Nioh 3 review: Sharper, shrewder, shinobi-er

As a series, Nioh has developed a rather passionate cult following who lavish the first two games with praise, especially when it comes to combat.

And while I certainly enjoyed Nioh 1 and 2, I can't say that I ever felt that same reverence.

It's fast, it's varied, and the dearth of mechanics, skills and more make its combat deeper than most Souls-like games.

That is still true of Nioh 3, and while many longtime fans may feel that Team Ninja's many changes to the formula may dilute that, Nioh and I have finally begun to click.

Nioh 3's story begins with Shōgun-to-be Tokugawa Takechiyo. When his jealous brother Tokugawa Kunimatsu leads an army of yōkai against Edo Castle, Takechiyo is whisked back in time by the guardian spirit Kusanagi, forced to battle his way across medieval Japanese history in a bid to save his present.

Beyond the novelty of Nioh 1 effectively being a knock-off of James Clavell's Shōgun, I have never taken much interest in Nioh's stories, and while this is the one I enjoyed the most, it still never truly grabbed my attention.

I imagine that will be the same for many, because the Nioh experience is not about the tales it tells, but about the myriad different ways you can find to eviscerate demons, and Nioh 3 has plenty of changes and additions to this series' combat.

Perhaps the biggest tweak is the separation of samurai and ninja into two separate play styles.

With a press of R2, you flip between the two, automatically swapping out your weapons and armour, the speed of which gives you a new dimension of combat to play with – it almost feels reminiscent of a mix-up in a fighting game.

Players are more than welcome to go all in on either play style, and indeed, the further I progressed, the more I leaned towards my shinobi sensibilities. However, Nioh 3 has an ingenious mechanic that encourages regularly swapping between the two, and in a way that has real combat benefits.

When faced with an unblockable attack, telegraphed by a crimson aura, pressing R2 performs a Burst Counter, instantly switching to your second play style, parrying the attack and setting your enemy on the back-foot, allowing you to instantly launch into a storm of attacks.

This is one of those simple but brilliant mechanics that is just as satisfying the thousandth time as the first.

As someone who loves a parry, I was excited to see that the samurai would be getting its own parry mechanic. Unfortunately for me, it's not the parry I was hoping for, being simply another tool in your defensive arsenal instead of the stance-melting in-your-face nature of the Sekiro parry, for example.

I will concede, however, that it is probably for the best that this is the case, as it means the mechanic by no means overshadows what makes Nioh's combat unique.

Instead, I found myself surprisingly drawn towards the ninja's Ninjutsu. This is a mechanic that was present in previous Nioh games, but one I often ignored until later in the game.

In Nioh 3, your Ninjutsu are not tied to stock that needs to be replenished at Shrines, but are replenished by dealing damage.

This simple change meant I was hurling kunai and fireballs non-stop in a way that I hadn't before, often replenishing them on weaker enemies to use on stronger ones. Another simple but exceedingly effective change.

Of course, Nioh 3 still offers the exceedingly convoluted upgrade system of Niohs past, with each weapon type boasting a veritable web of skills to slice people up with.

That being said, they feel somewhat smaller in Nioh 3, something I imagine was required as a result of the samurai-ninja divorce, and while this is something that doesn't particularly bother me, I imagine plenty of die-hard Nioh players will be unhappy to see that variety curtailed.

Another of Nioh 3's big changes is to its world. Replacing the individual, linear missions of 1 and 2, Nioh 3 gives us a proper open world, full of bandit camps, valuables, secrets and side quests to find of your own accord.

There are still linear elements, at points. The Crucibles, which are enormous, yōkai-infested areas you will traverse as part of the story, are laid out in the same way as the old Nioh missions, with a linear path leading to a final boss.

Outside of this, however, it really is an open world, and while I had my doubts as to how well Team Ninja would be able to pull this off, given my and many others' recent tiring of open world games, the developer has done a bang up job.

In many ways, I felt during my exploration of Nioh 3 much as I did the first time I explored Elden Ring's Limgrave.

Not with regard to its world and lore – there was never a point at which I found myself beelining towards interesting landmarks on the horizon as Elden Ring so masterfully encourages – but in the sense that I felt almost railroaded into it, and that I am glad I had been.

Upon being deleted by Margit near the start of Elden Ring, you are encouraged to return to Limgrave where your exploration yields higher levels, weapons and armour, and a vivid world full of deep lore.

While Nioh 3's lore comes nowhere near, levels and gear are plentiful, and perhaps more importantly – so was the fun.

Once I started properly exploring Nioh 3's first area after getting my head kicked in by the boss of the first major Crucible, I didn't stop once until I had cleared the whole map. I don't want to give anything away about later areas, but this was a pattern that continued throughout the game.

The system in Nioh 1 and 2 in which you would leave a level because you were too underlevelled to finish it, go into another separate level, complete that and then return to the first level, was never satisfying, and I found myself rarely engaging with the side content.

Being able to roam around the world, happening upon quests and mini-bosses in the wild, and being able to complete them there and then is a huge improvement, and is one of the best-implemented open worlds I've encountered in the last few years.

While still as desperately challenging as its predecessors, Nioh 3 is certainly the most approachable game in the series thus far.

Many of its mechanics are still convoluted, and you are oppressed with text boxes early on, but everything is at least a touch simpler.

As someone who has neither the time nor will to put in the hundreds of hours it takes to truly master Nioh's combat, this is a big boon.

But, as mentioned in my opening, Nioh is a series with a tremendously dedicated player base. For every Alex that won't spend the time delving into the minutiae of each weapon, there are plenty of players who relish that opportunity, and I imagine many will be disappointed by this change.

Nioh 1 and 2 were deep oceans that dedicated players could get lost in. Nioh 3's ocean may not be quite as deep, but its shores are more welcoming to those who found its predecessors overly daunting.

For me, Nioh 3 represents a series that has matured, honing its edges and expanding into a true, modern ARPG experience. Some may disagree, but for me, Nioh 3 is this series at its blood-soaked peak.

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