Oh my, I didn't realize that this got shown-off at E3 for PS3 in 2005...oh well, this material should be a tad more recent!

I think they showed this last year at some Sony event? I was going to hold back from saying that this is "yet another" Dark Souls-y game, but then the video flashed a "Ready to die?" text, so...anyway! Alpha Demo will be available between 26th of April and 5th of May, didn't check if there's something you need to do to get picked or if it's just available for everyone.

Good golly, that's a long time in development.

"Samurai Souldown" is the best I got.

Well, if Capcom isn't ever going to make an Onimusha game again. I'm a little concerned due to this being developed by the Dynasty Warriors people, but it looks pretty decent from what's been shown thus far.

I don't think Team Ninja has ever made a Dysnasty Warriors game from what I'm aware of. They're primarily made by Omega Force, a completely different Koei Tecmo developer. I have a bit of confidence in Team Ninja making a decent Souls like game myself. They did after all make one of the most highly regarded action games of all time, Ninja Gaiden Black. Sort of interesting to see them make their own takes on popular series like Monster Hunter and Souls recently. Toukiden was an alright MonHun style game and Ni -Oh will hopefully be as good if not better.

@thewalkingdude: Oh, this is Team Ninja? Our wiki page listed Omega Force (alongside Team Ninja now that you mention it). Not that Team Ninja are in especially high regard these days either after Ninja Gaiden 3, but still I'd put my money on them over Omega Force any day.

This is definitely a "souls-like" attempt however it has Ninja Gaiden written all over it as well. It's a smart move letting people play it especially just under a month after DS3 releases a lot of the core players will have finished DS3 and will give it a shot.

I liked Razors Edge quite a bit, certainly not as good as NG2 but it was still a solid game and I personally found it harder than the previous games too Black withstanding.

Feeling pretty positive about the footage I’ve seen of the game up to this point, looking forward to getting a feel for how it plays.

Btw here's some gameplay from TGS:

Looks a lot like a quick paced souls game, at least in the combat sense. After finding the Katana in dark souls the other day and not being a dex build I could be into trying this lol.

I kept wondering where all of the Souls comparisons where coming from, but after watching this it's now oh so clear. Not that that's a bad thing, and unlike Lords of The Fallen this actually looks to be more identifiable as its own thing despite the obvious influences.

Those first two Ninja Gaiden games make Dark Souls seem tame by comparison, that being said 3 was a joke. I believe TN have learned their lesson though since Razor's Edge seemed to correct most the problems with that game. This seems to be it's own thing, it's got elements of DS just like the modern NG games had elements of DMC. It's definitely more distinguished than something like Lords of the Fallen, at least from what i've seen so far.

@yummylee:Just from the videos and the bits I know about the game(which is not much to go on), I kind of get the impression they had a look at some of the things Souls was doing right and incorporated it into the game they were in the process of making rather than the other way around. Which is more than I can say for the other souls-esque games coming down the pipe which just seem to be taking the souls formal and repackaging it but will see.

That's pretty good!

Hope this game turns out good. Was hoping for some dismemberment seeing how it's coming from the Ninja Gaiden devs.

Sweet. Seems to be a lot of potential here. Glad it will be my hands sooner than I thought.

I'm suuuuper excited for this game and am really looking forward to trying it out. At the same time, I am crying on the inside. Because I know, deep down, this just isn't Onimusha.

No idea why this is the first I'm hearing of this game, but that looks like it could be something worth taking a look at.

Souls Ninja Samurai. The game does not appear to be strictly Soulsian which could damper my interest but we'll see, since it's AAA expect 70-75% reviews, if it was an indie game it would get 85-90% of course.

@yummylee: Omega Force and Team Ninja's games are very similar, Team Ninja's stuff just tends to be more difficult. There's even crossovers between the two games and Hayabusa/Ayane control just as you'd expect them to in the original games. Both are incredibly repetitive as it happens, in NGS2 you have to kill around 2500 enemies over the course of the game and they have quite a lot of health unless you just spam ultimates but even in that case you're still doing a couple thousand of them.

Am I being daft or is enemy stamina exposed on that build?

So this'll be available for everyone tomorrow, no Alpha invitations and whatnot.

The Nioh Alpha Demo will be available for a limited time only. After this time, the demo will not be available to download or to play.

The Mark of the Conqueror will not be available to download after the Alpha Demo period is over, so please download it while you can.

Release timing may vary based on regional settings and network conditions.

Going to try this out tomorrow, I'll probably link the VoD later for anyone curious, may or may not talk over it.

Edit: What would Gwynevere look like in a Tecmo Koei game?

It's quite challenging, as you'd might expect... Especially for me.

I've never been a fan of the Dark Souls games or spend very much time playing them, but it feels like it's more of the same, so if you wanna see me die a bunch of times, you can do it here.

Man mismanaging your stamina in this game is not something to be taken lightly. This game does not feel like a souls game as much as I expected either. Definitely takes a while to get the hang of, but the combat seems really fun. Not much lore on items and stuff yet.

Having played more, I freaking love this, its way more its own thing than say lords of the fallen. Playing in action mode also feels way better than movie mode, interesting that you're given a choice between decent resolution or framerate.

And no one getting onimusha vibes from the actual combat? The combos and timing felt very onimusha to me.

This may well be the first "Alpha" demo I pick up. Looks really interesting. I always thought that From who do a samurai souls game next.

Downloaded it, seems ok but man it's ugly. Granted you get to chose movie or action, movie runs at like 20fps but looks slightly better and action seemed to run at more like 30 but still didn't feel that great and looked real real bad lol.

It's close enough to a souls game that the button placements threw me off a lot and the new animation when you run out of stamina leaves you way open for a counter. Really wish it could come to pc, cause no way i'd pay full price for this.

@oursin_360: Don't forget that it's an alpha test, game could improve asset wise.

Is it true that this is only being released on the "Playstation Ni-Oh"?

I'll see myself out.

Yeah, you just fucking stop and take a knee once you're out of stamina, it's rough.

I like the whole stance thing a lot. Just feels cool to switch out for something quicker and then go high for a power attack. Fighting bloodstains is a neat idea too. But gameplay-wise, it feels more like a dialed back and focused Ninja Gaiden or something.

I'm liking it so far.

@joshth said:

and into THE HALL OF FAME?

Nicely done.

Very pumped to get home and try this out. Have had my eye on this baby for some time.

yeah this is true, i want to give it some more time but DS3 on pc is taking up my time and all my muscle memory from that game really makes playing this harder than it should be lol.

Oh boy. That's exciting. Huge NG fan and always felt there was similarities in the Souls games combat wise and room for a game to meet in the middle.

I didn't play much of it but I liked the different stances once I figured out how they're supposed to work. I also liked the fancy moveset for the spear I picked up. I never used a spear in Souls because everything is thrust-thrust-thrust, but the spear in this game is fun to mess around with.

@darkbeatdk: Thanks for the video!

Yeah I think the combat looks really fun. Looks like it has a good samurai feel and there are just not enough Samurai games out there. I like that you learn skills like you would in most ARPGs.

I see the action game distinction where it looks a bit different from Souls too. The stance thing is interesting and I like how it can open up more tactical choices even if say you're just using one weapon.

I like how weapons work in Souls games, but given how they all can be cool and useful in certain situations, it sucks how you end up upgrading your weapon or two depending and then it's hard to switch it up as the game goes along, for fun or a tactical decision against a certain enemy.

So in this you can just upgrade weapons at will, it looks like? I think that could be cool in that it would allow you to grind a bit easier and use more weapons. They do give you a lot of shards in 3 but this would be more straightforward.

Seems a little rough right now but it has a ton of potential in my eyes. The stance stuff is neat and allows you to tackle some slightly different situations with the same weapon. The ki restore thing after combos is also pretty interesting, especially with how tight the game seems to be on stamina/ki management.

Kou Shibusawa is one of the first credits, code for "good Koei game." This could be amazing.

Played for about an hour and uninstalled. Seems like garbage from people who want to emulate souls but don't actually know why those games are good. I'll tell you what, a useless lock-on system is not it. Also there didn't seem to be any way to repair a weapon. You seem to have to just fight "revenant?" and hope for a weapon drop.

I'm really, really enjoying the demo.

Apparently there are whestones that can be used to repair weapons, i didn't see any though.

Played for four hours and 42 minutes, and there's still another level to play plus co-op, good stuff. Final game might be like 75 hours long though I'm sure it'll be a bit more repetitive than the other Souls/pseudo Souls game. Seems really neat though, has a decently long learning curve.

Got completely pulled in by this game last night. Took quite a bit to learn all the systems and get used to the differently paced combat, but once I did it was incredibly fun. My only complaint is that it seems like loot that drops from one-time enemies disappears if you die. It took me at least half a dozen times to beat an NPC Revenant near the end of the first level, and when I finally landed the killing blow I slid off a cliff into the ocean. Was a pretty big bummer, since it seemed like he'd drop some cool gear.

The boss was a real son-of-a-bitch too, took me a while to realize the shadowy areas he was leaving on the ground were actually sapping my Ki. Once I switched my armor to change my Agility from C to B though, he was much easier. I do appreciate the game spelling out how your movement will be affected by your current equip load more clearly than Dark Souls.

Bows seem really good for clearing out a few small-time enemies in more wide-open areas. Also for shooting dudes off ledges; that animation is dope.

Really looking forward to playing through the other level tonight, and incredibly excited for the full game. This game was barely on my radar, now it's probably one of my most anticipated.

EDIT / PS: I really hope @vinny, @austin_walker, @unastrike, or @brad check out the demo for an Unfinished.

Played for about an hour last night. I just couldn't get into it. I like the environment and "motif" but the combat felt a little wonky still for me. Locking on and moving kept making my character face away from the oncoming onslaught. Maybe it's because I've been diving back into Bloodborne lately. I'm also willing to accept it's an alpha so things may improve.

Played through both of the levels, and really enjoyed it. Took me a while to get used to the movement after playing 60ish hours of DS3 but after a few deaths I got used to it.

Seems like an OK balance between different types of progression with loot, killing non-respawning enemies, opening shortcuts, leveling up, unlocking skills and getting to the next Shrine.

After a bit of getting used to the combat was fun, fairly fast paced and rewarding. Hopefully there are more different types of weapons within each of the 3 main "Groups", so far it seemed like I got 2 types of katanas, 2 types of "heavy" weapons (axes and maces) and 2 types of spears. Though maybe the variation is supposed to come from switching up your stances with those weapons.

My favourite combat mechanic so far was definitely the fact that they straight up show you the enemy stamina bar, and that knowing how much stamina the enemy has matters when making decisions. Knowing that you can use your kick move to do some stamina damage to the enemy, stagger them and then use a finisher on them because of that opens up some cool possibilities. Also it seemed to be pretty key in groups fights, waiting for a spot where that asshole with the spear doesn't have enough stamina to stab you in the back while you pound on his katana buddy was cool.

Here we are:

Will there be a QL? ive been curious about it since it was first shown but I cant really be bothered to try it for myself. But from what I'm reading its a souls like thing? NO THANKS.

I've played a bunch in the last day or so and have some opinions.

The good

• Combat feel good.
• I love the art design and theme. It's got a great atmosphere, and I think it's a rather pretty game too. I haven't had the framerate issues other people have had for some reason, or I just don't notice it.
• Levels are well designed, very Miyazaki, lots of fun shortcuts.
• I like the way the spirit power adds to the fear of dying. You don't just lose your xp when you die, you lose your super attack that takes a decent amount of time to build up.
• You can't fall of ledges because your attack animation moved you forward.
• It's soulsy, but carves it's own identity very well. It's definitely not just a knockoff.

The bad.

• Combat against multiple enemies is considerably difficult, and mostly just tedious, while combat against single enemies is almost trivial. This is partly the high damage dealt by enemies, but also partly the fact that they are super aggressive and near impossible to split up once grouped. The next point exacerbates the issue.
• Enemies can often armour through your combo into attacks. Like, you start the combo, and they're getting hit stunned, and all of a sudden they're wailing on you or grabbing you with little to no windup or tell. On top of that, interrupting enemy attacks can be super inconsistent in terms of how many hits or how much damage it takes.
• The item durability is insane. Repair items are plentiful, and you get lots of weapons, but really it's just fiddly and does nothing but take away from the game.
• The fast stance seems useless, and while we're at it, the spear doesn't have the range you'd expect. I found the strong katana stance best for just about everything.

I think the game is absolutely fantastic. It just needs some gameplay polish, and maybe a look at how easy it is to interrupt enemy attacks.

@brackstone: You can use heavier weapons to interrupt enemy attacks better (or just knock them on their ass, which isn't all that beneficial for you offensively but you can back off and reset to neutral), also generally the high stance moves work best.

Downloaded this last night but still not had a second to play! Hopefully tonight before bed..

I did however get a chance to read (re: laugh at) the PSN Store description text, which, I guess is also in Alpha state, considering the missing spaces, lack of any basic sense and the fact that the last sentence just cuts off and vanishes into the ether.

I just played it for about an hour. I liked it; it's doing some really cool stuff with the Souls formula, enough to feel like its own thing. It's still got plenty of rough edges, however. You guys weren't kidding about the combat, either. It's fucking HARD. Like ridiculously so. It requires a sense of dexterity and split-second timing that even the Souls games don't demand, at least on their basic enemies. But the game feels like it still has a good ramp up in progression of both your character's skills and your own skills as a gamer. At first, taking on more than two guys at once felt like a death sentence, then I leveled up, got better stuff and felt like I had a better grasp on the combat and actually managed to take out three to four man mob. Group combat in this game is brutally difficult, though. When I finally got a grasp on the combat and stances and all that, it felt pretty good. Different, but good.

I don't think I'm going to play any more of the demo, though. I didn't make it that far, but this game is stressful as hell and I don't want to make a bunch of progress in it if it's going to be for nothing. Maybe I'll change my mind, but for now, I'm possibly sold on just buying it when it comes out anyway.

I think it's crazy that any attack from behind for you is pretty much instant death(even that very first guy kneeling by the corpse will one shot you with default health) but your own attacks from behind are only marginally stronger and there wasn't any actual backstab style attack from what I could see. It's just a mind boggling decision that is made more annoying by the fact that it's kind of easy to completely whiff on an attack mid-combo for seemingly no reason, leaving you open to counter attack with low Ki. Then if you try to roll out of the way or block you risk going into that downed state.

The game just seems overly harsh for as little as the game seems to be willing to tell you. Like the very early guys in the souls games are definitely able to do reasonable damage to you, but their attacks are slow and easily telegraphed and the enemies themselves aren't too aggressive. These guys are just out for blood non-stop.