Nioh 3 Review: Intense Combat and Expansive Maps Deliver a Unique Demon-Slaying Experience

Nioh 3 is out for blood, and it won’t hesitate to take you down repeatedly. Get ready to be kicked, stabbed, crushed, burned, shot, bitten, and more by a diverse array of foes, both natural and supernatural. You’ll primarily be battling yokai—those bizarre, fascinating, and sometimes darkly humorous demons that fans of the series will recognize from the previous titles. One exciting new feature in Nioh 3 is the introduction of a legendary creature known only in myth: a jump button.

Does this mean new ways to meet your demise? Absolutely. But don’t fret; there are only a few mid-air platforms scattered throughout the game, so it’s not a full-on platforming adventure. However, you’ll still find plenty of opportunities to plummet to your death if you’re not cautious while exploring or engaging in combat on cliff edges and narrow paths. So, tread carefully—more than ever.

This newfound ability to leap ties into Nioh 3’s transition from a linear journey to what Team Ninja describes as “open field” gameplay. This term feels more fitting than ‘open world’ because, while you’ll encounter fast travel, expansive maps, and side quests, the experience still feels like a series of linear setpieces expertly woven together. Team Ninja isn’t going full Elden Ring here, even if the broader design reflects recent trends in Soulslike games. Nioh 3 is a tightly crafted experience with no filler or dull empty spaces.

With this fresh approach to level design and your shiny new jump button, the environments are more vertical than ever. This also means more chances for ambushes. It’s always been risky to rush for loot that’s suspiciously unguarded in open areas, but now you’ll need to scan every nook and cranny—both low and high—before making your move. If you’re lucky, you might find a nearby rooftop for a better vantage point.

The shift to open field gameplay is significant, but it’s overshadowed by the introduction of a new samurai and ninja system. Your character can now switch between two distinct playstyles at any moment, reminiscent of Yasuke and Naoe in a certain other franchise, which helps illustrate the differences.

The samurai style is essentially how the protagonist operated in the previous Nioh games. The specifics depend on the attributes you choose as you level up, but guarding and countering are crucial for survival, as is mastering the timing of the Ki Pulse after an attack to speed up your Ki (stamina) recovery. The ninja style, on the other hand, opens up new possibilities that the series has never seen before.

Again, the attributes you upgrade will shape your strengths and weaknesses; generally speaking, the ninja is more fragile but faster, relying on evasion rather than defense and consuming Ki at a slower rate. While there’s no Ki Pulse for the ninja, you gain access to an ability called Mist, which grants a brief moment of invulnerability if timed correctly. Additionally, while the samurai can unlock various stances that affect weapon damage and Ki usage, the ninja can equip Ninjutsu abilities that recharge by landing hits on enemies, many of which allow for ranged attacks—something I found particularly useful.

The two styles are distinctly different, featuring unique loot pools and varying stats. The ability to switch between them with a button press, combined with a wide array of weapons, creates a fresh set of combat opportunities. I found that the versatility of switchglaives or the brute force of axes worked best for my samurai, while claws or tonfas with their rapid strikes suited my ninja hit-and-run tactics. I often dispatched easily interrupted human foes as a ninja, while the samurai proved more effective against tougher yokai. I’d mix it up during battles, charging Ninjutsu as a samurai before switching to ninja to unleash shrapnel bombs or pinwheel shuriken.

Some fans might bristle at the label of Soulslike for Nioh, but if it looks and feels like one, it probably is. Even minor enemies can take you out quickly if you’re not careful, regardless of your character level. This makes finding the right combination of weapons, tactics, and abilities all the more rewarding—and that’s where the thrill of combat lies. You’re always just seconds away from death, and each mistake hits hard. Sneaking up on an enemy for a quick kill or chunking their health, then charging in with a combo that could cost you half your HP if mistimed, is exhilarating when it works. The one time I managed to take down a boss on my first attempt? I felt like a god.

Nioh 3 is packed with boss fights, to the point where it feels like the game would implode if you tried to remove any. I quickly accepted that I’d need to die a few times against each boss (except for that one glorious moment) to learn their attack patterns and weaknesses. While there are some common elements—like an unblockable attack you can counter with Burst Break to reduce their maximum Ki, and another unblockable move that can deal massive damage if you don’t dodge—each boss is unique and requires its own strategy.

Guardian Spirits return, but now they come with a charge gauge. This grants you infinite health, infinite Ki, and unique attacks for a limited time. It’s a useful tool rather than an overpowering feature, making for a great addition.

Unsurprisingly, boss encounters are tough—there were times when it took me an hour to finally claim victory, making the triumph all the more satisfying. Some bosses, however, feel a bit overtuned compared to the surrounding area’s difficulty. It can be frustrating to breeze through an area only to face a boss that feels like an overzealous gorilla when you’re just an optimistic banana. I often found myself cursing in frustration, but I never felt like giving up.

The challenge is that bosses seem designed with co-op play in mind, and the scaling (if it exists) feels a bit off. As long as you have enough items, you can summon up to two human players to assist you. You can also call upon a player ghost to help, provided you have enough currency, by interacting with a Benevolent Grave left by another player. You can only summon one ghost at a time, and their effectiveness is decent but not stellar. Due to the limited number of players before release, I couldn’t summon help, but I did join two games to assist others with bosses. Since those players were significantly behind me, I pretty much steamrolled through the encounters. This is likely to become more common as the game gains traction.

You’ll spend a lot of time in menus leveling up, sorting through a constant influx of new loot, equipping and upgrading items and abilities, and initially figuring out what all the menu options do. Despite this, Nioh 3 maintains a solid pace, as everything you do in the menu has a meaningful impact. You can even reset and remix your earned stats as often as you like, which is fantastic, but there’s no option to save specific setups. So, if you think you might want to revert to a previous character build, it’s best to keep a notepad handy.

Nioh 3 is challenging—brutally so—but it offers a unique sense of accessibility.

Personally, I found myself playing almost exclusively in ninja style by the time I was about three-quarters through the game (with samurai for a few bosses), but that speaks more to the versatility of Nioh 3’s systems than anything else. I had boosted my Ki and ninja damage to a point where it was viable, and it matched my playstyle. However, you might end up favoring samurai by then, and it’s equally possible to create a build that allows for frequent switching between the two mid-fight, leveraging the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of both. Nioh 3 is tough—brutally tough—but it provides a unique sense of accessibility with powerful options for customizing your build and playstyle.

The essential feeling of progression is present, even though carelessness can lead to your downfall. I remember my first encounter with an enemy towering at least four times my height, and the uphill battle it took to defeat it. Then I realized it wasn’t even a boss, and a single tear fell from my eye. A dozen or so hours later, after facing several such colossal foes, I began to see them as enjoyable challenges rather than terrifying encounters.

A few bosses feel like they’ve been placed a bit too early in the game, not all mechanics are explained brilliantly (especially for newcomers), and the voice acting ranges from ‘acceptable’ to ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’. There’s also a bit of a cheap shot from the developers at the end, which I won’t spoil. However, these issues can be overlooked, as they don’t detract from the fact that Nioh 3 has rightfully earned its place as one of the standout games of the year.