After a decade of waiting, Nioh finally looks set to release next year. And the final game seems to be far beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, and far unlike anything that Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja have done before. How did this come about? How did the publisher best known for Ninja Gaiden and Dynasty Warriors end up making a game like Nioh?
The answer, it seems, is Dark Souls. Speaking to Eurogamer, Nioh creative director Fumihiko Yasuda admitted that Dark Souls and its success had influenced the direction that Nioh took over the course of its protracted development.
“[Dark Souls] did have a big impact on the direction this project eventually took,” Yasuda said. “We have very, very high opinions of the Souls series and it’s captivated a very wide audience, even here in Japan. Also, fundamentally that the game is very difficult, very challenging, yet very well-done and refined as a great action game. That part is in common with the past Team Ninja titles. So we did take some inspirations from Dark Souls.”
This is probably why the action and the difficulty in the game feels so precise and fair, even when it gets exacting. Nioh is out on PS4 exclusively in February 2017.
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