Nioh 3 Review – Brutal Masterpiece Returns

It’s quite hard to believe that Nioh 1 released almost a whole decade ago in 2017. The sequel Nioh 2 was released in 2020, and it’s been long enough that Koei Tecmo have decided to release a third entry into the franchise. Nioh 3 enters the fray with a revamped battle system and touts enough changes to keep things fresh.
Does it do enough, though, and is the game worth checking out? Get out your Amrita folks and let’s dive into it!

Nioh 3

Nioh 3, much like its predecessors, revolves around feudal Japan, Yokai and the mysterious powers contained within Amrita, or “Spirit Stones”. The game kicks off with players taking on the role of a Tokugawa clan descendant. Playing as the protagonist Tokugawa Takechiyo, you’ll go through some training in Edo Castle before it is suddenly attacked by Yokai.

Fast forward a little bit, and without spoiling too much, both of your mentors are defeated, and you’re thrust into a battle for survival along with your Guardian Spirit, Kusanagi.

Character Creation & Customisation

Thankfully, though, the character creator is still a thing here, and you can customise how Takechiyo looks. Players will also be able to save their character designs and share them just like how they could in Nioh 3’s predecessor. If you’re like me, you’ll easily spend an hour or two just creating your character here.

Story & Open-Field Exploration

Nioh 3’s story is drip-fed to you via the game’s world itself and by means of cinematics that play out throughout the game. The game places a large emphasis on its stylistic storytelling, and there’s a lot of flashy effects and visual wizardry at play here, which is downright gorgeous. As you progress throughout the game, you’ll discover that you’re waging a war against forces of evil that span different timelines.

What this does is tie together the story through larger “Open-Field” areas, which give off the illusion of a much larger open-world to explore.

In comparison with Nioh 2, Nioh 3’s environments are a lot larger and feature a lot more exploration. There are NPCs to converse with, and you can level up your exploration level, too. Koei Tecmo have clearly implemented some mechanics and lessons from some of their other titles here too, such as Rise of Ronin and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Nioh 3 is all the better for it.

Samurai vs Ninja Combat System

The core gameplay changes in Nioh 3 involve the ability to swap between a Samurai fighting style and a Ninja fighting style. This introduces a complex battle mechanic that will have you swapping between the two styles on the fly in the heat of battle. They’ve also very smartly implemented a counter system which lets you swap between the two styles and unleash a powerful counterattack against enemies once they flash red before they attack you.

Powerful counters existed in Nioh 2, too, and thus, this mechanic’s return is quite welcome. Another returning feature is the ability to summon Yokai in battles, but this has been tweaked, too.

Progression & Skill Customisation

As you defeat enemies and amass Amrita, you’ll be able to level up your core stats just like in any “Soulslike” game; however, where Nioh 3 differs lies in the fact that you can also obtain Samurai or Ninja “Locks” which will be used to unlock a variety of abilities and skills. You unlock different stances, and since there are two different fighting styles on offer here, there’s a lot of customisation to consider on top of the standard Nioh stance system.

Difficulty & Combat Depth

Combat in Nioh 3 is past-paced, frantic and often extremely brutal and challenging. In fact, the first boss enemy in the game will most likely completely destroy you. If you aren’t familiar with “Soulslike” games or you don’t like challenging games, Nioh 3 is not for you. You will fight some enemies that can easily defeat you with 2 or 3 attacks if you don’t block or counter, and you’ll end up dying repeatedly if you don’t play smart. Combat involves strategic use of counters, blocking, hit-and-run tactics, and various other gameplay elements, which you need to use to your advantage.

The sheer amount of strategy on offer here in Nioh 3 is quite immense, to be quite honest. Doubly so since we now have the Ninja style of fighting available to use, which heavily relies on using Ninjutsu techniques.

Graphics & PC Performance

Graphically, Nioh 3 looks fantastic with all graphics settings maxed out, there are some PC performance issues to be noted. I have noticed some frame rate drops in the heat of battle, and to be honest, I feel as if Nioh 2’s art direction and style looked better than 3’s. Both games still look fantastic when maxed out, but it might be a personal preference thing since I feel as if Nioh 2’s character creator resulted in better-looking characters than Nioh 3’s.

Maybe I’m wrong here, though, and my memory might be playing tricks on me, but your mileage may vary, and you, as the player, can see for yourself and make that judgment call. Nevertheless, the game features gorgeous visuals, and the flashy effects and user interface work is top-notch as expected from Koei Tecmo at this point in time.

Soundtrack & Voice Acting

The soundtrack for Nioh 3 is also fantastic with music that perfectly suits the game’s visuals and theme. The music that plays while you’re facing off against Yokai and other enemies is great and really sets the tone for the battles in-game. The voice acting in the game is a bit of a hit and miss affair though with the English voice acting sounding a tad out of place or lacklustre compared to the original Japanese. Play this game with the Japanese voice acting enabled instead for a much better experience.

Final Verdict

Overall Nioh 3 is a fantastic, action-packed, “Soulslike” that has changed up the formula enough to keep things extremely enjoyable. Yes you will die a lot and yes there’s a big learning curve here once again but I did find that the game onboards you a lot smoother this time around and players will be able to actually progress a lot easier than before thanks to the ability to play the game co-operatively with 2 others and being able to summon help from other players.

Give Nioh 3’s demo a try if you’re on the fence. Chances are you might love the game. I certainly did and there’s plenty of longevity here too since you can replay missions and co-op the story mode too.

Nioh 3 Launch Trailer

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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.

The review was written by me and edited by my partner.