Nioh

I didn't think it'd be up to par with Burial at Sea, since they didn't pull a Metro/Sleeping Dogs and try and sell it to people who already owned it, but if it's even worse than the original that's just embarrassing.

The Nioh beta dynamically turned down the resolution to maintain 60fps, and it did a good job of it I have to admit. That beta has me seriously considering trading in my PS4 for a Pro.

That would require TVs and Consoles to support DisplayPort instead of HDMI. Not happing in this generation.

Truly the laptopest of laptop hardware.

Action mode has to become a standard feature for the PS4pro to be worth a shit, in fact, all console games should have a "fuck grafix, just run the game properly" option. Hope nioh does well enough for it to catch on.

PC so we can enjoy the game to its fullest when? Yes this will be the second game for PS4 that's worth buying. No that is not enough to get me interested in a console.

when the beta ends.

No the beta had the option, but you could only switch between gameplay 60 fps 720p and movie mode 30 fps 1080p at the main menu making it hard to find.

tomshardware.com/news/samsung-freesync-hdmi-display,31332.html
Of course, it's 1080p60 and laggy as a mongoloidal tree sloth, but that's expected for HDTVs.

4ms isn't slow but that's just panel response. I guess we'll have to wait until a real website gets one to learn the actual input lag.

Yeah, if panel response were all that mattered to the retards who design HDTV chipsets, OLED TVs would be blowing away CRTs.

that's actually quite sensible, some people will be able to deal with 30 FPS and enjoy the graphics, or the smoother 60 FPS

why not

10/10

Nioh have 0 fps on PC so I can't complain

Only game I'm looking forward to. The difficulty during the demo was real, that sure was rare but worth it.

why would you even need AA at 1080p? AA is fucking cancer

Have you actually played a game at 1080p?

Never mind you are retarded.

You mean 60fps. Youtube exists after all.

If it wasn't for a crippling fear of that, I would preorder Ni-Oh. I'll have to settle for Williams in Musou Stars, hopefully.

This is one of the few games that is making me consider a ps4. It probably won't push me past the tipping point though, as I have no interest in Bloodborne and while there's a couple weeb games I might want to try I won't go out of my way for them. Also there was Horizon Zero Dawn but the last trailer I saw really killed most of my hype for the game.

I agree, nothing wrong with giving people the option.

I might buy a ps4 when sony launches the pro, wonder how cheap they will go.

Damn, gonna go upscale and blur the shit out of my 1080p so I can claim I'm playing at 8k.

Of what?

Unstable framerates. Yes, terrifying.

On the subject of Nioh, is it going to be released on PC? Why the fuck not? It's Koei Tecmo, they're a third party developer, they can put the game on as many platforms at they like, unless Sony paid them off to give them timed exclusivity. Timed exclusivity is cancer. Either go all out or don't go at all, for fuck's sake. Say what you want about Nintendo, but at least they've had their own in-house first and second party developers since the NES days. Sony just pays for an advantage. Oh, they have Naughty Dog, but even they used to be third party at some point.

no console wars, just pointing out a simple fact

THIS CANT BE REAL

Likely because Sony has invested on it since 2004.

Early on they changed the wording implying it actually is only on ps4. Might get a nice surprise but I wouldnt get my hopes up

...

...

...

It was recently announced that Sony is publishing the game in the West, so it's starting to look dim for PC. Who knows, though?

The salt, keep it coming PCfag. Want me to make a petition for you?

MOVIE MODE
O
V
I
E

M
O
D
E

Enjoy your ban newfag

what?

Exadtly:DDDDDDD

Hmm? Are you saying the normal Nioh won't have the option for 60fps? I thought the pro shit was only the 4k option.

Disregard my retardation, I'm now learning to read properly.

...

Trying to incite some platform war shit in an unrelated thread is dingdongbannu material if you ask me. Take it to cuckchan

The PS4 with its iteraritve hardware is now an iPhone nigger.
Thats the point/joke
What you posted makes no sense whatsoever considering the context.

Enjoy your ban newfag

Single platform peasant shouldn't be allowed on Holla Forums. How about getting a job and stop living in your mom's basement

lmaoing at you

reported :^)

I like how Action Mode doesn't differ between the PS4 and PS4P. The latter might have more stable resolution, but when I played the Beta I didn't even notice a change.

If there's one good thing about the PS4P is that it made the OG model cheaper.

Fake pic

You don't say…

But its not

The fact that DaS1 sold like hotcakes on PC despite being a genuinely awful port was the wakeup call for all these other nip publishers to put their games on a real platform and it wouldn't have happened without that petition.

...

Truly next-gen

This is the most pathetic and retarded reply I have ever seen in any imageboard ever.

Never ever cancer race kiddie.

Enjoy your walking simulators on your 4k monitor and your overpriced rig.

My sonygger buddy thinks they're going to do another PS4 version (or a PS5) other than the Neo to compete with the new Xbox. I doubt that this is accurate but if it's true it'll be fucking hilarious to see 3 consoles released within 5 years and sonyggers like him will defend it.

Some PC ports are better than none. Good luck playing the game on PS3 in a decade since they've stopped manufacturing them and they have the lifespan of normal cunsumer hardware.
Not to mention that the PC port as it currently stands it the best version of the game, even without DSFix.

Actual 60fps, or unstable 45fps like the demo?

pushsquare.com/news/2016/11/sony_treating_action_rpg_nioh_as_a_first-party_ps4_game_will_publish_in_the_west

In any case, you can still beg KT to release it on PC
change.org/p/koei-tecmo-bring-nioh-to-pc
1043 cucks and counting

Oh I'm aware, I've yet to see a PC port worse than Saints Row 2 and I'd still rather play that on PC because GotR fixes many of its issues and adds some content/functionality that the console versions don't have.

wew

Keep those salt flowing user.
Man, its good to be the 1%

Moontoon fags are a real cancer allright.

This truly boggles my mind. Why are consoles today so incredibly pathetic? For the same price, individuals can build superior custom rigs at full MSRP. In volume, with negotiated deals, they should be able to sell a solidly upper-midrange rig at cost. Is it just pure profit?

Fully playable 7th-gen emulation Soon™ 8th-gen hypervisors when?

Too bad it can't play Nioh

That actually is genuinely part of it. Early 360s and PS3s were sold at a significant loss to build market share and to make it back on software sold. This strategy meant both consoles were, effectively, much more up to date relative to their time than the current gen is, relative to current tech.

because building PC is too hard :(

come on, fam

What's the fucking point of the "Movie Mode"? Also wouldn't the game require a larger filesize to store bigger textures for the 4K version?.

That would be understandable if they were selling something equivalent to a $400 custom PC (or $500 at least, if taking economies of scale over a hobbyist into account), but the PS4 Pro & XBone S are netbook-tier nigger rigs you can beat for under $200 MSRP.

Did anyone in here play the Alpha or Beta? Action Mode and Movie Mode are like quality settings. Action mode prioritizes keeping the framerate at 60fps by lowering the resolution as necessary, while Movie Mode had a higher resolution and locked the framerate at 30. The Beta also added an unlocked Movie Mode which apparently hovered more around 40 but I wouldn't know since I stayed primarily in Action Mode, which ran pretty well and would only usually drop when near excessive flames and enemies online.

So does anyone want to talk about the game itself? An extended trailer dropped recently.
youtube.com/watch?v=WsXnJUP99jc

What?

...

He's based on William Adams, an English sailor who was forced to land on Japan and historically became one of the very first Western samurai.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(sailor)

In Nioh, if what I've seen of the tie-in manga is to be believed, he's an Irish orphan who travelled to Japan to rescue his spirit waifu who he willed into existence when attacked as a child so they could fight demons together.
You could not have a better protagonist if you tried, he's the original and ultimate weeaboo.

Call me when PC have physical media

Call me when consoles have private trackers.

Steam waives eligibility criteria on Early Access games. So 2014 can get cancelled out, and 2016 is retarded and whoever put it on there has mental retardation.

As to 2012, people have argued that point since Steam first came out, nothing changed. You never "owned" anything physical of the games you played, everything was a digital download in the first place, so shitting on Steam because they defined what you own to be a subscription is retarded.

PC doesn't deal in physical media anymore for a number of reasons, one being that we no longer deal in copyright protection schemes that can bork your computer. You want games to go back to phone-home limited CD activations? Cause those were rootkits. You want games to all have Denuvo in them? Cause that's what physical media for games would be.

Consoles wanted to switch to digital download only back when the 360 and PS3 were soon to launch, the only reason they didn't do that was because the brick and mortar big box stores told them that if they tried to take away physical sales they would stop selling their consoles. So they had no choice, now they offer both, but you notice how they offer more DD than they do physical media? Yeah, it's because they're still trying to make that transition.

Just like how GameStop literally opens boxes of games that include a Steam key for an extra copy of games, and REMOVES those keys and then sold the copies as is. They took away the free extra copies, because they were all like "FUCK THIS, THAT'S HALF OUR POTENTIAL SALES RIGHT THERE." And there was literally nothing that the publisher/developer could do, because if they act on it then it could mean no more sales of their games in GameStop period.

The industry has wanted go to digital for a long time, and it's the kikes who are preventing them from doing it, because then they can fix prices, which they do. PC games used to be about half of what they are now when they're digital downloads, and the brick and mortar retailers told them that if they didn't wind up the prices to the same price they sell games for, they'd discontinue selling their product. The retail cartel are the true kikes.

Steam is DRM, but it's a lightweight DRM, it's an applet that runs on your PC and verifies you have the credentials to run something. That's all. It's not intrusive or invasive, no matter how you shake your bullshit at it, it passively sits there until a game sends a permissions check. And because of how passive it is, Steam is the easiest DRM to bypass and takes all of 30 seconds to crack. This is completely by design.

Steam doesn't ban people from their service unless they do something illegal, so I don't see why you're so worried about physical media anyway. Your library's not going anywhere, Steam makes more money than ever, GabeN's not going to shut down Steam tomorrow and say "fuck you all, your games are gone."

Nice read, I always thought the hollywood movie was an exaggeration and turn out, I was right. He just a samurai in name only, his real job is a merchant and traders.

PS3 has no gaem amirite?

It's not like all samurai were specifically warriors. He was pretty pivotal in assisting the shogun of the time in foreign affairs, even if he didn't actually engage in any combat. But why let that get in the way of a fun idea and a reason to make a cool game?

Call me when consoles have something like GoG

Wow someone who actually tries. Listen bud, we gave up reasoning with console gamers more than a decade ago because they don't care about any arguments. They just want to rationalize their purchase of a console. And yes this extends to buying new consoles. I used to play consoles a shitton up to and throughout the PS2 era. But as soon as the PS3 and 360 came out there have not been a single reason to buy a console. Anyone who defends consoles at this point (post-imageboards) are people with post-purchase rationalisation. They're getting a strictly worse videogame experience, but refuse to admit it. Because they believe that admitting that they bought a worse experience would make them look bad and thereby decimate them and their fragile ego. So they keep up decades of mindless consumerism.

You are fucking retarded.
Games being tied to your account is only good for Valve and if they go bankrupt all your games go with them.
Physical games on the other hand are yours to keep, lend and resell.
Steam and digital games in general are very anti-consumer. I can't believe how all you PC cucks like to get fucked in the ass so hard.
this is my favorite meme!

Oh forgot to mention: consolewar bullshit is one of the things Mark will actually act on. So remember to report these guys for inciting consolewars.

You missed by 1.

But will someone make an actual Nioh thread afterwards? I just want to discuss it.

He doesn't delete the thread, he just bans the poster.

Call me when you get lonely bb.

Are you retarded? Valve isn't going to shut down steam tommorrow but there's a chance that steam will end, and even if there's a 1% chance that steam can be shut down we must treat it as if steam has already shut down.

So in that sense you literally don't own any games and every time you pay for a game you are just throwing your money away. People here have speculated that Valve actually loses around 300 million dollars a year because Steam as a service is too expensive to run thanks to game downloads going over the arbitrary limit of 40 GB.

Get off Gabe's dick and buy a console and physical games, at least then you know you can come back to your console in 60 years time and everything in it will just work, digital is a joke, and the idea of having media stored somewhere you can't physically access and having the NSA pry through your gaming habits is for retarded mustard race circle jerkoffs.

Oh also…
Fuck that. I don't really care about jaggies when I'm cutting shit up with a Katana like a fucking Seven Samurai mothafucka, why would I need AA?

There's a 1% chance that you will be hit by a moving vehicle tomorrow if you leave your house. Does that cripple you and make you stay indoors? There's a constant danger that something bad could happen to you, and based on this, you continue to live your life. You don't have to, you could stay indoors at all times, you could take your own life to prevent something else from doing so, you could allow chance to dominate your life.

The chance that Steam would shut down is less than 0.000001% based on the amount of profit they make on a yearly basis, with their money increasing on a yearly basis. Steam is a privately owned company, they're not a publicly traded stock, they don't have investors to answer to, Steam runs by their own decision making agency. Because of this, Steam will not change how they run tomorrow.

Oh boy, speculation. Do tell me more. Hard data only please. If you can't codify your data, then your data is likely wrong. This is like if I tell you that 90% of statistics on the internet are made up on the spot. Do you understand the irony of that statement? It's a speculation that is made up on the spot. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And I do own consoles, I like both. I just refuse to hate Steam for what only kids whine about. "I can't resell my copy of Half-Life 2 for $0.35 to help me pay for the next game I want!" Fuck you Tommy.

Nigger, you're retarded.

Good job fam.

Yes, you're right, I may not reply to a post that is addressing me. I must only read passively from now on.

...

...

>happily buys his physical disc without instruction manual
>puts his physical disc in the disc tray
>console has to update non physical software
>game receives non physical updates
What the fuck is the point anymore?
At least on PC I can pirate the games and burn them into a DVD if I want to put away the installer for later. And it won't bug me with updates when I try to play it.

No, fuck off. That's not even what I'm saying. All I'm saying is, why would I care about AA in a game that's all about action? I'd rather have 60 fps than not have to worry about whether or not my pixels are curved rather than boxy.

Anyway, why is it that we can't do both on the Pro? Why can't the game both be AA and 60 FPS on the PS4 Pro?

Are you talking about the fact that the game core runs on delta ticks rather than being locked to the framerate? Cause that's how games are supposed to be made. Games aren't supposed to be written to be dependent on the framerate of the game.

Or even make and use 100%-legal backups of DRM-free games without hacks.

Okay, that's reasonable enough. Basically Nintendo's "stick figures with blurry billboard sprites are good enough if they're moving at 60FPS with minimal input lag and the gimped hardware can't do better"-attitude, I can get behind that.

No, he's talking about the fact that physics and animation aren't even updated between 30FPS ticks, regardless of geometry/camera framerate. Lots of other consoletard games like "Fallout" 4 have the same problem.

So anyone thinking of using the new Guardian Spirits shown if we get them? I'm curious if we really will get each and every one, they showed a lot there and there's not many more niches they could fill that aren't already covered by the five we already have.

This actually interests me more than I thought it would, because suddenly Havok physics works the way it's supposed to, things don't look so floaty, things don't go flying when you merely touch them. Conversely explosions matter more with the higher tick rate.

call me when consoles have free and open source operating systems and video games that respect the users rights.

>>>/cuckchan/ and stay there

...

Judging by the direction this thread took, Nioh is going to be the new Bloodborne for a good while, in that threads are going to be shitposted to death.

Anons have to justify those golden face maps that are collecting dust

Oh god I hope not, was really annoying not being able to talk about bloodborne for months because all the threads would be shitposted to death by console warring retards.

Seems like not many people are left that actually enjoyed the game at the very beginning, it's mostly those that jumped on at the Beta, didn't know what they had missed, and touted the game as the next big thing so they could shitpost about it and against it. It's a shame.

What do you mean? I'm pretty sure the Beta was far more successful than the Alpha.

That's exactly what I said. There was an Alpha long before the Beta you know, and the game was different in many better ways back then. The people that didn't spend any real time with it forced changes to it that it wasn't designed for by using the survey instead of actually learning it or just playing something else, and the game was cheapened overall for when many more people came in.

Yes, I know because I also played the Alpha and I completely disagree, and I don't see many of these people who thought the Alpha was better.

Well, considering the Beta straight up had three times the content and a lot of UI and netcode improvements, no wonder people would get blinded by that, but the gameplay mechanics themselves were totally neutered and made far less unique and enjoyable.
The Ki stagger if using something you don't have the Ki for was a far more immediate punish that felt fair and defined the combat as it affected both you and the enemy making the combat much more tense and explosive.
The same can be said for how you would move when locked on, having to walk dodge or block to stay facing and guard your back placed a huge emphasis on thoughtful movement and positioning that was tossed out with the changes and let you circlestrafe enemies mindlessly. Those two things alone made the combat feel very engaging and authentic and encouraging improvement and fighting like a old school samurai movie.
Then there's the removal of Durability, which people act like is a good thing when they don't realise how much it affected and how they could have dealt with it in so many ways already. It was refreshing to see a system actually be effective for once, and it was important in balance, varying equipment and enemy strats, giving a punishment for death while pushing you to play well and efficiently each life, fitting the setting and atmosphere and moving the loot (and likely the shop) economy.
Finally, the flat nerfs to enemy health and low health amounts all round removed all sense of tension from fights as you could cut through them far too quickly without taking time to learn how combat actually works until it's too late, and even then you're far more likely to win through brute force than experience. The Paris Games Week footage recently released as well as Kou Shibusawa's TGS stage demo are a huge example of that.

The Beta is not without it's improvements, and the game is still fun to play, but it lost a lot of what made it Nioh, because people were too concerned with making it Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden or even something simple like Skyrim or whatever, and when they were asked for something different than what they knew before, they couldn't handle it, even when the game had plenty of items, mechanics and coop, but people found it easier to complain and lie instead, and we're all worse off for it.

There is a similar historical account of Yasuke, a black gaijin samurai who fought alongside the forces of Oda Nobunaga in the Honnō-ji incident.

Yasuke fought alongside the Nobutada's forces for a long time but he eventually surrendered his sword to Akechi's men. They asked Akechi himself what to do with him. Akechi said that the black man was a beast and did not know anything, and furthermore, he was not Japanese, so they should not kill him but take him to the nanban-dera or nanban-ji

(南蛮寺, literally the temple of the southern barbarians, how the Japanese referred to the Jesuit church) [he considered the man no more of a nigger than other gaijin barbarians]

To me, the way the Ki stagger worked in the Alpha was more annoying and obnoxious than anything else. Not being able to attack or dodge is enough when stamina depletes, but losing all control over your character is too much and just breaks the flow of the combat and further engenders passivity because the punishment is much greater.
Now, you actually have to hit (or be hit) when stamina is at zero to proc the stagger. This actually makes it more tense for me because you have to rush towards an enemy when their stamina is at zero rather than just waiting to tire themselves out.

There are many more way you can make your game unique without trying to innovate on every little thing just for the sake of being different.

I don't remember exactly to which extent the Beta changed in that regard, but it sounds like they just improved the controls when locked-on and I'm all for that. It always frustrated me that Dark Souls limited the player's movement when locked-on for some arbitrary reason; you could only roll in 4 directions, and couldn't even sprint sideways/backwards.

In moments where you're fighting multiple enemies at once in a cramped space (which I remember happened quite a lot in the Beta), circle-strafing not only shouldn't be considered an issue, but a necessity. The rest is up to thoughtful level design and enemy placement to make sure the game isn't bland.

Another thing which I completely disagreed with. When every enemy is a living piñata and Revenants can be fought anywhere to farm for weapons and items, and the game never encourages you to stick with the same weapon anyway, durability ultimately becomes pointless. Familiarity, Reforging and Soul Match are systems that fit in better with the random loot system.

You also say durability encourages people to play well and efficiently, but that essentially means playing safer, which in turn makes players feel discouraged from trying to fuck around with movesets and chain different combos, which is one the biggest aspects that sets Nioh apart from Souls games.

A durability system might truly shine when you have to endure long stretches of gameplay and forced into resource management, with very little equipment and limited inventory space. This simply doesn't fit Nioh.

On the flip side, the Beta also introduced Twilight versions of levels. The regular levels in the Beta might have been easier than the Alpha, but Twilight levels were definitely tougher.

Not really, unless you're constantly mashing buttons and not Ki Pulsing. One stagger should be enough for you to know it's there and set you on the path to fighting with it in mind, which is far less obnoxious than for you to be pressing buttons, getting hit for swinging at the wrong time, and then all of a sudden getting staggered and hit again for "no reason", which is the way people getting into the game are far more likely to see it as. Also they haven't actually removed enemies getting tired from their own actions, I saw it happen to Muneshige, so it's not even a case of "making it even on both sides" and it was difficult to cause later enemies to tire themselves out so saying it's more tense with this chance is entirely incorrect. It doesn't break the flow of combat partly because it doesn't last long but mainly because the flow of combat is supposed to be patient and brutally explosive. The Ki stagger and Pulse exemplifies this, and mastering the Ki Pulse and thinking about every move during combat allows you to play much more offensively, something that is actually greatly encouraged in this game compared to it's most compared peer, which would almost always penalize acting first.

Assuming the Ki system was made just "for the sake of being different" is completely disregarding just how well considered the system actually was, which you could see through playing it and really thinking about it. Very few games have came this close to displaying all forms of classic samurai fights in one combat system. They're proud of the system for a reason, don't discount it just because you can't see how it affects the whole game.

In the Alpha, running (not sprinting) while locked on would make you turn around, and you could turn during attacks, whereas to stay facing the enemy you had to walk, dodge, or hold guard. As I said this made how and where you move important which greatly deepened combat and added to the samurai feel (especially since sprinting was powerful as your lowest costing Ki option), making being backattacked actually a fair concern for both you and revenants which is supposed to be an big part of combat, but also giving you more freedom to aim attacks in group fights. None of the enemies or situations are designed for you to be able to just run like that, you have defense, dodging and timing runs or sprinting when necessary. You can even see it in the animations and how Muneshige moves, it subtly breaks the game when they had the perfect balance on movement before.

Now about Durability, first off stop exaggerating how much loot dropped at once. There was a decent amount, but not too much as it played into the two sided economy of offering for more Amrita and bonus items, or selling for Soul Matching and reforging (and likely repair items). The only reason we had excessive whetstones was because we were repeating the same levels and there was a place that gave out 6 at once. The game only requires swapping out weapons for ones you found as they broke early on, later you would focus more on stronger weapons and Durability meant there was actually a reason to equip two weapons or specific equipment types. Saying Durability is pointless because you can have the options to deal with it is a pointless observation, and there's more to it than just using the items when you have to. Also, not only were those three clearly going to be in the game, I don't understand why you say Familiarity fits better, as without Durability as the other side it's a fairly basic and boring system which only serves to encourage stagnation and doesn't even encourage swapping weapons, as you only have to equip, not wield a weapon to become familiar with it, and the Amrita bonus is middling at best.

It said the body was too long and I don't know the limit so I'm just cutting the reply into two at a random point.

I shouldn't write posts while watching things I didn't realise it got this long.

No it doesn't. Blocking reduces Durability just like attacking does, so it would encourage defeating opponents swiftly and taking advantage of any opening possible, the whole point of the combat. Plus there is still enough Durability to experiment, and you can simply pick up a different weapon if you decide you like it, only the first weapon would be lower. This isn't even bringing up that the attack decreases aren't so extreme that you can't work around them. The weapons don't disappear, they only go to 3/4 damage at half and then 1/4 at 0, not enough to cripple but enough to be considered.

This last part is strange, because what you say is exactly what Nioh is about. The Beta even introduced a sidequest that is a gauntlet of enemies, and every mission is a long progression of battles and steady exploration where you use the equipment you gain to fuel your adventure. This fits Nioh, the dark brutal samurai fantasy game focused on patient but brutal and explosive combat based in the violent Sengoku era, absolutely perfectly.

These were obviously going to be in the game in the first place, but I wouldn't specifically say they were harder than what the Alpha offered. Muneshige perhaps, but he still suffered greatly from the changes. Besides, it's unquestionable that anything in the Beta and beyond would be more of a challenge with the Alpha mechanics, though this isn't just about difficulty but making the combat engaging and true to it's vision, which was an incredible, unique and rewarding experience. It was Nioh.

With the addition of Nioh, the PS4's library will double from 1 game to 2!

I don't necessarily have to mash buttons, just an occasion when I might not be looking at the Ki bar and doing one extra attack or dodge would completely exhaust the character. It's a severe, immediate punishment that can mean death for simply not looking at the UI.
As for Ki Pulse, you don't always have the chance to do it, sometimes you have a very short opening just to attack and then can't do anything else besides dodge away. Besides, Ki Pulse should simply be an extra tool in your belt that gives you a special advantage, not something as mundane as retaining basic control over the character. There's a big distinction to be had there.

Completely losing control over your character is just shitty, and should only happen in very specific circumstances. Maybe I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the older system if they implemented it more organically like the character getting visibly more tired as Ki decreased for example, but that's not what happened. It could go from 0 to 100 in an instant, and especially for a game with this many movement options and speed, it made that mechanic even more jarring.

That might be the case. I still would give the player such an advantage.

But I do see how it affected the game, and in my opinion it had a negative effect. You're treating the devs as if they're in abusive relationship when they were the ones who reached out to a player base and asked for feedback. If they were so set in their ways, this wouldn't happen. Actually, if there's one thing they won't change their minds on is the idea that Nioh needed to have a seamless world. They completely rejected that idea, so from there you can use it as a point of reference to see how much they cared for this one particular mechanic.

And I'm glad they changed that, and would even go as far as to say I still wasn't satisfied with the lock-on tracking in the Beta from what I remember.

As to your other point, if I want freedom over which direction I'm facing and to aim attacks manually, I just unlock. But when I use lock-on, I want it to work flawlessly and face the target at all times (unless the enemy does a special move that breaks lock-on or something).

You're looking far too deep into it. It's probably just poor tracking in general.

Something would always drop every time you killed an enemy. Even if they didn't always drop equipment, it wasn't uncommon either, and on top of that you could improve those chances further with certain items, equipment attributes and Kodama.

No, it's pointless because you could work your way around it, instead of facing the consequences of having broken equipment. You can essentially kill the same first few mooks in a level until they either a) drop something you can use to fight with, or b) drop whetstones to repair equipment. This introduces a completely unecessary loop that doesn't add anything to the game, it's just a time waster and an inconvenience rather than tension or survival.

I still had two weapons with me all the way in the Beta. Some elements or specific movesets would come in handy more so than others. Durability only encouraged me to have spare trash in my inventory that otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to sell.

It does, though. You don't get to say durability is a mechanic that makes all the difference that the player should take into account, and at the same time downplay its effects and claim the player wouldn't be more careful in taking unecessary risks.

Sure, you just have to go out of your way and put aside all of your equipment so you avoid damaging it. Doesn't seem very natural to me, I prefer to try out new things as I get through the game. But that's just me.

Maybe not "crippling", but at some point any other weapon - no matter how shitty - will outdamage your broken favorite one. Without Whetstones (or if you're in the mentality of conserving them) and having to deal crappier spare equipment, progression in acquiring loot becomes very irregular and tedious.
Matching a whole set of armor becomes an afterthought when you're trying to make due, and will have a harder getting used to any weapons (certain attributes can even mess with your parry timings, have different elements which lead to different hit reactions, etc.).

No, that's not at all what Nioh is about. Come on now, that's just bullshit.

How could you possibly know that without a point of reference? You could make a direct comparison of the first level in the Beta vs the Alpha because they were the same. Muneshige wasn't in the Alpha, so now you're just making assumptions.

Sure, I never questioned that. I just don't think it would be difficult for the right reasons but because it would be unnecessarily frustrating.

Forgot to adress this.

There's no indication of that. They could have very well decided to add a bunch of other mechanics because they removed durability. Everything together would just make the whole system bloated, especially if we consider a good chunk of equipment is disposable anyway.

It makes the loot progression more regular and consistent (which should be the point of finding loot, only switch to something new if it's better), whereas with durability you could find yourself switching to weaker equipment.

Stagnation of what? Along with Soul Match and Reforging, you can keep increasing the level of your weapons and assign them new attributes. Sure it's basic, but at least it's not an obstacle, more of a bonus to attack power. The only thing I would change is that the game would require the player to actually use the weapon to increase Familiarity, but that's a small nitpick.

That occasion was brought on by multiple mistakes and can be avoided in advance through timing and Ki Pulses. If your Ki goes all the way to 0 it's really your own fault, most actions don't cost that much, and you only die if you had low health or were severely outnumbered. Plus it's easy to get a feel for how much Ki you have through playing. Attacking and dodging away doesn't cost much either depending on stance and can even be a Pulse in itself. I think you're somehow underrating and overrating Ki Pulse. It's not necessary at every moment and it's hardly mundane for gaining control, but it is more than just a special tool, it's a cornerstone that can open up the options you can take at any given moment by rewarding your timing and awareness.

It feels bad in some games depending on execution, but don't overreact, it's only about a second, and the bar is right there to show how much you have. This sounds like you hate the current system moreso. Like I've said, the game is not about flying around at lightning speed all the time, but about chaining momentum into huge results. It's like you want the game to be something it's not, it has many factors

The player doesn't need that advantage at all, and it just removes both short term and long term consideration from actions and dumbs down the game.

Lets be real here. Are you actually going to believe that the feedback survey and any changes made were purely the developer's choice and not a factor of the publishers breathing down their necks and demanding the changes in an attempt to gain more sales? That's just unrealistic. I didn't play it, but I once heard Toukiden had a similar situation where they released a Beta alongside a feedback survey, and the feedback greatly changed the game in ways for the worse. Honestly, while it's all well and good saying that listening to feedback is great, it doesn't take into account changing moods or different levels of experience or attention. The hard truth is it just doesn't work because not everyone knows enough about what they're talking about.

Then you shouldn't be or you should have played a different game. It's one of the most important factors in the combat and they made huge strides in something that has plagued so many games, but that progress was removed because people can't get their heads round walking. I don't know what other problems you had, but they also changed the camera angle to one I personally think is worse from a gameplay and aesthetic standpoint.
Locking on worked perfectly well and aimed your attacks towards the enemy just fine, it just gave you the option to deal with other enemies while still focusing the camera and letting you dodge in relation to your target, which is something no lock cannot give you.

Or you're not looking deep enough. William's sidestrafing looks awkward, Muneshige never sidestrafes himself, enemy AI would pursue aggressively which means nothing now and got nerfed itself for more cheese strats. I'm sure there's more examples.

Which still wasn't very much at all, and doesn't matter unless it's equipment, which wouldn't always drop either. I don't even see why this is supposed to be a problem when anything an enemy drops is useful and offering/selling stuff is literally instant even in the Alpha.
Speaking of that, it's ironic how the recent change list increases inventory limit because people were bad at inventory management, when that will only make it far worse for them because they only check once it's full and they'll have far more to work through. It's almost like people don't think these things through and blame the game.

That makes no sense. Health and Ki can be worked around, that doesn't make them not matter. The whole point of having it in there is so you have to work around it either by swapping between your two weapons and repairing them with a stone as necessary, or fighting on. You can make the choice to grind for them even though it's not really necessary as well, it's up to you, but needing more equipment to swap to doesn't last outside of halfway through the first level, acting otherwise disregards the rest of the demo and perhaps the rest of the game that we haven't seen. It balances equipment, gives different strategies for enemies to be based around, gave you something to spend loot/gold on and actually went down unlike in games where it's actually useless. Don't let other systems colour your expectations.

In the Beta, I would often go through whole areas before realising I hadn't needed to swap weapon once. Despite feeling so unique they're simply too well designed for that. But being forced to carry extra weapons to swap to at that point in the Beta is doing it wrong or dying too much, just making you practice more against the enemies.

Why not? Mechanics are rarely so black and white. Plus I already explained why it doesn't strictly push playing safely but you didn't address that.

You don't have to put aside anything to experiment. You just find a weapon, decide you want to try it out and equip it. Your old stuff doesn't get damaged, and it's not oppressively expensive anyway like you're trying to imply. It's like we played a different game and you can't see any kind of middleground.

At the point where it reaches 0 perhaps and it depends on the weapon and it's effects as well, but that doesn't take away from the loot progression, it just demands you take care of your equipment for as long as you use it and opens a new potential challenge for drawn out fights, which already happened in the Beta, as though they had planned it out.
Choosing not to use them is entirely your own problem, and you can make them count as they fix all equipped weapons, Plus you can get them by offering the loot you acquire through playing and there's a blacksmith, nothing irregular about that, and if you think just playing the game is tedious then don't play it. Armour is generally much less necessary to change but it still has the icons denoting general weight to make it easier to change if you feel it necessary.

But that IS generally what Nioh is about. It has many sides to it, and the fierce unrelenting nature of the era and trying your hardest to survive is one big part.

Because despite these mechanics changes the game's base is still similar and it's incredibly easy to compare the two after playing them both for as much as I have? Muneshige was an incredibly well designed fight, but he was still designed for the previous version of the game, and being able to strafe safely round him made him much less threatening than he could have been. I would constantly walk around out of habit then realise I don't need to worry about that at all. Thinking they'd have time to redo the entire game to account for these changes is the strange thing. With the original mechanics the game would be difficult in the same ways, but also far more rewarding and reactive, as well as making every fight feel engaging. Don't act like those times where both you and the enemy are running on empty, desperately gasping to make the killing strike aren't the tightest shit in videogames. Now they're totally gone.

You're kidding right? Seriously? Disregarding the ridiculousness of assuming that, the Familiarity stat was literally in the Alpha, it was just turned off. There was also a mention of the Blacksmith and disassembling when checking it, that's how everyone knew (or should have known) they were planning to have forging and a shop. Familiarity and Durability would both work perfectly together, as I've said that Familiarity is boring the way it is, Durability would make it feel more like a little challenge and reward, vaguely similar to Vagrant Story's system. The extra equipment being disposable is the whole point of the economy, removing it would completely change the game and remove a lot of the comeback factor, making things actually feel frustrating.

Uh, Familiarity does the exact opposite of that. It blurs the lines between what weapon is stronger, stopping you from changing because you would have to build up Familiarity again and making you want to keep the same one the whole time (what I mean by stagnation), rather than actually upgrade if you do come across a better weapon. The forging would also allow you to make weapons stronger so they last longer and can have effects that last beyond Durability.