Every publisher wanted to reveal the next Nioh at E3 2018

Triple Samurai

Nioh 2 is the most obvious of the bunch. Team Ninja is going to take what works, retool it into a more streamlined game for everyone to enjoy, and in the process, they are going to make something that nobody enjoys. Great games always have faults, cracks, exploits, and bugs, and when those are ironed out, the inner soul of the game is lost. Usually this happens in the sequel process, and Nioh giving up on its quirks doesn’t make it Nioh anymore.

I don’t mind sequels, but when a studio tries to capitalize on its own accidental success, things often don’t go well.

Granted, capitalizing on accidental success is the reason we have Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, and Bloodborne in the first place. From Software’s legendary run in the shadow of Demon’s Souls is the exception though, not the rule.

I’m not counting Nioh 2 down and out just yet, but it has an uphill climb if it wants to convince me that it’s the sequel we want to see.

And speaking of From Software, we also have the curious case of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Microsoft paid the big bucks to get this reveal in 2018, and when I first saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. From Software deliberately said it was moving on from Dark Souls to make different style games, and yet, here we are with yet another Dark Souls style action game.

I guess that retirement didn’t sit in From Software’s stomach as well as those Activision dollars did.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is From Software’s “samurai Dark Souls” successor to Nioh, which was a samurai game that was a successor to From Software’s Dark Souls game. As convoluted and cynical as that sounds, this game still looks really solid. Unlike Nioh 2’s CG teaser, we got to see some sweet gameplay, and while it’s exactly what you expect from a samurai Dark Souls, it’s also exactly what fans want to see.

Hulking boss fights, blocking, rolling, backstabbing, all the best elements of Dark Souls with a nice samurai skin on top. The grappling hooks were a nice touch too, something straight out of the Tenchu games of old.

Take that classic reference and eat it for breakfast!

Sony also wanted a piece of the action. Probably still feeling sore that it can’t follow-up on Bloodborne while From Software is busy making not-Dark Souls games, it instead turned to its reliable open-world game developer Sucker Punch to crank out this samurai action game that blends Japanese history with a strong slice of fiction.

Just like Nioh did. Dark Souls combat also helps bring home that this game isn’t all that original but hey… at least it’s pretty.

Of the three, I think this is the one I am most looking forward to. While I just said that it isn’t all that original, it’s the only one that enters the fray with a blank slate. It’s a new franchise, unlike Nioh 2, and it has a fresh developer in Sucker Punch, not From Software. Plus, the closing fight in that sweet trailer reminds me of the final battle in Metal Gear Solid 3.

One for the memories.

Sucker Punch also needs a win after the last inFamous game came up short, and you can bet that they’ll be pulling out all the stops to make this game a contender. How else is the studio going to make another Sly Cooper?

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/06/21/nioh-e3-2018-samurai-dark-souls/