Nioh the Complete Edition, a game that normallt sells for €50, is given for free by Epic Games until the 16th of September (Thursday). And also this is one of the hardest games in the Souls like genre.
Although the story itself is fiction, the main character is based on the first western samurai William Adams that really existed. Another inspiration about the looks of the protagonist is undoubtedly the character of the Witcher Geralt of Rivia, because it reminds of him in many characteristics, the hair, the scars, only the face is changed. The story itself starts in a dungeon same as Dark Souls 1 starts. Even the first enemies are an indicator of how hard the game is and it requires a lot of skill, you need to dodge attacks and do counter attacks when a window of opportunity presents itself for that and little by little lower the Health of the enemies until you beat them.
Although the swords are a favorite in the game and there are one handed swords, from normal to special ones with different names, to dual wielding swords and surprisingly big swords that seem a little ridiculous, the only weapon that is easier to play and enables you to keep enemies at a bigger distance are the spears, although they aren’t so fun and with so much attractive attacks as swords still they are safer and more efficient. But basically you need to play your own way, a way that gives you the best satisfaction and fun and not only use the most efficient way to advance. In the game there are 3 stances for fighting that you can use to adapt to situations (same as in Witcher 1) slow stance with heavy hits, fast stance with fast but weaker hits and a middle stance with normal hits.
When you die in the game you are returned to the previous checkpoint where you have saved the game and all the enemies are alive again. -The same principle as in all Souls Like games. In contrast to Dark Souls where you have a shield to block with, in Nioh there are no shields to use, but you can block with every weapon, or step out of the way of a charging enemy and position yourself behind them to inflict more damage. Basically the combat is evasion and striking bit by bit, little by little. There are players that abuse the mechanics to beat the bosses more easily but that’s already cheating and it isn’t good to do because you will ruin the entire game for you and miss on the satisfaction of a good fight that you would pass with skill.
Considering the story, people that had already played the game advise others to read the tutorials and watch all the cutscenes from the story without whom they would be lost in the game. The things taken from Japanese mythology are the spirits that everyone has as guides, in the case of the protagonist William it is uncertain if his spirit is also his lover or just a ghost that is bound to him. While those who do good and just deeds have good spirits and those who cause injustice and cruel acts are possessed by Oni or demonic spirits. William’s main mission is to bring back his spirit that an evil sorcerer has trapped in an object of power-one of the Amrita stones and takes it to Japan. The same stones served the Queen of England to defeat the Spanish and are so much more than weapons. William travels to Japan and joins a clan where he becomes a samurai and wages war against demonic creatures that are graphicly excellently done as the carrying horror elements in the game. And of course the pleasure of beating such monsters brings great satisfaction to the players.
If you want a game that would pose a challenge for you, take Nioh while the promotion is on.
