Nioh Exposes the Lazy Culture of Video Game Genres

Prior to the release of Nioh, many who followed the game were content with calling it a Dark Souls rip-off. While some agreed the classification was a bit harsh, few argued that it wasn’t somewhat appropriate.

[Malice-Flare]

"Soulslike" will suffice...

[Goldby]

"That sounds like a simple task, but it’s really not. Technically, Nioh and Dark Souls are defined as Action RPGs. That sounds like a pretty good classification until you realize that label is also applied to titles like Diablo III, Borderlands and Fallout 3. "

Except Diablo 3 is a isometric RPG, Borderlands is a FPS and Fallout 3 is a Sandbox surivival game....

[rdgneoz3]

Agreed except FO3. It's more of a FPS Action RPG (with a huge open world) than a Sandbox survival game, as you're not really needing food or water or shelter to survive in the game at all... You're exploring, killing stuff, completing quests, and leveling up.

[MyDietEqualsGames]

"you're not really needing food or water or shelter to survive in the game at all"

Let me tell you about a mod... Lol. I'm just kidding. On topic: Agreed.

[Kreisen]

Oh stop, nobody calls Fallout 3 a survival game. And Borderlands an FPS? It may be first person but i have yet to see anybody put it in the same sentence as BF or COD.

[RedPill86]

So you don't shoot in the first person perspective in Borderlands? Survival in Fallout is the theme, it's also accomplished with difficulty settings and occasionally mods.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

You're not really going to argue that Borderlands is not a first person shooter. What is it, a platformer? When did people get the idea that all games in a genre have to play exactly the same? As a gamer, and not someone looking in from the outside, you should know that the lines have been blurred for years now with genres. There isn't some strict guideline that a game has to follow to be classified as something that it obviously is. Bioshock is very story driven with many gameplay mechanics, but you're not going to tell me that the entire game is not in first person perspective with a lot of shooting at the forefront. Whether it's in the same sentence with Battlefield or not is irrelevant.

[Liqu1d]

Borderlands is an FPS, more specifically a looter shooter.

[twiggytree12]

I most commonly hear borderlands compared to destiny, which is also a FPS.

[Goldby]

i say survival for fallout as theres the radiation, sandbox in the sense as theres soo much you can choose to do.

@Kreisen, i say borderlands is a fps as its a shooter at heart, i guess a more appropriate term would be FPRPS (First person role playing shooter).

[bluefox755]

Dark Souls didn't invent action RPGs, nor did they invent difficult games.

[Ashunderfire86]

Zelda is the pioneer behind action RPG .

[SirBradders]

Look up adventure and dungeons and dragons bro.

[Princess_Pilfer]

Nobody is claiming it did sweetie, action RPG is just a wholly inadequate lable that covers way to broad a spectrum of games to be a useful description. Also most action "RPGs" aren't RPGs at all, but that's a different topic.

[rocketpanda]

Well I could swear before Nioh's release Souls fan were calling it a blatant ripoff as if Souls is the only series that should be hard and rpg-like.

[acekaze]

Am I the only one who thinks Nioh is actually more similar with Onimusha than it is with dark souls? It feels like an Onimusha game, with ramped up difficulty

[bluefox755]

Most gamers probably don't remember Onimusha, it's about 16 years old at this point, so the younger gen was either too young or not even born when it came out.

[Z501]

This.

[MadMax]

I've thought the same! Onimusha series was great, makes me wanna go back and revisit that world again. Break out the old ps2!

[jeremyj2913]

Completely agree man. Everytime I use a lightening living weapon with the dual swords I think of Tenso from Onimusha 3.

[Liqu1d]

Nioh really doesn't even have that many similarities with Souls. I mean it has a stamina bar, gestures, level design is inspired by Souls and co-op is similar to souls. Apart from that I can't really think of much else that is similar. Lords of the Fallen is more like a Souls clone than Nioh.

[Kurdishcurse]

u basically just spelled out why nioh is mostly influenced by souls, and the devs came out and said it with pride. that makes your statement factually false.

[MyDietEqualsGames]

It's dodge mechanics are similar to souls too, but feels tighter and you get punished more for messing up. I haven't gotten to really get into it, seeing as my first playthrough is without any leveling, so it's a crawl, being blind and not looking shit up. It'll be something I do when the hype is dead and people have moved on to other games. Nioh's still hot right now.

[Liqu1d]

So the loot system is influenced by Souls? Or the combat? How about it using individual missions instead of a connected world or the story being told more directly? While Nioh is influenced by Souls, I never denied that it wasn't, it does more than enough to feel different to Souls.

[xPhearR3dx]

You literally said

"Nioh really doesn't even have that many similarities with Souls"

When in fact it does. A lot. As a HUGE Souls fan, you'd have to be completely blind and never played a game in the series to say it doesn't. It's painfully obvious, but that's not a bad thing. It basically took Dark Souls, added in Diablo 3 loot, sped up the combat and added more in-depth techniques and skills, and added a few elements from other games and here we got Nioh.

The best thing about Nioh is like you said, "it does more than enough to feel different". Which is exactly why, while still being a "Dark Souls clone" got the respect, attention and praise it deserves for standing out. There's nothing wrong with taking something successful and adding your own spin to it as long as you add enough to make it stand out. Hence why games like Lords of Fallen didn't receive the same praise as Nioh. They relied too much on a 1:1 copy of Dark Souls instead of making their product stand out more.

As I mentioned before, I'm a HUGE Souls fan. But in all honestly, Nioh blew me away. I would even go as far as saying I like/enjoyed it more than any Souls game. I don't really care about trophies or even hunting for them. But there's a few games I'll go out of my way to collect them all. And I got my platinum for Nioh and I plan to get every trophy for the DLC as well.

[Der_Kommandant]

Onimusha 3 opening stands as one of the most amazing video games intros ever.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

No you're not. Nioh is really a good blend of Onimusha, Soulsborne, and Ninja Gaiden. It's just that people in society love to label things and judge them accordingly, most times without merit or firsthand experience. There are some very clear Souls elements in the game, but to write it off as a wannabe is entirely stupid.

[SirBradders]

I was saying this to my mates the other who never played it. It's a cross between onimusha and ninja gaiden. Dark souls didn't invent the difficult genre I think it just reinvented at time with no competition.

All great games.

[James Vanderbeek]

those were great games.

[NapalmSanctuary]

Onimushu is classic resident Evil in ancient Japan. Nioh shares way more design elements with Dark Souls. Nioh shares a few visual themes with Onimusha but beyond that, theres no real connection.

[Imalwaysright]

"Onimushu is classic resident Evil in ancient Japan"

Many people don't know that but that is exactly what Capcom was going for when they were creating Onimusha.

[Seraphim]

Onimusha, while great, was a pure slasher action/adventure game. The only similarities are the fact they are set in a particular location; Japan. I mean you could say Nioh is like Genji as well but that doesn't hold quite true. Aside from the fact they are Samurai based games. Nioh, in every form other than aesthetics is nothing like Onimusha or Genji.

[acekaze]

Might be, but if we are thinking like that, the same is said about souls games, the only similarities are the amerita system, and the temples that work as fireplaces and the coop mode, because the combat, the enemies, the mission styles,the loot system, the upgrade system, storylike etc are nothing like soulgames.

So its really has unfair comparing this game to onimusha as it is to darksouls.

[drunkenspy007]

This article doesn't affect how I think about either of the games. Nioh is Nioh, Dark Souls is Dark Souls. Both are fun. Guess I don't see any real issue, who cares if people compare the two games? Team Ninja admitted they were making the game in Souls like fashion, so there's nothing there unless you're trying to make something out of nothing. Oh wait, that's what articles do now for clicks... right..

[Hotabang]

this ^

[Paytaa]

Nioh is GOTY

[LoveSpuds]

Certainly in the discussion for me, an utterly brilliant game.

[starchild]

It's my personal favorite game so far this year. It's so good. That said, games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Mass Effect Andromeda and Middle-Earth Shadow of War are yet to come out and they may end up being some of my favorite games of the year.

[AntiZeal0t]

As a souls fan, I'm really enjoying Nioh and while there are similarities, Nioh feels like it's own thing to me, not a Souls game with a Samurai skin.

[uth11]

The label sticks because it benefits the game. It gets DS players to pay attention to a game they may have ignored.

But as a label "Soulslike" sucks. Even worse is "Soulsborne". I do wish there was a more specific label for games with these kinds of mechanics

[Paytaa]

I look at "Soulsborne" the same way I would describe Ori as a Metroidvania game. Not really a bad thing. Souls games just carved their own branch of ARPG and I think it's a very good one

[opinionated]

Comparing it to dark souls is lazy. That was about 95% of reviews. That's why I don't even bother with them anymore. It's not just the genres that they are lazy about. You can read an entire review and not learn shit about a game.

[Kurdishcurse]

u probably just read headlines. i doubt you read any reviews with objectively wrong info like that.

[opinionated]

I rarely even do that. What are you saying I'm objectively wrong about? That 95% of reviews called nioh a clone or that most reviewers these days are garbage? I'm not wrong on either, objectively or otherwise.

[TXIDarkAvenger]

Nioh is similar to the Souls games and it is the best way to describe it.

[OB1Biker]

No. 'rip off' doesn't sound appropriate to me. It's derogatory..

[jznrpg]

Nioh is the only game comparable in quality and style to Souls, there is room for a few games like Souls, and Nioh is the only succesful game besides Souls. I wouldnt call it lazy I would call it needed.

[themodern_age]

been playing games my whole life.

Dark Souls felt like Zelda (grown up)
Nioh feels like a relative of Dark Souls.

all wonderful games.

[VJGenova]

Agreed. As games like Soul Blazer, Lagoon, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, and so on were "zelda clones," so will difficult, free camera 3rd person ARPGs be "souls clones." They are not identical, but they share a lot of characteristics. This is not lazy. To call it a rip off is false, cause that implies its not as good.

Shit, all FPS were called "Doom clones" for years. I don't see the issue.

[Moe-Gunz]

Funny thing is these "difficult" focused games that are releasing are being contributed to From Software for their amazing games, but this is the full circle as people forget Ninja Gaiden was known for being extremely hard too.

[VJGenova]

Ninja gaiden black on very hard some was some true shit. NES ninja gaidens are still impossible though.

On a personal note, I am about half way through Nioh, and I haven't found it as challenging as Dark Souls. Sure I die at times, and a couple boss fights gave me some trouble, but i don't know. Maybe those other games just prepped me for this?

[rocketpanda]

Yeah, it's a quite forgiving game in comparison to Ninja Gaiden. Once you know enemy patterns then it really isn't so hard. Although twilight missions and NG+ is where the challenge is. NG is like a warm up in comparison.

And if someone is really bad at the game, sloth spell makes bosses a cakewalk.

[Kurdishcurse]

nioh didnt expose s**t. you only exposed your lack of game design observation. i love how edgy people and some journalists nowadays like to dismiss souls' influence on many games and the industry on the whole.

what makes this argument even more dumb is team ninja and the director of nioh himself, has PROUDLY said multiple times , that the main influence for the game was souls. he even said (paraphrasing) souls paved the way for team ninja to form a new identity and find their glory again, which makes me tear up since the the ninja gaiden series is on my top of all time list.

so yes, nioh is a souls-like, granted not any souls like, but a souls like nontheless. since the devs themselves basically confirmed it, get over this fact and move on. get over the fact that souls created its own sub-genre while your at it.

other than that, the game is fanfreakintastic! and the only complaint i got is enemy variety. thats it. i cannot wait for more freakin william and yokai!! masamune-kun! wreck my s**t in the dlc plz!!

[DOOMZ]

NIOH is amazing!!!!!

[Lilrizky]

Inspiration doesn't necessarily equate to laziness...

[Exvalos]

Game takes inspiration from souls but it's definitely not a clone

[MeteorPanda]

but..it's more like ninja gaiden?

[Hotabang]

"Nioh deserves to belong to its own genre" - NO

"feels obliged to include a paragraph or two regarding its similarities to the Souls series." - not feeling obliged but if you copy paste so much you better give credit XD The authors have to point out the similarities because THERE IS SO MUCH THAT IS SIMILAR, it would be unfair to review or write about it without mentioning it (its not small).
but its ok, no one mentioned how they ripped of witcher 3's character design so dont worry too much :P

is author new to gaming and/or did nioh make his balls feel that good?