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I have many games in my “I would love for this to become a reality” list. The one at the top has always been Nioh 3. I’ve spent more hours than I can count on Nioh 2, creating so many characters across every platform where the game is playable. That’s how big of a fan I am. You can then imagine my surprise when Nioh 3 was real and even brought a demo with it. It is not a dream anymore. It isn’t a request I make almost monthly on the series’ subreddit; it is finally happening. But beyond that, it looks like the perfect evolution of the franchise and Team Ninja themselves.
Nioh 3 Might Be the Pinnacle of Team Ninja and the Nioh Series
While I played Nioh, the sequel was the one that enthralled me with its yokai-slaying antics. I hadn’t experienced combat with this level of depth before. From the start, Nioh 2 allows you to customize your character to a T. You can create the most fearsome demon hunter or elegant waifu. But customization doesn’t stop there. You select your two starting weapons, with not one but three different fighting styles. And if that wasn’t enough, you can select your Guardian Spirit, which gives you yet another set of customizable abilities.
After that, things get even wilder with all the build options. You can unlock new skills and combos and even customize weapon scaling. The player agency in Nioh 2 is out of this world. And while there are more things I could gush about, I have to stop there because I want to focus on Nioh 3. As you know, there already is a demo. It brings a good chunk of systems to try, and while it isn’t the final build, it feels quite solid. Yet, the most important part of it is that it has brought customization to a whole new level.
As soon as I fired up the Nioh 3 demo, I noticed the familiarity of Nioh 2. Yet, it had many new things that made this entry feel like a whole new game, not just a copy-pasted sequel. The UI is cleaner with less gear clutter, and movement feels more responsive. You have to keep in mind that this is an Alpha build. But the fact that everything feels so smooth is already a good sign. On top of that, you have these new open zones that combine what worked with Rise of the Ronin but lean more toward the iconic Nioh-like combat.
Even if it’s just a small playable portion of what this next Nioh entry will be, I’m quite surprised. Team Ninja understood the strengths and weaknesses of Nioh 2 and the ones of Rise of the Ronin. It made a combination of the two, or rather, took what worked best and created a new mix that is already paying off. A few things feel a bit streamlined or way too easy now. But if that’s a way of making Nioh 3 feel more accessible than its predecessors, I’m all for that.
Two Ways to Do Some Yokai-Slaying
The biggest highlight of the Nioh 3 demo is the new combat system, which brings two styles: Samurai and Ninja. The former is your usual Nioh combat. You have your normal and heavy attacks, but now the latter is replaced with arts that you can perform once you fill up a bar. You execute them by holding the corresponding button to deal a lot of ki damage to the enemy.
Then, we have the Ninja style. This one is all about using ninjutsu skills and fast attacks that do not regenerate ki but are way faster and deadlier if you position yourself behind a foe. I must say that I’m quite surprised with both, as they offer the best of many possible builds we saw in Nioh 2. Instead of focusing on a magic-only build, I can now build my Ninja style to do that without taking away the unstoppable power of the Samurai style. We might have to wait and see how these styles perform in the final product, but at first glance, they look amazing.
The one thing I’d say feels a bit strange is the removal of stances, at least at the start. You can still unlock them by spending skill points, but not having them as soon as you start playing feels strange. However, this might change in the final build, but if not, it isn’t the end of the world; it just feels awkward. Ninja also feels great, as it offers better traversal options, slick combos, and even a few stealth-killing abilities, which, once again, remind me of Rise of the Ronin. I must say both look terrific, but the Ninja style definitely feels better when exploring.
Ultimately, I couldn’t be more excited to fully dive into Nioh 3 after playing this demo. It gave me a small yet delicious taste of what’s to come. But more importantly, it shows that Team Ninja is working on its most cohesive title yet. After playing every modern game these developers have launched, Nioh 3 feels like the culmination of every experiment, gameplay system, and combat mechanic mixed into the dark fantasy RPG series we all love. All that remains is to wait for the final product’s launch sometime in early 2026.
