Ni-Oh Wiki – Everything you need to know about the game

Ni-Oh is an upcoming historical action video game with role-playing elements being developed by Team Ninja, to be published by Koei Tecmo exclusively for the PlayStation 4. The game originally slated for the PS3 but development problems delayed the game until the company eventually decided to aim for the PS4 instead.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Originally announced by Koei in 2004, the game was based on an unfinished script by legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa titled Oni which is the Japanese word for Demon. Originally, the game was supposed to be released with a companion film, also titled Oni, that would have seen the directorial debut of Hisao Kurosawa, Akira Kurosawa’s son. This plan changed as the game’s development dragged on.

The first announced release date of the game, which was re-titled Ni-Oh was in the summer of 2006. The game’s release date was the first of any to be announced for any PS3 game, but it was slated several months after the PS3’s planned release in spring 2006. This meant that despite the release date being announced early, it was never scheduled to be a launch title for the new console.  In preparation for the 2006 release, a pre-rendered game trailer was shown at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo and a similar trailer was shown at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show.

The game missed the initial 2006 release window without any comment from the developers and the title was believed dead after several more years without any comment about the game. In 2009 Koei confirmed the game was still in development. The development team went so far as to apologize for not giving any kind of updates. In 2010 Koei (now Koei Tecmo) announced that Tecmo’s Team Ninja would be finishing development of the game. In an interview with Siliconera, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi described their vision of the adopted game saying, “We ran lots of tests and trials for Ni-Oh. After we ran through these we found a style that fits this title. At Team Ninja, we want you to experience the feel of action in our games. Ni-Oh is set with during the samurai era and we want you to feel what it’s like to be a samurai.”

In 2012 Koei Tecmo’s President and CEO, Yoichi Erikawa, announced that the game had completed its alpha development cycle, and that the work was “continuing steadily.” Two years later, in August of 2014, Koei Tecmo filed a brand new US trademark for the game which indicated it was nearing a point where it could go public with the new game. In November of that year, the development team gave an interview where they said that the game is still in development and, “it is starting to come together and feel good.” Ni-Oh was officially re-revealed and branded instead for the PlayStation 4 at the Tokyo Game Show 2015 on September 15, 2015. The company announced it was slated for a 2016 release. The development team has stated they believe they will be able to get the game to run at 60 fps. Koei Tecmo has talked eventually releasing a beta in order to let people try it out before the official release but nothing has been confirmed.

Story

The game follows the story of a blond-haired Samurai named William, who is the son of a Japanese lord and a Western woman in 16th-century Japan, the game takes place during the Warring States period in Japan and is supposed to loosely follow the actual history of the country. The game is based on an unfinished script that was also going to be part of a movie set for release around the same time as the game was originally slated for release way back in 2004 when it was announced. Just what the story is supposed to be isn’t yet known yet beyond the blonde samurai who will fight a number of different enemies including monsters and demons that have appeared

Gameplay

William is capable of fighting demons, monsters and human enemies using all kinds of weapons from swords to spears. Spears have better range and can hit numerous enemies, but if the player is in narrow areas they might end up hitting the walls with those spears, so it won’t always be easy. The weapons have their own characteristics depending on the situation there are being used, and there will also be combat stances that are better for offensive or defensive modes. The game is said to be taking aspects from Dark Souls and this is illustrated most obviously with a feature found in the online mode called the “Bloodied Blade Mound.” This feature will let players see bloody mounds of swords where other players have died. If the player happens to touch these mounds, the player becomes “Shigurui,” or “confused corpse” and will begin a battle. The battles will allow players to get some loot drops that will help William level up.

Another aspect that is similar to Dead Souls is the ability of William to hold various “Guardian Spirits” in his weapons. During various battles throughout the game, these Guardian Spirits will show up to do a powerful attack. If William dies the Guardian Spirit stays where he dies, and the player will need to go back to retrieve it before being able to use that spirit again.

William can actually become fatigued if he tries to pull off too many moves or fights at one time. There is a stamina meter which limits the number of actions that can be preformed at a time. Among the enemies William will be able to fight, there will be giant Yokai boss fights that will feature creatures that are harder to defeat by a great deal compared to the other monsters in this world. The game seems to have gameplay aspects that are also pulled from Ninja Gaiden based on the way the character moves through the world.

Characters

The only named character in Ni-Oh so far is William, the blonde haired Samurai, who is also the main character and the hero of the story. There are a number of other NPCs showed off in the trailer but there isn’t much known of them or the enemies William will have to face.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game