Nioh: Past, Present & Future
Sep. 26, 2016Nioh: Past, Present & Future
Renamed Ni-Oh, the game was set to be announced in Summer 2006, with a pre-rendered release trailer shown to advertise the title. Sadly, however, the title missed the release date, with no comment from relevant parties about the fate of the project. You can watch this trailer below:
The Beta build of Nioh, released in September as mentioned above, gave players the strongest indication of how the title will play and feel upon its release next year.
Weapon durability, which was largely criticized as unfairly harsh on the player in the Alpha, was removed entirely for the Beta. Instead, a mechanic known asFamiliaritywas made a larger part of the game. In the Alpha, Familiarity was a statistic that had no bearing on the game itself, whereas in the Beta, Familiarity increased as you used aweaponmore often. This meant thatif you used your favorite weapon enough, it would gradually increase in powerand capability until the Familiarity meter was completely filled. This mechanic encourages experimentation, as certain weapons that initially looked unremarkable could end up being rather powerful once Familiarity was full.
Adding on to this, is theBlacksmith, who offers a variety of services. While the Blacksmith sells items, they also offer two special services:Re-Forge, andSoul Match.Re-Forgeallows you to select the special effects of your weapons, and “Re-Forge” them for a chance at either a better effect, or stronger versions of the existing ones. The effects granted by Re-Forge aren’t guaranteed, however, and if you begin using Re-Forge without having enough Gold to afford multiple uses, you may end up being left without the intended effect you began with.
Soul Matchis what you choose if you wish tolevel up your existing weapons and armor. It works simply enough, you take a low-level weapon or piece or armor, and you match it with a high-level weapon or piece or armor. The high-level object is destroyed, however the low-level object is increased to the level of the destroyed object similar to the process of infusion inDestiny. To explain, if you took a level 5 sword, and matched it with a level 15 sword, the level 15 sword would be destroyed, however the level 5 sword becomes level 15 in the process. Through this method, players can matriculate gear they are attached to even as they level up and encounter better gear. This works with the Familiarity mechanic to reinforce the concept of affinity and attachment to your favorite equipment.
Some notable changes from the Alpha are the less strict punishments from having yourKidrained (Ki is Nioh’s version of a Stamina meter), the stances featuring more variety and use, and the larger amount of quick-use slots. In the Alpha, if William had his Ki depleted from dodging, blocking, or being in the yokai mist, attempting to do an action while out of Ki resulted in William standing still and panting for an extended period of time while his Ki replenished. In the Beta, this was changed to allow actions to be carried out as long as there was a bit of Ki left in the meter, which allowed you to escape situations with more ease, resulting in much less punishment for running out of Ki at an inopportune time.
Regardingstances, in the Alpha they weren’t terribly useful, with themid-stancebeing the jack-of-all-trades, and it featured enough power and speed to really be the only useful stance. In the Beta, however, the stances have been given different priorities. Thehigh-stanceis now your go to choice for slower but much more powerful hits, whereas thelow-stanceis now a very effective rapid attack choice, and it’s also the stance which has the best choices for parrying in its moveset.
The quick-use slots foritemswere something criticized in the Alpha, as players only had access to 4 slots. For the Beta, Team Ninja increased the amount to 8 slots, two lots of 4 slots that could be switched with a button press, allowing you access to all of them almost instantly when needed. This allowed players to use more items in combat, and experiment with differentonmyo magicandninjitsuitems, without having to be concerned about having enough space for their usable items.
Enemyandweaponvariety has increased substantiallysince the Alpha as well. In the Alpha, for example, there was only one ranged weapon, which was abow. In comparison to that, the Beta featured two bows, tworifles, and twohandcannonsthat were known at the time of writing.
These examples shows the kind of substantial increase in variety that the Beta had over the Alpha as well as theextensive refinement processthe game undergoes. Overall, it gives players a stronger indication of how many different kinds of weapons and options they will have to use throughout the game, as well as a glimpse into the strengths and weaknesses of every choice.
During the Beta, Team Ninja opened up feedback surveys online where players could give their opinions and feedback on the Beta, with an eye towards what could be improved. From this, Team Ninja went back and discussed what would be changed in the final release, and on September 16 at the Tokyo Game Show, Team Ninja released a list of improvements that would be made to the game for the final version. All of the changes mentioned at the Tokyo Game Show can befound here.
The improvements all show that Nioh is being constantly fine-tuned by Team Ninja, and they are carefully listening to the feedback of the fans. Beyond the extensive changes we saw from the Alpha to the Beta, we can expect the final release to feature revisions tocontrols,skills,equipmentdrops,enemiesand more all based on player feedback. This feedback varied from region to region, making any decisions on what to change adelicate balancing actfor the developer.
During the show, they also took the opportunity to show off a new trailer as well as some “making-of” vignettes which can all be seenhere. The trailer that was released at TGS contained a heap of information, although much of it is historically-based and thus will be covered in another article about the history of the characters and creatures included in Nioh.
Visit theNioh Wiki
MoreNioh Articles
HazOu
Oh, and I’ve never heard Matriculate used before, so that’s a word I learned today!
Gotta give credit to Emergence, it looks so much better and more professional than when I first wrote it! Thanks for the help!!
Also, I’m glad it went down well
This was an awesome retrospective to read through. I really think the development cycle is such an interesting story to watch unfold.
Fantastic article, thank you for putting it together! Watching that old trailer is such a throw-back. I remember when those graphics looked good!!!
