Nioh DLC - Thoughts

[contains minor spoilers]

I am no stranger to difficulty. Nor am I unacquainted with Team Ninja challenges—I often enjoy them for the most part. I think they lean too hard on absurd multi-boss fights (eat your heart out Dark Souls 2) but I appreciate how high they set the hurdle. Team Ninja not only asks you to play perfectly, but to do so in fights where you're hopelessly outmatched for an extended period of time. They make masochistic encounters that only Platinum Games can rival, and even then PG has the foreknowledge not to make the "normal" playthrough of a game as soul-crushingly harsh as Team Ninja frequently does.

Which leads me to the agony of Nioh's DLC triple threat.

This was not an easy endeavor to overcome. Having bested the Souls games numerous times, I can say without hesitation that the Nioh DLC is the hardest Souls-like challenge I've faced*. Each pack contains 6-8 merciless missions that get progressively harder, eclipsing whatever gear you may have scraped together in NG+. I went in knowing I would struggle somewhat, but didn't realize I'd practically have to best most of the bosses suffering less than ten hits (and in some cases, nearly none). The main campaign of Nioh was formidable, but it often gave me the gear I needed to press on and overcome. But here? Maria was a brick wall the likes of which I've rarely seen.

I mean—just—uh—what? I was doing no damage to this boss while she could grab me in the blink of an eye, killing me instantly. I shuffled into heavy gear so that I could survive the grab, but then she would teleport around, break my guard, and kill me instantly that way. The previous two boss fights were lengthy and vicious, but this was a new dimension of cruelty; did I really have to play perfectly for over five minutes? Was this what was really expected of me?

And were the other two DLC areas going to be even harder?

Thus, I finally started engaging with two things I didn't really care about or utilize before: Reforging & Soul Matching. Most of the time if gear I acquired had a better attack or defensive stat than what I had equipped, it was the better choice. Getting minor buffs like "Wind +10" felt like a nice, not necessary, bonus. But now I had to reframe my thinking: what were the weapons I was really using? What was the stance I fought in most of the time? What were the non-attack attributes I needed? It definitely got overwhelming at times (is Break +12 better than Proficiency +13%????), especially when I was juggling multiple weapons and comparing all of their stats to one another. But gradually I honed two swords, a spear, and an odachi that I would use to shake the heavens.

It also helped that I learned slamming two weapons of the same level together resulted in a better weapon (ie two +3 swords can be used to make a single +4 blade). All of the Divine weapons I had horded from various side missions and NG+ could now be used to provide my main weapon with a little extra damage, which helped push me through the rest of the DLC. I still ran into a couple of road blocks along the way—the elite enemies in the second DLC are a nightmare for someone that doesn't parry—but I managed to finish the DLC campaign and most of the side missions solo.

Relief washed over me when I finally completed it, if only for the fact that I didn't let Team Ninja best me. There was some fun to be had in meticulously combing over my weapons in search of improvements, but I'm miffed that the DLC was so punishing—on the base NG no less! I wanted to finish the damn game and move on to other titles in my backlog (I've been sitting on Hollow Knight for over a year), and I couldn't help but wonder if I was wasting my time. A part of me knew I probably was, my personal stubbornness the only anchor keeping the game installed. But the struggle is over now, and even if it's a meaningless accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, there's a small, perhaps puerile joy in the fact that I didn't give up.

I appreciate that the Nioh DLC forces you to examine your equipment. I also like the timed arrows volleys at the start of the second DLC. But... that's about where my praise ends. Nioh's main story is difficult and occasionally unfair, but you can coast through it learning a handful of combos and utilizing your spirit buddy at key instances. The DLC, on the other hand, is a raw challenge befitting of experts. And even though I finished it, I definitely walked away realizing that I am no Nioh expert—and nor am I willing to put in anymore time to become one.


*The Defiled Chalice & Lud & Zallen CoC NG+ excluded.