Thirteen years after the announcement of NioH, Koei Tecmo finally returns to the front of the stage with its title worthy of the worst instruments of torture. Eyeing the side of the Dark Souls saga, developed by From Software, NioH is an action-RPG where every fight can be fatal. Between the permanent management of endurance and the low resistance of your character, impossible to rush into the pile in order to knock everything out. As you will have understood, NioH is one of those games with constant difficulty that requires unfailing concentration to hope to survive. And to offer a real challenge to players, Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja have decided to leave for feudal Japan where the Yonkaïs, bloodthirsty demons directly inspired by Japanese folklore, have proliferated following incessant wars between the lords. In a desire to introduce Western players to Japanese folklore, NioH puts us in the shoes of William, a character directly inspired by William Adams, the first English man to have walked the lands of Japan and become a samurai. Our dear William must go to Japan to promote trade between Europe and Asia but also track down Edward Kelly, an alchemist with Machiavellian plans. Once there, our hero will discover a completely different atmosphere since the country is plagued by savage wars that have allowed the Yokaïs to invade certain areas of the country. Without being transcendent, NioH's pitch at least has the merit of arousing interest. Cutscenes aren't always consistent and after spending a lot of time on a level, it's hard to follow the story in the best possible way. However, NioH is not limited to its scenario and it is once controller in hand that serious things begin.
DOCTOR'S ADVICE: GET A GOOD POSTURE
Indeed, the La is given from the first fights. Equipped with a simple sword, our Western samurai will have to fight his way through a London castle. The task is not too complicated but allows you to become familiar with the combat system. The Square and Triangle keys are used to combine light and more powerful blows, while the Cross button is used to dodge and the L1 key to parry. Like Dark Souls, the player has a life bar as well as a Ki bar which acts as endurance. Here too, the player will have to constantly watch the latter so as not to end up dry, thus limiting the possibilities of dodging and countering. With all this, you at least have the basics to defend yourself a minimum. A minimum, because thereafter, the fights will ask you much more than simple dodges and other parries. Once arrived at the end of the castle, you discover the plans of the Alchemist Edward Kelly and decide to leave for Japan to pursue him . Before you even start your first mission in Japan, you're going to have to go through a quick tutorial to go over the different moves and techniques you can use. If the first level had made it possible to become familiar with the combat system, the tutorial remains an essential step to understand all the subtleties of the gameplay of NioH. Starting with the combat postures that will allow you to modify your style. Players will be able to choose from high, medium and low positions. The high position allows you to perform more powerful attacks by sacrificing Ki. Conversely, the low position saves Ki but reduces the power of the blows. Finally, the average position makes it possible to resist enemy blows longer when performing a parry. Each position makes it possible to apprehend the fight in a different way and significantly influences the way of playing. It will therefore be necessary to think of changing form regularly in order to adapt to the enemies who present themselves in front of you. In addition to adding an additional degree of difficulty to the fights, the three postures also make it possible to energize the gameplay of NioH.
FRAGILE ABSTAIN
In addition to combat stances, players will need to rely on Ki recovery to remain effective. After each hit, a blue aura surrounds our hero and we must then press R1 to activate instant Ki recovery. The timing being very short, it will be necessary to remain alert to succeed in using this function regularly. If this technique will allow you to chain an enemy more easily, you will still have to not be too greedy, at the risk of being violently reprimanded. Again, it's all about patience and analysis, but above all it adds even more dynamism to fights that often require caution. The difficulty becomes increasing and each action can be beneficial to you, or conversely, put you in a bad position. We really find this feeling of having a samurai fight taking place before our eyes and despite the desire to strike a powerful blow at the enemy, we take the time to turn gently around him in order to wait for the good moment. On the other hand, the most daring will be severely punished since three blows are enough to overcome William. As promised, NioH offers a serious challenge to hardcore players, who will enjoy the boss fights even more.
The difficulty becomes increasing and each action can be beneficial to you, or conversely, put you in a bad position.
Each mission ends by facing at least one boss, some of which require you to face an intermediate boss. If the classic fights will quickly become small fry, the bosses will ask you for many tries before you can really stand up to them. Indeed, each boss has its own abilities and patterns, which each time requires several attempts to set up an attack plan. While some bosses vary little in patterns, others don't hesitate to use several attacks to disrupt your routine, like the succubus Hino-Enma and her multiple paralyzing blows. Once the patterns are well in mind, you will finally be able to get into the bacon of these demons. But again, be careful not to want to take advantage of it too much since the bosses tend to react quickly. It will therefore be necessary to constantly think about keeping a little Ki to dodge counter-attacks. In addition, also remember to stock up on remedies and other talismans to increase your chances during these excruciatingly difficult fights. The bosses offer confrontations worthy of a game such as Dark Souls and as long as the enemy is not completely dead, you should never claim victory too quickly. The fights will certainly drive you crazy, but after defeating a boss, the frustration instantly evaporates to give way to unprecedented joy. For that alone, NioH fully fulfills its contract and gives us complete satisfaction.
ONE STEP FORWARD, THREE STEPS BACK
Finally the most frustrating remains upstream of the bosses. Like Dark Souls, NioH is fond of Die & Retry, which means that players will have to restart a level many times before arriving at the boss. To help you in your progress, you can pray in front of altars that serve as a checkpoint but also stands to improve your character's statistics. To put it simply, each monster killed will allow you to recover Amrita, a material that allows you to increase William's power and endurance. Small trap, you will have to be very careful not to die with too much amrita on you, at the risk of losing everything. Indeed, during your first death, you can find the protective spirit that accompanies you on your adventure. The latter will give you back all the amrita recovered but if you die again without having recovered your spirit, it will lose all the amrita stored. In addition, your protective spirit will also allow you to activate living weapons, a power that makes you invincible for a short time and dramatically increases your power. These devastating attacks will be invaluable to you during boss encounters, so remember to always recover your spirit before going into battle.
But if these repeated deaths will have a bitter taste, they will above all allow you to explore the levels of the game in depth.
But if these repeated deaths will have a bitter taste, they will above all allow you to explore the levels of the game in depth. In terms of level design, the Team Ninja teams have worked hard to offer well-stocked maps that include many paths to be continued. Only small complaint, the map displayed on your screen is not the most useful and it is often blind that we advance. As a result, it is not uncommon to get lost in order to find the right direction. But if all this will add even more risky fights, it is also a good way to accumulate equipment as well as remedies. Finally, if you find that the enemies are not tough enough, you can activate the graves of powerful soldiers in order to face them. These are actually the graves of other players who died while exploring a level. Much tougher than traditional enemies, they will also give you some of their gear if you win. The fights are a bit repetitive but the object hunters will be happy to dig up all the graves in order to get to the boss with the best stuff possible.
GAIJIN TRASH
On the equipment side, Dark Souls fans will not be disoriented by the mountains of information to record. The uninitiated may be a little lost even if it means neglecting this aspect of the game a little. In addition to the level of your equipment, you will also have to think about the weight of the latter in order to choose between protection and flexibility in movement. To top it off, each weapon has a familiarity level and it will take a long time to use a weapon before maximizing its potential. An interesting choice but which does not encourage the use of the range of weapons that the player has at his disposal. If it is possible to choose between a blade, two swords, spears, some axes and other kusarigamas, each weapon has its own offensive potential, like the ax which allows to strike powerful blows, but its reduced weight highly the mobility of William. Players will quickly have to find their providential weapon and it is not the choice of a favorite weapon at the start of the game that will encourage you to do the opposite. It's a shame not to have motivation to use different weapons, especially since each of them has a skill tree that allows you to acquire new, much more powerful combos. On the side of ranged weapons, the story is a little different since the bow will not have the same utility as the powder cannon. Finally, the objects to be recovered can be of great help to you, but the more adventurous can easily do without them, apart from the remedies of course. All in all, it's a bit of a mess item-wise, but it doesn't get too punishing for people who don't like to stay in menus for too long.
It's a bit of a shame not to have motivation to use different weapons, especially since each of them has a skill tree that allows you to acquire new, much more powerful combos.
On the technical side, NioH clearly shows its 13 years of development. The game displays pretty fine graphics but the character movements really don't feel like playing on PS4. On PS4 Pro the game gains in sharpness and displays even finer graphics. Nevertheless, the poverty of the decorations and the sometimes very dirty textures taint the picture. Fortunately, the game remains fluid in all circumstances, including during boss fights where the visual effects multiply. A good point for this type of game. Similarly, the artistic direction of the title remains very well made and from the start, we find the atmosphere so special that we imagine when we think of Japan and the samurai . The Yokai are creepy as hell, although you'll have to get used to seeing the same demons on the map regularly, the only difference being the weapon they use. While some people will not be bothered by this weak point, those who are a little reluctant to start over and over again the game of a level may be disappointed. On the other hand, NioH offers mind-boggling content through side missions as well as twilight missions that will allow you to face much more powerful enemies in exchange for very rare equipment. As you will have understood, NioH did not do things by halves and it will take more than a hundred hours to reach the end of each level.
