get to a new area.
Ruined villages, abandoned temples, swamps and even haunted graveyards dot the landscape of Nioh’s Sengoku Japan. It’s a very enjoyable romp and though I wished there were more interior locations, the game does a great job in giving you a boatload of environments to explore and battle in. With upcoming expansion DLCs planned, I’m real hopeful that Koei Tecmo expands on this and adds in even more interesting places to go to.
I’m definitely hoping for more spooky/haunted locations as while Nioh 3 is heavily steeped in the supernatural, the horror aspects of the genre are mostly relegated to the wayside. That’s a damn shame as I feel that a Nioh game that puts horror first and foremost (kind of like Ghostwire: Tokyo) has the potential to be incredible. Maybe exploring a haunted castle or something. Anything that could put the horror aspects of the game to the forefront!
Similarities to Elden Ring even extend to Nioh 3’s off-map character hub, the Eternal Rift. Like Elden Ring’s Roundtable Hold, it’s an area not on the map that you can get to only by quick travel.
The other big change for Nioh 3 is that your character’s dual-classed.
You’re playing as a Samurai and a Ninja.
You can swap between the two classes at any time with a press of R2…which is a questionable button choice. That’s due to R2 also being the button for Burst Breaks, which are counterstrikes that you can trigger when enemies attack you with a red-tinged blow. While you cannot change the button for either class swap or Burst Breaks, you can make it so that tapping R2 initiates a Burst Break while holding R2 makes you change classes.
Ideal? Hell no…but it is what it is and there’s no use bitching about it because there’s no way to change it. Perhaps a mod or a patch down the line will fix this.
Another questionable button assignment goes to the Menu button. Or rather, why there isn’t a shortcut button that directly opens the map without needing to muck about in the menu. The map is THE most important feature in Nioh 3 (seriously, I looked into it more than the Equip or Inventory) and it’s so cumbersome to access!
To a lesser extent, that also goes for the game’s Photo Mode. It’s buried under layers of menus that there is ZERO way to grab great action shots with it in-game.
Both the Samurai and Ninja have their own set of equips and skills, with gameplay also being radically different from each other. Samurai is your usual Nioh experience – Ki Pulses, close combat, with lots of blocking, deflecting and the whole enchilada.
Ninja is the polar opposite.
You can’t recover Ki in the midst of combat like the Samurai (no Ki Pulses) but you can leave a temporary afterimage if you dodge after you deliver any attack. The Ninja class also lets you use tons of ninja stuff, like caltrops, shuriken and other traps. The biggest upside to the class is that it has the potential to deliver massive damage if you attack an enemy’s back and its fast hitting attacks make staggering enemies easier.
Obviously, the Ninja class shines if you’re playing co-op. It’s not as great in single player, even if you summon an AI warrior to assist. Nioh 3’s enemy AI doesn’t really care about AI summons and will still almost exclusively attack you. It doesn’t matter if they’re Samurai or Ninja, you’re still the priority for enemies.
That’s fine if you’re Samurai, but if you’re Ninja, that sucks. I hope tweaks are incoming for the AI to generate and hold enmity. Right now they can keep hitting bosses with impunity without being targeted, though their damage is pitiful. A buff to their damage, as well as increasing their aggro rate should definitely be looked into.
You don’t really need to play as both classes if you don’t want to though.
It’s completely acceptable to play as a Samurai or a Ninja from the get-go. I personally found the Samurai to be much more fun, with their hard hitting weapons (the Odachi and Axes/ Hammers are my favourites) that smash enemies left and right. They’re even able to stagger bosses regularly with their attacks now, especially when compared to past games in the series.
Plus, the Crucibles (demonic areas where you have to kill enemies to progress) are small and aren’t really conducive to the hit and run tactics of the Ninja and you need to do them (well, most of them) to progress. It’s hard enough surviving as a Ninja in the open world and even harder still in the small circular Crucibles.
I’ll stick to my tanky Samurai, thanks.
It’s not all grit and grim all the time in Nioh 3.
The lovable scampuss returns! They have different furs too!
There’s even a huge scampuss that you can interact with in the Eternal Rift.
I cannot state how much love I have for these lovable round yokai cats. Every time I get to a new area, one of the first things I do is try to find one of them. Finding them is easy enough (just keep an ear out for their meows) and petting them sets you off on a merry chase, as the rotund yokai lead you to special treasure!
As somebody who has the scampuss plushie from Nioh 2, I really want Koei Tecmo to make a giant scampuss plushie. I would buy it no matter what the cost.
The music for the game is incredible as well. They’re melancholic and haunting and give a very eerie vibe as you explore the numerous locations in the game. The hymn that plays at the loading screen after you die is absolutely incredible! It’s just a bit under Michiru Yamane’s Prayer from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
That’s really high praise.
It’s a perfect fit for the game though I wished there were a couple more vocal (maybe even some enka) tracks to accompany the game. I mean if Metal Gear Solid 3 could have Snake Eater as its theme, why not Nioh 3?
The Bottom Line.
Nioh 3 is an excellent return to form for the series. Nioh 2 was a bit divisive with its high difficulty (even for Souls-like games) but Nioh 3 soothes all the butthurt and introduces major advances to the series.
The open world lets you tackle challenges at your own pace (similar to Elden Ring) and you’re always able to go off to other areas to grind and level up without repeating the same sections over and over again like in past games. It definitely lessens the monotony, despite dying being as punishing as ever.
Nioh 3’s difficulty should also no longer be a point of contention too. Its difficult, but much, much more bearable if you’re a veteran of the series or the genre. This is what Nioh 2 should have been.
While Nioh 3 does have some issues (too much info is buried in menus), none of them are major enough to detract from the experience. In fact, Nioh 3 is undoubtedly one of the best games for the year and I really hope Koei Tecmo expands on the game with sizeable DLC.
I know I’ll be waiting for them for sure!
TLDR: Awesome Souls-like with great atmosphere, engaging gameplay and superb visuals. Definite Game of the Year contender.
The Good:
- Great performance on PC.
- Huge skill tree, with tons of skills and customization.
- Difficulty is much more manageable.
- Two different classes to play as.
- Open world is fun to explore.
The Bad:
- Burst Break needs its own dedicated button.
- No shortcut to access the map easily.
- Photo mode is buried beneath a lot of menus.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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