Team Ninja’s Nioh series capitalized early on the rising popularity of Soulslikes, establishing itself as arguably the best non-From Software spin on the subgenre. The franchise’s faster-paced, loot-driven formula has earned it a dedicated fanbase, so much so that Nioh’s blueprint has been applied to similarly designed Team Ninja games such as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Rise of the Rōnin to varying results and some diminishing returns. Instead of resting on these laurels, Nioh 3 thankfully shakes up this reliable template with a new ninja-focused class, more open level design, and an intriguing time-hopping premise.
I traveled to Koei Tecmo’s San Francisco office to play roughly four hours of Nioh 3’s mid-game sections and speak to the game’s principal leads. The game unfolds during Japan’s Sengoku period and stars Tokugawa Takechiyo, a warrior positioned to become the nation’s next Shogun. However, Takechiyo’s power-hungry younger brother conspires to overthrow him by leading a force of yokai against the entire country. With Japan now morphed into a demonic hellscape, Takechiyo must make things right in a story that, somehow, spans hundreds of years of Feudal Japanese history thanks to the mysterious presence of time-travel.
In a chat with game director and Team Ninja head Fumohiko Yasuda, he says he felt the evolution between Nioh 1 and 2 was “lacking”, and wanted a third entry to take a bigger leap forward. “When we wanted to do Nioh 3, I think I really wanted to make sure that we had something that had a new kind of gameplay as well as a new kind of gameplay experience, in addition to just evolving the action as well,” Yasuda says through a translator.
I play this demo using a pre-built character (that I still get to customize using the series’ character creator, which seems largely unchanged). Nioh 3’s biggest change in regards to combat is that players can now switch between two fully fleshed out gameplay styles: Samurai and Ninja. I begin by using the Samurai style, which, to be blunt, offers the standard Nioh gameplay experience. I have four sword stances to swap between, one of several guardian spirits to call upon for a supernatural assist, and combat remains the fast-paced assault of flashy weapon attacks interspersed with well-timed uses of the Ki Pulse mechanic to regain stamina. Ninja style offers a stark contrast by emphasizing evasion and overall speed. Hitting the right shoulder trigger switches between Samurai and Ninja styles on the fly, and timing this button press before enemies land crimson-tinted attacks triggers Burst Break, which offers a powerful counterattack on top of the style change. It’s a supremely useful and fun mechanic I enjoyed trying to master.
In terms of what inspired this new gameplay style, Yasuda says the Ninja offers another recognizable facet of Japanese culture while also providing the visual and gameplay contrast he desired. “When you kind of think about [it], samurai are very sort of feet on the ground, they have very like solid, powerful attacks,” Yasuda explains. “In contrast to that, ninjas are quite speedy and have the ability to use Ninjutsu, which is a little bit of tricksterism inside of there as well.”
The Ninja style became my preferred style as someone who generally favors speedier characters, and while the gameplay is similar, there are key differences. For one, Ninja style replaces the signature Ki Pulse mechanic with Mist, a spinning dodge-like maneuver that still replenishes stamina. Even better, I like how this move positions me behind enemies to take advantage of the Ninja’s increased back attack damage, ensuring I make constant use of it. Ninja style also replaces the sword stances with tools such as shuriken, caltrops, and a ninpo-style fireball. Although I don’t make as much use as the shurikens and fireballs, which only deal minimal damage, I unexpectedly gravitated towards caltrops; spreading them on the ground during fights dealt helpful chip damage while occasionally staggering enemies long enough to dish out offense.
Performing well fills a new spirit meter that activates Living Artifact, a new mechanic that temporarily transforms players into a destructive deity-like force. While in this powerful form, I’m encouraged to go off with devastating, wide-sweeping attacks. After taking down numerous foes in carefully executed duels, it feels liberating to wildly smash enemies like a yokai-powered Hulk. However, Living Artifact lasts as long as a dwindling meter allows, and taking hits removes chunks of this meter, shortening the transformation’s already fleeting duration.
Samurai and Ninja styles sport individual loadouts, so they’re equipped with separate weapons, armor sets, and even the powerful spirit guardian special attacks. This makes it feel like swapping between two wholly different characters. Keeping in mind that I was dropped into a mid-game build, I felt overwhelmed by how much there is to keep up with. Nioh is already a mechanically dense series, and players now have double the moves, tools, and skill trees to manage. But Team Ninja assures me that Nioh 3 doesn’t require players to master every mechanic to succeed. In fact, I’m told it is absolutely possible to beat the game using only a single style, so if you favor the Ninja style, for example, you can treat Nioh 3 as a shinobi-focused adventure. That’s good to hear, because I occasionally felt guilty for not remembering every tool and ability at my disposal.
Speaking of juggaling a lot of abilities, each weapon type has its own individual skill tree. You can unlock new moves to add more robust options for your two equipped weapons, be they katana, dual axes, spears, and many more. Nioh already encouraged players to settle into their favorite weapons early and stick with them to gain complete mastery. This new progression system hammers that philosophy home more than ever, as each weapon has a deeper-than-expected tree of skills that players will only see the end of if they’re not spreading their upgrade points across multiple other tools.
In another significant but welcome departure, Nioh 3 ditches the antiquated, mission-based level selection of previous entries. From what I saw while playing, players transition between areas in a more cinematic and direct fashion. Levels themselves sport what Team Ninja describes as an “open-field” approach, which is their way of saying environments are more expansive and feature multiple paths. The most surprising addition is a traditional map, a feature almost unheard of in this genre, but one I’m also not complaining about. In addition to tracking your location, the map also displays missed collectibles for easy cleanup while backtracking. You can also freely fast-travel between shrines at any time.
As someone who enjoys the interconnected level design of most Soulslikes, I’m on board with this approach, and alternate routes can yield secrets, such as hidden Kodama spirits. One of the coolest destinations is Crucibles, gated areas filled with deadlier foes who reward greater loot drops, like rarer armor and weapons. One crucible transported me to a devastated Kyoto circa 1864. To say it’s seen better days is an understatement. Kyoto has been torn asunder, with spires of demonic mountains protruding from the landscape amid a crimson red sky. As I look above, I see a massive centipede snake across the sky; it’s a beautiful, if horrific, sight. I’m tasked with heading toward the city’s center, and plenty of demonic opposition wait to cut my adventure short.
Nioh 3 is, by design, going to kick your butt, but it was hard to gauge how much so using a pre-made, kitted-out character. When I ask how difficult this new entry is, Team Ninja compares it to the quite hard Nioh 2 while noting that the larger zones can help players mitigate any hardships. “I think the opportunities to be able to overcome those difficulties, we’ve given the players a lot more options of how they can go about doing that,” producer Kohei Shibata explains through a translator.” I one-shotted most of the smaller mid-bosses, though I attribute this more to my late-game build than anything else. One proper boss battle against the gun-toting swordsman Takasugi Shinsaku gave me the blistering yet entertaining challenge I expect from the series. Dodging his bullets and deliberate sword strikes while also contending with his guardian spirit, a fox-masked maiden, sent me to the Game Over screen more than once.
Although I couldn’t get Team Ninja to spill more tea on the game’s story, which sees players mysteriously time-traveling across roughly 600 years of Feudal Japanese history, what I do know about Nioh 3 has me excited. It’s Nioh in the ways that matter, but I’m eager to master the new Ninja style (despite having to deal with even more of the game’s overabundance of loot), and the action is as sharp as the series has ever been. When it was first announced, I tipped my hat in acknowledgment that it would likely be a good but extremely familiar threequel. Having played it, I’m genuinely enjoying its changes and am far more interested in seeing how it ultimately shapes up.