Nioh 2 (PS4) Review: This is a great omelette that's slightly overdone

Too many cooks spoil the soup

Frankly, it would have been perfect, if only...

...they didn't overdo it. 

So, what really had me tossing my controller away in frustration? It wasn't the difficulty of the system or even the combat itself. Rather, it was just a single mechanic, or part of it, actually that I felt was entirely unnecessary. 

That honor, if you can call it that, goes to the Ki mechanic, which essentially replaces Posture from Sekiro. It's not a carbon copy, though - the Ki meter not only drains when you block or parry, but also when you attack, and it's this latter bit that took my entire experience down several notches. Part of the appeal for Souls-like games, in my opinion is the fact that you feel rewarded for properly timing your movements and executing counterattacks, but you can't really do that if the process of blocking and dodging properly renders you unable to attack at all!

Putting it into perspective, when I was playing, there were many instances where I could see a window to attack, but simply couldn't because guarding and evading the enemy's attacks had already depleted my Ki. Plus, it doesn't help that there are only two ways of recharging your Ki mid-fight. You either wait it out, or press R1 after every attack (when you see blue orbs around you), and the amount of Ki you recharge from the latter method depends on your timing.

Sure, I can understand the reasoning behind all that, but I'm way too busy reading attack patterns to be spamming R1 and looking for pretty blue bubbles at the same time.

Hey, don't get me wrong; Nioh 2 has a beautiful combat system outside of this, and you could argue that the game is just taking a different approach to its counterpart, or that it's trying to set itself apart. However, I feel that they've made it a little too troublesome for a casual gamer to play in the process, to the point where it just feels somewhat pretentious. 

Adding on to that, this limitation on "attacking", so to speak doesn't tie in well with the fact that Nioh 2 has more types of weapons, as mentioned earlier. What's the point of having various martial arts styles if you can't see your character brandishing them to their fullest?

Glad that's out of the way

Pardon the tirade, but it's rather disappointing that a little mechanic like having to constantly spam R1 in the heat of battle could affect my entire experience this much. So, believe me when I say I would have no qualms scoring Nioh 2 way higher if that roadblock of sorts wasn't there. 

Nevertheless, credit should be given where it is due, and my hat is off to Team Ninja - they've done a marvellous job outside of it. Apart from this and the rather straightforward plot, I still really love the whole Yokai and martial arts gig they've got going on, and when paired with the diverse blend of traditional and modern-style cinematics, Nioh 2 feels much more like a movie than a game, not to mention it just makes you feel so powerful while you're at it.

So, if you can look past that little Ki hiccup, by way of sheer dedication, being a diehard Souls-like lover or otherwise, then Nioh 2 is right up your alley, and you'll probably have a lot of fun with it, or at the very least, more than I did. Happy respawning!