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We often talk about games that embrace the player-agency part, and I dare say that the Nioh series is among the few that really let you be whatever you want to be in-game. There’s such a large spectrum of character builds and freedom that you can do as many playthroughs as you want, and all of them will feel radically different in noticeable ways. For me, that’s the magic of the series, and Nioh 3 embraces that feel and elevates it even further. As a yokai-slaying fan who has put more hours in Nioh 2 than I can count, Nioh 3 is the pinnacle of not only the series but of everything Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have done so far.
Fixing History, One Timeline at a Time
One thing that always grinds my gears when people talk about Nioh is how they say there’s no story in the games — there’s plenty of it. See, the series has always found an interesting way to weave Yokai and supernatural elements into real moments in Japanese history, all around important historical figures, and Nioh 3 does it even better.
Now, some people might think there isn’t a plot in the game because of the presentation in the last two installments. However, Nioh 3 presents a more cohesive narrative that, despite taking place through different timelines, feels much more accessible, which is a trend that sticks around for many aspects of the game, but more on that later.
In any case, you are Takechiyo Tokugawa, next in line to become a shogun, when, in the wake of that initiation ceremony, the Edo Castle gets flooded with Yokai. You, alongside Yagyu Munenori and the legendary Hattori Hanzo, try to make a daring escape, but are stopped by Tokugawa Kunimatsu. With the world on the brink of chaos, your cute Spirit Guardian Kusanagi sends you back in time to solve this calamity.
The truth is, I found Nioh 3‘s narrative much more enjoyable than those of its predecessors. That’s not to say the last two installments were bad, but Nioh 3 makes its story easier to follow, mainly thanks to a recurring cast and a more obvious threat. Naturally, I won’t spoil some of the plot points that had me at the edge of my seat, but I can say that this is Nioh‘s best story to date, and if you’re a fan of the beautiful Japanese folklore and culture, you’ll have a blast here.
A Playstyle for Everyone
The outstanding aspect of Nioh 3, however, and the pinnacle of everything Team Ninja has learned over all its years making action-adventure games, is the gameplay.
One thing that immediately allured me to the series, more evidently in the second installment, was the freedom of choice. As soon as you create your protagonist in the second game, you are already bombarded with weapon choices, Spirit Guardians with unique looks and gameplay mechanics, and everything opens up as you go from mission to mission. Nioh 3 gives us even more freedom by bringing everything that has worked in the series before, and then throwing more systems into it that, believe it or not, never feel overwhelming.
The core aspect of Nioh 3‘s combat this time is the two styles: Samurai and Ninja. As many of you might have experienced already, Samurai embraces the classic Nioh combat. It has all your stances, but now introduces the Arts Proficiency gauge. Once you deal or block enough damage, this gauge fills up and allows you to execute a powered-up Martial Arts move. This way, the Samurai style feels just like Nioh 2 in every way, while also encouraging you to be a bit more aggressive in terms of combat.
One of the best additions to the Samurai style is also the deflect mechanic, which is an ode to one of my favorite systems from Sekiro. I always thought that we needed a proper parry mechanic in the series, and Nioh 3 has finally delivered. It might not seem like a huge deal, but it is a game-changer in every meaning of the word.
The second style, Ninja, might have felt divisive when we all saw the Alpha demo, and some of you tried the actual demo. But even as a fan of the classic Nioh combat, Ninja style was my absolute favorite, and one that makes me feel as if I was playing Ninja Gaiden, but with more in-depth mechanics and even more freedom.
Contrary to the other style, Ninja is all about faster combos, low ki usage, and a playstyle that encourages hitting an enemy in the back for increased damage. You also have your Ninjutsu, which are three skills you can equip, and once you spend them, you can refill them just by attacking enemies, making it an endless gameplay loop of engaging a foe and then moving away to throw a few fireballs at it.
What made me love Ninja so much is the fact that it rewards so many different playstyles, and all of which feel vastly different from Samurai. There are plenty of ways to make an air build, with your protagonist never touching the ground if they wish so. You can instead become a Ninjutsu machine and just delete your enemies before they even approach you. There are even options that turn you into a poison-applying machine, slowly wearing down your opponents. There are really no limits to one’s imagination when it comes to making a character you can truly call your own.
One thing that many players might wonder is just how mandatory Nioh 3 makes every style. The answer is not at all. When people saw Ninja Style, they thought it would be a must-play thing, even if they didn’t enjoy it, and vice versa. I can tell you that just like every other system in Nioh 3, the style you pick is entirely up to you.
To give you a quick example, I went through one whole zone without touching Samurai style just to see how it would affect me — nothing changed. I did the same for another zone, but sticking to Samurai only this time. The same thing happened. Nioh 3 emphasizes player choice and doesn’t force you to play one style or the other. You’ll eventually see the benefits of swapping between the two, such as some bosses being easier to counter by deflecting their hits, while others being so tough that dodging as a Ninja is your best bet. Still, the choice is yours, and I will always appreciate a game that lets me choose how I want to play through everything.
Yet, it doesn’t mean everything is perfect, and here comes the part where I said Nioh 3 embraces the approachability aspect. Nioh 3 is the easiest game in the series, at least in its first playthrough.
Frankly, I’m really excited to see Nioh 3 becoming more accessible to all players by lowering its base difficulty. Also, keep in mind that this is coming from someone who did many NG+ runs in Nioh 2, so, not to brag, my Nioh experience is vast. Still, this game felt extremely easy at times, at least in open-field encounters. I rarely had to visit a shrine to restock my Elixirs because I would either get them as a drop or would kill all enemies without incurring a lot of damage.
Still, that doesn’t mean Nioh 3 hands you everything on a silver platter. Boss encounters are, by far, the best in the series, and that’s where you will actually experience the game’s true difficulty. For newcomers, I feel this is the best balance. Yet, veterans might find some parts extremely easy, but I saw that as something good, as it let me swap builds around without having to wait for a new playthrough to experiment with something different.
Systems On Top of Systems
Whenever I recommend Nioh to someone, they often tell me it is bloated with systems, and I just look at them with disdain and walk away. In all seriousness, though, yes, Nioh is full of systems — and there are systems on top of those. However, they feel more accessible in Nioh 3 and never really overwhelming, because, unlike other games with so many features, the game puts its meaty parts in the actual gameplay rather than in browsing its menus.
First, let’s start with the loot because if you thought Nioh 2 was flooded with it, this installment really took it to a new level. See, each time you defeat an enemy, they’ll explode like a loot-filled piñata, and you’ll quickly notice on your way to the next shrine that you already have almost a hundred items to go through. Well, the game does an excellent job at letting you get rid of unwanted armor and weapons by giving you options to dismantle or sell them each time you enter a shrine. You can even enable an auto-loot option to save you from having to spam a single button to collect everything. Handy!
When it comes to equipping your best gear, you even have an auto-equip function that works surprisingly well. You just tell the game your Agility rating, which is basically how light or heavy the armor you want to equip will be, and it will do it for you. The system will even replace your weapon with the best one in that category. Of course, this is ideal for new players, but veterans will still want to look at some set bonuses and equipment effects.
Now, for stat management, I loved how Nioh 3 made scaling more evident for players. Each time you level up, you see which weapon your stat will affect. Furthermore, all weapons scale with three different stats, meaning that you can invest in only one to start building your character, but with more weapon options. For instance, I ran with single swords in both styles, and then fists and claws as my secondary weapons, so I focused on Intelligence and Heart. However, if I ever got tired of those, the points I spent on those stats let me use other weapons, which also scaled nicely.
Outside of those stats, you even have more exploration-oriented systems, such as Blessings that you get after rescuing Kodama or finding Jizo statues, both giving you passive bonuses for your healing items or when fighting inside the Crucible. They were also pretty easy to track, and the game always tells you when you can grab a new upgrade for those systems.
On top of that, you also have passive skills you can find by exploring or defeating bosses. Contrary to combos, you apply these to your character once you equip them in a Shrine. You can have as many as you want, assuming you have enough capacity for your common, Samurai, and Ninja skills. These were also pretty helpful and added more depth to your build potential, as some help to make your deflects more powerful, while others improve your mid-air combat capabilities.
Still, one minor gripe I had was about the combo system. See, there are a lot of active skills or combos. You unlock these by spending points or completing some side activities. While all of them provide a different playstyle to your weapons, some feel a bit hard to pull off, and sometimes, they don’t even work the way they intend to. To be clear, it’s not a big complaint by any means, but I wish we had more common button combinations that didn’t rely on the stick so much to perform a specific move. Yet, I can’t deny that pulling some of them off is quite rewarding, but you’ll often forget about those during a boss fight because there isn’t any respite to perform certain actions.
Overall, the combat system is quite polished, as are the many other features working in tandem around it. Even if some combos felt a bit hard to perform, I can’t deny that they all felt great and were also impactful during many encounters. Nioh 3 is a clear example of how a game can give you tools for every situation, and it’s up to you to decide if you’ll continue spamming the same combo or be a bit of a daredevil and throw some aerial moves into the mix to defeat a foe.
Open-field Is The Way
Another thing that made us a bit skeptical of Nioh 3 was the open-field approach, especially since a big open world didn’t work that well at times for Rise of the Ronin. Fortunately, Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo nailed it here.
As you know, the game is divided into several time periods, and the first one, which is part of the lengthy demo, shows the scope of what open-field is. For starters, these open-field areas are long, yet they don’t really have empty zones. To give you an example of a large map done the wrong way, look at Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. After a while, the next area felt more like a checklist simulator, with similar elements, which made it feel tedious. Nioh 3, on the other hand, makes its areas feel tighter and actually rewards exploration — most of the time.
Using the first map as an example, chasing collectibles, or a small Crucible, or even a hidden cave, will give you a proper reward in the form of a skill or smithing text. Other games would have done this differently by just giving you a consumable or something you’d throw away in a few minutes.
Still, I feel the game hands out Samurai and Ninja points like candy, to the point where you can unlock your favorite skills for a weapon before reaching the end of the first area. Maybe this was intended to let players try different playstyles, but I think they could have toned down the number of points we get, since unlocking a new ability didn’t feel as rewarding as in previous installments.
On the other hand, I really loved how some side activities gave you modifiers for a skill. For example, shooting down a Chijiko always rewards you with an effect for a skill, such as imbuing a combo with an elemental effect at the end. This doesn’t happen too often, so it was nice to look for that floating Yokai to see which ability I’d get next.
Also, and without spoiling, I can tell you that the next zones after the first map are vastly different, with some having a smaller scope in some parts, but offering that true Nioh experience that you can now get from Missions. It was nice to see how varied the maps were, because having the same open field of the same size all the time would make exploration feel tedious and repetitive, so I really appreciated how distinct they felt.
And, for my performance-focused gamers out there, don’t even worry about lag, stuttering, or visual glitches. I know it’s wild to read this in 2026, but the game runs smoothly. I never encountered a single visual glitch or anything that would make me lower my settings. It’s a welcome surprise to see a game in such an excellent technical state, and especially one that requires the game to run perfectly during those action-packed sequences.
The Ultimate Nioh Experience
Nioh 3 has reminded me why I prefer Nioh to the many soulslikes on the market nowadays. It puts player freedom front and center, and wraps it up into one of the best combat systems in recent times. Also, the addition of two vastly different styles caters to all types of players, which just gives us even more options to tackle this superb Yokai-slaying journey.
Even if I feel this installment is the easiest in the series, I think it balances its difficulty well to allow new players in, while also giving us veterans several encounters that will have us swapping our builds until we manage to slay that pesky enemy. This third entry is the ultimate Nioh experience and truly feels like the pinnacle of what Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have done. Amazingly, despite being early in 2026, Nioh 3 is another early Game of the Year contender, and one that I hope becomes a new standard for many action-adventure games going forward.
Nioh 3 (PC Reviewed)
Nioh 3 is the pinnacle of everything Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have done. It embraces player freedom at every turn and brings so many choices that every character and playthrough will feel different for everyone.
Pros
- The best combat in the series
- A solid narrative
- Engaging and rewarding exploration
- Terrific performance
Cons
- It might be too easy to some players
- Some combos are a bit tricky to perform
