NIOH 2
“IT’S HARD AS NAILS, BUT IT TEETERS DELICATELY ON THAT EDGE, A TRIUMPHANT BALANCING ACT.”
emons can be downright nasty.
D
And Nioh 2 pulls no punches as it introduces us to the ugly side of the yokai-slaying business.
Within the first five minutes we encounter a massive bull demon amid smouldering ruins outside a village in peril. But we simply can’t defeat it. Sneaking around the wide area, we make our way through some more forest, en route taking on roving human bandits eager to pillage in the chaos, but we also have to avoid any yokai who stand in our way. They’re just too strong.
We play carefully, with consideration. Fighting through the village, we liberate it from bandits (it’s liberated until we pray at a shrine, at least. Dark Souls-style, most enemies return to their places unless they’re demons from an area we actually purify). Ascending a hill, we come to a cherry blossom tree past the village’s large shrine, and are forced into an encounter with a horse demon, Mezuki, who we can’t sneak around this time. We dodge roll his charges, and chip away with hits where we can. But then he roars, pulling us into the dark yokai realm as strange flowers take root and our own half-yokai horns appear.
Within these realms (of which there are
