Nioh 3

Nioh 3 has thrilling combat, character specialisation and spectacle that are the tried and true staples for both a Team Ninja game and a Nioh game in and of itself. Boss fights are grandiose, and you’ve got plenty of neat kit to feel like a ninja/samurai hybrid badass. You’re not going to be utterly disappointed with the series’ return, but thanks to its open world-ish trappings and overabundance of systems and loot that stops you from getting attached to any one thing, you’re likely not going to be over the moon about it either. It’s Soulslike junk food. It goes down well while you’re in it, but it’s not going to sit or stay well with you for long.

Nioh 3 feels weighed down by its own scope. There’s a lot of space, and not quite enough content to fill it all adequately. If Nioh as a series was going to move towards an open world, there definitely could have been a better balance between scope and content. This is a game that could have benefited had it traded at least one of the time periods for more unique yokai and more missions. If it had to be this big, the performance issues and eventual repetition indicate it needed a bit more heat and time in the crucible. That said, it does maintain ferocious, ruthless, fast-paced action combat, punctuated by blood-pumping compositions, and it has a generally competent story and world built around it. Just don’t expect it to excel in every dimension.

Nioh 3 expands the series from tight bitesized focus to expansive open world design over multiple time periods. And while the third samurai soulslike still plays incredibly, its structurally compromised by recycled enemies, easy difficulty, too much loot and a nonsense plot. Bigger is not always better.

Too much of Nioh 3 is too similar to past Nioh games, so while that means it has a few glorious boss fights and fluid controls, it lets down the innovative spirit the series was founded on.