The second Nioh 3 was revealed as Workforce Ninja’s subsequent mission, it instantly jumped to the highest of my most anticipated video games of 2026. That pleasure was dampened considerably when the studio revealed the sport’s “open area” degree design. I’m very a lot over open-world video games, however I used to be significantly anxious that we have been about to get the Nioh model of Rise of the Ronin – which, actually, was itself Nioh-lite in an open world.
Workforce Ninja’s post-Nioh video games haven’t lacked in fascinating concepts, and Ronin was no completely different, but it surely additionally squandered a lot of its potential on what ended up being the sport design equal of considering your inflatable pool abilities can switch to Olympic swimming.
Nioh 3 feels prefer it was made with clear consciousness of that baggage. It wastes no time demonstrating that it’s nonetheless a Nioh recreation at its core, only one that desires to enterprise past what the construction of these video games has allowed – although solely by itself phrases.
You’d be forgiven for considering that Nioh 3’s open world is its headline function. However the best way it’s constructed doesn’t name a lot consideration to that, so it was simple for me to overlook that I used to be, technically, enjoying an open-world recreation. The group’s determination to name it “open area” moderately than “open world” is telling, and it comes throughout as a acutely aware present of restraint.
The world of Nioh 3 is a number of giant maps, every made up of smaller areas. A area is mostly a bundle of the kind of curated ranges present in each Nioh recreation, simply with a number of routes of ingress and egress. This, in fact, opens up completely different gameplay alternatives of its personal. Roads and different distractions function the connective tissue holding these traditionally-designed ranges and dungeons collectively, current to subtly push you in the direction of the subsequent factor.
It’s a extra sensible, to-the-point strategy to that model of open-world design that eliminates the minutes-long treads via vacant landscapes so a lot of these video games simply can’t discover a good use for.
You surprisingly don’t get any kind of mount to traverse Nioh 3’s world, although you do get a – generally comical – supersprint that kicks in while you hit the street. I as soon as once more can not assist however admire the restraint. For a mount to make sense, that useless area between fascinating bits of content material would must be far bigger, which, in fact, gamers are promptly going to skip as son as quick journey is unlocked.
Nioh 3’s strategy provides an alternate, and it asks for a little bit of belief in your half that it received’t waste your time. Quick journey exists, however I solely used it to mop up after having already explored every area.
The actual standout right here is the flexibility to change between two fight types at any second: Ninja, and Samurai. You’re enjoying as two characters concurrently, curating gear and weapons for every, and sustaining two builds. In consequence, a variety of the Ninjutsu, throwables and a few Onmyo-like spells have moved to the Ninja, which is a technique Nioh 3 has made that a part of it extra accessible. Anybody aware of the sooner video games is aware of that these highly effective skills have been usually clunky to make use of within the warmth of battle.
Most of your time will likely be spent because the Samurai, however the freedom to change between the 2 on the press of a button offers you the inducement to discover how every of them might excel (or wrestle) in any given scenario.
Essentially the most admirable factor about Nioh 3 is the way it builds on years of Nioh and post-Nioh video games, choosing which mechanics and core options to carry ahead, which to evolve, and refining the whole lot so it is smart throughout the recreation’s world.
Stranger of Paradise’s gear auto-equip function is right here, and a lot better carried out. It really works simply as you’d count on; automatically-equipping one of the best gear and weapons for the job for you. It’s malleable sufficient that you would be able to toggle it on and off, which you may end up doing, relying on the standard of loot you get and the way bothered you might be about taking 10 minutes to kind via two inventories. It even permits you to goal weight courses, so that you by no means need to all of a sudden end up fat-rolling in the course of a boss struggle.
My favorite mechanic in Nioh 3 comes from Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty, which stays one of many studio’s most fascinating experiments in latest reminiscence. Elden Ring modified open-world recreation design ceaselessly, so motion RPGs that got here after wanted to study from FromSoft’s masterpiece. Fallen Dynasty, nevertheless, was a conventional, level-based recreation, so borrowing concepts was out of the query.
What Fallen Dynasty did as an alternative, nevertheless, was provide gamers a really compelling incentive to discover its world, that, crucially, wanted to exist in a recreation with linear ranges. The system boiled all the way down to steadily rising gamers’ energy the extra components of its ranges they discover.
Nioh 3’s world is way bigger by comparability, however Workforce Ninja discovered an excellent method of evolving the function. Every area on the map is assigned an exploration score, which rises the extra of the varied actions you partake in. Your incentive to take action is two-fold. First, every degree you acquire boosts how informative the map itself turns into. It begins off clean, then grows to indicate a layer of roads and main cities, earlier than it marks down the situation of each collectible.
Climbing via these ranges additionally comes with a set of bonuses to fight, which apply to your character universally. In truth, there’s a mixed score that pushed me to max out every area to get the entire map’s bonus.
You can draw a line from every a type of again to the video games they originate from, however enjoying this recreation and witnessing how a lot they meaningfully ameliorate the expertise in comparison with previous Nioh video games is the actual win right here.
Nioh 3, in fact, evolves its personal sequence’ mechanics, recontextualising them in some situations. The Burst Counter is not tied to your alternative of Guardian Spirit, however is as an alternative assigned to the style-switching button. This achieves two targets. One, it trains you to frequently flip between the 2 – a significant function of this sequel, but it surely additionally makes pulling off a Burst Counter simpler, which implies extra gamers are extra seemingly to make use of it.
Making the sport extra accessible with out compromising the core expertise is a purpose Workforce Ninja clearly had when creating Nioh 3. The place Ronin’s strategy had all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer, Nioh 3’s as an alternative sands off some unnecessarily sharp edges to encourage gamers to interact with the extra enjoyable components of what stays a mechanically dense motion RPG.
Typically that comes within the type of deflects being simpler to drag off (and extra rewarding), and different occasions it manifests in additional complicated methods that may take veterans a while to understand.
One side that has sadly not developed is the sport’s narrative. The construction of the entire thing is the one fascinating half about it, and it virtually succeeds at distracting you from simply how underwhelming it’s.
This can be a time-travelling story that unfolds over 4 eras of Japan. Your created protagonist is one thing of a time cop (time warrior?) who travels to every period to rid it of the evil of these dreaded Spirit Stones. By regulation, each battle in a Nioh recreation should all the time come again to Spirit Stones.
Intelligent although it could be, that trick can’t masks how outdated and unsubstantial it’s. That is nonetheless a foolish story involving historic characters; not more than an excuse to ally with/struggle Figures You Know. It’s a must to admire Workforce Ninja’s dedication to utilizing the identical narrative mould with each Nioh recreation, simply slotting in era-appropriate characters and occasions.
Three video games in, I do know higher than to count on a lot from that aspect of the Nioh video games, however I used to be blissful to at the least have an thrilling wrapper. Splitting the marketing campaign into a number of eras can also be a pleasant and handy excuse to have a number of open-world maps, which is one other method the trek via time stays recent.
Nioh 3 isn’t with out irritating moments. Bosses will nonetheless kill you in two hits; platforming guidelines will sometimes confuse you; and there’s loads of PS3-era degree design ethos Workforce Ninja simply can’t appear to do away with. The PC model runs wonderful, however I count on individuals with the higher vary of GPUs to grumble about not with the ability to lock it to 120fps, the occasional stutters when spinning the digital camera, and a few crashes when a number of screens are current.
None of that detracts from how great of an motion recreation that is. That it continues to ship the sequence’ famend satisfying fight, mechanical depth, and construct selection whereas evolving and constructing on the previous is a none-trivial triumph.
I discover it troublesome to ask extra from Nioh 3. It’s a recreation that proudly proclaims its targets on the outset, and trusts the participant to find how nicely it’s going to nail each one them over the course of its 45+ hour runtime. It’s the assured results of shaking up Nioh’s close to decade-old method that’s solely outshone by Workforce Ninja’s regular hand in crafting it.
Reviewed on PC, code supplied by writer.
