‘Nioh 2’ balances difficulty and fun on a knifepoint

“Nioh 2” didn’t kick my butt. No, it was way worse than that. The sequel to Team Ninja’s supernatural samurai action game punched me in the face, knocked me down, stomped on my pride and left me dead. Repeatedly. It’s not surprising given that the original also had a harsh level of difficulty.

It’s a trait of the “Dark Souls”-style game, a genre that has grown more popular over the past decade. These are titles with mazelike levels that fold in on themselves and confrontations that test players’ skills. In the demo I recently played, I made my own character and jumped into the middle of the campaign with a fairly powered-up protagonist and strong gear.

The character creation is a major departure from an original that featured a European warrior named William. In the sequel, players craft their protagonist who can be either male or female.

The protagonist meets with other characters in the game who help the hero out in “Nioh 2’s” campaign. (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

“The first reason (for this change) is because your character is half yokai,” said director Fumihiko Yasuda. Yokai is a Japanese term for a spirit or demon. “You can make your protagonist look interesting. You can even create yourself and discover the story as yourself. It adds to the immersion.

“The second part is that the players will look into the yokai power and why you’re half yokai.”

Yasuda said it’s part of the natural progression of the series. The original had samurai vs. samurai action and samurai vs. yokai conflicts. The introduction of a half-yokai character elevates the confrontation to yokai vs. yokai. That makes the combat more dynamic, the game director said.

That’s apparent in the way players can mix in melee attacks with a flourish of mystical energy by channeling the guardian spirits. These are supernatural beings that players can choose and they aid the protagonist in fight. If they have a full Amrita Gauge, they can transform into a yokai and deliver more powerful attacks. However, this yokai shift is best used as an attack of last resort. The move zeroes out the meter and that means players can’t perform yokai abilities or a burst counter. These are moves important to repelling enemy attacks.

Despite all this, I still died a dozen times as I struggled to remember the quirks and tweaks that make the “Nioh” franchise different from rivals. Players have to account for different stances: a high, middle, and low. Each has advantages and disadvantages with low favoring a strong defense but quick weak attacks and high emphasizing damage but being slower. The middle stance is a balance between the two.

That element is wrinkle players have to pay attention to, but a bigger concern is the protagonist’s ki. That acts as a stamina gauge and it constantly diminishes. That means players can’t button mash attacks and dodge out of the way. They have to constantly monitor their movements and perform actions judiciously.

Players have an ability called a yokai shift that lets them combine powers with a guardian spirit. (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Players also have to worry about yokai that can slow the ki recovery rate and dark realm zones that have the same hazards. To clear these tough areas, players will have to defeat the demons inside. That often means luring them into normal areas where players can recovery ki quickly. They can also rush in to defeat a foe before running out. Sprinting in blindly to a conflict is a recipe for defeat.

Like other “Souls”-type games, players have to scratch and claw for every advantage they can find. That means dousing their blade with poison before a battle or using range attacks to weaken adversaries before they descend on the protagonist. Another tactic is to throw caltrops to slow foes down so that they can suffer damage.

Handling the difficulty was one of the challenges of “Nioh 2,” Yasuda said. To help make it more accessible, the team added more loot in the campaign. Enemies drop gear and ammo like pinatas at times. Each item has a value tied to it with gold being the most rare, purple falling into the second tier and blue being the tertiary level.

The other twist is a revamped co-op mechanic thrown into the game. Players can summon a humancontrolled helper by using ochoko cups at shrines, but in addition, players can also get help from an AIcontrolled buddy through

Benevolent Graves. It costs five Ochoko cups to call the ally.

“Nioh 2” continues to be set in the Sengoku era of Japan. (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

What’s notable is that players can place these blue Benevolent Graves on the map and they’ll show up in other players’ games. Those strangers can use these sites, too, and it benefits the person who planted the item. The graves generate ochoko cups for their owner so that it creates a cycle of sorts.

The other addition to co-op is the inclusion of up to two others for a party of three. As a trio, players can band together to defeat bosses. Yasuda said Team Ninja learned from the mistakes of the original and it will prevent overpowered players from busting through bosses and making the game too easy. With multiplayer, it’s a delicate balance of giving fans a challenge while also making it fun for the whole.

Personally, I had a tough time with the first boss, a spear-wielding brute named Maeda Toshiie. Fighting him was like running into a brick wall. I had success in the first battle because I didn’t know what I was doing and had a hefty collection of elixirs, but after dying 10 times and overusing the “Nioh” version of the estus flask, it reset to the standard five.

Meanwhile, my AI companion was helpful in the first encounter, but I couldn’t finish the job. I used him a second time and lost again. With all the ochoko cups used up, I had no choice but to fight Toshiie alone and it was brutal battle, one that I was on the verge of figuring out before the demo time ended. I was frustrated, but at the same time, I had the itch to try again.

That’s a good sign for an offering in this genre. If the developers can make it difficult while also making it feel fair, that’s enough to keep gamers hooked. They’ll find themselves close to mastering a boss encounter or figuring out the underlying systems of combat. It gives them a graspable hope that with enough time and effort they can conquer the challenge, and the reward in completing the task is one of the best feelings in gaming.

It will be interesting to see if “Nioh 2” can deliver on this delicate balance of challenge and fun.

“Nioh 2” is scheduled for release March 13 on the PlayStation 4.