Nioh 2 Remastered Review
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NIOH 2 directory.
Here is our Nioh 2 Remastered Review giving you a subjective, unbiased review helping you make a more educated decision on whether or not the game is for you.
- Release Date: 05-Feb-2021.
- Platforms: PS5.
- Price At Launch: £49.99 or Free if you have the PS4 disc for Nioh 2.
- Developer: Team Ninja.
- Publisher: KOEI TECMO AMERICA Corporation, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
- Genre: Action RPG.
The Game
If you’re looking for an easy game you can through one weekend then you’re in the wrong place with Nioh 2, if, however, you are looking for a near unending hardcore action RPG that will push you and your reflexes beyond your limits as a gamer and as a person then Nioh 2 might be just what you’re looking for.
You start off as a half yokai (demon), half human who can choose 2 weapons and a Guardian Spirit – a spiritual character who greatly enhances you abilities in battle through passive and active buffs then when your amrita gauge is full you can turn into a full yokai dealing incredible amounts of damage to the many enemies you will face.
Speaking of enemies, there are many ranging from human Soldiers to monstrous snakes, Ninja to chunks of wall that hold hidden secrets behind them, chunks of living shite that come to life or quad-sword-wielding demons that can carve your health bar like a knife through butter.
You are also presented with bosses which will push your limitations to the max before they finally succumb to your efforts… hopefully. The boss design in Nioh 2 is reminiscent of the Souls games, with the boss’ health bar at the bottom of the screen and a serious challenge is to be faced upon each and every boss you come to throughout the game.
But. The game, as hardcore as it is, as difficult and maddening as the Nioh 2 can be, always feels fair. It makes you learn what to do, it makes you learn every enemy you come across, when to dodge, when to block, when to turn around and run away to level up then come back to stand half a chance.
There are a handful of times throughout the entire game where I have claimed BS and felt like my death wasn’t my fault, the other hundreds of deaths I encountered were, whilst frustrating at the time, my fault looking back on them, either through inexperienced combat techniques at the start or being slightly to cocky later on.
Nioh 2 is a brutal, punishing, remarkable experience.
The game world is set into mission hubs rather than being one large open world which usually sees you go through a mission, take down the boss at the end then move onto the next mission collecting Amrita along the way which you can then use at a shrine to level yourself up. Increasing your overall power.
The good
One thing Nioh 2 gives you in buckets is choice, near enough every enemy in the game will drop you something, be it a new weapon, piece of armour, accessory or in rare cases, a soul core which you can then attune to your equipped Guardian Spirit allowing you to use extra abilities in combat that a yokai has previously tried to use on you. Soul Cores are gained from bosses and yokai throughout the game and are a real game changer.
If you find yourself surrounded by seemingly unbeatable enemies, one yokai ability can turn the tide of battle in your favour.
Loot is very plentiful in the game, there are a serious amount of drops ranging from common to divine and beyond, each piece of loot will have unique stats which can be changed at the blacksmith or made to look like a different piece of gear through refashioning whilst keeping the stats you want allowing more customisation of the look of your character than any other game I’ve known.
Once of the best things about Nioh 2 is the combat, there are a large selection of weapons you can utilise depending on your playstyle, if you want to go through in low stance with hatchets equipped turning yourself into a demon based blender then go for it.
If you want to tank your way through an area with a gigantic axe or an Odachi which is larger than most enemies carving your way through each mission then great, it’s accessible.
In addition to the melee combat which is the mainstay of the game, you also have Ninjitsu and Onmyo Magic at your disposal which can give you an edge in battle utilising various status effects to your advantage or debuff an opponent to the point they lose a lot of attack power or sloth them which reduces the speed of their movements.
Nioh 2’s skills and abilities are more plentiful than the enemies you will be facing throughout the game and if you don’t like your current build go to the Teahouse and purchase a Book of Reincarnation which will give you all of your Amrita back you have collected throughout the game allowing you to try a completely different build / playstyle at your leisure.
The not so good
The Nioh 2 Remaster’s announcement given the fact Nioh 2 only came out on the 12 of March 2020 and less than a year later here we are again with the Remaster, which, if you haven’t got a Nioh 2 disc, will cost you £49.99 off the PlayStation store makes the Remaster seem like more of a cash grab than anything else.
That said, if you purchase both Nioh 1 (which has been remastered as well) and Nioh 2 as part of the Nioh collection for £69.99, it does make better value considering you get both games and all 6 DLC packs which makes both games £34.99 each, but, just buying the Nioh 2 Remaster for £49.99 for a game less than a year old, especially considering the DLC packs didn’t come out until late 2020 just leaves me asking why do we need this overall.
Gameplay wise, one of the things which impacts a lot is the Ki meter, which you will use for everyone from dodging to attacking and can take some getting used to. Depending on which of the 3 stances you choose will then dictate the different attacks each weapon can perform and the Ki that they will then use.
Depending on where you are in the game, either in a standard mission or when you enter the dark realm, an ethereal yokai space where every yokai ability and attack be it either yours or the enemies power is increased will affect the way you Ki meter behaves.
The learning curve for Ki management is one of the strictest and most unforgiving I’ve seen in a game of this type, if you run out of Ki and are hit once, you’re staggered for a few seconds making the Ki meter just as important as your health bar and will take a lot of practice to understand fully.
The learning curve in the game, especially for those new to the genre is very steep and I feel will put a good percentage of players off as most enemies in the game can easily kill you with 1 or 2 hits.
Whilst on one hand it forces you to learn the game, you never really get the chance to take on some fodder and learn what you and your weapons are capable of more you are forced to adapt in a baptism of fire type of game.
Whilst I personally appreciate the style, I do think a tutorial mission would have been good which will just let you wail on a few enemies allowing new players to get to grips with the game.
Online
Online is completely optional throughout Nioh 2, it can either be completely ignored or embraced as you make your way through the games missions.
You can summon other online players through the Torii Gate system where you can either team up with a random player or both set a password to essentially enter a private lobby allowing you to either help or be helped through a mission.
If you are playing with an online connection, you will also see blue and red (revenant) graves throughout the missions, the red ones are other players who have dies which can be summoned into your world as hostile NPCs which when defeated can drop some decent gear for you.
You can summon other players from the blue graves to help you through a particularly challenging section. Whilst the graves are present in offline mode, these are developer placed and hold generic characters, playing online will give you much greater variety and choice.
Trophies
The Nioh 2 Remaster brings all 95 trophies across from Nioh 2 which will see you need to complete every mission on Way of the Demon (NG++), an incredibly challenging mode with enhanced enemies and much stronger loot drops, collect every soul core, defeat every yokai, collect all of the guardian spirits.
You also have access to the 39 DLC trophies which takes the challenges to the next level.
Overall, there is a very good selection of trophies which will see you take on every mission in the game, become proficient with every weapon and dispel every instance of the Dark Realm throughout ancient Japan.
Click the link to go to the complete Nioh 2 Trophy Guide where we have covered the main game or check out the Nioh 2 Hub where we’ve covered the main game as well as all 3 DLC packs in full.
Gallery
Here are a series of photos to show you how the game looks:
Overall
To sum the Nioh 2 Remaster up, it is a beautiful, impressive game that can’t wait to empty your health bar.
It will push hardcore gamers to their limits with the difficulty of the combat, the bosses especially require tactical precision to take down, you have to learn every element of every aspect of the game if you have a hope of coming through the other side successfully.
It does seem strange to have a Remaster of a game that isn’t even a year old, that won’t ever sit will with me as I don’t see the point of it.
Nioh 2 in itself is a essential game for anyone who likes action RPG games, Japanese mythology and getting their ass kicked over and over until they learn how best to fight back.
The Remaster does bring better visuals and smoother gameplay but so does the PS4 disc version when played on PS5, so I’d recommend saving some money, getting the PS4 version of Nioh 2, installing that then get the free upgrade to the PS5 version which will save you a few quid then purchase the DLC later on through the season pass if you decide it’s for you.
All of that taken into consideration, I award the Nioh 2 Remastered version a solid 9 out of 10.
Final Score: 9
That’s our Nioh 2 Review I hope it helps you make a decision on whether or not the game is worth your time and money.