Nioh 2 will be available for all lovers of samurai and monsters on March 13th, 2020. A trailer released earlier today, showcasing more demonically violent gameplay. It also confirmed the game’s open beta, which will be available November 1st – 10th. This had been previously announced back in September by the PlayStation Twitter account. You can view the short but awesome trailer below.
Developer Team Ninja had already confirmed Nioh 2 would be coming in early 2020 at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. But this is the first news of a definitive date. The first Nioh released in 2017. But Sony revealed the sequel to be in development only a little over a year later.
The game’s producer, Fumihiko Yasuda, took to the PlayStation Blog to go over Beta details. Players will begin in the Interim, a safe zone where they’ll choose a weapon and test moves. They’ll then transition to the stage, Sunomata. He also thanked fans for waiting patiently while the team decided on a release date:
“I know many of you have been waiting and we thank you for your patience while we worked to set an official date. One of the primary reasons for not rushing to set a launch date was to ensure that we can achieve a “genuine evolution” from Nioh, which to us meant that we needed to bring in fresh new elements while retaining the things that we felt were right from the first game. Although there weren’t enough significant changes in the Alpha, we now feel that we have come much closer to reaching our goals.”
Nioh was highly praised upon release. The PS4 version holds an 88 on Metacritic. It follows an Irish sailor chasing a sorcerer through a war-torn Japan in 1600. But various Japanese monsters and demons don’t make things easy. In fact, the game received many comparisons to Dark Souls with its difficulty and gameplay style. Nioh 2 will be a prequel, but still a stand-alone story.
November will be a big month for Nioh. In addition to the sequel’s open Beta, the original will also be available for free to all PlayStation Plus members.