TL;DR It's not bad. IMO, substantially worse than Nioh 2, however I am only starting my NG+ runs now so this may change and I may revisit this.
On paper Nioh 3 feels like it should be an improvement to Nioh 2 but sadly it drops the ball. I do like the improved Onmyo system - while it feels like a nerf, it does serve to make your decisions for both magic (and soul cores) much more impactful. Unfortunately that's where my positive feedback ends.
The biggest offender in Nioh 3 is for me, unfortunately the inclusion of the new Style Shift mechanic from Samurai to Ninja. Ninja unfortunately strips away many of the core mechanics unique to Nioh and offers and much more streamlined combat experience. With that new shift in mind there are some distinct boss fights that seem designed around heavily using this mechanic or exclusively using it. In essence due to this change you are now nearly forced into a completely different playstyle from typical Nioh - and for me, that's a deal breaker.
To be clear, you can complete the game and completely ignore the new style shift mechanic - I myself chose to do this, however it does feel like bashing your head against a wall for some fights where you are clearly intended to have substantially more mobility and less committal.
I have a few other minor criticisms but other than the above I wouldn't say any are deal breakers. The only other I will mention as this is important for some is that this game does fall into the "Open World Slop" pitfalls as it extremely typical and frankly offers no benefit for it - being just as linear as prior Nioh games. I personally hope they end up removing the open world aspect from the next iteration if possible.
As mentioned I'm heading into NG+ now for the first time, and if it's anything like Nioh 2 it may change enough for me to come back and update this review. For now however I would recommend avoiding unless you get on an extremely steep discount. I played Nioh 2 all the way through to the depths, however I am genuinely not in the least excited to start my first NG+ run here which is quite unfortunate.
