The second Nioh 3 was revealed as Crew Ninja’s subsequent challenge, 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” stage design. I’m very a lot over open-world video games, however I used to be notably fearful that we had been about to get the Nioh model of Rise of the Ronin – which, actually, was itself Nioh-lite in an open world.
Crew Ninja’s post-Nioh video games haven’t lacked in fascinating concepts, and Ronin was no totally different, nevertheless it 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 way in which 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, taking part in an open-world recreation. The workforce’s choice to name it “open area” fairly than “open world” is telling, and it comes throughout as a aware present of restraint.
The world of Nioh 3 is a number of massive maps, every made up of smaller areas. A area can be 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 totally 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 direction of the subsequent factor.
It’s a extra sensible, to-the-point method to that fashion of open-world design that eliminates the minutes-long treads by vacant landscapes so lots 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 – typically comical – supersprint that kicks in once you hit the street. I as soon as once more can not assist however admire the restraint. For a mount to make sense, that lifeless area between fascinating bits of content material would should be far bigger, which, in fact, gamers are promptly going to skip as son as quick journey is unlocked.
Nioh 3’s method gives an alternate, and it asks for a little bit of belief in your half that it gained’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 modify between two fight types at any second: Ninja, and Samurai. You’re taking part in as two characters concurrently, curating gear and weapons for every, and sustaining two builds. Consequently, a variety of the Ninjutsu, throwables and a few Onmyo-like spells have moved to the Ninja, which is a method Nioh 3 has made that a part of it extra accessible. Anybody conversant in the sooner video games is aware of that these highly effective skills had been usually clunky to make use of within the warmth of battle.
Most of your time will probably be spent because the Samurai, however the freedom to modify between the 2 on the press of a button provides you the inducement to discover how every of them may excel (or battle) in any given scenario.
Probably the most admirable factor about Nioh 3 is the way it builds on years of Nioh and post-Nioh video games, selecting which mechanics and core options to carry ahead, which to evolve, and refining all the things so it is smart inside the recreation’s world.
Stranger of Paradise’s gear auto-equip function is right here, and significantly better applied. It really works simply as you’d anticipate; automatically-equipping one of the best gear and weapons for the job for you. It’s malleable sufficient which you could 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 by two inventories. It even enables you to goal weight courses, so that you by no means must immediately end up fat-rolling in the course of a boss combat.
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 eternally, so motion RPGs that got here after wanted to be taught from FromSoft’s masterpiece. Fallen Dynasty, nonetheless, was a conventional, level-based recreation, so borrowing concepts was out of the query.
What Fallen Dynasty did as a substitute, nonetheless, 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 right down to step by step rising gamers’ energy the extra components of its ranges they discover.
Nioh 3’s world is way bigger by comparability, however Crew Ninja discovered a superb manner of evolving the function. Every area on the map is assigned an exploration ranking, which rises the extra of the varied actions you partake in. Your incentive to take action is two-fold. First, every stage you acquire boosts how informative the map itself turns into. It begins off clean, then grows to point out a layer of roads and main cities, earlier than it marks down the situation of each collectible.
Climbing by these ranges additionally comes with a set of bonuses to fight, which apply to your character universally. In actual fact, there’s a mixed ranking 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 taking part in this recreation and witnessing how a lot they meaningfully ameliorate the expertise in comparison with previous Nioh video games is the true win right here.
Nioh 3, in fact, evolves its personal sequence’ mechanics, recontextualising them in some cases. The Burst Counter is not tied to your alternative of Guardian Spirit, however is as a substitute assigned to the style-switching button. This achieves two objectives. One, it trains you to usually flip between the 2 – a significant function of this sequel, nevertheless it additionally makes pulling off a Burst Counter simpler, which suggests extra gamers are extra doubtless to make use of it.
Making the sport extra accessible with out compromising the core expertise is a purpose Crew Ninja clearly had when growing Nioh 3. The place Ronin’s method had all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer, Nioh 3’s as a substitute sands off some unnecessarily sharp edges to encourage gamers to have interaction with the extra enjoyable components of what stays a mechanically dense motion RPG.
Typically that comes within the type of deflects being simpler to tug off (and extra rewarding), and different occasions it manifests in additional advanced methods that can 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.
It is 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 legislation, each battle in a Nioh recreation should at all times 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/combat Figures You Know. You must admire Crew 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 anticipate a lot from that facet of the Nioh video games, however I used to be comfortable 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 manner the trek by 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 stage design ethos Crew Ninja simply can’t appear to eliminate. The PC model runs nice, however I anticipate 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 digicam, and a few crashes when a number of displays are current.
None of that detracts from how super 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 publicizes its objectives 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 system that’s solely outshone by Crew Ninja’s regular hand in crafting it.
Reviewed on PC, code supplied by writer.
