In the pantheon of Dark Souls inspired action titles, Nioh stands above the rest. Featuring lightning-fast combat, an interesting historical setting, and a bevy of different weapons, the game has a lot to keep players invested. Developer Team Ninja is going to expand on those features for the sequel.
In a new interview with Eurogamer, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi spoke about what improvements and refinements Nioh 2 would bring to the table over the well-received first installment. While stating that the density of enemies would be increased and that tension from encounters would be ratcheted up a bit, Hayashi stressed that combat variety was the most important thing for the sequel.
"The biggest problem with the original was lack of enemy variation," Hayashi said. "The number of enemies was fine, but once you got to know how to deal with an enemy it got quite repetitive. In Nioh 2 new areas will have new enemies, and the placement will be more dense." That increased density doesn't mean Nioh 2 is going to lean into "cheap" territory.
During the few betas Team Ninja has led, one of the chief complaints from players was that the combat could feel demoralizing. Either because of enemy health numbers, placement, or your own damage output, Nioh 2 was considerably tougher than the original. "It was almost too difficult, and demoralizing. So we adjusted the difficulty based on that," Hayashi revealed. The team wants to capture the high risk, high reward nature of samurai battles, but with enough flexibility so that players feel the desire to return after defeat.
"We focussed more on the tension of the combat and whether it's challenging enough," Hayashi said. "It should be equally interesting for players who've played the first game as well as new Nioh players." To accomplish this, not only are enemies getting more varied, but a ton of extra options for fighting them are being added.
Hayashi explained that the theme for Team Ninja was "diversity." They made sure that there wasn't a single option for tackling a boss or traversing through levels. Players are given the chance to experience the game how they want, which means the enemies are designed in a way that allows for that. Hayashi even mentions how co-op could be a way to decrease the difficulty, should you utilize it.
To that end, Hayashi was asked about the debate around last year's Sekiro and how players had asked for an easy mode. "I'm not against easy modes at all. When you look at Nioh and its priority, the concept is the tension of samurai combat so it didn't quite work," Hayashi stated. "It's all about the authenticity of the combat, so not this time - but I'm not against it."
Source: Eurogamer