Team Ninja's new demon-slaying samurai epic has one hell of an elevator pitch: this is Ninja Gaiden meets Dark Souls. Nioh takes the silky smooth colourful Japanese texture of Team Ninja's storied hack-and-slash affair and merges it with the light RPG structure and methodical combat of From's dark fantasy series. Yet mixing these two diametrically opposed takes on the third-person action game isn't easy and Team Ninja has done a commendable if occasionally unflattering job of cribbing From Software's most influential design tropes, all while retaining the distinctly ludicrous comic book flavour that's always been central to the Ninja Gaiden dev's DNA.
Nioh tells a highly embellished tale of western samurai William Adams, a real-life historical figure who arrived on Japanese shores in 1600. This folklore-heavy fable isn't particularly well told with an abundance of convoluted exposition and cackling tattooed villains taking centre stage, but storytelling has never really been Team Ninja's strong suit - something made especially clear when William spends hours cutting his way through demonic hordes only to arrive at a boss' introductory cutscene where he's inexplicably joined by a party of allies. It's best not to think about this one too hard.
Your grey matter will instead be focusing on Nioh's extravagant combat systems where Team Ninja's work really shines. On the surface, the Dark Souls influence is obvious with its slowly recharging stamina meter determining your actions and a respawn mechanic offering one chance to reclaim your lost XP where you last fell. Yet Team Ninja handles the fisticuffs differently than From. Your moveset in Nioh is drastically more complicated than anything seen in Dark Souls, a complex skill tree offering throngs of unlockable manoeuvres that give each weapon type an incredible depth and flexibility. Your move list may not be quite as expansive as something like Ninja Gaiden, but it's definitely closer to the hack-and-slash upgrade trees of yore, before stamina meters prioritised timing and energy consumption over complicated combo inputs.
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