Nioh 2 |OT| Dark Soul Cores -- out now on PC, remaster available on PS5

[heathen earth]

I've read a few people saying it drops from both bosses. I could try Daidara Bocchi but that mission is a massive pain in the ass. I'm really not worried about it, it only took me about two minutes per run so it wasn't a huge time investment. Just a little annoying. I'm definitely saving that reference text though.

 

[F-Pina]

Amazing game.
Reached Platinum last week with my brother.
We are still playing and going to wrap up the "New Game +" missions.

 

[ClearMetal]

Amazing game.
Reached Platinum last week with my brother.
We are still playing and going to wrap up the "New Game +" missions.

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Nice!

Was the platinum difficult or can you get it with normal (if dedicated) play?

 

[F-Pina]

Nice!

Was the platinum difficult or can you get it with normal (if dedicated) play?

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You can get it solo, for sure. Would say only a few bosses need you to be patient and learn a few tricks.
if you ever get stuck, you can always summon an NPC or a real player for help.

We played the entire campaign in Expedition mode. So it was always 2 people + a Blue NPC.
We never allowed another player in to make sure some overpowered random wouldn't rush through the level and remove the fun of it.
The game does change the more people you have, throwing more enemies at you. BUT some boss fights get a bit too easy this way.

 

[Noema]

Nice!

Was the platinum difficult or can you get it with normal (if dedicated) play?

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It's not hard at all; even easier than Nioh 1 in my opinion.

There's just a few trophies you'll have to go out of your way to get (Kodamas, hot springs, all soul cores). Other than that you'll probably get 80% of the trophies just by doing all the missions.

They added like 9 new missions that are meant for late game, which can be pretty difficult, but those are necessary for the Samurai of Legend trophy (complete all missions)

Probably the most time consuming trophies are the weapon mastery ones, since you'll have to grind 120k proficiency per weapon in order to unlock the Master skills for every weapon. I enjoyed it because the weapons have a lot of depth and it forced me to try weapons I haven't really used. But it'll probably take you a day or two.

 

[stn]

It's not hard at all; even easier than Nioh 1 in my opinion.

There's just a few trophies you'll have to go out of your way to get (Kodamas, hot springs, all soul cores). Other than that you'll probably get 80% of the trophies just by doing all the missions.

They added like 9 new missions that are meant for late game, which can be pretty difficult, but those are necessary for the Samurai of Legend trophy (complete all missions)

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Wait, did the update bring new trophies or do people who didn't get the platinum prior to the update have to beat the new missions now?

 

[Noema]

Wait, did the update bring new trophies or do people who didn't get the platinum prior to the update have to beat the new missions now?

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No, just completing the original missions is enough for the trophy to unlock.

 

[ClearMetal]

You can get it solo, for sure. Would say only a few bosses need you to be patient and learn a few tricks.
if you ever get stuck, you can always summon an NPC or a real player for help.

We played the entire campaign in Expedition mode. So it was always 2 people + a Blue NPC.
We never allowed another player in to make sure some overpowered random wouldn't rush through the level and remove the fun of it.
The game does change the more people you have, throwing more enemies at you. BUT some boss fights get a bit too easy this way.

Click to shrink...

It's not hard at all; even easier than Nioh 1 in my opinion.

There's just a few trophies you'll have to go out of your way to get (Kodamas, hot springs, all soul cores). Other than that you'll probably get 80% of the trophies just by doing all the missions.

They added like 9 new missions that are meant for late game, which can be pretty difficult, but those are necessary for the Samurai of Legend trophy (complete all missions)

Probably the most time consuming trophies are the weapon mastery ones, since you'll have to grind 120k proficiency per weapon in order to unlock the Master skills for every weapon. I enjoyed it because the weapons have a lot of depth and it forced me to try weapons I haven't really used. But it'll probably take you a day or two.

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Sounds good, thanks.

Glad there isn't a "collect all smithing texts" or other RNG collectathon trophy, aside from the Soul Cores one (though those aren't that rare in my experience so far).

 

[Noema]

Sounds good, thanks.

Glad there isn't a "collect all smithing texts" or other RNG collectathon trophy, aside from the Soul Cores one (though those aren't that rare in my experience so far).

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I only had to go out of my way to get one Soul Core (the Toxic Slime) and once I found a farming spot, it took 15 minutes. The rest dropped during my normal playthrough.

Imagine if there were a Trophy for all the Smithing Texts. The Platinum % would be like 0.01.

 

[stn]

A trophy for all smithing texts would be torture.

 

[Razmos]

I just discovered that gun tonfa are a thing, gonna be trying those soon!

 

[caliph95]

I beat ryomen sukuna the two headed guy that was fucking tense but it took way less deaths than its reputation led me to believe

But i also beat Gyuki the spider bull thing first try maybe Nioh 2 is the only souls game I'm not trash at lol besides jedi i guess but that's not punishing

 

[ClearMetal]

Received almost 15.000 Glory for contributing 145 Glory to the winning side. Holy shit.

Anyway, back to Koroku farming. Another 25 kills so far, still no text.

I did finally get the Ippon Datara Odachi text and figured I might as well try it on Koroku. I thought it would be an uphill battle since I only used tonfas against him. Instead I murdered him in 30 seconds on my first attempt, as opposed to the ~3 minute long tonfa fights.

It's basically "press triangle to win", since I can staggerlock him to death with Swirling Snow. Feels mad cathartic after all the times he trapped me with his Second Wind (the grab attack) wind-up.

 

[Noema]

Received almost 15.000 Glory for contributing 145 Glory to the winning side. Holy shit.

Anyway, back to Koroku farming. Another 25 kills so far, still no text.

I did finally get the Ippon Datara Odachi text and figured I might as well try it on Koroku. I thought it would be an uphill battle since I only used tonfas against him. Instead I murdered him in 30 seconds on my first attempt, as opposed to the ~3 minute long tonfa fights.

It's basically "press triangle to win", since I can staggerlock him to death with Swirling Snow. Feels mad cathartic after all the times he trapped me with his Second Wind (the grab attack) wind-up.

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The Odachi just destroys human / humanoid enemies. It's ridiculous.

I used the Odachi in Nioh 1 and I think it's such a numbingly boring weapon that almost soured me on the game when I started Nioh 2.

 

[Miggy]

Do ya'll think we see the Abyss return in the upcoming DLC's?

 

[ClearMetal]

Bird in Cage done. Azai Nagamasa was an exercise in patience as the most "please wait for your turn" boss so far. Problem was, with so little room for combos, my tonfas might as well have been tickling him. Switched to odachi, still rough at first, but went a lot better when I decided to commit only after his jumping slam, and then only with Groundquake. Everything else was guarding, outrunning his Dark Realm homing feather attack and poking him with quick attacks (not more than one at a time).

Speaking of odachi, I looted the text for this one:

Badass design! The only good thing to come out of this mission as far as I'm concerned, together with the new Shinobi set. Fuck those watch towers, fuck those rockets and fuck those farting rat yokai.

 

[Razmos]

I was pretty critical of the story at first but it genuinely gets pretty good by the end of the game when they are focusing on a few characters and not trying to reenact historic battles and throwing characters at you left and right.

My hype was through the roof when you fight

Spoiler

William

Also the Interim has such an amazing atmosphere, I love the music

 

[caliph95]

Fuck Shibata Katsuie
Fuck that boss
Fuck him

 

[Solid Dude]

So does this game have full co-op? I can play from start to finish with a friend?

 

[Hyun Sai]

So does this game have full co-op? I can play from start to finish with a friend?

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Yes ! Big improvement in the genre, and one of the reasons I bought it.

 

[Noema]

So does this game have full co-op? I can play from start to finish with a friend?

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It does

 

[caliph95]

Who knew poison shreds Shibata Katsuie

Fucking finally lol

Note to self use poison against bosses

 

[Solid Dude]

I was pumped to coop this with a friend, but the shrine/death mechanic (especially in the context of a tough boss) sounds extremly anti-fun. What a bummer.

 

[Razmos]

The online mission "Wave of Terror":

I was not prepared

Mission name is very apt

 

[ClearMetal]

Is it just me or can the controls be unresponsive at times? Sometimes I press an attack button or want use an item with the d-pad, but my character just stands around doing nothing. It's hard to tell what's going on because of the frantic action and it doesn't help that I'm using the relatively slow odachi while still being used to the quick and snappy tonfas controls.

For what it's worth, I just did ~100 sprints into quick attack with high stance odachi, and ~98 times my character attacked as intended but twice she came to a halt and did nothing. So either there are a couple of frames after you break sprint during which your character can't act, or my controller is bust...

Edit:
I can replicate it without fail now, for both odachi and tonfas, no matter which stance.

Sprint, let go off the left analog stick and then immediately press an attack button while still holding the sprint button.​

I'd appreciate it if anyone can try this in their game and tell me what happens.

It's weird because this hasn't been a problem at all until a couple of days ago.

 

[DPB]

I haven't noticed it with attacks, but I have had the same lack of responsiveness using the d-pad. Quite often I'll press up to use an elixir and nothing happens.

On the other hand, L2 is way too sensitive and you're put into aim mode at the slightest touch.

 

[cmdiego]

As well I have experienced trying to use an item and nothing happening after a dodge or sprint.
I am a button masher, so I can't be positive that my attack inputs were ever disregarded.

 

[ClearMetal]

Tested it with an old controller and that particular sequence didn't work with that one either. Unless they are broken in exact the same way, this is a game quirk.

Still wouldn't be a bad idea to get a new controller since my current has an increasingly bad case of analog stick drift.

Anyway, made it halfway through Pervading Waters. Surprisingly fun mission thus far, despite what the desaturated color scheme suggested.

 

[metaprogram]

Is it just me or is Lady Osakabe the easiest boss in the game by FAR?

 

[ClearMetal]

Unless a boss comes along that I manage to no-hit on the first attempt, it's Gyuki for me since I took him down in one attempt and he only managed to hit me once. What a jobber.

Saika Magoichi also went down on the first try, but at least he made me eat a couple of elixers.

What a suprisingly simple mission overall, since the last couple of missions were quite frustrating.

Spoiler: Story

So I assume Tokichiro is now under the sway of that staff dude and will betray everyone?

 

[Razmos]

The Tonfa dojo fight is absolutely absurd, he uses the charge up attack where you rush forward. For you it takes a few seconds to charge and if you get hit you get knocked out of it.
His doesnt require any charging and he can use it while you are attacking him, and it does like 90% of my HP in one hit. Absolutely ridiculous
He also breaks your Ki in like 2 normal hits while you are guarding, what the fuck

 

[ClearMetal]

The Tonfa dojo fight is absolutely absurd, he uses the charge up attack where you rush forward. For you it takes a few seconds to charge and if you get hit you get knocked out of it.
His doesnt require any charging and he can use it while you are attacking him, and it does like 90% of my HP in one hit. Absolutely ridiculous
He also breaks your Ki in like 2 normal hits while you are guarding, what the fuck

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One of my only problems with this game is that it relies heavily on "your rules aren't my rules" and other underhanded means to create challenge.

Why are those Saika riflemen able to shoot twice in quick succession? Why is Koroku, half yokai, allowed to launch lengthy combos even when his Ki is broken whereas the protagonist, also half yokai, is winded like a regular human on a Ki break? Why is everyone and their pet rabbit able to initiate burst attacks, except the protagonist?

As for other underhanded means, take the "The Brothers' Blades" sidemission. You fight Magara Naotaka again, and if you don't break a crystal you will be ambushed by a revenant as the former's health gets low. However, nothing indicates this will happen. You are allowed to go straight to the boss and while such generosity is suspicious, there's not a single thing leading up to the boss that says: hey, maybe you want to take care of that suspicious crystal first. Hell, you can't even see the crystal in the first place, which means you can't account for its presence.

In "A Shadow's Duty" I wanted to run to the 'boss', a Namahage, with Catwalking and Sneak Thief scrolls. Everything went fine until I arrived at the Namahage and the Gaki sitting on top of the arch was arbitrarily able to see through my stealth, instantly jumped me and eat 75% of my health. From now on I'll assume any enemy trying to ambush you is immune to these scrolls. But there is no way I could have known this beforehand. I've run past plenty of Gaki before and there wasn't a single indicator it wouldn't work on this particular Gaki. And it's just super frustrating, because you get punished for something you couldn't have predicted.

 

[metaprogram]

Unless a boss comes along that I manage to no-hit on the first attempt, it's Gyuki for me since I took him down in one attempt and he only managed to hit me once. What a jobber.

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Hah, yea I forgot about Gyuki. I wasn't even trying and I cheesed him by just running around in a circle forever and hitting his leg. Not only did he not hit me once, he didn't even *swing* at me. He literally just spun. The entire fight.

 

[ClearMetal]

Almost done with The Frenzied Blaze. In fact, I'm standing in front of the boss door... but it's almost bedtime and there's bound to be adrenaline, not to mention retries, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Another fun mission, but again not a terribly difficult one.

 

[Badgerst]

Can someone help me out? I am near end game with my ninja build. On YT most of the recc builds show off either a magic spell or maybe a soul core "attack" that are bolts of lightning and thunder that rain down on enemies For 2-3 seconds. Usually bosses. It wrecks them.

I have the "lightning" heron feathers and they seems to have a much "smaller" AOR. A google search did not help much.


what the heck is this power/magic item? Much thanks in advance.

 

[DPB]

Can someone help me out? I am near end game with my ninja build. On YT most of the recc builds show off either a magic spell or maybe a soul core "attack" that are bolts of lightning and thunder that rain down on enemies For 2-3 seconds. Usually bosses. It wrecks them.

I have the "lightning" heron feathers and they seems to have a much "smaller" AOR. A google search did not help much.


what the heck is this power/magic item? Much thanks in advance.

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Can you link to one of the videos? The only thing I can think of that fits that description is Thunderstorm Shot, but that's from the Onymo tree.

 

[Badgerst]

Can you link to one of the videos? The only thing I can think of that fits that description is Thunderstorm Shot, but that's from the Onymo tree.

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that was the one. just haven't unlocked it yet. Thx much

 

[ClearMetal]

Defeated Kasha. Nothing too difficult, though I noticeably had trouble countering her burst attacks.

I guess Team Ninja couldn't resist putting one cheesecake design in the game. I suppose it's fitting they saved the hot boss for a hot mission.

In terms of story Nioh 2 is still very much 'Hey watch this famous historical Japanese person die": the game.

 

[caliph95]

Defeated Kasha. Nothing too difficult, though I noticeably had trouble countering her burst attacks.

I guess Team Ninja couldn't resist putting one cheesecake design in the game. I suppose it's fitting they saved the hot boss for a hot mission.

In terms of story Nioh 2 is still very much 'Hey watch this famous historical Japanese person die": the game.

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Too bad the story behind watching famous Japanese person die isn't coherent

 

[heathen earth]

I have come up with some complaints and suggestions to improve the game. I know it's not likely that anyone from Team Ninja is reading this, but I thought it would be a good conversation starter at least.

1. Let us change the yokai attribute of spirit animals, or choose which burst counter we like. I feel like this would open up a lot of build variety.

2. Make some sets for tonfa! There's not really anything in the game specifically designed for those.

3. Show a short tutorial so players can learn it's possible to use more than Flying Kato's set.

4. Ban everyone who drops a revenant with sloth equipped from life.

5. Let us see what something looks like before we refashion.

 

[ClearMetal]

I don't like Ryomen Sukuna.

Each fight feels like it takes 10 minutes just to get close to killing him, only for him to just kill me with the most random attacks.

Also if you're going to give a boss four burst attacks, at least make them look distinct. I would also appreciate it if the deadly grab attack one had a startup I could react to.

Too bad the story behind watching famous Japanese person die isn't coherent

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It jumps all over the place.

While I generally don't mind silent protagonists, this is one instance where it actively hurts the story.

5. Let us see what something looks like before we refashion.

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Plus make it possible to completely hide the armor pieces. Would be nice to create a dude and roam the land, Kamina style.

 

[DPB]

It jumps all over the place.

While I generally don't mind silent protagonists, this is one instance where it actively hurts the story.

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In this case, I think it's more of a problem with Team Ninja's storytelling. Nioh had a voiced protagonist, but William had very few lines and all the personality of a brick. The story had many of the same problems too, though at least it felt like you had more of a clear goal rather than being led around like a passenger.

 

[ClearMetal]

When someone pulls a cat out of their pocket to tell the time.

Spoiler: It works though

In this case, I think it's more of a problem with Team Ninja's storytelling. Nioh had a voiced protagonist, but William had very few lines and all the personality of a brick. The story had many of the same problems too, though at least it felt like you had more of a clear goal rather than being led around like a passenger.

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I just defeated Ryomen Sukuna (finally!) and the scene immediately afterwards was so awkward. The protagonist just looked on as everything unfolded and even though they eventually took a fighting stance, they said and did nothing to stop what they clearly perceived as an injustice.

That said, the lack of an overarching protagonist goal really hurts the story as well. At one point Nobunaga asked Hide what's driving them. I don't think they would've had an answer even if they could speak.

And this would have been fine if the entire thing was obviously an excuse plot. But part of me thinks Team Ninja intended it to be a truly moving story.

 

[caliph95]

William is a shitty character but he had at least had a clear goal of defeat evil wizard and get spirit waifu back and keeps it somewhat focused even though the story is incoherent

Both Nioh and Nioh 2 don't explain anything or who the characters are, you have to read the codex to even get basic character motivation

It's not even cryptic like From software games or at least failing badly at it its just straight up confusing

 

[caliph95]

And this would have been fine if the entire thing was obviously an excuse plot. But part of me thinks Team Ninja intended it to be a truly moving story

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Tokichiro definitely supposed to make you feel things but the cutscenes feels like I'm playing with someone who keeps the cutscene when they get bored

 

[metaprogram]

Does this game have Divine gear? If so, when does it drop?

 

[Erigu]

Both Nioh and Nioh 2 don't explain anything or who the characters are, you have to read the codex to even get basic character motivation
It's not even cryptic like From software games or at least failing badly at it its just straight up confusing

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The games certainly assume the players have at least a cursory knowledge of Japanese history, which is a bit of an issue for, well, most of the world...

Tokichiro definitely supposed to make you feel things but the cutscenes feels like I'm playing with someone who keeps the cutscene when they get bored

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The translation makes things worse, sometimes...
For instance, that cutscene where Tōkichirō notes that "children never triumph in wars", in the English subs and dub? He's actually saying that (although everything else seems to be going well for him) it looks like he can't have children. Now, the English translation does mention that elsewhere, granted, so the information isn't completely lost, but that's still a problem...

 

[caliph95]

The games certainly assume the players have at least a cursory knowledge of Japanese history, which is a bit of an issue for, well, most of the world...



The translation makes things worse, sometimes...
For instance, that cutscene where Tōkichirō notes that "children never triumph in wars", in the English subs and dub? He's actually saying that (although everything else seems to be going well for him) it looks like he can't have children. Now, the English translation does mention that elsewhere, granted, so the information isn't completely lost, but that's still a problem...

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I was confused why he flipped out at the hero i had to read the codex to be find out about him being infertile

 

[DPB]

Does this game have Divine gear? If so, when does it drop?

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You have to kill the final boss.

 

[Erigu]

I was confused why he flipped out at the hero i had to read the codex to be find out about him being infertile

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Exactly. Shit like that shouldn't happen.

There's also some obvious (in my opinion, anyway) foreshadowing that the youth from the legend mentioned at the very beginning of the game is 1) a reference to Sakanoue no Tamuramaro's fight against Ōtakemaru, and 2) supposed to be the main character himself/herself (I suppose we'll time-travel in the third DLC). It's lost in the English translation because 1) it added (for some reason) that the youth originated from the very village that was terrorized by the demon (there is no such information in the original Japanese), and 2) when the main character's mother puts two and two together in the Interim and realizes that the main character must be the youth from the legend, the English version has her say "after all, that child was you, was it not?", and good luck figuring out what she means by that.