Onimusha Souls -I mean Nioh Second build demo going live now for 1 week

Sweet, any word on the full release?

Depends on your region i guess, i messaged the KT twitter whos been talking about it all day when not shilling their attack on titan game. Maybe the alpha just updates but then i've heard this demo is much bigger.

Like other anons said, it might not be up yet depending on where you live. It would probably be in the demo section of the PS store.

They only have the vague release date of 2016 still.

Didn't they say halloween or november a while back?

That's not even possible unless you're brain dead. You can counter basically everything even if your timing is shit. When you get a spear you can casually fuck everyone up, walk slightly out of their range and repeat ad nauseum. Please, Souls fags will build any kind of strawman if you insult their games, huh?

Apparently you might be able to play as the qt ninja girl and fight the tengu giant goth-geisha demon woman.

Its gonna be dancer of the frigid valley all over again.

Suspicious. Heres your (you)

Didn't really play the alpha when I had the chance. Was too busy with Bloodborne so didn't really want to sink time into this.

Going to give this a good go.

I've never once played a Souls game. Try again.

Here's hoping the co-op isn't broken anymore.

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You cunts better post some webms of this.

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They've changed some things from the original level. There's no longer an oni in front of the cave at the beach. The English sailors actually speak English whilst the Japs are still speaking Japanese, I thought that was a nice touch. We've got a cute black smith now as well.

As far as difficulty goes it might be a little easier but I can't tell if it's just because I already know what I'm doing or if it's actually been made easier. One mistake can still kill you at the very least.

How is the stamina system? And did they change weapon/armor durability?

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Stamina seems about the same. The differences are subtle and I'm not sure of exactly what they've changed. I remember the low stance being able to dash when timed with the ki pulse but I either have to unlock it or it's been changed.

I can't see any meters that tell me what durability armour or weapons are at. It might have been removed. I've been playing with just the axe and I haven't been told that it's about to break yet. Whetstones are still in the game but they affect something called familiarity now. The familiarity seems to go up through use of a weapon.

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Do you (and the enemies) still get staggered if you run out of stamina like in the Alpha demo?

They said they were going to remove durability and it's fine that they did. I never had a weapon or piece of armor break when I played before, at worst they would just get dull before I could repair them, so I don't think that this change will effect the game much.

Yeah if you or the enemies run out of stamina they stagger, none of that has changed.

GOOD
This was the only thing I was truly worried about. Now I can go to sleep and look forward to playing Gaijin Souls tomorrow.

Are souls and DMC the only sword combat games out there? Why can't jap devs be a bit more creative?

anyone know if you need PSplus to download it?

You didn't for the previous demo.

You don't need ps plus.

I felt that my character didn't response many times. I think they did something to prevent you getting stunned when you lose stamina and it's annoying as fuck. I liked the alpha more will see on I finish this. They made onis much easier and that sucked.

PC port when?

There's also Onimusha, Ninja Gaiden, Way of the Samurai, MGR and Nier:Automata. You could also count a lot of the Monster Hunter style games though swords are only like a third of the weapons there.

That's funny, I could of sworn the protagonist had white hair. They were tired of the Geralt of Rivia comparisons?

I just beat all of it
Everything
It's fun
I want more tits in it though

So any chance of a PC release?

is it cuhrayzee?

Just got to the second area. This game is kicking my ass, but that was mostly due to me not playing very strategically. Now I'm dodging and picking my attacks a lot more. Also, holy shit those parries are satisfying.

Is it out right now?

I liked the demo but I'm selling my PS4 before it comes out. Don't care.

Did they take it down or something? I can't find it on the demos

Thanks for the 5 of us that own a PS4 I guess.

Search NIOH and you will find it. Just finished it and was playing stages on hard mode. I'm addicted to killing revenants and getting their drop still die in 3 hits.

I think it's still not out yet in America, although I haven't checked in a few hours.

Very likely

Fuck off

It's out now it seems. Just started downloading it.

Oh, the US store updated just now. Downloading it. Also got Armikrog in the process.

It's pretty fun

cuhrayzee fun?

You don't get thunder shibe from the start like in the other demo. I'm sad.

THAT'S THE WALL BROTHER

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Anyone have that concept art someone did of different types of mimics, like ladder mimics? I'm really hoping this isn't just a one time only thing and that there's shit like this in later levels.

Right now I am sitting at level 30 on the second level Twilight version. First one seems to be unavailable for the moment. There are pretty much no human enemies during these versions of levels and instead it's Oni only. I've also run into a new enemy that plays some sort of guitar. From what I gathered from him, he dies in only 1 or 2 hits and does not move. However, I'm pretty sure he forces player corpse bodies (those bloody sword spots that you can summon to fight and get their loot) to spawn one at a time. Suffice to say, it's a bit intense when you're already dealing with bullshit and then a player corpse spawns to wreck your shit.

Thunder buddy can be obtained later after beating the level 35 swordmaster level. All it is is a 1v1 fight, but the man is no fucking joke.

YOU CAN CHEESE THE ARCHERS
BUT YOU CAN'T CHEESE THE WALL

Holly shit that's amazing

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And who can forget…

Thanks fam.

A shamisen maybe?
Now that's clever. And of course the more players that die there the greater potential pool of bloody graves to attack the player with.

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So you don't even have any taste or experience. No wonder you wouldn't see it for the garbage it is, get the fuck outta here.

Yep, that's the one.

I have no idea if it's on a set timer or anything like that, but I was lucky enough to only fight them one at a time. Killed three wraiths before realizing that fucker was up on the ramp at the other end of the cave. First time I saw him was in the second time you go through the side mission in the fields. I didn't realize what he was doing then, especially since I had to deal with I think 2 wraiths along with literally everything else at the same time. Only noticed him at the cliff edge and ran over, shanked him, then continued dodging the wheel skeleton demon faces. No I'm not making that shit up, there are big demonic looking faces that are fixed inside a fire wheel. Laughed my ass off when I saw them.

I came across that earlier, it only attacks if you hit it once, otherwise if you walk near it you can see its eyes glow through the two holes in the wall and it makes a growl.

So is that what trump is going to make the mexi-american wall out of?

Hold on. It's the same beta from last time?

The first level from the alpha returns but with some small changes. The second level in the beta is a completely new. Also there's side missions, a blacksmith and a twilight that changes up the enemies.

Whatever they did, I feel like they improved it. It feels more fluid now.
Bit of a shame they removed weapon durability, though.

How do I get good? It took me a few hours just to get to the first boss.

I think they made the game easier or something. I beat the first boss on my first try. In the first demo, it took me a few tries since my weapon kept breaking mid-fight.

Master switching stances during flux
Use the forward x in low stance more
Watch that stamina and pump it
Low stance is best for dodging
High stance is for triangle attack
Medium stance is for counters on enemies your size
All this info is for the katana

Katanas an spears felt the best to me. Should probably stick with them instead of big dumb hammer "axes".

the hammer's overhead pretty much ruins everything that's not a boss or a one eyed oni.
it gets headhits off and completely drains stamina in 2 or so hits for everything else, you do have to adjust to the slower speed though.

no PC, no buy

I like how it give you a warning before smash you unlike DaS cheap surprise attack

Even if it was on PC you wouldn't buy it.

PC gamers don't buy games anyway, so it's no loss if it's never ported to PC. Enjoy waiting for a good game! I'm gonna keep playing this demo, it's really good.

I like how the hit detection actually works in this game. It's really great, spot on.

I think the game flows much better without it. The Familiarity feature makes each run feel like it matters because your weapons keep getting stronger after killing enemies. In the Alpha, dying was just wasteful because you ended up having to micro-manage your inventory often and bringing trash with you at all times as spare equipment.

I'm absolutely loving this Beta, changing stance between attacks can be so fucking awesome when you do it correctly. Mechanically, it's head and shoulders above any Souls games, and the AI isn't completely retarded when turning corners while chasing you.

well except for the Ship boss's throwing balls and the western swordsman's Iatos, both track like crazy.

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That's true, also the rock-throwing move from the wall Mimic, and I think the overhead attack of the Yokai with the axe.

But the core foundation is so much more compelling; enemies are more aggressive, they chase you for longer and run faster, player movesets are way more diverse instead of attacks being split across a dozen slightly different weapons. And if you want to play a specific build, you can do it right off the bat, instead of waiting hours for the weapon you want to pick up (like the fucking Burial Blade in Bloodborne). It's crazy just how many things this game does better.

oh yeah, If the full game is like this, I'll be quite happy with it.
I actually really like most of the more unique monster designs. Like the wall monster or the Nue (that was the boss of the alpha right?), I thought those are done really well, they're not over done like a lot of the monsters in the other souls game, BB in particular was really bad about this.
The combat's faster paced and the Ki-burst thing negates a lot of the issues I had with the From system where you attack until you run out of stamina and then back off until it recharges, which only got worse as the games got faster paced.

Honestly I thought the temple was a stronger area than the caverns, although the wall monsters are cool.

One thing I would argue is that the weapons are a bit boring. They all need to fit the combo and stance system so all the weapons in one category, axes for instance, have a very similar move set. Granted you can change what triangle does to your liking but a few unique weapons could go a long way.

I'll take reduced variety and actual combos over the mash R1 fest that souls games are though.
Although they did add a few new weapon types in the Beta over the alpha, so they may have plans for more.

The monsters are literally copy pasted from japanese folkslore

Fuck CD project, i wonder why didn't they thought about this mechanics for the new witcher games so that you could change between strong,fast and group style like for the first witcher.

By the way,this game shares too much from the souls for me to be enjoyable, the slight differences don't look that appealing and i can't stomach to play the same shit over again for the 5th time

It looks more like an edgier version of pic related

I don't see how that's bad. they really don't get much attention compared to lovecraft, necronomicon, werewolves,generic zombies, or larger than normal animals but WITH BLOOD.
There's tons of fiction to pull ideas from and devs seem to be stuck with those, I'm happy just to see something that's not done to death.

I'm not saying it's bad, but using japanese folkslore as a theme is pretty common in japanese media, most of the time they give them some kind of twist though.

See touhou for example, where all these evil monsters are little girls.
This game on the controary wants to scare you so they keep the original versions of these tales from the past in mind.

Can't wait to get drowned and my assball stolen by a Kappa

What if that's who the Wall Mimic becomes after the events of Nioh?

DEEPEST LORE

Whoops, meant to reply to

Watch out he'll teach you about bonesetting if you give him a cucumber.

Oh shit, thanks for the heads up m80.
I hope they give us some kind of release windows at TGS.

In Souls games you end up with the same issue. Having various similar weapons with just a couple of distinct features or stats between them, essentially makes a bunch of them completely disposable and forgettable. Besides, it doesn't make any sense that an R2 attack makes katana X do a horizontal slash, while katana Y does a thrust, and somehow your character cannot perform both attacks with one weapon.

Bloodborne fixed this to an extent, in that most weapons truly feel unique, but failed on the other front, which like I said before, having unique weapons locked hours into the game only results in bad pacing, because you just want to get certain parts over with until you finally get the stuff you wanted that would fit your build. I gave up on a playthrough midway because having to play the entire game to get the Burial Blade was just too fucking much.

That is why I think the best solution is to simply expand the weapon classes and combo list. That way, players are free to choose in what order they'll acquire XYZ skills/movesets which is more open-ended. Nioh already makes "Soulsborne" games feel outdated and archaic on these aspects.

Fuck that, I want my onna-bushi. Ninjas are gay.

Mounted naginata fighting when?

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But user, you can customize the skillsets for each weapon type, for each stance. It may not be all you're looking for, since you can't change each individual attack yet, but with a few tweaks it very well could be.

Way of the Samurai, anyone?

Those Guardians talisman are really damn good.

I really hope they give us Naginatas. I want to use my favorite polearms.

I wonder how long the ps4 exclusive deal is and if koei tecmo has gotten better at porting.

I mostly missed the first demo and hardly played it but i'm loving the second one now that I have had a chance to get used to the game. What did they add in this demo? I just beat the ball and chain guy in the ship so was that where the first demo ended?

So far the game has been pretty challenging while not feeling bullshit. Most of the trash mobs all using the same moves you can and having all the same limits like stamina makes it easy to tell you are dying to your own mistakes. The best part is that dodging actually feels like you are dodging attacks rather than just rolling through everything with I frames.

Has anyone got any advice for the grassy hill side mission? I got to the boss easily enough but I can't figure out how to deal with two of those long tongued guys at once, they both vary their attack timings so one is constantly attacking and their hitboxes are DSII tier.

I'm starting to hope they add something like the wood carvings from Dark Souls, so my character can outright say "HEY, OVER HERE" since I guess whistling can't be heard if you're more than 10 feet away. Thankfully not every random host has no idea what they were doing. I managed to join one guy in the first sub mission and we cleared the whole area in one go, which felt pretty rad.

No, the first demo also had another area, a rainy japanese shrine/temple, with a shitload of oni everywhere. I wasn't able to clear it in time.

I don't know if this was in the Alpha demo, but doing a dodge in high stance works the same as pressing R1.

When I was weak I used the special attack square+triangle press it again to summon monster attack. Kill some revenants to get some good equipment keep pressing circle on red swords to fight them. You could also use holy water or magic to recover ki faster.

It was on low stance but they changed it.

You unlock harder difficulties on maps called twilight onis everywhere and some other new monsters.

Can you play as a girl? If not then dropped.

in the fullgame, maybe

I can't get over how smooth the framerate is now. Even on Action mode it was stuttering like hell.

All in all, I'm enjoying the beta.

My problem isn't that I can't recover Ki, my problem is that I get gangbanged by both of them and don't have a chance to attack. Thanks for reminding me about the living weapon though, i'd forgotten about that. I'll have to fight some revenant's to grind the meter full and try blitz them with it.

Well how many women samurai or knights were there back in the day?

Not enough.

Though iirc women were allowed to be ninjas? Not sure.

How many whitebreads were samurai, for that matter?

Not many, but onna-bugeisha did exist.

Like four guys, including William Adams.

there was a few women who'd just have swords and shit in their house and train with them but they weren't like total soliders

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If you use spears at all, the low stance combo that flips you into the air and behind an enemy is really useful against the big guys for you, getting you out of danger if only for a moment and preventing them from sandwiching you. That's how I managed to beat them solo after all.

I hope it isn't a garbage port like DW8E or Toukiden.

Yeah I just managed to beat them solo and I did it with the spear in primarily low stance. The jump was pretty useful but just being able to go fast helped too.

What weight do people usually like to keep themselves at in the demo so far? I've been keeping myself as light as I can so I stay in the green which I assume is the lightest you get.

I can just not get the hang of axe-hammery.

I've just been doing the strong attack in high stance, then ki dodging, then strong attacking again with the attack boost from the ki dodge. So far, that's been more or less streamrolling anything but bosses. Also, try the spin attack. I find that it cleans up really well if you can lure a group of enemies down a hill, then spam it on them at the bottom of the hill (since there's a second after they hit the ground where they can't block).

This first boss is kicking my ass.

I'm really having fun with this. I found that I'm only good with the katana/gun and nothing else. How edgy am I?

Also does anybody know where all the kodama are in the first level? I'm missing 3.

The big oni on the boat? Try sharkbro and learn some onmyo magic too.

It wasn’t so bad for me after I realized that its moveset is limited and you can block the spinning ball attack. It'll drain your stamina, but you'll have enough time to recover and move out of the way.

This changes everything.

Just be warned that you can't block immediately after so you'll take damage for sure if you're recovering in front of the second little spin or the ball itself. Other than that, dodge the other attacks then counter. I find the fight is much easier in the second phase. All you have to do is attack his back/side watch for his fall/grab move, try to stay out of the Yokai stuff, and when he throws the balls.

I've found slow and poison really help this fight, especially if you combine it with a stamina recovery item/ability.

What is that hidden teahouse thing, and more importantly, is it possible to unlock the twilight mode second mission

That wasn't a few, that was every nobleman's wife or servant girl. Nobunaga had his female servants trained as bodyguards. The few would be women like Tomoe Gozen, Tsuruhime of Omishima and Sanada Nobuyuki's wife who did fight as soldiers.

you what? surely you're not this much of a newfag/casual?

Does it meet these criteria you idiot?

shit meant to link to

This fucking demo meng, was the beta this good?

Will we get one of these? Because I want one of these.

It was pretty güd.

This game is so fucking great.

What happened here? Last I heard the Steam version was fucked because it didn't have any controller support so you had to use the keyboard which neutered the experience. Did the game get a patch or something that fixed the issue?

The demo was the same first level with a bit different enemy placement and a different, much more difficult second level
Any tips on Bat-Lady? I get stunlocked by her screech and then lose 30% to her spin attack

I've not got anywhere near that far but have you looked into protective charms or magic? There might be something that protects against stun effects, maybe?

You want to attack right after her charge/fly move or the spin attack, (the one with the red aura), then quickly back off. That's pretty much the entire fight. Well, at least for me it was. I used the katana with the power pill. I died at least a dozen times without lasting 30 seconds until I realized how to fight her carefully. For the screech, wait right until you hear her scream, then evade to the left or right. In the second phase she'll take flight, so then it's the same deal until she lands and you attack.

Is there a way to access the blacksmith that doesn't require you to play the entire fucking level again?

I want to know this too. There's gotta be a way to stop a mission to go back to the mission select screen.

There's a few items, I forget what they're called.
But you need to have the first mission finished before it unlocks

This is bullshit. I bowed to him and he got mad and came out swinging. Rude fucking wall, I was only greeting him

Does that mean we'll get to fight this?

I'd completely forgotten to check the items for that, thanks. They're called Himerogi Branches.

How many Kodama are in the first stage? Is it still 9? Because they've been moved around from the alpha and I need to unlock the oracle blessing.

I hit him because lel.
Then I tried apologizing. I pleaded. No dice. Big red fucking eyes suddenly turned into a big monster.
The wall got mad as hell. I had to climb that wall's corpse to access the loot, my nigga.

its still 9 and I can't find the last one.

In the Kodama list, its of the fifth type, I can't find it.

That thumbnail made me think this was new DLC for the Witcher 3

I made this, don't watch unless you want to get spoiled. This is a secret boss that unlocks after completing the two missions.

Great input

Interesting observation

I can join other people without a PS+ subscription. Dear god I hope Team Ninja keeps it this way in the retail release.

I just noticed, if you're in a region Sony doesn't give a fuck about and the demo hasn't shown up in the store's tab yet, just search "nioh" and you should find the beta.

there's a mod/few mods that fixes shit.
vanilla unmodded is a no go.

Holy shit. She's sanic fast. Also I wonder how many monster waifus will be in the full game.

I'm glad they actually put effort into this. Lords of the Fallen was a cheap cash grab based of the souls formula. I was worried they'd do the same here.

Even though it's only a demo I can tell Nioh actually has quite a bit of love put into it. I'd say its even an improvement over the souls games.

This might be the first game I pre-order in years.

hopefully not too many, I want the bosses to all look increasingly like festival masks.

Yeah, I quite enjoy it, the Ki burst system really adds a lot of depth and combo potential, and absolutely no PvP is good because it'll stop them from actually balancing things for PvP as souls games do.

Actually funnily enough, the original plan for NIOH was a movie series, and when the writer saw… MGS2 in 2012 or something strange like that, he wanted to do a video game instead.

Don't be stupid user. Pre-ordering is cancer and you should never do it unless you are really concerned that there won't be any copies availible on release day. Just buy it on the release day, don't encourage the cancer that is pre-ordering.

let me guess, you were dodging and it still hit you, right?

Have some cancer I made

not bad

I remembering meeting that guy, saw two sword graves, one said "Killed by wall for making a friendly gesture," the other said "Killed by wall for making a neutral gesture." I knew what to do then.

The weird thing is, I ran into him before the video while I had another player summoned, but that time I waved 'bye' to him instead. All he did was squint and growl at me instead of attacking. You can imagine my surprise and fear when he decided to get pissed over bowing.

Anyone found all the kodama in the Isle of Demons yet?

I'm having trouble finding the first kodama of the fifth type.

Maybe its because the bow emote got you too close/let you touch him.

Soul Match seems pretty game breaking now that I'm looking at it. You can basically have light gear with the same defense of heavy gear, but without the downsides.

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For any one that's played for a while, is there a ninja or monk class/build or are ninjitsu and onmyo currently just purely support abilities?

Which one is that one? The Hunter one or the Oracle one?

You actually can, ninja gets a skill that gives bonus FIST damage, and the onmyo buffs/debuffs are pretty strong.
Especially the carnage talisman, that thing doubles my damage roughly

For real, I'm getting the same feeling I felt when I played Demon's Souls for the first time. I thought I had forgotten how it was to feel that way towards a game. It's so much fun.

Top to bottom, left to right, the last type on the list. I've been scouring the whole area top to bottom for hours and I haven't been able to find it.

Any tricks to finding them that you know of? Do I have to revisit the level in twilight mode to find it?

Just keep a look out for that tell tale green glow. Try to spot them from a distance because most of them are hidden in little nooks when your up close.

Well, one of them I found by accident in the grass, where its almost impossible to see them. Still pulling my hair out, have you found them all? As long as I know its possible I'll be able to push through.

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d-does anyone know if theres any possibility of a PC release

I think there's a random ability on weapons and armor that marks their spot on the compass.

yeah I found them all, here's a pro tip, The divination talisman from the omnyo magic will make them appear as a small green dot on your compass

It's Koei Tecmo, so we may get one.
However, it's Koei Tecmo. So the port will be garbage.

There's been plenty of attention to detail. I'm very impressed.

They actually did a pretty good job with the Samurai Warriors 4 II port. Maybe they listened to the complaints of the DOA5 port and replaced the group who did that?

You've played like ten minutes of it. How could it possibly be better than an entire series of above average games?

Can't speak for him, but I've been playing it for three days and I'm having a blast. I just wish we could see some more enemy types, but this is a demo and all. Also the bosses aren't all that great. It's definitely an improvement on some of the issues I have with the combat in the Souls series.

Thanks for the tips, I was able to find the last one. The ability that puts Kodama on your min-map is called "Sense Kodama" and its on your equipment.

It was in the house near the boat with the oni inside, I couldn't see it until I was right on top of it.

What do you get for finding all of them? Is it just the blessings or something?

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Anyone else get the vibe that mighty whitey isn't going to be the only character you play as?

It may just be because this is a demo, but all the characters you see introduced and never mentioned again usually signals play-ability. I'd imagine that they come with the caveat of only being usable for certain missions and lacking customization.

I'm pretty sure they confirmed multiple characters. Waifu here is supposed to be one of them.

Is this you?

Weeaboo has two e's. Please stop appropriating my culture.

When you get the first of each type you unlock the blessing. Additional kodama of a particular type will increase the power of the blessing, i.e. the first little green guy will give you a 5% increased chance of "X" two of the same kind will give you 10% chance and so forth.

cute blacksmith.

how long does this demo last? i banged out the level from the first one but i'm gonna take a break to play some other games.

as for the demo i feel theres general improvement but some menu and statistics elements are still wonky, i might have prefered pre-planned weapon drops and locations like dark/demons souls instead of loot based weapons

Till the 6th.

Weeaboo is a term that comes from a strip from Perry Bible Fellowship that had nothing to do with anything related to japan.

The term used before weeaboo was "wapanese", something that made much more sense at least in terms of grammatical structure.

Before "wapanese" there was only a single umbrella term, otaku, used in all cases, with occasionally "japanophile" used as an alternative.

Specifically wapanese was wordfiltered to weeaboo on old Holla Forums. So very long ago that time feels.

Oh yeah, i forgot about that.
So basically if you think about it moot pushed this stupid shit onto the entire internet, in a misguided attempt to redirect the site rejection towards the original japanophile userbase as the generational exchange was happening.
Man, that idiot couldn't do anything right.

I have now discovered how to summon my Guardian Force. The yokai realm is fucked.

Went back to playing DaSIII after two days of the demo, having done just about everything there is to do in it, and man, the contrast hasn't ever been more stark.

Nioh isn't even released yet and I already think it is the better game. DaSIII feels and plays like a five year old game trying to be fresh. Hell, even at its roots, DaS and DeS were the mechanical equivalent of King's field in third person. Even if Nioh is trying to copy another game, its better in every way that matters; the enemies actually have decent AI, the combat is intelligent and responsive, the matchmaking is intuitive, the way you get and use equipment is more in-line with how the game is played. I could go on and on, but I'll wait for the actual release to give a review.

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You can get gestures from the mimic, it'll respond to what you gesture and when you kill it, you'll learn a new gesture.

That sounds alright. Any significant gestures?

You can get the wave hello gesture from em, if you use a friendly gesture.

As someone who's only played Nioh i want to ask, how does it differ from the 5 SoulsBorne games?

Stamina management is way harder in Nioh.

In souls games you can just panic-roll out of any situation.

It's leaps and bounds ahead on a mechanical level. Souls doesn't have the combo system that Nioh has nor does it have anything like the stance system. Team Ninja has essentially made a souls game and brought it closer to the mechanical level of Ninja Gaiden.

Well, the thing that stuck out to me most was how modernized Nioh is, mechancally wise. Its very easy to both find and join co-op matches, for example. The enemies in nioh actually have an AI, where as in dark souls they'd just patrol or sit still until the saw you, and once they saw you'd they'd chase you until they died or hit an area boundary.

Straying more into opinion/preference territory, dark souls also has little to no direction and the story and setting is almost entirely inferred from item descriptions and maybe some snippets of chatter. The player character is also a blank slate, since you can customize your sex, face and physique.

Dark souls and its sequels are in a single interconnected world, unlike Nioh. I can see the benefits for both approaches, so I won't try to argue that one is better than the other. I think deploying to areas from a mission screen works well for Nioh. In Dark Souls 2 the transitions between areas were so sloppily done you wonder why they even bothered at all.

After the first Dark Souls, the difficulty became a meme, and each installment tried to outdo the previous in terms of "being hard." To me, though, it felt like when city planners glue pavement bricks down to prevent them from being pulled up and thrown, the way the developers tried to shape and control how you were allowed to play. In DaS II that meant sloppy hitboxes to nerf dodgerolling. In DaS III that means making it harder to block with shields and increasing enemy resistances to magic. Bloodborne showcased the kind of combat direction that Fromsoft was most interested in, and it worked for that game, but the changes they made to DaSIII to make it more similar to bloodborne, like the removal of poise and the general worthlessness of shields, just shows their contempt for player preferred play-style.

Stamina management in Nioh is based around the stance system and Ki Pulse. You go low stance to dodge a lot, mid stance for blocking. High stance is for pokes, since they get a Ki Pulse on dodge thing. Personally, I think the Ki Pulse dodge is too valuable and too gamechanging to be locked to a stance for all weapons at any time, I feel like it should be a weapon attribute or skill or spirit ability.

That's on high stance now? I remembered it being on low stance in the first demo but thought they removed it because it was so good. How does it work now? I've noticed that sometimes I get a blue outline when I dodge but I wasn't sure how it was triggered.

You just hit dodge instead of the normal stance change/ki pulse button with the same timing. I found it to be really handy on that japanese batwoman thing.

I've been using high stance almost exclusively. One, because the axes really benefit from it and two, the ki flux dodge makes aggressive play a lot more viable. I was able to no damage Tachibana by abusing the flux dodge and just dodging through his attacks to get attacks on his back.

I very much prefer the flux dodge being on high stance if only because turns axes into steam rollers.

I still think its a missed chance for customization, but then again it could break the game if you could potentially do it on all stances.

I'm really diving into the magic system this playthrough. Onmyo an Ninjitsu seem to be more fleshed out from the alpha version.

I do wish I could do it on all stances but if only one stance is going to have it, I want it to be high stance. The flux dodge helps make up for the sheer amount of stamina that high stance consumes.

Yea, I can really see the reasoning behind moving it from low to high, since high consumes at such a high volume faster than any other stance, it also has the most to benefit from ki flux.

Still, I think it'd be useful to put alternative ways to ki flux on another stances, like a flux on block for mid.

Considering how utterly fucked Nueh was if you went into low stance and started ripping into him while flux dodging all over, I imagine this combined with high stance dodge being relatively bad for avoiding extra-reachy attacks is the reason they shuffled it. Low stance flux dodging turns it into a rape train of stunlocks where you can't possibly get caught by the enemy if you know what you're doing, high stance flux dodging means potential for sustained heavy hits to work down enemy ki, but only if you're especially careful, after which one can initiate a short string of low stance stunlock on Youkai before having to back off.

I wonder if we'll get another survey showing what each region thought of the game.

So it works the same except it's in high stance now.

Reading this I can see why they made the change. It made sense to put it on low stance because that was supposed to be the dodging stance but it was way too good. The fact high stance has slower attacks that lock you in for more time also helps balance it since if you mistime your attack then even flux dodge won't help.

There will be
gamecity.ne.jp/form/nioh_b_uk

Nice. I can't wait to see the results.

Hopefully, the japs having their input in the first poll effectively ignored, being told to "git gud", they'll quit their bitching and get with the program.

Personally, I felt like the difficulty was in a very good spot, not too hard, not too easy. If you mastered the skills like stance dancing and ki flux, combined with good reflexes and intelligent fighting, you could reliably win any encounter.

I don't get it. The Japanese are supposed to be the most hardcore and skilled around they have all these crazy records and gameplay videos. What happened?

They were always casuals.

Japs come in two flavors, "extreme conformist", and the reactionary "extreme achiever." The former play to win in order to feel fufillment and complain about being denied victory. The latter make their own fulfillment whatever the cost, whatever the methods. The latter are often the most remarkable, and get the most coverage, but the former still exist and they are many.

nice stuff

They're good at slaving. It's why they're incredibly good at rhythm games and singleplayer games but terrible at strategic games. Things that require critical thinking and assessment skills.

Has anyone unlocked that Hidden Tea Shrine in the start point menu? It seems odd that they'd include something you can't unlock.

Don't think you can go twilight isle of demons either, and I beat every level, though I might have to do the twilight zones multiple times.

Yeah same, I've beaten all the missions but that Tea Shrine is making me second guess whether or not I've really done everything there is to do.

Hold on, you can do Isle of Demons in twilight but after you complete it the twilight changes so that Deep in the Shadows opens up in twilight. After you beat that the twilight will go back to Isle of Demons.

So it rotates, then? I didn't do the alpha demo, even though I had a PS4 I just never thought to download it. Are there any levels in the alpha demo that aren't in the beta?

Does that doom me to be a beta because I missed out on the alpha?

Yeah you missed out on a shrine full of ninjas and one eyed oni. It was rainy and pretty dark so the ninjas would just jump out of some dark corner and ruin your day.

I've embeded a video of the level if you're interested.

...

There was a fantastic temple level, I thought design wise it was leaps and bounds ahead of the limestone caverns.

I've been kicking myself for missing the first alpha. I downloaded it but couldn't get into it at the time and didn't even get halfway through the first level.

I stopped playing this because enemies are sponges and I'm weak as shit even though I got some sick ass Warlord and Unusual armor from revenants.

Which enemies?

Oh yeah and I'm not a fan of this Ki Pulse bullshit. Switching stances mid combat would be a challenge enough for me, adding in this perfect timing shit just fucks me over. It's not fun, I spent more time in the starting area trying to get the timing down than actually playing the game and eventually just quit.

Every enemy. They all take a dozen slashes in mid or low stance, only high stance deals decent damage but then I can't dodge or block. Meanwhile these fuccbois all kill me in 2-3 hits and sometimes they gangbang me for fun, so I need to be in low or mid stance to dodge and do shit damage.

You sure about that?
Are you using the fact that from behind you deal about 1.5x damage?
Are you actually using the Ki System to your advantage to keep up combos and know when to attack enemies to force them into grapples?

Because honestly it sounds like you're trying to play it as a souls game which is a mistake, knowing how to force enemies into what you want them to do is important, and actually getting back/front hits and keeping combos up is important.

I already told you I hate the Ki Pulse bullshit, every time I try to do it in combat I get smacked.

I don't think I'll be buying this game if they keep Ki Pulses around.

So you're bad? You shouldn't be getting hit to ki pulse unless you're horribly fucking up timing.

Having to press a button with perfect timing after each attack and between other perfectly timed button presses is not fun. This is more of a challenge than getting perfects on Extreme in Project Diva games. What a joke to be able to say that.

You know, there's only one thing i'm puzzled about.

Compard to the previous demo, everything feels easier, however the basic mechanics have all been more or less left untouched.
But what i don't understand is why the game still showers you with equipment even tho there's no durability system anymore.
When durability was removed i assumed there would be a whole new system in place to fit the fact that shit doesn't break anymore, yet we're still in the cycle of "here's 600000 equipment, sell it off or offer it".
It makes for busywork at this point, constant equipment management, it would've been better to change the entire system with something else.

By the way get good at video games or literally expunge yourself from humanity, it's because of people like you that games get casualized.

Oh yeah and the total lack of healing items. Running back through the 20 mooks I just killed 5 minutes ago and killing them again is not fun. At least in Dark Souls you have estus, in this I have some elixirs that heal for shit and I can't buy any yet. Supposedly I can unlock a merchant but they will probably be overpriced when I do.

Kill yourself. I look forward to the shit sales.

there's a huge window to Ki pulse for even perfect pulses.

Yeah, it really just sounds like you're just mad because you're garbage at the game. Honestly if you want another generic souls game, go play the new souls game that's gonna be out next year.

They give you 3 per shrine that's more than enough if you're not shit at the game.
At this point I don't think you've even played a souls game as your reference Project Diva of all things as a baseline for "near impossible difficulty"

The durability has been replaced with familiarity so weapons get better as you use them. You've also got the soul matching thing going on with the blacksmith, if one weapon has a really good effect like +50% damage against yokai, I think you can use the soul match to buff the weapon you like and allow it to inherit the effect.
That said I've yet to use the soul matching thing effectively.

I've played and beaten every piece of content in every Souls game including Bloodborne but not Demon's. Those games are actually fun because you even though you're a gimped retard compared to a lot of the bosses, your dps doesn't rely on stupid mechanics like changing stances mid combat or ki pulses.

Once again kill yourself. I think I'll start a new playthrough of DaS, haven't played it in years. Or maybe BB, it has been calling my name recently.

Kill yourself

So wait because you can't do a mechanic it's stupid, you complain about a lack of healing items which is only an issue if you're getting hit once again because you're bad, then try to say "I'm the real hardcore gamer I played all the mash R1 souls games" Especially Bloodborn in which they throw billions of healing items at you?

I don't understand how you're so bad, hell I'm terrible at stance switching during combat and regaining Ki. Yet I've beaten both the bosses in the demo. Normal enemies are so easy to kill, you shouldn't ever take 12 hits to kill them. Are you using that shitty wooden katana they give you?

Soul matching seems broken to me. You can give weak weapons the strength of a axe and light armor the defense of heavy armor.

No all it does for things like that is raise the level of the item to the level of the material item.
So for example you can't give a katana the 157 base damage a level 34 hammer has, you instead up the katana to the base damage the level 34 katana would have.

Have you managed that? I explained the theory as I understand it but I've never managed to achieve anything with it. All my shit seems to just go down in level.

Ah so that's how it works? I haven't been paying attention to the items levels. Guess it's okay then.

Yeah as long as an item has higher defense or strength than the item I'm upgrading I've been able to increase the defense/strength of that item. I had a very light headband that had a defense of 11 but after combining it with a very heavy helmet with 40 defense I was able to increase the headband to 34 defense.

He's right about the healing items though, if the game isn't gonna refill my elixir supply atleast increase their drop rate from enemies.
Seriously I've got the blessing that increases elixir drop rate by 10% and I'm still barely getting any.
Also what does the game mean when it says it's storing my elixir surplus in my "storage container"?
Because whenever I go to a shrine with less than 10 elixirs I don't get anything.

The amount of elixir you get at each visit to the shrine increases at some point. I don't know what it was but I ended up with 5 at one point and during the twilight missions I think I may have had seven. Upgrading health might be what does it but I'm not sure. It could be finding more kodama too.

At the start of the game 3 exliirs is plenty enough to get you to the next shrine.You get plenty of healing items later when you need them more. Demons enemies drop them quite a lot. They also seem to increase the drop rates on the enemies around bosses so you can farm them if needed.

Yeah that's not because you gave it the strength of the heavy armor, you instead increased the headband's level to that of the helmet.

Your base has to be a lower level than your material. Ranged Weapons must be used to upgrade ranged weapons, Melee for Melee, and Armor for Armor.

You really shouldn't need more than 3 unless you're playing really poorly. Yokai drop them in higher frequency than bandits, with ronin having the best rate among humans. Also when it says moving it to storage it moves them to your storage, the one you can only access from the main map screen.
But I'm 100% serious you're doing something pretty wrong if you're getting hit often enough that elixir shortage is a thing. I understand bloodborn taught you to spam healing items because you have 20 and they drop like candy, but you do need to ration them out

I'm pretty sure you can get away with just mashing R1 for a "regular" Pulse after an attack, there's little to no timing required for that. Only a perfect Ki Pulse can sometimes be tricky to pull off, but even then I used that mostly to purify the Yokai mist. On top of that, Ki Pulse and stance switching between attacks isn't even mandatory; it just makes the fights more fluid and exciting.

It's the endless quest for random loot, which I don't mind as long as the combat is engaging and menus are intuitive (which is the case in Nioh). If anything, it gives me a reason to fight even low-level enemies, because I can sell a bunch of shit that gives me not only Amrita, but also extra items. The system is so quick and painless, there's even an odd sense of satisfaction for doing so.

You have to find specific Kodama to increase the blessing.

I only get one at a time, two if I'm lucky. Farming takes too fucking long and is really tedious.

I don't own BB shit for brains, the only reason I need elixirs is because of the boss that kills me 3 hits despite my health being upgraded and then I have to waste my time farming them.
Bullshit. Unless you're referring to the big oni's because the only things the other ones drop are stones and other useless crap.

Common enemies are a piece of cake, but how do I git gud at fighting Oni?

Overhead hit them in the head, it'll count as a critical and kill their stamina if you break the horns.

Here's a pro tip
Don't fucking get hit numbnuts.
I seriously don't get why you have an issue with this.

Drain their stamina (purple bar) by hitting them, then just hammer away at them because you'll always stagger them when they're out of stamina. Learn to lead them as well so you can attack whilst they're in their recovery frames.

Great comeback, really shut me down.
I said I hate having to spend time farming them on the off chance I might need them.

So you really are just mad because you're bad?
Like your saying the game is shit because your shit, so how do you handle games that have only set health pickups, do you just complain that there aren't more of them?

He didn't really say that though? Maybe consider that you're just a retard, user.

HOW THE FLYING FUCK DO I GIT GUD AT THIS?

I can cheese 2 vs 1 easy, even against players character that 5x higher level than me but for the love of god I always took massive damage when I fighting 3 or more enemies. The worst part is, all the enemies will chase you everywhere.

The way I usually handle that is lure them and fight them in small tight areas where they can't use their numbers. You can basically chip away at them one of time.

Are there mimics in this game so far?

I'm only at the entrance of rich faggot's mansion in the first level and am generally gittin gud with the axe, but fuck mimics. They are second only to spiders in how pant-shittingly scary they are.

Some enemies are clustered together though and will react if they see you, and I can't find any bow or any projectile weapon early in the game.

I beat the first area. Isn't that where the alpha ended? How much further is the beta?

Chest mimics that clone you and fight you as your double and demons that disguise themselves as walls

Stones are acquired as soon as you start the game and work for luring enemies.

>not mentioning the weapon you pick up that attacks you minutes after you've put it in your inventory

Not scary sounding, but what.

That what the stones are for? fuck me. Is it infinite or limited?

Wait where's that? I haven't seen that yet.

limited, but you get tons.

Limited based on how many you can find. I have no idea how to aim them or throw them any farther than I have.

WAIT WHAT

This has to be bull shit. No way they actually did this shit.

I'd believe it, cursed swords and such that have their own wills are a Japanese staple.

They can't be thrown that far, but you can get close to enemies by walking up and then locking on to hit them.

Also leading up the hill to the house with the first Oni in it, don't approach from the front. Go through the woods on the left for a side entrance to get behind the house and avoid the trio of guys guarding the front.

Shit, I've been whittling them away one at a time.

It's nice that Koei is rewarding exploration for once at least.

Also invest a little bit into ninjitsu, even just one level. You can get a renewable supply of throwing stars for your trouble.

Once you target your enemy with right thumbstick then you can hit them with stones, bombs, ninjitsu, onmyo etc.

Also some of the weapon skills are good for attacking crowds. The whirl the spear around your head attack is awesome, especially against unskilled foes.

It's so you can sacrifice equipment to the kodama in exchange for amarita and occasionally items. And speaking of which…

At least in Dark Souls you have estus, in this I have some elixirs that heal for shit and I can't buy any yet. Supposedly I can unlock a merchant but they will probably be overpriced when I do.
…sacrificing drops is a good way to get elixirs. Another good way is to get the Healer's Blessing from a shrine, it increases the drop rate for elixirs. There might be a bonus on certain armors to increase item drops as well.

You are leveling up at shrines right?

Mate you don't even need to use it much. Forget using it after every attack, just use it after a combo to recover some stamina. You don't need to get a perfect pulse every time either, sometimes you won't have time because waiting for the right timing will let the enemy hit you.

Just wait for the enemies to have an opening and then attack them, if you have time then combo and Ki pulse before backing off but just hitting them a couple of times and dashing back until you get a better opening is fine too. Watch the human enemies stamina since low stamina means you can just brute force through their guard and get a free grapple as long as you manage your Ki correctly.

I'd understand if you were talking about Bloodbourne but this game gives you free elixers on spawn just like Estus in Dark souls. Once you get the mechanics down you should not be taking much damage early on.

Kill yourself

You don't get more than three elixers after you respawn, though. It's kind of a neat system, actually. Three will probably be enough for most of the area, but if you're having trouble somewhere you can grind some out to give you an edge.

I get 5 myself. It depends on leveling I think or unlocking skills. Healing items are breaking the game. Every oni on twilight drop them and the big bone monster. Onis are too stupid my little sister killed one by just swinging around and equipment also make you overpowered. Game need to be harder especially enemies AI.

Anyone?

I beat the second area last night and am working on twilight missions. It's pretty long for a demo. You do get another reward for beating the second level, but I'm not sure if you get anything else beyond that. Still working on it.

Maybe it's supposed to be kinda easy. Koei's games tend to be easier versions of existing genres by design, at least according to the Warriors design philosophy.

The feedback they got after the 1st demo was that it was too hard

Alright, neat.

Ironically, the Americas were the only region that thought the difficulty was fine.

I know me and the rest of them wouldn't last a day in Demon's Souls but come on now.

No big surprise, the protag doesn't look like a flat schoolgirl with a feminine penis, androgofaglove is all the rage over there.

The protag keep reminding me of Geralt though which break the immersion. If anything, they need to change the protag design.

What does the Yokai water bottle do? I've been cautious about using it the description is… ominous.

You can get more than 3, I spawn with 5 right now after finishing the second mission. I think it depends on how many Kodama's you have collected.

To be honest I think it's harder than the souls games. You usually die in a few hits and can easily be comboed to death from almost full health if you put yourself in a bad situation. The combo and Ki pulse system adds more depth to the combat but getting good with them is a lot harder than just mashing the attack button.

What do the nips think of Souls games in general?

Also, and this can't be stated loudly enough, you are completely immune to damage while your living weapon is active. And the the Hawk guardian spirit charges super fast.

I'm pretty sure they appreciate it for the same reasons we do, but they don't have fans that worship it.

I agree. The difficulty feels more on par with Ninja Gaiden to me

Like Go and Chess (the best American player is Japanese)?

strategic games are one of their strong suits if you look at the records, the koreans even moreso at strategy games and I don't just mean starcraft. The only thing they don't seem to be good at is FPS and that's because FPS aren't popular in general in Japan. I heard they think shit like Cowadooty is too real and edgy (with the game basically involving murdering in modern war and they're taught every day since they lost WWII how bad that is) and not fantasy enough.

brb committing sudoku

I've had the beta for around 3 days now since Tuesday. Why is everyone only getting it now?

Have to say I'm loving the game so far. Getting the feel of the Ki pulse system and having to train my muscle memory to not play like dark souls and try to keep rolling to avoid attacks since Blocking is something that seems more viable (in some cases). Though I wish they did more withe the iai style than just holding down r1+O, such as some follow up attacks (though maybe I haven't unlocked enough skills to do more with it yet).

don't need PS+ for this beta.

Weekend for most people most likely. Some of us who work feel it's better to either download it and wait or wait to download it on friday where we have more time to play it.

I think I need to brush up on my Setsuka and Soul Calibur in general, because that doesn't make sense to me.

True, the art is meant for taking out your opponent with one quick and deadly strike, but there are ways to get one or two more attacks in before sheathing your sword again.

I use blocks to get out of stunlocks, primarily, but its sometimes more dangerous to lose ki from blocking than it is to take a hit.

Though yokai often cause ki damage when striking anyways…

Guy who did the video of ridiculous combos for the alpha put one up for the beta. Doesn't look like the change to the dodge thing negatively affected him at all.

Does this game want to be curazeh or not.

Have we played the same demo? If there's one thing I noticed it's that elixirs show up far, far more often now as opposed to the alpha where they barely showed up at all.

I'm serious. In the alpha, I'd have complete kodama healer buff and get maybe a couple (if I was lucky) in a single run before I'd go back to the shrine. In the beta, with only two kodama healer buff, I usually get 3 of them and half the time I'll get 5 or 6 in a single run.

At the very least, the really armored humans will almost always drop an elixir. So they're easily exploitable.

You can also take a kodama blessing that will increase your healing item drop rate.

So is that all? I just beat the guy in the field and am fucking around on co-op. How do you get the teahouse? Anyways, I'm really liking this game. It's solid. I'm just hoping there's a ton of missions/multiple characters and I'll be sold.

Favorite set up? I'm using only the Raikiri (lightning katana) and the Unmatched Warrior of the West armor set, minus the helmet. Raiken is my guardian spirit, naturally.