Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBest Combat System Ever
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024
Concept (10/10)
A sequel to the demon slaying samurai hit Nioh, with a story revolving around Oda Nobunaga. The combat system is the same, but new weapons, demonic powers, and enemies have been added.
Story (4/10)
The story follows Nobunaga’s rise to power in a brutal effort to unite the factions of Japan, but as the war escalates, the armies rely on Spirt Stones, which corrupts them with demonic energy. The story has just about everything you’d want, but I just couldn’t relate to it. It’s told through short cutscenes and long text screens where you have to read paragraphs of information. Then you’re totally taken out of the story because you fight demons for an hour or two until you get the next story beat. There is almost no integration between the gameplay and the story. It ends up feeling like blah blah blah, fight monsters, blah blah, fight monsters…
Gameplay (10/10)
Select levels on a World Map, complete them, get rewards, and repeat. You can play the same levels over and over again to farm XP or loot if you want, but it isn’t necessary. There are 20 main missions, 53 Side Missions, and approximately 20 Dojo Missions, there’s a ton of content here. Each mission displays your recommended level before you select it, so you won’t accidentally select one that is way too hard.
Combat (11/10)
The combat is the same as Nioh 1, but now you have a demon form and 3 swappable demon powers that you can change at any Shrine. There are new weapons, new powers, new items, new abilities, and new demons. You also have fantasy ninja items and magic spells, which buff you, debuff enemies, or deal damage. The powers are really fun to use and the enemies are really fun to fight!
The basics of combat rely on weapon combos, which deplete your Ki energy (stamina). After a combo, your energy swirls around you and when it returns to your body, if you time an R1 button press at the right time, you get a bunch of energy back, and your Ki fills up more quickly, so you can keep attacking. If you swap stances during a Ki Pulse, you get even more energy back! Demonic Special attacks don’t cost Ki, so you can use these when your Ki is low.
But if you ever run out of Ki energy, your character is exhausted and can’t move for about 1.5 seconds and any enemy hit will be a critical hit that does about 75% damage to you. Timing the R1 Button presses is pretty easy once you get the hang of it.
You can carry 2 weapons at a time and switch mid combo and each weapon has a high, medium, and low stance. You can switch these at any time, too. A High Stance deals more damage, A Medium Stance is balanced, and a Low Stance is less damage, but attacks faster. As you use weapons, you gain points to use on that specific weapon’s skill tree to unlock new moves, longer combos, different types of parries and counterattacks, and stat boosts.
When you put it all together, you can use a spell to debuff an enemy, throw a ninja bomb at him, do a high combo, ki pulse, medium combo, ki pulse, high combo, ki pulse, demon attack 1, demon attack 2, demon attack 3, turn into a demon for a minute and use those attacks, come out of demon form, and repeat all of that again. It’s crazy! And the animations are incredibly fast and smooth. The speed and fluidity feels like Elden Ring, but Nioh 2 has far more variety in the items, powers, and attacks you can equip.
On the minus side, enemies are very tough and just about each one has a special attack that can do 80% damage, so you always want to be at full health. The enemies are very difficult to fight and fighting 2 or 3 at a time, is extremely difficult.
Character (10/10)
When you create a character, Nioh 2’s customization system is on par with Dragon’s Dogma 2. You can make anyone and it’s relatively easy to do. Every weapon and piece of armor you find has bonus stats attached to it. The more rare an item is, the more stats it has. Combining these stats from your weapons and armor allows you to create a playstyle.
As you would expect, killing enemies grants you XP that you use to increase stats. You can do more damage, get more health, get more ki, more ninja gear, more magic, wear heavier armor… it is all up to you!
For example: If you want longer combos, look fir Ki (stamina) reduction bonuses. If you want to deal more damage, look for damage bonuses for each weapon or stance. If you want to use Ninjutsu or Magic, look for those bonuses. You can really push your character to do just about anything if you use these correctly. When you visit a blacksmith, you can choose to change these stat bonuses for a price.
It's so much fun to build the character you want and destroy demons!
If the game is too hard, other players can leave a blue grave in the world for you. You can find these near bosses or at the beginnings of levels. Just select these and that player will be controlled by AI and help you. You can also play Co-op with a friend and invite them into your game.
Note: There is no PVP, but any time a player’s character dies, you can select their grave and fight their ghost (controlled by AI). It’s fun and the ghosts drop 1 or 2 pieces of gear.
Graphics (10/10)
For a PS4 game, this looks great! The characters, levels, demons, combat, and particle effects are as good as they can be!
Sound (9/10)
The music is pretty good and the sounds of combat really highlight the action!
Value (10/10)
Beating the game on single player could take about 100 hours and if you want to get all of the achievements, there could be 200 hours of gameplay here. There’s also a New Game+ mode, where you can keep your gear and play through the game on a much harder difficulty.
Overall (9.5/10)
If you want a difficult hack and slash demon slaying game, this is the best in terms of combat. The graphics are great. The level designs are very imaginative and huge. The enemies are fun to fight. You can easily sink in 100+ hours into Nioh 2 and be on the edge of your seat the entire time.
I normally beat a Souls game with 100 deaths total. I died about 100 times in the first two missions on Nioh 2. But once you get good, the combat is the best!
