*This review was machine translated from Korean to English.
Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition
Pure Aggression: The Peak of Soulslike Combat
⚔️ The Pinnacle of Soulslike Combat: Dynamic, Aggressive, and Masterfully Designed
The combat is phenomenal. The tight controls keep you deeply immersed, and the sense of impact when smashing enemies is top-notch. What I loved most is the stance system. High, Mid, and Low stances have distinct benefits for attacking, blocking, and dodging, forcing you to constantly adapt to the enemy's behavior. It’s not just about timing your attacks; it feels like a high-stakes mind game where you're constantly trading blows with the enemy.
The feature that blew me away the most in Nioh 2 is the Ki Pulse. What does stamina mean in a Soulslike? It’s your most vital resource next to your health bar. Even with full HP, if you lack the stamina to dodge, you’re finished. Every veteran knows the pain of failing to swing that last attack due to an empty stamina bar, resulting in a stupid death. I agree that limited stamina is necessary to keep the combat thrilling, but at the same time, it also feels like a major limitation on your actions.
Nioh 2 offers the perfect way to turn this limitation into brilliant gameplay. Sure, stamina is still a vital resource you have to watch out for. But through Ki Pulse, the game gives you a method to immediately replenish your stamina right in the middle of intense combat. But don't get it twisted—Ki Pulse isn't a cheap, free pass. It actually requires high player skill. Nioh 2 gives you the freedom to bypass stamina constraints, but it explicitly demands mastery over the controls. It’s a beautifully designed system. It keeps the game from becoming a cakewalk while ensuring that player mastery translates directly into massive gameplay advantages. Truly amazing and masterfully designed. Second only to Steelrising’s "Rapid Cooling", this is a system that every Soulslike developer needs to study.
By encouraging stance switching to break through enemy defenses, and by rewarding Flux with slightly more stamina than a standard Ki Pulse, Nioh 2 constantly pushes you toward aggression. The genius of the system is that this aggression is highly rewarded. The more confidently you stay on the offensive, the more momentum and resources you gain in return. Most Soulslikes allow aggressive play. Nioh 2 is one of the few that actively incentivizes it and builds its entire combat system around it.
However, Nioh 2 has a flaw. A massive one. I understand that unblockable grab attacks are a necessary evil. Without them, you could simply turtle your way through every boss fight. But Nioh 2 takes them to an absurd extreme.
Enemies execute grab attacks with almost zero wind-up, tracking your movement perfectly like a guided missile. These grabs deal ridiculous damage, forcing you to immediately heal, or straight up killing you in one hit. Worst of all, it breaks the pacing. Soulslike veterans know exactly what I mean. Just when you're deeply immersed in the rhythm of the fight—focusing on the boss's patterns and your positioning—an almost impossible-to-react-to grab abruptly stops the action to play a stupid animation. It ruins your immersion entirely, slapping you in the face with a shredded health bar.
👺 Art Design & Enemy Variety
The backgrounds and level designs are well-made. The beautifully crafted environments do a fantastic job of setting a grim, immersive mood. On top of this incredible settings is the massive enemy variety. The Yokai designs are phenomenal, dripping with dark fantasy atmosphere. Facing such a diverse roster of enemies keeps the game constantly engaging, as each monster brings a unique visual flair and a different combat puzzle to solve.
That being said, I can't defend the map recycling. It becomes painfully obvious after a while. To the developers' credit, though, they did everything they could to make it less noticeable. Some missions drop you right in the middle of a map, while others have you traverse the entire level in reverse. It's still recycled content, but the altered paths do a surprisingly good job of keeping things from feeling completely stale.
🪟 Transparently Bad Storytelling
Unlike other Soulslikes, the story is straightforward and easy to understand—it’s just extremely poorly written. The plot is incredibly one-dimensional, and the characters' motives and emotions are completely unrelatable. I can see what’s happening on screen, but the narrative flow and emotional pacing fall completely flat. Ironically, it might feel worse because Nioh 2 lacks the cryptic garbage storytelling of other soulslike games. They often mask their weak storytelling behind mysterious lore, but Nioh 2 honestly puts its bad writing on full display. I guess I should praise them for being honest? Consider it the game's balancing factor. Nioh 2 features an addictive, immersive combat system, thrilling boss fights, and an deeply satisfying sense of impact when crushing enemies. The core gameplay is so masterfully done that I can live with the bad story. If Coco Chanel’s rule is about removing one accessory before leaving the house, then this story is the one thing that never should’ve made it out the door.
⚖️ The Verdict
This game is an must-play. The gameplay and the sheer tactile satisfaction of the combat are at the absolute pinnacle of the genre. It’s certainly not without its flaws, but if the "soul" of a Soulslike is its combat, then Nioh 2 has the best soul in the genre. I’ve beaten my fair share of Soulslike games over the years, but I have never played with such relentless aggression. It was a completely unique, exhilarating, and deeply enjoyable experience. I can't recommend it enough.
Nioh 2 is an unforgiving game. the difficulty is mostly front-loaded in the first hour or so. It takes time to get used to the controls and the Ki Pulse system, and that initial learning curve can feel pretty punishing. The skill ceiling is high, but that’s exactly what makes it fun—it constantly pushes you to improve and master the system.
"Defense is defeat. Attack, Ki Pulse, and attack again. Slash your way to the end and leave nothing standing behind."
