******
- Verified Buyer
So, I played the demo once and bounced-off hard: "too many buttons, too many menus, too much UI and too many mechanics!" I thought; I prefered Dark Souls/Bloodborne for its 'purity.' But one day nearly two years ago, I found myself playing the game again and it all just clicked. I wasn't very good but I did 'get the point' and yikes is this game under-rated and utterly compelling. I've beaten it and have all the trophies on PS5.An improvement across the board over Nioh 1 (which you can safely skip but is included in the collection), Nioh 2 is one of those 'hard' games that you have to 'git gud' at. That said, IT IS NOT A SOULSLIKE - it is its own thing so don't play it with 'SoulsBorne logic.' But trust me, its amazing and its honestly not that hard; its just that you might not know what you're doing at first, but observe enemies, learn from your mistakes, cultivate some reflexes and you'll be fine! If all else fails, call-in some fellow players or use built-in AI helpers.Nioh 2 is a historical-fantasy action game set in unification-Japan and features very fast combat that relies on quick, aggressive combos, switching stances and making use of all the tools at your disposal for victory: A dozen weapons with customisable movesets, magic spells, buffs, debuffs ninjitsu tricks and traps, a kind of demon rage form (yokai form), demon (yokai) abilities borrowed from their 'soulcores' housed in well over 20 different guardian spiritis, bows, guns, cannons, accessories, magic scrolls, consumable items etc. and armour with gearset-bonuses all to mix and match with your chosen guardian spirits and 'souls cores' to create almost an infinite number of builds. Play as you like!There's lots of tough fights, levels/missions feature classic 'shortcut-based' layouts, endless shiny loot, RNG up the wazoo, NG+ states, end-game content, secret abilities, collectables, optional PVP of a kind, and generous optional Co-Op. There's just so much in the game to do and to find; easily a game that could take you 1000 hours. As for the PS5 Collection, its just a remastered version so it looks prettier and runs smoother/faster, but its otherwise the same as the PS4 verisons.Lastly, I'll just say that you don't play Nioh 2 for story, characters or music. That stuff is very average IMHO. What Nioh 2 is about, is the gameplay. There's story, characters and lore to be had of course, but its not vital to anything and doesn't pique my curiosity like SoulsBorne but then, it doesn't need to.In conclusion, I won't lie, it takes time to learn and get used to and it doesn't really explain much (go to Nioh 2 community discord for all your questions of which you'll likely have many). There's also RNG nonsense in almost EVERY aspect of the game and just so much I wish I could reach-into the code and change for the better but overall its just such a (hidden?) gem. Its not for everyone to be sure, but well worth an honest try.My seller experience however was awful, but nothing to do with the game itself.
