Ni-Oh's Release Date Announced
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Nioh, Team Ninja's action-RPG has gone gold after being in development for over a decade. In an official tweet found by Gameinformer.com, game's publisher Koei Tecmo has announced that Nioh will be released on February 7, 2017 for PlayStation 4.
Nioh's story follows William, a Western samurai in a fictionalized fantasy version of Sengoku period Japan; it is based on an unfinished script by Akira Kurosawa. According to previews(1,2), gameplay is going to be similar to that of the Souls series with a number of unique twists and intricacies like weapon stances, or specializing in a certain weapon type. If you own a PS4, this is definitely a game to keep on your radar.
Here's an excerpt from Gameinformer's preview:
Death Is Unavoidable
I confess I died five times during a 20-minute demo, but never once did I become frustrated. Nioh definitely takes the Dark Souls approach of learning through death, and that works to its benefit. During the demo, I experimented with many different tactics to overcome various enemies swarming a snowy field. My first instinct was to dive into the action, blocking and slashing at the enemy using strong and weak attacks. The strong attacks are obviously slower, and can be more risky to attempt, so I used more weak attacks to chip away at my first enemies. However, I soon found that one overzealous move can cost you everything. Once an enemy pulls off more than one hit on you, it's hard to come back from their combo, especially if they hit you hard enough to knock you on your back.
Using your bow can be a godsend, especially if you can line up a headshot before a foe sees you. This made baddies fall instantly to the ground, allowing me to get close for one last hit to polish them off. You also have bombs at your disposal, which can also give you an edge to start confrontations. Combat is less clunky and a bit faster than Dark Souls, more akin to Bloodborne. The best strategy is to study the enemy patterns, and never try to line up more than a few hits before rolling away. I felt a good rhythm of discovery and achievement throughout my time; the learning curve seems just right.
Stances Change Things Up
So far we've seen three different stances you can swap between to change up your strategy during battle. If you want to be agile and evasive, a low stance is your best bet. If you want to be aggressive, a high stance allows you cause more damage, but you are also more vulnerable. You can also take a middle chance which is a good happy medium between the two. I found the high stance the best for executing killer combos.
Building Your Character And Finding Better Weaponry Is Vital
As you defeat enemies, they drop glorious loot, and there's nothing quite like getting better gear and weapons to help you withstand tough battles. All the gear has both cosmetic and attribute implications, so William's appearance changes when you equip new threads. As you kill enemies, you level up and get skill points, but you can't assign your points until you find a shrine. At shrines you can also save your game, heal up, and change the elemental spirit attached to William, which gives him certain stat boosts and buffs. A variety of categories exist to distribute your skill points, but from what I saw in my demo, they're mostly tied to weapon proficiency, so you can end up being a sword or spear master, depending on your weapon of choices.
Edit: naturally, just after this gets posted, another bit of Nioh news comes to our attention. In an official PlayStation blog post, Nioh: Last Chance Trial has been announced. During the upcoming weekend, January 21 and 22, you will be able to try out the expanded version of the game's Demo shown at PlayStation Experience in December. This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the game, and if you beat the two included missions, will net you several unique items to keep in the release version.
