It seems really good like usual, there's yet another difficulty and easily the most content of any region in the game. The Abyss is free as far as I know, so you can do that even if you don't have the DLC; they also added a whole bunch of moves (some of which are really OP) and spells. The Quad sword Yokai is probably the coolest enemy in the game and the new bosses are all pretty sweet too; including Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. There are 10 Sub Missions in the last area if I counted correctly, next closest is like 7 or 8 (not counting the free ones added later). Despite clearing Way of the Demon I'm actually right around the recommended level for the final areas/harder missions on Way of the Samurai (default); successfully managed to avoid trivializing the game via grinding like crazy, huzzah.

There's also some rare new enemies in the Abyss, like previously-just-an-NPC Fuku:

Aforementioned bosses:

Man I wanna play this, but it's just not gonna happen in the current release pace, gonna squirrel it away for later.

Is there a new cool weapon like in the previous DLCs?

I really liked Nioh; it's one of my favorite games of the year, but I wasn't planning on playing the DLC. I was just reading about the DLC's a little. Does it pick up where the main game left off? Also, do you fight Hayabusa as William? That'd be cool. I wish they made a good Ninja Gaiden again.

I'm still fighting those two dudes from the first DLC... (final side mission in that region) I know this probably isnt this case but it feels like the DLC expects you to have finished NG+ if the level recommendation is any indication. I'm guessing @fredchuckdave: has already finished all the various difficulties and to hear after all that you/he only just meets the level requirement is a little off putting.

Oh well, having a Chalice dungeon esque place to farm elixers sounds cool I guess. (since i'll probably need it)

Yeah that'd be great, something less time consuming and more skill based would be nice. (I also prefer the more outlandish locales and enemies)

Looks like it's time for me to jump back in and absorb all the new content. What level does the first DLC expect you to be at? I left my Willy at 160, and I heard they nerfed my build because it was broken so I can't 1 rotation bosses anymore ;_;

@tennmuerti: No new weapon this time. The existing weapons all have 1-2 new weapon skills. I guess that's the price of the DLC's (moderately) increased scope, as well as endless mode.

@boozak: I didn't grind which is sort of the endgame of Nioh; haven't had much time to do Way of the Wise which is virtually impossible without grinding; no idea when I'll get to Way of the Nioh (though when you do the stat caps go away so you can maybe have 999 in one stat or something silly). I think the first DLC is murderous enough to where once you get through that you should be okay to progress further; the other two DLCs are still challenging but they don't seem out of line and on the whole I think Nioh's difficulty balance is pretty solid.

@tennmuerti: Instead of a new weapon there's like 20+ powerful skills for the existing weapons, possibly more hidden away in the abyss or wherever, also lots and lots of new spells that have come out; both Magic and Ninjustu became viable, even overpowered builds as your main damage source. As a basic anecdote the Tonfa got a square ender for strong attacks which makes Light Stance strong attacks super viable now and can greatly impact your playstyle; also allows for even more combo variance; you can definitely do like a 20+ input string with Tonfa that uses unique attacks the whole way through.

@ivdamke: You should be okay, Maria is the hardest boss in the game though (kind of a tossup with Hayabusa but he doesn't play by the rules); albeit I think she's much easier on normal. On Way of the Strong+ she becomes totally absurd if you don't cheese her though since they had the bright idea to give every boss instant buffs when you drain their stamina on higher difficulties (and they also start with the buff instead of getting it at 50% or whatever). Its definitely worth trying out the new guardian spirit spells; some of them are pretty much instant element debuff.

@fredchuckdave: Cool, that's even better imo, especially that they've expanded on the ninja and magic skill trees. It'll feel good to go back to my Iga set again after playing with the odachi last time through ng+.

Man. I have only gotten to the boss of the first mission, but reusing a boss fight in a main mission is really lame. Combined with the fact that it is the boss from the previous main mission and also a boss I kinda hated already it actually made me put the game down and while I want to see the rest of the DLC I am going to have to force myself to get through that part. Combined with a dwindling supply of elixirs and the fact that I am probably going to have to grind for them soon put a real damper on my excitement.

The rest of the level was good though. It does kinda reuse the gimmick from the previous mission, but it`s a good gimmick and it combines it with another OK gimmick, so it does not feel too similar. Not the best Nioh level, but until that boss fight it was a solid one.

It was also a bit of a bummer that they didn`t add any new weapons since I really liked both the Odachi and the Tonfa. More than any weapon in the main game other than the Katana.

@odinsmana: There's at least six new bosses in the DLC, necessary for the story the way it's laid out; and while it might only resonate with people that understand Japanese history the story is pretty damn good.

Another dual boss, this one is pretty insane because the bosses' patterns don't line up with each other at all and both have long range projectiles; Toyotomi got to show off more of his moves though so that was cool. Probably only beatable via cheese on higher difficulties, Nioh devs forcing you to use the scum Auto Revive scroll I suppose.

@fredchuckdave: It`s good to hear that there are a good amount of new bosses. I hope there are some new Yokai bosses in the DLC since I don`t know if I really care for how Nioh handles really hard human bosses. It might just be that I have reached my skill ceiling or that not using magic or ninjitsu at all has finally come back to bite me in the ass, but while I didn`t really have too much trouble with any of the bosses in the main campaign Masamune, Maria and Yukimura were all increasingly bigger roadblocks for me and I didn`t really have much fun fighting any of them. I ended up finally beating Yukimura the first time just because I cheesed the fight by using spirit stones to refill the living weapon gauge over and over while running away from him which is also why it was an extra bummer for me to have to fight him again. I guess to be fair I think I was and am way below the recommended level for the missions, but other than the bosses the missions are not too hard and the amount of grinding required to hit the recommended level would be insane, so they can`t possibly consider that necessary.

Anyway. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the DLC and I hope my current roadblock does not turn out to be too much of a problem.

I haven't played this since I finished it before the DLCs hit. I don't even know how much game I'm coming back to.

@shindig: If you just play all the new missions probably about 35-50 hours (if you're very high level and bumrush everything then quicker), new missions + abyss 100+ hours, Way of the Strong etc. 200-500+ hours, each NG+ has different enemy placements and at higher difficulties you can even encounter DLC enemies earlier in the game as well as Red Phantoms; also new gear tier on Way of the Wise.

@odinsmana: For Yukimura in the previous DLC you can use the ramp to avoid the groundsmash aoes (wind one is the big issue in the fight since it quarters your damage), doesn't work in the new one of course. Both Maria and Yukimura can be cheesed with the bull guardian spirit talisman, becomes kind of mandatory on higher difficulties since Maria tends to one shot you and instantly rebuffs the second she recovers from running out of stamina (as do many of the other humanoid bosses). With a mildly powerful build (not overleveled)/aggressive approach you can probably one cycle Yukimura without cheesing, but you still have to rely on the RNG of getting fire at the start of the fight instead of wind. While I think he's a cool boss he's not super scary compared to some of the others.

@fredchuckdave: Thanks for the tips. I`ll try it out.

...did you say... Izuna Drop?

Damn.

I will be keeping my eye out for a bundle on all this DLC. Started Nioh when it came out, but fell off into other games. Really loved what I tried and I heard they've added some new moves, etc also. Very awesome.

I beat this and didn't play a lot more after it came out. There were just way too many great games coming out to keep up with. Got back into it recently 'cause a friend wanted to coop. I am completely addicted again, and loving the level, loot and difficulty progression.

Back when it came out the term "samurai souls" was being thrown around a lot. At this point it would be a major insult to reduce it to that. It's an amazing, loot driven action rpg in a setting other than western fantasy. If you took a break after beating it, its worth a revisit. This is also a rare case of the season pass being worth the price.

I found Nioh to have the most satisfying combat I've experienced this gen. I really want to check out the DLC, but there is just way too many incredible games. I'm still slowly chipping away at Breath of The Wild, and am trying to scrape together the money for Divinity 2. Cuphead, and Hob just dropped, and don't even get me started on October. What a year.

Tried out a magic build, what better target than the gatekeeper for Way of the Nioh:

Way of the Nioh souls income = 600 million per minute or so; SeemsGood. Problem with Magic is its not immediately clear how to build it and Nioh now has something like 1500 Affixes that you can get on gear (even Diablo 2 only had ~500-600); no idea what to look for at this point.

Might as well ask this here: The Season Pass is going cheap at the moment. Worth it?

@shindig: Definitely! I found the DLC very difficult to complete until I had progressed through NG+ some. Once I had a decent set of divines I found that my level matched well with the DLC. The final boss of DLC 1 I found to be an absolute monster. If you need to level up, farm the revenants on the Bridge mission (2nd or 3rd area).

@shindig: If you liked the base game but thought it could've done with a few more enemies and a couple more weapons then for sure.

I chose to wait for all the DLCs to come out at once and then got them all with the PC version to find the game has been improved a lot. The best part about the DLCs is the inject some of the content into the base game as well (new enemies, the weapons and armor are in the loot tables and a few new missions) so you don't only experience new content in just the DLC zones.