The year 2017 was packed with some of the best games of this entire generation, so when we say that Team Ninja and Koei-Tecmo’s Nioh was one of the best games of that year, you know that that isn’t praise that is lightly given. Nioh 2 will be upon us soon, and it is looking like the ideal sequel, promising various improvements that look to expand upon its predecessor’s excellent foundations. Ahead of its imminent launch, here in this feature, we’ll be going over fifteen important details you need to know about the game. So with all that out of the way, let’s get started.
SETTING
Nioh 2 serves as a prequel to the first game, taking place during the first half of the Sengoku era in the late 1500s, and the developers have said that its ending will tie in quite neatly with the first game’s beginning. William will not be returning as the protagonist, and players will instead take control of a custom character. Here’s the twist though- the player character will be part-human, part-yokai, which should lead to some exciting combat changes.
CHARACTER CREATION
With William no longer playing the role of the protagonist, Nioh 2 will instead allow players much more freedom to shape their character as they see fit, which will be done through a character creator and customization options. The character creator, from all that we’ve seen so far, is looking quite in-depth, and what makes it even more interesting is the fact that players will be able to share their created characters with each other through codes.
YOKAI FORMS
As we’ve mentioned, Nioh 2’s protagonist will be part yokai, which means players will be able to change their form during combat to gain new and different abilities. It definitely seems like switching yokai forms during combat to perform different kinds of attacks and abilities will play into Nioh 2’s combat quite a bit, and should inject a heavy dose of variety into proceedings- theoretically, at any rate.
SOUL CORES
What makes the yokai switching mechanic sound even more interesting that players will be able to add even more yokai forms to their arsenal throughout the game. Every time you kill a yokai, you can absorb their Soul Cores. If you can then bring these Soul Cores back to shrines before you die, you’ll be able to access all the powers of the yokai creature in question.
WEAPONS
Like the first game, Nioh 2 will allow players to use a variety of different weapon types. In addition to ones returning from Nioh 1, several new weapon types have also been added. Each weapon type also grants different stat bonuses. For instance, the axe boost stamina, the Switchglaive and spear boost constitution, the Odachi boosts strength, while the Kusarigama boosts dexterity.
FAMILIARITY
To make things eve more interesting, weapons will also tie into progression in Nioh 2 more intricately. For starters, each weapon type will have its own skill tree, allowing players to unlock various abilities and passive buffs. There’s also the Familiarity mechanic, which will see you earning more and more Familiarity with a weapon as you keep using it, thus increasing your stats with that weapon even further.
PROGRESSION
Progression is being improved upon in other ways as well. Weapon specific-skill trees and Familiarity will, of course, factor in quite a bit, but the meat of the progression system will be found in the skill trees of the player character itself. Yes, skill trees– plural. There will be four of these, each dictating and entailing different disciplines. So what exactly will these be?
SKILL TREES
The four skill trees that you will be managing in Nioh 2 are as follows- there’s the the Shiftling tree, which covers all yokai-related powers and abilities; the Samurai tree, which governs Ki pulses and Fortitude; there’s the Ninja tree, which governs stealth, application of poisons to weapons, and throwable weapons; and finally, the Onmyo magic tree, which governs magical abilities, which are used through Talismans.
BENEVOLENT GRAVES
Nioh 2 will take the first game’s Bloody Graves idea and expand upon that with the new Benevolent Graves. During combat, players will be able to summon avatars of two other players through the Benevolent Graves. While the first game summoned only plain avatars of other players, Nioh 2 will allow players to summon avatars that also have all the skills, equipment, and gear of the other players.
CO-OP
If you’re looking for more active participation of other players in combat than what Benevolent Graves will offer, Nioh 2 is also expanding its co-op component. While the first Nioh allowed for co-op play for a total of two players, Nioh 2 will allow up to three player co-op. Co-op sessions will have a greater number of enemies to maintain the balance of difficulty to account for more players.
MORE CO-OP DETAILS
In co-op, any loot found in the world or dropped by enemies will be instanced individually for each player, so you won’t have to fight each other over who gets what. Meanwhile, players will also be able to access shrines individually. Interestingly enough, Nioh 2 will also have a co-op gauge, which will see players having to revive downed teammates within a specific time limit, before the gauge depletes.
LEGNTH
You ca probably guess that Nioh 2 is going to be a long, meaty game- but how meaty exactly? If you’ve played the first game, you should expect something similar, with Team Ninja having confirmed that the game has about the same amount of missions as the first game, and thus, also being roughly the same lengthwise, which should mean a runtime of about 55-560 hours, depending on how you play.
BETA FEEDBACK
Most major developers and publishers in the industry have a tendency to release betas for their games so close to release, it’s virtually impossible to do anything about the feedback they get before launch. Well, that’s not the case with Nioh 2. With the beta having originally gone live in November 2019, Team Ninja have taken tons of player feedback into account, and made adjustments and improvements to various aspects of the game, from difficulty to level design and more.
DLCs
Koei-Tecmo have confirmed that Nioh 2 will have an expansion pass, much like the first game. This will entail three separate DLCs, and while details on all of them are understandably scant right now, the developers say they will all bring new story content, new characters, missions, weapons, abilities, and more.
ACTION MODE AND MOVIE MODE
Similar to the first game, Nioh 2 will offer two modes- Action Mode, and Movie mode. As you may have guessed, these will prioritize frame rate and and resolution respectively. Action Mode will target 60 FPS, with the base PS4 dropping down to a dynamic 720p resolution and the PS4 Pro offering 1080p. Meanwhile, Movie Mode will bring the frame rate down to 30 FPS, with the base PS4 offering a 1080p resolution, and the PS4 Pro bumping that up to 1800p.