Nioh which translates as "Benevolent King" is a fictional story based on real Japanese history mixed with fictional Japanese myths. The story is basically how a few individuals have the ability to interact with the spirit world and have to defeat the Yokai evil in order to save Japan and perhaps the world. The game is very similar to dark souls in terms of combat and difficulty, however the game appears to be more equipment and stats based rather purely relying on skill. Nioh feels like a mix between Diablo and Dark Souls set in the 1600-1800 Japan period.
Nioh 1 & 2 are so similar to each other in terms of graphics, combat and gameplay that you could literally connect both games together and sell them as one game and nobody would be able to tell that those were 2 different games. It's just that similar! Actually I think they did that by releasing Nioh Collection on Ps5.
The Gameplay:
Its basically similar to Dark souls or bloodborne. You go through areas and find bonfires(called shrines) and make your way to the boss by defeating deadly enemies which can literally 2 shot you. The bosses feel more like JRPG type bosses since they can be cursed or casted upon.
There are maybe 20 types of enemies in the game, once you learn their moveset, the game becomes a breeze. The thing is that most enemies can kill you in 2 or 3 hits, some perhaps in 1 hit. However, you face the same enemies so often that after a while they just don't touch you anymore.
The problem with Nioh is that you can literally slow down the enemies with "sloth" and other status effects and punish them repeatedly... after running out of stamina you can turn into your spirit animal and keep punishing them.
here is how you can kill any boss in the game.
Before boss arena:
Cast Attack up/ elemental buff / stamina buff
upon entering
Casting slow/ lower armor/ lower attack / lower stamina on the boss
Go behind the boss, unleash your full stamina bar on his back. Do these 3 times. When the slow status effect disappears, turn into your spirit animal and attack him as much as possible. Dodge back and cast all the status effects and buffs once again, rince and repeat.
Boss beaten.
The Story:
The story is a bit too fruity for my taste. It feels as if they made the story too "Pokemonish" by including different animal spirits, unlikely situations and cliché bad guys. It just feels like a typical JRPG story. I pretty much just skip most cutscenes because I personally found the story uninteresting. 5/10
The graphics:
The graphics are literally identical to Nioh 1 with perhaps some minor improvements. The graphics are good for that kind of game, representing the full potential of what the PS4 can deliver. The graphics are somewhere between Dark souls 2 and Dark souls 3 in terms of polish. 8/10
The Soundtrack:
Generic Japanese ambiance music, nothing memorable at all. 5/10
The difficulty.
For normal players, 10/10
For souls veterans 5/10
I find it a bit more difficult than Dark souls if you don't have the right equipment and stats. However, if you get the right gear, the game becomes very easy.
Overall great game, worth a buy!