CRITIQUE: Nioh - It's no Bloodborne (and that's a good thing) 

almost 5 years later, still waiting for that Nioh 2 critique

The easiest thing to cut from the video would have been the apologies for its length. Long form analysis is great, that's what I come to your channel for and you do it well.

It seems like calling it a straight Souls clone could only be done by someone who didn't dive into it. Great video Chris!

You don't understand - you have to play in a way reflects the way I played, validating my own choices. Anything I do to give me an advantage is great and only an IDIOT wouldn't do it. Anything I didn't do (or didn't discover) that gives an advantage is BREAKING THE GAME and you should feel BAD about using it. Being insecure as I am, I require constant validation of my choices and playstyle, and I demand you do this, despite giving you no money. I am a well adjusted human being.

I love the smell of long-form game analysis in the morning.

Late correction - Actually the way to tell what color gesture to use on the walls with eyes (Nurikabe) is to look at the revenant graves nearby. They'll say killed by Nurikabe due to Friendly, Neutral, Or Hostile behavior. Just use one of the two color gestures that's not shown on the grave

The fire wheel monks, I think, are designed to teach you the importance of baiting out specific attacks. They can be absolutely trivialized by just standing directly on front of their faces, with their attacks getting more and more punishing the further away you get. But by just standing on front of them, they will ALWAYS do their slow flame breath attack which has plenty of time to circle behind them and attack their weak spot, knocking them down and making them trivial to kill.

Such a great game and an underrated one as well, getting unfairly written off as a souls clone. This game is obviously inspired by those games but stands on its own.

It's hard to tell the difference between the words nier and nioh when they're spoken in a British accent.

Just beat Nioh and all sub missions! Great vid! I like to imagine they started with a full plate of cut scenes with proper introductions and everything. Then some employee reminded them "But DarkSouls & Bloodborne have minimal dialogue/cinematics!" so the director slashed the cut scenes in half with no thought lol

My dude, it's almost been 3 years and nioh 2 is about to come out. I really hope you've played this games DLC.

"Low stance is quick like being tickled to death by an agressive feather" :))))))))))))))))

Kinda sad you hadn't done the video about the DLC or Nioh 2, would've been a lovely watch. Great Video!

Just a thing to point out. You mentioned meeting Fukyu in the maze like (chalice) dungeon. Its actually Ginchiyo, Tachibana's wife if im remembering it right.

This is my favorite kind of thing to watch while i eat

Watching this after hearing Nioh Remastered on the PS5 with 4k graphics at 60fps. Still holds true today! Love the souls series, loved playing HZD + Frozen Wilds on the PS5 with almost no load times, and also grew to love Nioh. The living weapon Pokemon mechanic, and the weapon styles to further enhance Demon's Souls combat, made it so worthwhile. I'm currently having a blast going through Nioh 2 Remastered.

I love how you're like "I give this game 4/5, really close to a 5", then 20 seconds later you're like "the combat system has optional complexity that's unnecessary to use, the story sucks, the levels suck and the leveling is broken".

3 very important mistakes in the video regarding coop and the whole leveling system. While many of these things regard the endgame and were introduced with the DLC patches, they nonetheless address some of your issues: (1) 1:59:39 But you can do exactly that. After completing the game for the first time you can just play any level in new game+(+++) via the Torii Gate from the beginning with a friend in coop. In fact I clocked in over 200 hours playing the game in coop going through all the different new game + versions. (2) Also, the mission level is NOT the recommended character level. It just informs you about the general difficulty of the mission. It will later go way past 1000, far beyond the maximum level. The difficulty in relation to your level and gear is portrayed by the bloody sword symbols beneath it. So you were probably not underleveled. (3) The game has an equivalent of paragon levels once you reach the max level of 750. It is called "Focus Level". Additionally, there are green skills in the skill tree which you can level endlessly to improve your stats with unused skill points after obtaining all skills you wanted. It's also important to mention that later New Game plus modes don't simply increase the numbers but change enemy placements, place new enemies in the levels, and introduce red coloured buffed version of regular enemies.

I have a lot of things to say in response to your video. It's easy to nitpick. So I'm not going to do so. It just feels weird to me that you said that"Bloodborne doesn't have a story" I could understand someone saying: I didn't understand the story of Bloodborne. But to completely come and say that there is no story whatsoever.... That's completely wrong in my opinion. To be honest I didn't understand the story of Bloodborne on my many many playthroughs mainly because I'm not the type of person that can spend time on reading descriptions etc. I agree with you on the point that Bloodborne like the rest of the games in the series doesn't tell you the story itself, but the story is there. There are people on RU-vid that have made numerous videos about the story of Bloodborne. Hell, some of the characters within the story have 10-minute long videos explaining their place in the world. Your video gets even weirder when you think Nioh's story is better. I really didn't expect this level of comparison from a critic like you. I understand that no one has to have opinions like me but to state facts like " Bloodborne has no story" is too much for me....

And now a new video one day after I discovered you YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL ME

the part about feeling like you 'brute forced' your way through the game is too true so many bosses make me feel like i didnt really learn how to beat them, i just eventually got lucky

Nioh is overly weird with all the extremely broken items and spells you can use, bosses are either very difficult or can be cheesed to an extent that everyone should be able to kill them.. this is probably by design and maybe a later choice in the development?

I recently found your videos through the history of iso rpg's. I have got to say these critique videos are amazing.

This channel is way too underrated. This is quality content. I watched your other videos never realising the low sub count. More people need to watch this.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the expansions.

"This is where the better players will shine and where I did not." Lol. Amen to that, man.

Seeing such a deep dive on this version of the game, while only having played the Complete edition was really fascinating, because those DLCs transformed this game so damn much. Like I didn't know why you thought the twilight missions were useless until I remembered they didn't add tempering until later, at which point twilight missions became VERY useful.

The people who claim that it's cheating to use in-game mechanics to beat the game are ridiculus. The beauty of arpg's like Nioh or Soulsbornekiro (at this point) is that the player can craft their difficulty. You play in the style that fits your instincts (which is an advantage btw.) and use whatever means to have the challenge that you find enjoyable. It's like saying that someone didn't really complete Doom because they didn't play on hardest difficulty. But then, did they really complete these games, not playing the pauper no bonfire donkey kong congos controller playthrough?

I love how the experience can vary so much from player to player. I had a hellish time with bosses like Nue, Yuki-onna and White Tiger (admittedly, the argument that I was "playing them wrong" might hold some water in these cases), but then killed Giant Toad in my first attempt, and BARELY taking any hits. I've stuck mostly to a melee build focusing on dual katanas, occasionally switching to spear when needing higher damage output, and still, I never felt like the bosses were "unfair" with that build, just that I wasn't good enough at what I needed to do with my build in order to beat them with it. The fact that the game also allows such a plethora of options in order to beat the game, and that there's room for optimization, only makes me want to replay this already humongous game just to try out new stuff. However, I feel that I've somehow "broken" or "cheesed" the game a bit after mastering the dual katana's Wind God II technique, which does massive health and ki damage to humans and yokai alike, and it's helped me farm revenant tombs to no end. . If there ever is going to be a sequel, I really hope that it lives up to the original. More people need to play this, IMHO.

There's a couple of things I'd change if I could make this video again. Some are embarrassing errors on my part, others are just parts of the learning process with editing videos and audio. Here's the embarrassing mistakes you should be aware of. (1) I stupidly say that there is no PVP in Nioh. What I meant to say are that there are no PVP "invasions." A separate PVP mode got added as DLC and I might cover it briefly as part of a video on all Nioh's DLC that I hope to do later this year. These PVP fights take place in separate battle arenas. They're also pretty shit and the very definition of tacked on. I should have been much clearer about what I meant when I said there's no PVP. (2) I get some character names mixed up which I'm going to at least partly blame on the point I make in the video about the game's dreadful storytelling and the way it fails to tell you who the characters are. I accidentally refer to Muneshige's wife as Fuku at the end of the first act. Also, it's not William watching the execution at the end, it's Sakon. This last one is most annoying. We're told that William is pretending to be dead and in the next scene we see someone heavily disguised so that we can only see the bottom half of his face. We see him for a second, if that. I assumed this was William in disguise, but it's actually Sakon. We're supposed to know that it's Sakon because he's wearing the same hat he wore when we saw him for a few seconds at the beginning of the game. This is pretty terrible. Sakon is an important character, but at least ten other characters get more screen time. If you want to reintroduce Sakon randomly like this you need more than a second of him where you can't see most of his face. Also, what happened to him? Why is he just watching the execution when he pledged to die for his master? I'm simultaneously pissed off at myself and the storytelling here. We are both to blame. Oh, and I refer to the Holy Mountain as Mount Hiei around the one hour fifty mark. Not really important, but wanted to mention it. (3) You can equip more than 2 sloth talismans. This is an odd one. In the skill tree, you can reduce the amount of "magic points" that each talisman takes up. The fewer points each spell takes up, the more other spells you can carry. What I didn't realize is that after you've upgraded a spell to take up fewer points, you can still equip the old version of the spell to get more of them. Technically you can get 6 sloth talismans in one life, although you're probably not going to want to do this because you won't be able to carry many other spells. 4 is probably realistic. I would still opt to carry 2 because I like using a mixture of spells, but it's important to note that you can carry more. I apologize for these mistakes and any confusion they may have caused. I'm trying to cut mistakes out of my work, however only being able to work an hour or so a night means that projects drag on a long time and I lose the ability to see the wood for the trees. For example, I knew that Fuku and Munishege's wife were different people, but the mistake ended up in the script and I never spotted it. I still don't know how. The obvious answer is to take more time on each project, but I don't feel like that would help. It's more due to the scattered nature of when I'm able to work on the scripts and videos which isn't something I'll be able to correct in the near future. Editing mistakes. (1) Some of the editing around cutscenes isn't as smooth as I'd have liked. Near the end of this project I decided to let more cutscenes play out without me talking over them to give people a chance to hear the voice acting. This wasn't properly accounted for in the script and as such it is a little clunky. (2) You might notice changes in the sound quality for the voice over. I've always struggled with audio quality and I don't have the best mic set up. As I recorded new audio for this video, I changed my presets a bit and have now found some better settings. The good news is that the audio will hopefully be a touch cleaner in the next video. The bad news is that it isn't great in this one. (3) There's 7 seconds of looped audio. I've edited this within the RU-vid editor, so it should get cut out, but RU-vid is taking forever to process this change. I'm not even sure if it will happen now. It's been 3 days and it still hasn't gone through!

i REALLY hated how people bitch and whine about powerful abilities in games and cry for nerfs and say those that use them arent playing the game. it was the same in DS2 with lightning spears, apparently 3 shotting a boss with your limited but super powerful magic in which you spent a considerable amount of levels into a stat is "not playing the game how it should be played" but 5 shotting a boss with a sword as huge as a skyscraper with armour capable of making you nigh invincible is playing the game how it is meant to be played..... sloth went from "15 second slow down that makes setting up debuff combo's, buff combo's or dealing a lot of damage for a investement in magic worth it" to "5 seconds of barely being able to accomplish anything due to such short duration, rather than use points for 5 seconds of slow down and wasting a inventory slot, far better to use a different spell or item" literally worthless now honestly, i really dont understand why people feel the need to bitch on someone else's playstyle cause it isnt 'hard' enough.

1:36:32 - Pretty sure that's his general/mentor, not william - so yeah, we do see him again and he actually got saved by Kelley. It's the same straw-hat he wore when he first met hanzo & william on those stairs

35:11 i will say this, because its something people miss alot about dark souls 1 and demon souls. the reason the "real story" is told in the description of items, and the position of items in the world is because, the "told" story you get from the npcs is FAKE. you play as someone being manipulated into sacrificing yourself for a certain faction. so, if you take everything you are told at face value, you will only get the story they want you to hear. its only by searching, and looking for the real story that you grasp what is really going on, and if the quest you are forced into is worth it. dark souls is one of the very few games that does a "you are being manipulated" right, to the point most players dont even know that. also, the story you are told is pretty easy to digest, do this to get there, ge that to enter that place, go into that place kill guy and take his place so everything can go back the way it was...

soulsborne doesnt use an external appendix though... you get item descriptions as you pick up the items, bloodborne in particular weaves a great story that gets built on by the items early on. that trend continues through the whole game and the DLC, id agree with darksouls though... 1st one still holds my favor over the latter 2.

the recommended level is weird because if you go in at the level or over it the mission is relatively easy but if you are over 30 levels below and depending skill the missions can be ridiculously hard. the dlc is a prime example where bosses have 2 summon spirits and abuse them when you cant do much of anything to them

Dude, Mr. Davis, I love your stuff. Been watching for years but have been binge-watching as of late. You have a passion for gaming and the way you articulate that passion is why I watch. Big Ups!

I mean, you're fighting the fire wheel with low stance, I would get frustrated too. Also, water talismans wreak these guys.

Overall great video. I appreciate seeing people's opinions and deeply enjoy listening to points of appreciation and possible improvements on big projects like Nioh. It's fun to listen to an alternative experience for the game and how others react to various challenges (I focused on Spirit and Onmyou magic, so I primarily went through levels by abusing ALL spells, ESPECIALLY sloth, and spamming the Bat Living Weapon). I admit there were multiple points that I readily don't agree with or could argue against, but you do a good job of acknowledging other opinions mostly and make good arguments for your own. 1:08:22 I will go ahead and argue this one particular point though. Nioh may not be as clear-cut or smooth about its story-telling as Bloodborne, but the levels DO try to tell stories, to varying degrees of success. One such story bore the distinct moment in the game where I suddenly felt an emotional revelation about William that I hadn't been expecting, and it was told entirely through his traversal through a level. The Battle of Sekigahara was probably the single most emotional moment for me in the entire game- not because of beating Sakon or fighting in a war, but really because... William almost DOESN'T fight in the war. He does fight, there's no real denying that. He beats important generals and helps push the frontlines by taking out Mitsunari's cannons. But it's treated like an afterthought, an obstacle to be pushed through toward a goal waiting past the bloodshed. When you first start the stage, almost nothing is present except the bleak charred atmosphere. Sounds of clashes in the background, gunfire, but no people present. No enemies, just William starting his traversal towards Kelley on the enemy side. Soon you face sporadic enemy soldiers, small groups of stragglers. Everyone seems exhausted before picking up their weapons to take you on. Moving farther still, William eventually finds himself in... the ravine. Hundreds, thousands of bodies strewn where Ieyasu's men pushed and struggled and died against fortifications to take the very point that William is now almost casually trudging through, picking off winded stragglers. And it dawned on me. William arrived LATE to a WAR. A war where his very allies, his currently most trusted companions, are betting their lives and ambitions on winning. No one comments on it. The game never indicates that William had to debate this decision. But for whatever reason, William was NOT on the frontlines of that push, and has no intentions of participating in this war for idealism's sake. No. William has only one goal. He's only HAD one goal in the entire game, and will only have one from that point on. Reaching Kelley through any means necessary and getting Saoirse back. Even if that means ignoring a war. The only reason William is even present at that moment is because Kelley is present. The reason the enemies "seem to ignore William" until he's directly interfering with them? He's not following Ieyasu's commands, so he's not where the enemy army would expect a threat to be. The first big introduction to the battlefield is seeing Ieyasu's men being gunned down in a field just beyond a small bridge. You can take the bridge and join up with Ieyasu's soldiers, which is something William would probably have to do if he were an actual soldier. But you don't have to. You're a literal foreign element, and one that cares neither for orders nor protocol. So it makes perfect sense that most players probably instead follow the river to go directly behind enemy lines, where no one soldier should be. The second half of my revelation that William "isn't supposed to be a part of the war" is the fact that, barring Otani Yoshitsugu (if he can even be counted), there are no Youkai present in the entire level (it's possible I missed some or just aren't remembering). Nearly every level has a supernatural element or challenge for William to overcome. But Sekigahara is just a war between men. And after fighting youkai and youkai, forces far stronger and overwhelming than the average man, this level is practically a refreshing break as far as difficulty goes. William can absolutely decimate average soldiers, only really being threatened by groups that can be annihilated if you spend even small resources or effort. It re-enforces that William didn't become this strong to slay men- he exclusively specializes in fighting youkai and beings with mystical powers. His skills are, ironically, almost wasted on a warzone. His strength is necessary to push through obstacles for victory, but the intermittent moments barely provide a challenge for the player at that point in the game. The only reason William even cares to do any warmongering is because behind those walls of enemy soldiers is the one opponent that actually matters to him. The war doesn't really matter. The political strife doesn't really matter. Barring his closest friends, who he allies with doesn't really matter. ONLY getting Saoirse back matters, and not even a war William doesn't want to be a part of will stop him from achieving that. Sorry for the length.

I think you may have suffered a little from sticking to Low Stance so hard. Its not really supposed to be the main damage, more a good way to shred stamina on enemies but you seem to have made it work. Im guilty of many, many High Stance deaths because......well it makes the numbers bigger xD

Been watching your videos for a bit now. I laughed just now because your speech and organization skills always screamed "lawyer" to me, as I'm a lawyer (by day) too. Cheers.

My favorite thing in this game is the loot mechanic, and the fashion, since you can make your style by refashioning armor in a year way you please.

I found switching stances and ki management to be a huge part of the game's appeal. I would often dodge around in low attack, as it definitely does give you i-frames, and then quickly switch to mid or high attack to land hits and punish bosses. Nioh was the first Souls-like game that clicked for me, and I love it dearly.

Do you have any plan to do Nioh 2 I was so glad to see you did Deus Ex mankind divided. It’s actually my favorite game ever! Sekiro and Nioh are close favorites though

This game does what most should do when seeing a successful series. Take its core concept, but make it feel different without deriving too much. The combat for Nioh 1 and 2 are phenomenal and I really do applaud the devs. I hope they make a 3rd.

45:04 I basically did the same with Nioh and am doing the same with N2. A lot of the additional moves you acquire are great for extending a combo, and can really keep some enemies defensive leading to Ki-breaks... But typically, any enemy on the higher side of “mid-tier” and above (which you come across more frequently as the game goes on) can either tank the little added jazz attacks and delivery an insta-death blow if you’re not at full HP. Most of the extra moves aren’t “safe”, making them kind of worthless, because enemies can just eat hits and not replaying or be interrupted more often as you progress. It’s better to enter on the punish-frames, get 2 hits in and dodge out. What they should have done was apply some kind of increased “constitution break” skill/stat to all of the moves you have to unlock (especially the ones father down the skill progression line). Maybe they could have an increased ability to interrupt combos or prevent counterattacks if you get caught with that specific move, therein adding a few “safe-frames”, which actually would give value to unlockable moves, making them worth the unlock. Because nothing feels worse (in a game) that putting in dozens of hours of effort to unlock moves/skills/abilities that aren’t as universally viable as some of the basic functionality that you start with. And even in N2, with an actual skill tree, so many of the skills are so situational or insignificant that most are just stepping stones, and you’ll find yourself spending 4 or 5 points on skills that have little to no value just to get to a specific one that caught your eye. But yeah, I know where you’re coming from.

1:53:10 buddy, let me help you. In Bloodborne you can hold circle to climb and descend ladders faster.

Additional points: Tachibana Ginchiyo is not Fuku. They're two different women. Also the fact that "real" Tachibana boss is way more difficult than Kelley Tachibana doppleganger boss is to accentuate the fact Kelley can at best just make copies of great warriors offering but pale comparisons to the real thing.

"A high 4" I very much look forward to your video on the real endgame and dlcs :)

31:40 Fuku ? Are you sure about that :/ ?

One of the biggest things to get you out of long combo chains that would otherwise kill you os the fact that you can instantly shift to a guard after any hitstun from an enemy attack. On top of that it's important to shift to mid-stance too at the same time because guards take the least ki in that stance. For blocking, Mid is best and Low can work, while High is the worst. For dodging Low is superior and mid is okay, while high is again the worst. High is exclusively for openings where you get a chance for big damage, and should be switched out of immediately when that opening closes because its guard crumples fast and its dodge is the shoddiest.

Fantastic video, first of all. Subscribed right away. A few things I would discuss: First, about the Death penalty, i.e. losing your bank when you die without collecting it. I would actually argue that in souls-esque games, this is actually very important. It prevents you from suiciding your way to victory, so to speak. As you could run trough most of the levels repeatedtly without any penalty whatsoever. It also encourages players who are struggling to bank more Amrita/Souls/Moolah to get stronger, particularly in a Level they might be struggling at. I breezed trough the early parts of the game fairly easily, and suddenly started struggling with some of the optional Boss Fights and even the basic enemies in some cases (Those Bird Monks still drive me crazy, even after playing the game for a solid 100 hours), because I was fairly low level for the places I was at. The Death penalty there made sure I actually caught back up, instead of just trying to skip parts of the level over and over. Also, I think its very important to point out how nicely they implemented blocking into the game. In Dark Souls, wether you would block or dodge most attacks depended on your build a lot. Unless I'm completely out of the loop the "Beefy Shieldman" is generally the recommended approach for most newcomers to the series, until they get the roll timing down. In Nioh, many fights can actually be made way, WAY easier by combining Block & Dodge in a smart way. And it doesnt really depend on your build. Yuki-Onna and Weird-Tongue-Lady (The one in the cave) are very nice examples of this. Many of their attack chains can be rather hard to nail if you want to dodge all of them. So Dodge into Block, or the other way around usually works better. Blocking the last attack of a Chain also has the added benefit of leaving you in range to counterattack right away. I liked that a lot, since it was the first time where blocking without a shield can actually be very much worth it, as opposed to most Souls games where not only it drains most of your stamina, it will also barely negate any of the damage done. A Hybrid-Playstyle there is barely worth it, if at all. Finally, the story. I didnt even realize how...nothing it really is, until watching this. It's sad, because I remember being intrigued up until the first new Map. But then they started throwing so many names and factions around that I stopped paying attention. It isnt helped by the fact that I spent large swaths of playtime doing sidecontent and farming Gearsets. Because it meant 3-5 hours of no story at all, and by then I had completely forgotten what was actually happening on the Main-Quest.

Weee, a 2-hour video! And congratz, man. You're almost at 3k subs! Keep it up!

Just concerning your dislike about having to read up the lore in the memory section: I think Souls and Nioh do a good job at telling their story. It is one thing to go into a menu and read an item descreption or a short text, something else entirely to buy a complimentory comic or novel. Its like you said with the Game of Thrones books: It is heavily recomended to read the Appendix at the end of the book when something comes up in the story you don't fully understand, but nobody in their right mind would suggest buying the "World of Ice and Fire" companion book to understand the main story. It is all part of the package you bought, so the criss-cross referencing is actually a way to tell the story with more player interaction than just watching a 5 hour movie with some interactive stuff in between cutscenes, what most modern games seem to strive to be.

31:35 That's not Fuku, that's Tachibana Ginchiyo, wife of the guy we are saving here. Also, she's the one who sent us on this mission to begin with. Know your waifus!

Fuku is Mage Girl, Ginchyo is the other girl!

A little critique if i may: (or call it my opinion of if you disagree) You spend a substantial amount of this videos time by basically just presenting us a walkthrough of yours. It feels more like reading out of a diary instead of brining a point across (since this is a critique). Let me give you an example: -Instead of just walking us through all levels briefly you could have categorized every level type beforehand like: Narrow/More Open/Visually Impressive and so on. Also put them under a rating system (good to shitty) based on their enjoyment you got out of them so the viewer gets an better idea how much of this was actually enjoyable to you. Then proceed to give better (or worse) examples from other games. This would be a good opportunity to compare it to souls/borne since its the closest genre in comparison. Same could be done about the bosses. I realize you talk a little about level and bossdesign (and bloodborne) at the last third of your video but instead of putting it at the end of your critique you could have incorporated that into your first walkthrough and give it way more deserved time. Right now it comes across as an afterthought. I also wish you would have gotten abit into more detail about the loot-system and the mission type design that this game has instead of an open world. -Diablo type loot that drops randomly instead of unqiue loot from dark souls that rewards exploration. -Missed opportunity of an open world that wouldnt take you out of the game everytime you finish a mission (or restrict you to a boring path just because of that excuse of a story) I still got alot of enjoyment out of your vid and i really like your humor, so keep it up.

I know I'm about 2 years too late but I really enjoy your content and hope you keep up the long form analysis. It's quite nice to listen to while I'm at work and actually kinda helps keep me on track for breaks and stuff. (I've no sense of time)

Holy crap that's a lengthy review lmao and a late one at that. But your reviews are great! Glad I found you! I was actually looking for a review on the full game with all the dlcs expansions and tweaks implemented (there was ALOT of new stuff implemented)

I never read the Game of Thrones books but honestly where the hell is it explained how she got her 3 dragons? Go in fire , come out with 3 dragons cause she is a Targaryen.

Nice critique. A few errors here and there, but I liked it.

sloth attack pill kusarigama shock paper for even more movement reduction every boss was gone in seconds

One small correction that I don't know if you correct yourself on later or not, but there are I-frames for your dodges in this game, you just have to be really precise with how you dodge an attack (like near frame perfect). Its a lot like ninja gaidens dodge only a bit easier since enemies don't attack as fast as that game.

From 21:38-21:46 the gameplay footage is hilarious. The struggle is real and I literally laughed out loud. The fire bomb got me so good. 😂

Will you be making a video on Nioh 2?

I am so confused by this video essay. At the front you give the game an almost perfect score. Then spend the entirety of the video pointing out how bad almost all of nioh is. I spent the entirety of this video expecting to have the rug pulled out from under me with a "I've been crapping on this but here's the thing that elevates it." And it never came. Just quite strange to have 2+ hours video stating you love nioh yet the entirety is pointing out it's many flaws and issues and seldom saying much good about it.

I appreciate the effort you put into this video I'm only 36 minutes in so far & you hit the " lore " take on the head for Nioh but not for Souls because Souls doesn't give you a directory or even a clue that you learn so much lore & how you learn the lore. With Souls to really get the items that hint to lore they are hidden in the world & not only do the items not tell you outright they hint at the lore & where you found that item, how the item got there or who held the item all of that is crucial in souls to learn the lore. Souls doesn't have a bad story then ask you to read. The reading is optional & an item description can be 6 or 7 subtle words that can reveal so much when combined with the location & surroundings playing a huge part. Thats because spelling will be butchered but Miyazaki loved reading western fantasy growing up but his English wasn't great so he had to use his imagination to finish or piece together the literature so in souls he makes the lore some what open ended for the players to speculate on the lore etc etc. Nioh is no where near that creative from that stand point but I agree the joy of Nioh isn't the story its the combat & unbelievably deep inventory management that can be frustrating although super rewarding. Many players never realize what the blacksmith can do for your character

Thank you so much! I love your content and have been praying for this, keep up the good work mate

I really, really hope you'll make a Nioh 2 in-depth analysis someday.

CORRECTION: the 60fps mode for Nioh is NOT 720p on PS4 and 1080p on PS4 Pro. It’s a dynamic 720p to 1080p on both. The Pro just spends more time hanging in the upper bounds, though it is not fixed at 1080p. It can still drop as low as 720p on rare occasions, with the most common resolutions being in between 720p and 1080p.

finally a new good critique!! keep the content coming brother huge fan!!

i came a little late for this video, but i love it, i saw it all to the end. I looked for Nioh 2 video in your channel but i can´t find it, so i hope you can make it in the future. Greetings and good work.

I love the long videos I listen while at work

I hope one day you dive into the Onimusha series. I feel it's like this but less refined Nioh. I loved Onimusha and it needs far more in depth lore. I hope you have the patience to get this series. As it's one of the few games where you'll have to get a few more resources to get access to from the OG console and record it for modern day editings.

Played Nioh 1 and 2 plus DLC’s and have mostly no clue what’s going on story wise.

Well, if someone is having a hard time with the blood starved beast I recommend them the flamesprayer +3, that things destroy that boss

Great video. A lot of tough love from you for Nioh. Which is a good thing. It could definately be better in certain area's. Bloodborne is my favourite game of all time, but Nioh and Nioh 2 are probably in my top 5. I hope you're going to do more video's on Nioh's DLC and Nioh 2 at some point.

We do see shima sakon again. In the final cutscene before credits. Thats him watching mitsubari's execution, not William.

I’m years late watching this. But William and Okatsu have a son by Nioh 2. When you meet him I wasn’t sure if he was okatsu’s son. Until you hear her music. Nice little bit of closure for their story

Platinuming the game is both frustrating and enjoyable

Hey uh, you repeat the same thing at 50:40 and 50:47, not sure if anyone else caught that.

I hated this game because I went into it thinking it was a Souls style game. Other than the fact that you dodge & look for openings in your enemies attack patterns, this is it's own thing completely. I love the game now but I had to look past the "souls clone" label it has

Really great critique man! Had picked up this game a while back played until I got to the 3rd boss then gave up, flash forward to 2018/2019 picked it back up during my break, started over, new build, and played the game correctly with a decent build and it makes a huge difference. Now I think I'm at the last level of the game. It has been great. Watching the crit after the fact and I think you're spot on! My ONLY crit of your crit is SLOW down your commentary kind of rambles, like one long sentence. Just pause a bit here and there. Other than that GREAT stuff man! I'm a subscriber now :)

40:08 as someone who wrote some of the wiki, I can a test to their name

Im listening to this while playing games i just wanna mention, summoning help actually gives massive buffs to the enemies you face. But at the same time yes you can split aggro. So it makes it easier but more difficult at the same time. High stance has more I-frames from the roll you do, low stance lets you almost go right through things if its timed properly. But has less i-frames.

Cool video. I found this game pretty hard.. never finished this one though I got pretty far. I enjoy these in depth review/analysis you do. Good job

I wonder how many of the issues are a consequence of it changing gameplay styles twice. either way, great take on Nioh and I enjoy your longform takes. ~The Monk.

Hi Chris your videos are excellent! Did you ever get around to playing the dlc? wonder what you though of it. Also a small correction, you could playthough a mission in co op mode where you share a health bar with your partner, when both players die or you run out of shared health the whole mission/level restarts, I did a playthough like this with a friend and it was awesome, made the way to the bosses extra excting and the bosses themself really nerve racking(maybe this was a pc edition). It is something I hope they expand on for Nioh 2.

The moment a man is running in full plate amour like a madman naked and gets knocked out by a 17th century bullet by the shoulder. 60 FPS on consoles?

Maybe i'm alone here but I absolutely loved the story and especially the delivery of it. I thought the fallen soldiers thoughts was a great touch. The cut scenes were excellent and the lore tabs are the best executed ive personally seen in a game. But I tend to like just enough story to keep me from skipping through it with the option to further explore it on my own tetms. So I found the perfect blend within Nioh.

Thanks for being humble about the bosses. Most reviewers act like nothing was shit to them and are full of it.

Grab attacks are a strange beast. There are two potential ways of expressing them in gaming mechanics. The monster with huge balls uses the AOE version, which is shown by the claw animations you helpfully displayed in the "1 frame apart" bit. The checks for player hitbox are in the full range of those swipes in a wide but shallow cone shape that looks like it covers about 135ish degrees. It might even check the full 180 degrees of the direction hes is facing. When you think about the attack, it makes sense. He didnt reach out to grab you, he did 90 degree arcs with both hands from the outside. If you were in a swimming pool facing a floating tennis ball that was within the length of your arms, it doesnt matter where the ball is in relation to you. You are going to grab it with both hands as you bring your arms together. Big balls probably checks for a hit in the same way a cone shaped AOE attack or spear cleave does. It just has a custom animation if it hits, which requires a little teleportation.

I just realized nioh is a shaman king game

Not that it matters much and it doesn't detract from the critique (which is excellent). But during Mitsunari's execution it is Sakon watchin, which explains why Mitsunari is ready to accept death since Kelley was able to "save" him.

Plz never stop making these

1:50:00 I'v heard (can't remember where) a nice explanation to why grinding blood dregs in Bloodborne is actually cool. You effectively still have a set number of healing items per life (with a possibility to get a few more from enemies during that life). And this is true as long as you have enough in your box. You should gather plenty during normal playthrough and only run out if you repeatedly fail at a boss or a tough spot. At that point the game forces you to take a short break and run the Yharnam blood dregs farming run a few times. But in contrast to clearing your head by taking a walk IRL or grabbing a drink you go on this rage filled slaughterfest through now easy enemies. This supposedly plays on the Bloodborne's theme of getting too bloodthirsty and becoming a beast. I'm not sure if this was the intention behind this system or if this ultimately a good thing but the idea is interesting.

That was Sakon Shima watching Mitsunary being executed. That's why Mitsunari reacts upon seeing him in the crowd.

2 hours YEEEAAHHH BOOIII

So...1-2 videos per month? Because i really like these kind of critique. Enjoyable to watch/listening to.

I have to strongly disagree with your stance on the "but it's in the lore' to excuse bad storytelling." It's fully intentional for Dark Souls and Bloodborne to have their stories told indirectly through npc dialogue, item descriptions, environmental storytelling, and scarce vague cutscenes. It adds an intentional level of mystery, and the fact that the story isn't fully understood (with most of the lore being theory and interpretations) and even then there are pieces not fully understood. I think the mystery really helps add to the atmosphere the games work to create. And you don't have to look at an outside source to get the story, and things don't happen out of nowhere. It's all there for you. Sure viewing an outside source can make some things clearer, but it's not needed. You can get enough to understand the basics of what's going on through the game. Nioh however just seems like it wanted to be cryptic like Dark Souls, while telling the story explicitly at the same time which is kind of weird. I'm 32 minutes into the video, and I'm loving it so far, just thought I'd voice my opinion on that

New to your channel, excellent long form analysis. Subbed. Will definitely be working my way through this playlist.