With Nioh 2 just on the horizon, Team Ninja has announced that it has decided not to give the game an easy mode. Nioh 2 is slated to be released on March 13, 2020 and is actually a prequel to the first game with samurai facing off against one another and all new enemies. In Nioh 2, players create their own samurai to run through the early days of Sengoku era Japan instead of playing the main character from the first game, William.
Nioh is an action RPG that was set in the latter half of the Sengoku era. It had often been compared to the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodborne due to the sparse checkpoints and difficult hack-and-slash combat. Players play as William, the Irish samurai fighting his way through different environments filled with human and supernatural enemies called yokai. Yokai are a key part of Japanese folklore, and are spirits and demonic creatures that have made a huge name for themselves in pop culture, being featured in several anime such as Spirited Away and Demon Slayer.
Nioh 2 is slated to bring all its combat elements back, but with even more features and possibilities. According to Eurogamer, Nioh 2 will see the return of the ki meter and stances while also introducing an all-new move set and the Yokai-Force, which will allows players to call on their guardian spirits in combat. Team Ninja is also refusing to give players an easy mode, in fear that it would ruin the atmosphere that they are trying to create for the prequel. The game will feature a set level of difficulty but will have a vast number of ways for players to approach enemies.
Team Ninja's goal is to have the players feel satisfied with combat. If they die, it should be due to a mistake versus the impossibility of the combat. The goal is to not necessarily make it easier, but rather allow for more diversity for the player against enemies. The game will also feature a wider variety of enemies, unlike the first game where players got used to the enemies in each environment. Team Ninja ensures players that there will not be only one way to deal with each boss nor environment, but many to leave the players as satisfied with their experience as possible.
It will be interesting to see how the combat system works now that players have seen what a Sengoku-era Dark Souls would actually look like with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Sekiro was equally as difficult as its European predecessors leaving many fans begging for an easy mode. Nioh 2 aims to differ by changing up the learning curve, making combat and resolution a bit more accessible to all players, but it remains to be seen if this solution is really better than attempting to plan for an easy mode in the game's release.
Nioh 2 will be available on March 13, 2020 on PS4.
Source: Eurogamer