Nioh 3 looks to be upgraded from NIOH 1 and 2 – IGN First

With only two matches in the Nioh series, it has cemented its place in the soul-like genre, thanks to its unique fast-paced action, customizable builds and play style, exciting boss fights and a certain amount of fluidity to its battles, it feels like Team Team Ninja’s own signature touch. Based on my five-hour hands-on practice and a new preview build, the upcoming third part is shaped to continue the trend of excellence, loyal to the core that has always made the series so successful, but shaky enough to challenge veterans to rethink how they handle many difficult battles.

Like Nioh 2, Nioh 3 is shaping it is an iterative sequel, and it doesn't have many core systems built in NiOh 1. Instead, add a whole new layer on top of that core to revive the combat system and force players to interact with it in different ways. Nioh 2 does this by adding the burst counter and Yokai changes, while Nioh 3 does this mainly by giving players two styles that can be transferred in the flight: Samurai and Ninja styles.

When I first played Nioh 3, I wasn't sure how I felt about this split when it was offered as a limited demo. After all, the samurai style is basically the way you usually play Nioh, which reduces the ability to use OnMyo Magic. While the Ninja style feels like a faster, DPS-oriented pose, due to the substantial drawbacks of no longer being able to use Ki pulses to restore stamina and no longer having three swords stances, these are both two staples of Nioh’s gameplay. Not to mention having two different styles means almost twice as much as inventory management, as they all have their own completely separate gear, and if there is a game series that already has enough inventory and loot management, it is Nioh.

While loot is still a problem, I clicked on the meaning of Samurai and Ninja styles during my game time. Not only did I understand the good way of each style, but when I should switch to one style instead of the other, more importantly, I can master a lot of options that come with two hot swappable styles, each with its own device loading and skill tree both bringing the table.

While in the samurai style, you can certainly use three positions – high, medium and low – and all skills for each position. You can also use Ki pulses to restore the stamina you spend without having to wait for it to recharge, which makes it perfect for a sustained attack where you can put your feet down and stand up and fight a tough enemy. There is also a new art ability meter that fills your damage and defends successfully, but it will be reduced whenever you get hit. Once satisfied, you can use the powered version of heavy attacks, which excels in careful offense and defense, and pays off for good performance.

Ninja style, on the other hand, drives you absolutely crazy. Your dash gets crazy and super fast compared to the samurai-style Dodge. You can get up to three ninja tools instead of stance. You can quickly rush to the back of the enemy to deal extra damage; and, most weapons take advantage of the fact that Nioh 3 adds a jump button, and even cancels the strike ground combo by jumping, making your use of the air combo even more damaged. Most importantly, for both styles, you also have Guardian Spirit Transformation, Guardian Spirit Skills, Soul Core Skills, which are just many tools you can take part in every battle.

Of course, all of these ninja-style addition choices are not able to recover the above cost of endurance with the inability to use Ki pulses, so I do have to suppress my desires to aggression – it's still like a soul of endurance – it's still like a person of endurance after all, but I feel good at expressing good expressions in good performance, and I feel what I typically show up in a typical role-playing game, and I feel uneasy in my effect, and I get my effect in a good performance. Once the skill tree starts to maximize, advanced characters can do it.

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The Soul Core also returns to Nioh 3, but this time they are a little different. They are still randomly descending from the enemy and will let you attack with that enemy's signature, just to give you another option when choosing to dispatch an enemy. However, you have two choices of how to equip them. When you rest in the shrine, you can place them in Onmyo boxes in the yin and yang or yang positions. I just talked about the Yin position, you will get some stats increase and the ability of monsters to use in combat. However, if you place the core in Yang's place, you can refresh the spells and items added in the inventory every time you rest. One of the soul cores has fairly low tricks, but when I equipped it in the Yang slot, it gives me invisible scrolling that I can use to sneak past tough enemies. This is a great change for an already great system and I can't wait to mess with it in the full version.

Another new new antenna feature of NIOH 3 is the addition of nonlinear open field type levels, equipped with side codes, various points of interest, with unique challenges and rewards, and a wide range of open environments with opportunities for exploration. This is contrary to Nioh's typical linear level, with occasional optional branches finally looping back from off-the-scenes paths. I had to experience one of them in hands-on time (the frozen area of ​​Kamigamo) – while the Nioh 3 doesn't seem to do anything surprising about the more open-level design that has never been done before, the shift is a refreshing change of pace. Right now, the first thing I did was a battle challenge called Crucible Peak. It's a sealed battle arena with multiple enemies that I have to defeat before I can move on. Clearing the Crucible Spike improves my spiritual power, a new resource that controls your use of mental skills and acquires new spiritual skills for one of my Guardian spirits.

This really makes me excited about these open-ended levels, as these crucible spikes and other types of points of interest are scattered on the map, the challenges are fun, and the rewards are great – that's all the incentives I need to seek them. Your level of exploration increases every time you complete one of these points of interest, and each time you increase, you get extra rewards from more icons revealed on the map, giving you some directions for directions to explore, you may get extra statistical rewards in that specific area or you may get more skills on the skills of Samurai or Nininja.

All in all, Nioh 3 is shaping the same type of iterative steps as Nioh 2 ended up being the predecessor. The style switch between Samurai and Ninja is a great addition, adding new depth to the already stacked combat system, while the new open-ended realm is more dynamic than ever, with fun challenges, mini bosses and secret treasures to be found in every corner. All this went very smoothly, making me forget for the moment that this game still has some way to go and is scheduled to be released in early 2026.