Nioh

For the purpose of this review, I will try to refrain from comparing this game to any Souls based element because it isn't a Souls game. It is a third-person action RPG with Souls-like elements mixed into it. No more Souls references 😀.

Stances:

One of the main fundamental differences between this game and other... games is its ability to allow you to change your stance. Stances drastically change your fighting style with the current weapon. You have three stance: High, Medium and Low. Low being your quicker slashes and high being more of your heavy attack moves. Medium is a combination of both with its own unique flavor.

 As you would expect, different enemies have different weakness to the different stances.

Generally, I stick to the Low stance due to its high attack speed unless I find I'm doing absolutely no damage to the enemies. This is mostly due to personal preference and play style 😃.

Living Weapons

This is when your weapon becomes powered up with your choice of Guardian Spirit and does tons of damage.

Visuals

On the PS4 Pro, this game runs extremely well and is very smooth. Did not experience a drop in frame rate at all. The game has some beautiful visual effects especially when your weapon has the Guardian Spirit ability activated.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely a must play game if you enjoy this genre of game. The best advice that I can give you for this game is to pay attention to what is taught in the tutorial, especially the Ki refund as well as learning from your deaths. This game can be very rewarding but at the same time very frustrating.

First play of the game (Unedited - Lots of death)