Nioh Slash-All!

I couldn’t believe he was alive after the last time I downed him. If I’m not careful I definitely have a tendency to rush in for that last hit and have to actively calm myself and be careful. Could believe I wouldn’t get the slightest hit on him in my last flurry of attacks.

Still enjoyed that fight over all.

So you convinced me to restart Nioh. Not being able to map Block to LB has been messing with my head, but at least there's an option to switch the attack buttons to the RB and RT buttons. When I first started, I spent a fair amount of time just standing there instead of attacking because I was habitually hitting the wrong buttons. Haha!

I think I'll try to beat Nioh, and then work my way through Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and then Sekiro, as they all use the more traditional control set.

Have you played Dark Souls and Bloodborne before?

Higgledy wrote:

Have you played Dark Souls and Bloodborne before?

I've just dabbled. I've probably put a couple of hours into each before something distracted me.

In other news, I've started playing. Decided to use the kusarigama as my main weapon, because it's hilarious to use and I like yanking people towards me before I beat them about the head and neck. I'm up the first boss (on the ship) and ran out of time to play. Stand by for howls of rage and broken controllers when I get to Hino-Enma.

Lots of folks seem to use the kusarigama. You’re in good company. I’ll look forward to hearing how you’re doing, howls of rage and all.

If you fancy an extra challenge have a small cat resting in the crook of an arm and occasionally chewing on the buttons on your shirt as you play. That’s what I did this afternoon. It was less efficient but somehow more fun. Don’t think I’ll be doing any boss fights with him in that position.

I think my mains were Tonfa and Kusarigama. Dual swords as a backup.

I’m spear and dual swords at the moment.

Read somewhere you should stick below 70% of your weight limit. No kidding movement is so much more fluid and Ki recovers incredibly fast.

I’m on ‘the ocean roars again’ or whatever that level is called.

Had to look it up, but I remember that level! And that boss :-\

Taharka wrote:

Had to look it up, but I remember that level! And that boss :-\

Hint: You can't swim. Le sigh.

I did the classic ‘nearly kill him first try then take lots and lots of runs trying to do that well again.’ I can see I’ll get him but I think my early success made me impatient. Plus, of course, randomly dropping through holes in the woodwork adds to the death count.

Edit: Got the big watery swine. Onwards!

I’m psyched to see the renewed interest in Nioh again. The open beta forNioh 2 came at a bad time for me so now I’m waiting until March for the full release.

There’s huge swaths is the DLC I still need to finish still. But for now I’m enjoying reading about how you guys are getting through the tough spots from the core game!

So funny thing. I ordered the new Jedi Fallen Order game before I restarted Nioh, mostly on the strength of hearing that it was somewhat of a Souls-like in the Star Wars universe, with some Metroid mixed in. When it arrived, I decided to dive into that because I was in a Star Wars mood (and it was a new shiny). I confess that I feel a bit disappointed. Compared to Nioh and Sekiro, it just doesn't feel...tight? Something feels off and a little loose about the movement. Like there are too many animation frames to get locked into. The timing just feels off.

I may come back to Nioh and let that one simmer a bit.

I haven’t tried Sekiro yet but I know what you mean about Fallen Order. There are a few things going on. I’ve noticed input or animation delay with the controls. The range of the lightsaber feels a bit stubby, partly due to the relative slowness of closing distance. I also have a problem with how they construct combat scenarios, it’s hard to put my finger on it. Like they know their combat system is not very deep so they layer on things to present challenge in a literal sense but doesn’t help to show off the actual combat in the best light.

Finally there are years and years of us expecting a power fantasy if a Jedi is placed in our hands. We’re actually controlling a trainee but it’s hard for my brain to get over that fact. That dissonance does not actually work in the game’s favor imo.

Reinstalled this yesterday and rolled a new toon to get the feels back! Thought I would be a spear man but decided odachi once I got to the fisherman’s village.

I don’t think I’ll put all that much time into this new game (maybe hit up hino enma for old times sake?). This game feels so much tighter than Fallen Order it’s like a different world.

I also reinstalled and started a new run yesterday. Trying to stick with spear/axe this time instead of just caving and running kusarigami (aka the win button) like I did the previous two attempts.

Yay, all aboard the Nioh train! 2019 hype!!

I feel like I'm already screwing myself with the attribute point allocations. What I fancy myself doing this time around is to use the Odachi and run me some heavy armor. Is that suicide? I have always gone nimble in Nioh as I can't imagine sitting still and tanking more than a couple hits from anything other than those scraggly samurai in the fisherman's village. And even then... only from a couple of them at once.

Can anyone's who's finished or gone far as a heavy big boi offer some tips?

Met a crow mage enemy at the end of a side mission. Boy he was tricky. Hopefully I won’t meet anymore of those guys!

*Knows for a fact he will*

Higgledy wrote:

Met a crow mage enemy at the end of a side mission. Boy he was tricky. Hopefully I won’t meet anymore of those guys!

*Knows for a fact he will*

Raven Tengu?

IMAGE(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/nioh/images/9/9d/Karasu_Tengu.gif/revision/latest?cb=20180525192541)

Yes. That’s the rotter. No doubt I’ll improve my technique of dealing with them.

Ah yes. I hate these bastards.

Spoiler:

A helpful technique is to stay in close or mid range to discourage them from taking to the air.

But the real key is to always roll towards them after attacking. They love to retaliate with those huge sweeping strikes and rolling through them is going to save you a lot of pain.

Coincidentally rolling towards the target works for a lot of the main bosses too.

I finally started Nioh tonight, and I am quite happy with my admittedly lame results. I had only played the demo from a few years ago, and I remembered it was punishingly difficult and I barely made it past the third or fourth enemy. Tonight, though, I started the game proper and I got further in that I thought I would. My progress is still pathetic, and a knight in shining armor with a big axe killed me when he was one hit away from dying after a long, protracted combat, but I had fun the whole time and I feel I can beat him next time I face him.

As for weapons, I tried the axe and the runkah, and even though the latter is not as powerful as the former, I liked it a lot better and will probably stick with it, at least for the time being.

All in all, a much more positive experience than the demo led me to believe I would have. That said, I expect to be too frustrated to continue at some point, but until that happens, I will keep playing and (hopefully) having fun. Any general advice you might have will be greatly appreciated .

Mario_Alba wrote:

As for weapons, I tried the axe and the runkah, and even though the latter is not as powerful as the former, I liked it a lot better and will probably stick with it, at least for the time being.

You're essentially in the learning-to-play section, so anticipate a complete reset (including all-new weapon types) once you're out of the Tower of London. It functions as a basic skill-set check and then drops you into the game proper. Pay attention!

Thank you, Coldstream!

Mario_Alba wrote:

Thank you, Coldstream!

Rather importantly you'll have an opportunity to select two weapons to focus on and get a boost in the stats associated to those weapons, as well as some special abilities. So take your time in the Tower and the actual tutorial section to see whether you prefer a heavier or speedier style. Not all weapon types are represented in the intro however. You'll have another tutorial that will let you play around with the choices you select. Even then I'd suggest checking out some starter tips. The mechanics in this game are ... copious.

Mario_Alba wrote:

As for weapons, I tried the axe and the runkah, and even though the latter is not as powerful as the former, I liked it a lot better and will probably stick with it, at least for the time being..

The spear is probably the best option for beginners. It gives you great reach without sacrificing too much speed or power. You can keep it locked on mid stance, using light attacks to handle multiple enemy engagements and a double-tap of heavy attacks for single encounters. This should take you quite far.

I feel the axe is kind of on the opposite spectrum. Fantastic walloping power - especially for yokai - but it requires good timing and ki management. But as others have said, Tower of London is a good spot to experiment. Players typically land on choosing a secondary that complements their main weapon: pairing katana with spear to get a close quarters option (you may have noticed spears have an annoying habit of clanging against walls).

Thank you, imbiginjapan and Maclintok! I will continue to try out the different weapons, but I did notice the axe was too slow for me... or I was too dumb for it, because I kept missing most of my swings. I tend to like faster, more nimble characters in pretty much every game I play, so swords and spear might be the way to go, but we'll see. I am excited to continue playing, hopefully after work today...

Well, I managed to find some time to play before heading out to work... and did I say I felt confident I could beat that armored knight the next time? Hahahaha! I must have been thinking of a different Mario, someone who didn't abandon Dark Souls and Bloodborne quite early on. Someone who is patient and doesn't get frustrated too easily, hahaha. I could only play for about a half hour, and I do want to continue... but Yakuza 0 just arrived in the mail! Hmmm...

Ignore the squirrel, Mario!

It's going to be hard, but I'll do my best, hahaha!