I’ve started plenty of soulslikes over the past few years, but I’ve only managed to see a few through to the end. The two Star Wars Jedi games are the exception. And Stellar Blade. Are those even soulslikes? Opinions will probably differ.
Lies of P, Black Myth: Wukong and yes, even Elden Ring all met an early death, just like my in-game characters. Soulslikes don’t usually put story front and center, which is one of the things I value most, and they also demand a serious investment from the player.
Time, to learn enemy attack patterns and reclaim the souls, runes, amrita, or whatever you dropped when you died. Perseverance, to pull yourself together again and again, death after death, and face an enemy that seems impossible to beat. And patience, to wait for the right moments to strike, and above all the patience to ‘git gud’.
I have time to spare, but I’d rather spend it on the sea of other games constantly crashing over us. And my supply of perseverance and patience is already pushed to its limits during every workday, leaving nothing by the end of it. Or at least, that’s what I thought. So far, Nioh 3 seems determined to prove that there’s still a little of those qualities left to squeeze out of me.
I Was Ready to Give Up Before the Game Had Even Properly Begun
Nioh 3 reminded me why demos are an absolute must. I’m pretty certain I would never have bought this game without one, given my shaky history with soulslikes. The demo started off fairly manageable. My biggest challenge at first was simply figuring out the menus. Those were the most intimidating part.
Then I ran into Yagamata Masakage, basically the “tutorial boss.” Honestly, I didn’t know what hit me. Before I could blink a few times, I’d already been flattened five times over. I was this close to putting down the controller and calling it quits. Another gravestone would have been reserved for Nioh 3 in my personal soulslike cemetery.
“It gets easier after this. You don’t even have the most important tools yet,” I was told. Probably meant as encouragement, but also true. The game is going to throw a lot more mechanics, skills, and God knows what else at you.
But here’s the thing. I already had the most important skill. And once that clicked, everything suddenly started moving a lot more smoothly.
“But here’s the thing. I already had the most important skill.”
Button mashing turned out to be buried deep in my gamer DNA. I’m not great at stamina management, simply because I haven’t played many games where it’s essential. Thanks to Nioh 3, I now realize that’s one of the main reasons I struggled so much with similar titles. I paid too much attention to damage numbers and skill gauges, and not nearly enough to my stamina. Defense and patience. That’s what I needed to focus on.
I had to let Yagamata burn himself out. Try to parry and dodge as cleanly as possible. Keep a close eye on his stamina, or in Nioh terms, his Ki meter, then pick my moment and punish him after he’d spent a big chunk of it on offense. The more that started to become second nature, the better every fight began to feel.
It also helps that Nioh 3’s combat feels deeper and more refined than that of other soulslikes I’ve played so far. It’s so good that even I don’t mind facing the same boss dozens of times. The speed and agility of the ninja, the power and parry focus of the samurai. With a single button press you can swap between two stances that feel completely different, yet both are equally satisfying.
Where the ninja’s mobility carried me through the early part, I find myself switching more and more to my switchglaive wielding samurai in my more recent encounters. Both stances come with clear strengths and weaknesses, and so far the game and its enemies do a great job of playing into that.
The Shrines Are Perfectly Placed
Another thing that usually puts me off soulslikes is the fear of losing the currency or XP you’ve built up. For anyone not fully familiar with the system: in these games, your XP is your currency, and you need to spend it to level up your character. Early on you only have to defeat a handful of enemies, but later the body count keeps rising if you want to scrape together enough for the next level. In Nioh 3, that currency is called Amrita.
When you die, you get one shot to return to the place where you fell. Make it back in one piece and you reclaim the Amrita you dropped. That punishment creates a lot of extra tension and forces you to play extra carefully until you reach the point of your last death.
For me, it has often been too stressful. Instead of thinking, I’ll earn this back another way, my mind went straight to, did I just waste all that time? In the past, that regularly led to frustration.
So far, that frustration hasn’t really shown up in Nioh 3. Not only because of the reason I mentioned earlier, the higher fun factor of the combat, but also because it has barely happened. Sure, I’ve died more times than I’d like to admit, but nine out of ten times it was close to a save point, called Shrines in this game.
The shrines are placed brilliantly. There’s almost always one right before you head into a serious boss fight. And it happens surprisingly often that the exact moment I need a shrine to cash in a level, one suddenly appears close by. Perfect.
Knowing I probably wouldn’t survive every boss attempt, I usually made sure to spend all my Amrita on reaching a new level first. Every now and then that meant a few minutes of grinding because I hadn’t quite reached the amount yet, which is normally something I hate. After that, I could enter the fight without worry, knowing that if I turned out not to be ready yet, I could simply go explore somewhere else without losing a huge pile of Amrita.
The result is simple. The fun factor goes up, the stress level goes down. And so far, that’s been enough to keep me standing in Nioh 3.
Whether I’ll actually make it all the way to the end remains to be seen. I’m still not fully convinced of my own skills. But when things get desperate, there are always summons, other players who can help you through tough encounters and, if needed, even finish the job for you.
Nioh 3 has taught me something that will probably help me a lot in other soulslikes as well. Learning the attack patterns of seemingly impossible enemies can actually be fun. And that adrenaline rush after you finally bring one of those monsters down?
I finally know what that feels like.
And I want more.
