Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 04:03

Nioh 3 – Review

The current generation of consoles already had a bit of a run-in with the Nioh franchise thanks to The Nioh Collection that came out back in 2021. This collection offered both games with remastered visuals and all additional content in a neat bundle. Koei Tecmo’s take on the Soulslike genre was very succesfull and the overall gameplay stood very tall on its own without having to mimic FromSoftware’s popular formula. Now, the time has finally come to delve into Nioh 3, which was sadly on our backlog together with another Soulslike, CODE VEIN II, which we also covered recently. That being said, we did have to wait a few years for this third installment, but it was very much worth it. Story In Nioh 3, you’ll be playing as Tokugawa Takechiyo, who seemingly has a great relationship with his brother, Tokugawa Kunimatsu. The two train together to become great warriors in 17th century Feudal Japan. Sadly, your brother was not training to become an equal or better fighter to stand strong together, but simply to try to squash you due to his immense jealousy towards you. He even goes as far as to sign a pact with yokai, corrupting him even more. Soon, chaos ensues, and you’ll be running for your life, killing monsters and humans alike. If that wasn’t enough already, you’ll soon find yourself being sent back in time to different eras to clear the Yokai influences there, making sure the timeline does not get corrupted. The latter somewhat reminded us of Touken Ranbu, which also features characters from Feudal Japan being sent back in time to prevent the History Retrograde Army from corrupting the timeline. All in all, the story here is interesting, but it does take the backseat often in order to let you play and figure things out yourself. That being said, the story content is fleshed out a lot more than similar titles in the Soulslike genre. Graphics Graphically, Nioh 3 is a good-looking game that follows the same style as the previous titles. You’ll be treated to a somewhat grimdark world to explore with humanoid and yokai enemies. The humanoid enemies have more traditional designs that are suitable for the game’s Bakumatsu period, which it supposedly takes place in. The yokai look ghastly and ghoulish, and it’s quite interesting to see what monsters are waiting around the corner. For your own character, there are also quite a few customization options, which is nice, but armor or other gear often obscures the character design you came up with. Attack effects look impressive, and swapping between your samurai and ninja forms is done very fluidly. We didn’t notice any stutters or other major issues when playing through very action-packed sequences. Sound Nioh 3’s sound design is great. You’ll be treated to a very cinematic soundtrack with enough variety to keep things interesting. The supporting sound effects also provide great audio feedback for all the hacking and slashing action. Weapons have some heft, and there are distinct sounds for different weapon types. The voice acting is great as well here, adding a lot to the overall atmosphere of the game. Gameplay Like its predecessors, Nioh 3 is an action RPG and could be considered a Soulslike experience. This means that you’ll explore the world around you, kill lots of enemies while learning enemy attack patterns, and timing your own attacks. The game follows a traditional format of the genre where you gain ‘experience’ by killing enemies, but you will also lose said experience if you haven’t reached a safe zone to trade that experience in. This creates a high-difficulty gameplay loop that is familiar to gamers who are into Dark Souls or other similar titles. Nioh 3 does spice things up a bit with its system, where you can swap between a Samurai and a Ninja loadout with different gear and skills. If you have played any of the more popular Soulslike titles out there, you probably already know what to expect. Progress will not come that easily, and you’ll probably end up dying quite a lot. Parrying, dodging, and blocking are your best friends in combat here, even though dodging didn’t always feel as smooth as it could have been. On top of that, if you have a buddy to play the game with in co-op, you’ll certainly have a blast too. We mentioned the different forms – Ninja and Samurai – above, which also make the flow of battles a lot more interesting. You can swap forms on the fly, where one gives you more melee-based options while the other does have a few more ranged options. The key stats here also differ, with the Ninja being more nimble than the Samurai, for example. As mentioned earlier, in many ways, Nioh 3 offers what you’d expect from the genre, but we still want to mention that the combat is extremely satisfying. It does take some time to master, and you’ll probably die a lot, but everything feels very fluid. We did notice some difficulty spikes that take the wind out of the sails from time to time, but it’s extremely satisfying to overcome hard-to-beat foes. The New Game+ mode offers even more challenges and makes Nioh 3 a game that will not be beaten that quickly. Conclusion Nioh 3 is a great sequel to titles that already stood tall in an oversaturated genre. You’ll be treated to tough-as-nails but rewarding combat, interesting class options, smooth combat mechanics, impressive boss battles, and rewarding exploration. While the story does take the backseat for most of the experience, we did enjoy the plot and the framing too. The game doesn’t change Nioh 2’s formula much, but there was no need to. If you’re a fan of the genre or are simply looking for an amazing Soulslike title to play through, picking this one up is a no-brainer.