I rarely preorder games anymore, but Nioh 2 is an exception for me. And for others who are pre-ordering, the final demo this weekend has the cool feature of allowing you to import your created character's appearance into the main game when it's released in a few weeks (March 13). So if like me you're one of those people who might spend an hour customizing every little detail of you character, it means that you can spend as much time as you want doing that now and not need to waste time doing it on release when you could be, ya know, actually playing the game.

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2020/02/13/hone-your-yokai-abilities-in-nioh-2s-last-chance-trial/

The demo is available until 11:59 PT on Sunday.

I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into the full release, as I really enjoyed the hell out of the last one, despite what I thought was some design weirdness.

Just got through the demo. I'm . . . concerned.

I like it well enough, but I also liked the original Nioh. This one, though, I think is going to be far, far too complex for most people. They've slathered on a bunch of new mechanics and the demo at least didn't do the best job of explaining most of them. All those mechanics have also complicated the controls, and I found myself having fumble fingers more than once trying to pull off some of the new maneuvers.

And not only are the systems more complicated, but the UI to display them is absolute shit, in my opinion. The new skill trees are hard to follow and it isn't always clear what links to what. The UI for the new soul cores mechanic is a confusing quagmire of numbers and abstract stats that's just a bunch of goobledegook. The stats on equipment are much less clear than in the last game and the little explanations for them have taken a step back, too.

Oh dear, oh dear. Someone should have reminded the devs that more isn't necessarily better.

This was a ton of fun to me. I had stayed away from the previous chances to try Nioh 2, as Nioh one is a fantastic game I spent a ton of time with and got the Platinum trophy on. From that slice of the game, it seems like more Nioh 1, which I am A-OK with. I also really liked the design of the new demon enemies, and they are all genuinely creepy and intimidating to fight with. Hastily went ahead with the pre-order and am now waiting patiently for March 13th, it should be a fun week of Nioh before Animal Crossing and Doom drop the week after.