Coming from a burning town of horrors this episode was just painful, it felt like I was playing Dark Souls all over again. It was my fault mainly I tried to rush things, not taking the time to slow down and smell the roses. I dove right into every battle headfirst and paid the price over and over again. I start not to bad but it all goes downhill as I gain a tad bit of overconfidence in my sword fighting ability. An enemy I was able to dispatch easily on the first go takes me down with little to no effort on their end.
I feel this screen fits well here
Taking a step back I look through my inventory and decide to trade the sword for a Kusarigama. It’s an awesome weapon in of itself. It’s a chain with a sickle at the end. This is far more useful than a spear as it can cover a wider area although with less damage overall.
It may do less damage but it looks super badass
Banging My Head Against Aforementioned Wall
Alright, all the confidence in the world with using a new weapon doesn’t mean anything if you can’t face your demons. This is where I falter. Over and over, did I mention I hit a brick wall? I feel it’s pretty important here. I decide to tackle the big bad miniboss with my blade as I have more experience with it. It surprisingly goes fairly well until he gets in a lucky strike and takes me down. Undeterred I rush back full speed! Only to immediately die once again before I even get to the miniboss.
That feeling like I’ve been here before
Somehow I manage to make it back to the miniboss without dying. I decide to change things up and take him on with my Kusarigama and it goes well. I watching my Kai, doing Kai blasts when needed and dodging to stay alive. Slowly but surely I take his life down bit by bit. He puts a fight but I get him on the ropes and surely think victories assured. Of course, everything comes to a head when he gets one lucky swing in and drains what’s left of my life. sigh
So Close, So Freaking Close
Look at that life bar, it’s so close yet so far
I rush back with a burning desire to beat this boss. Take the entire fight slow and calculated, dodge when needed, retaliate with some damage, and retreat to recover my health. The problem is none of this matters if I lose all my Kai at the last open and leave myself open enough for him to get a lucky strike in. If I had just had a little more than half health I could have recovered and taken a victory. Alas, it was not meant to be, well get em next time.
After trucking through a number of enemies I start making a beeline through some enemies and march forward to the ominous dark fog that houses a miniboss. Unfortunately, I move a little too fast and take some heavy damage that causes me to die before I even get to the house. But hey at least I gain some familiarity with my blade. Familiarity is a system that allows you to get a stat boost for using specific weapons over time. This is useful if you get a really powerful weapon that you’re able to master.
I look forward to seeing this screen a lot in my future
Round two here we go, this time I make it to the miniboss. This is accomplished by taking it slow and without pulling any enemies my way. I make sure my gears ready, I have everything I need to be equipped, take a deep breathe, and run right into the dark fog. I utilize my ax to help focus on doing damage and retreat when needed to recharge my kai. It takes some back and forth, a few healing items, and some luck but I’m able to drop the hulking monster. Gather some of the new gear it dropped, grab the key to the gate and forward march into a town that’s in the middle of burning. Which is just great.
The bigger they are the harder they fall, as long as it’s not on top of me
The Town on Fire
Thankfully the first you can run to right after viewing the burning town is a shrine to collect yourself at. After a little management its time to jump into the flames feet first and try not to get burned. Taking a side route to get on the roof I find another Kodama and take down an oblivious enemy with my trusty longbow. I stupidly sit on the roof too long and get the attention of another enemy that is just a pain but easily dispatched.
Oh God Not The Face
Falling off the roof I sneak attack a patrolman and manage to just blow the whole ordeal. Taking way to much damage but somehow scrape by with the help of my sword and some stance changes. A little item scavenging and just general discovering the environment brings us a nice ladder you can drop down as a shortcut. Problem is that once you get to it you can’t go back the way you came. Thus you have to push forward. This is where everything goes wrong.
Dark Fog Monsters Vengeance
Welp, this isn’t going to end well
You wouldn’t think that a fight you already managed to win would be that much harder just because of a change of scenery. Instead of inside a house this time you’re on the roof of a house. This limits your movements in a way I was not prepared for, I fail to manage my kai and just get crushed. I think this second one is much tougher than the first which would make sense.
After a little behind the scenes leveling up and changing gear, we’re back in the thick of it. Testing out the spear to take out a couple of enemies, thankfully the spear works great on the shorter crouching enemies that you run into. After a little pitfall, we are back on track and sneak up behind an unsuspecting archer, taking him out with a heavy back attack is nice and easy. Taking a risk and dropping on an enemy below I lunge forward. Unfortunately, the overhead attack isn’t a one-hit kill and I get into a three on one situation very fast.
Attacking from the air is flashy and useful
NIOH is Full of Surprises
Three on one may not seem fair but it’s thrilling, to say the least
Changing from a blade to a spear is my first move. This allows for more range and the ability to hit multiple enemies at once. This is from the center stance where you swing the spear around in a sweeping motion. After taking care of those nuisances and picking out there pretty useless gear we’re back on track. However, I do get a pretty powerful new ax weapon that I equip and test out fairly quickly. It does its job against an unsuspecting enemy and I decide to stick with it. Finding a Kodama I move towards a shrine that’s not too far ahead. Luckily on the way, I collect a Longbow to add to my arsenal.
Calm Before The Storm
You’re going to truly treasure serene moments like this
Make some offerings and we’re moving forward yet again. The game slows down at shrines, which leaves a nice balance for when the game kicks into overdrive. Past the shrine, we throw someone off a cliff. This doesn’t kill the baddy but a quick arrow strike to the head changes that pretty fast. A double headshot is just the icing on the cake. Taking a side route to obtain a “Younge Samurai’s Locks”, I run around back to the shrine and get a quick level up.
A headshot is always rewarding, always
Scouting Ahead
Moving from the shrine I take out the enemy by making him fall off the cliff this time, no longbow needed. Then I use my ax from above to strike an enemy below. Pushing forward into a new area, I take a wrong turn and fall right back into a three on one situation. With my ax and funneling them into a tight space, they aren’t too much of a problem. Seeing where they came from brings me to a door that allows you to enter the building. Now I remembered from the demo that the dark fog (Pictured Below) is really bad news. It is essentially a one-time mini-boss that you just have to beat once. That’s a lot harder said than done. Deciding to ignore the dark fog, for now, I scout out the rest of the area. Collect some stuff, kill a few more enemies, and loop back to the shrine to finish up this episode.
The Dark Fog is bad news
Hey, if you’re playing NIOH let me know in the comments below or on my video up above. I’d love to hear from you and your experiences! Heck if you could let me know if you like my content, it would mean the world to me. Love it or hate it any way you slice it could help me improve.
From the moment you start NIOH you’re thrown into a dank dark dungeon with nothing but your fists and wits. You get a little tutorial just to help layout the groundwork of the game for you. It’s a little splash in what seems like a large pond. You have nothing but your fists and wit as you take out the first enemy that you come across. From there it’s a twisting and turning jail with tons of guards and lots of pitfalls. Sadly after you clear the jail and move past the first boss, which you can surprisingly win against which was a nice touch. You’re tossed off a roof, shipped off a boat, and land onto the first level. Losing everything you gained from the tutorial and left with your trusty fists, some clothes, and the knowledge you’ve gained.
NIOH Keeps Things Simple
You start with nothing but you’ll be discarding items in no time (If you don’t die constantly)
The first thing you’ll notice when landing on the beach is a shrine directly in front of you. These are essentially bonfires from Dark Souls, you can level up, collect DLC items, change your Shrine Guardian Spirits and summon visitors for multiplayer. The coolest feature is that you can make Offerings at a Shrine. This allows you to discard items that are not going to use or just aren’t worth using. Doing this allows you to gather Amrita and gain healing items. Amrita is used to level up your character, you just need to choose which way to spec. The game has a lot of options in this regard allowing you to master a slew of weapons.
NIOH Shrine Screen
Specializing Anyway You Want
Level Up Screen
In NIOH you can choose to level up in a pretty interesting amount of ways. It’s a boil downed version of Dark Souls’ extensive array of options but it manages to still feel a tad overwhelming when you realize that everything affects multiple facets. It comes down to which weapons you want to focus on mastering. I start off going with everything that increases my damage with a sword and ax. Down the road, I find a chain-sickle that you can swing around and decide to spec in that direction instead. It depends on how much you want to grind, which can be daunting since the game is fairly unforgivable even in the early goings.
Let’s Go Exploring
From the shrine you collect a weapon almost immediately, however, you also run into your first enemy. You can just power through him, trying out different stances and getting a better feel of what the combat truly entails. It’s almost like a rhythm game in a way, sort of like a more advanced Batman Arkham battle system. You can block, change stances, manage your Kai, change weapons on the fly, and of course flee if need be. Maybe later in the game, you can change weapons more fluidly to make a powerful combo but in the early goings, it requires time to swap weapons and thus leaving you open.
You can’t really button mash your way through enemies
Enemies and Collectibles In Nioh
Kodama are great collectibles (Plus they’re adorable)
Moving a little uphill past a few enemies we run into our first collectible. The little green men are Kodama that hide throughout a level and give you various bonuses the more you’re able to find. This includes better weapons, armor, and item drops. The first few weren’t too hard to find, plus they return to your shrine, it’s cool to see you making progress other than just moving forward through the stage.
One thing you’ll notice as you carve your way through enemies is that you gain proficiency with the weapon your using as well as familiarity. Proficiency equates to skill points that can be dropped into a skill tree for each weapon and stance. Familiarity gains with a specific weapon, allowing it to gain a stat bonus when used enough to max the proficiency. This is something I don’t take advantage of just quite yet because I didn’t know about it quite yet.
Everything Comes Full Circle
Finding a spear I take it for a test drive and impale various enemies and cower from others. From the beta, I remembered that you can drop a ladder from this point of the map back to the starting shrine and make my way around nearly dying on the way there. Finding my way around I drop the ladder and return to the shrine. I spend the rest of the time leveling up, getting rid of items, and obtaining more from the Boons section. Should have obtained them at the beginning but what are you gonna do.
The Mask you get from completing the beta
Well, that’s all I got to say about my first episode back from a to long hiatus. Some things happened in my life that took away from maintaining this site I hope to build into something fantastic. I want this to grow, expand, and be a home for me and my ramblings. I want to play video games, write, record, and talk about them.
Is this possible? Can this be achievable in 2017? Do I have the chops to make this happen? All amazing questions that of course need answers. I have a lot of ideas, passion, and gaming knowledge. 2017 is the year that every game will truly be amazing, that’s a promise.
