Video Game / Nioh 2

The Yokai Within

Nioh 2 is an Action RPG and prequel to the original game, released on the PlayStation 4 on March 13, 2020. Taking place around 20 years before the original game, instead of a preset character like William Adams, you play as a customizable protagonist known as Hide.

This character, a half yokai and half human, or "Shiftling" as it's called in game, meets up with the likes of Tokichirou Kinoshita during a mission to hunt Yokai. After he saves the player from going berserk due to their Yokai powers, they both go on an adventure to peddle spirit stones, and help change the course of the age of the Warring states.

A PlayStation 5 version of the game, bundled with the first game as The Nioh Collection, was released on February 5th, 2021 release date with 120 FPS support. A PC version, with all 3 DLC, was released the same day. Instead of a Nioh 3, Team Ninja continued the series with a Spiritual Successor called Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which released in 2023.

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The game provides examples of:

• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The final boss is guaranteed to drop a Divine version of each weapon type, so you can immediately start the newly available difficulty setting and deal proper damage to your enemies, no matter which type you favor.
  • Most 'boss runs' (the path from the nearest shrine to the boss gate) are quick and painless, once the player has opened up the path by going around the hard way. Even when there are enemies present, their routes are usually set up in such a way that they won't aggro unless you deliberately make them.
  • If you die in a boss arena, or (sometimes) in certain areas with waves of enemies at the end of a mission- your Guardian Spirit returns to you automatically when you re-enter the arena; relieving you of the stress about worrying about dying on your way to grab it, essentially letting you automatically focus on the boss.
  • Ki pulse timing is made more lenient, in addition, Yokai Realms can be dispersed without needing a perfect ki pulse.
  • Skill Points are now unique to weapon types, no longer requiring players to divest points in certain weapons to fill other skill trees and are now able to master every weapon with each of their passives.
  • The Kodama Bazaar in the Shrine Blessing menu allows players to hand off unused equipment for Divine Rice, which can be used to fill Elixirs and ammo if you don't have any in the storehouse as well as renting extra jutsus that last until the end of the mission.
• Artifact Title: Inverted, actually. The first game didn't have an awful lot to do with the term Nioh, which refers to a pair of Deva kings / guardians of the Buddha and is often used to symbolically refer to a powerful duo, beyond a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line by Ieyasu to Hanzo that his (and presumably William's) service was "like that of the Nioh." This game on the other hand has the premise of two individuals joining forces (and names) to become the historical Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and are explicitly referred to as being "like Nioh" by Nobunaga.
• Ascended Extra: Since this game takes place in the past era compared to the first game, prepare to encounter familiar names that previously existed only as a revenant. For example, Shibata Katsuie (he was a revenant in the level where you fought Nobunaga-Kelley-Orochi)
• Ass Shove: The Red Kappas have a particularly nasty grab attack where they ram their claws up your rear end and yank out your shirikodama, a mythical ball said to contain your soul that is located in your anus.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: When Oda Nobunaga names both Tokichirou and the Player Character Hide collectively as Hideyoshi, with the Main theme of Nioh playing in the background.
• Back for the Finale: William from the first game returns to help unseal the protagonist after they seal themselves away to keep Kashin Koji from misusing the spirit stones. After a brief scuffle with him as the penultimate boss fight, he joins you and help take down both Lady Maria and Otakemaru, the demon that Kashin Koji is an incarnation of.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The final battle against Otakemaru takes place in a possessed Hide's mind.
• BFS: Odachis resemble the iconic katana sword but much longer, used for anti-cavalry and anti-spear work. Senji notes that while the odachi is visually intimidating, it is also considered impractical in the Sengoku Jidai and users of the weapon grow fewer and further between. The Odachi can reach out and touch enemies with its long blade and is also capable of wide, sweeping attacks that are difficult to defend against and deal a lot of damage if they hit; the tradeoff is speed, as odachis are much heavier and more cumbersome than a normal sword. Overall, the odachi is a weapon for someone who fells that the best defence is a good offence.
• Book Ends:
  • The final scene is Hide burying Tokichiro beneath the same cherry tree they first met him beneath, with Mumyo paraphrasing Tokichiro's words to Hide as they continue adventuring.
  • Likewise, Hide and Tokichiro's relationship both begins and ends with Tokichiro saving Hide with the purifying power of a spirit stone, saying "That was a close one" as they come back around.
• Boring, but Practical: A fairly simple yet very effective build involves using the Sword and Spear as your weapon choices, levelling Heart, Strength and Constitution. This lets you play a "traditional" Samurai character who will be well-rounded with strong damage output with those two weapons, fairly high HP and Ki, and can access passive bonuses from wearing medium or heavy protection. By levelling Skill also (which boosts your Spear damage) you can at the same time give yourself a ranged option in the Bow or Rifle, which will help you Draw Aggro on enemies and let you fight them one at a time, which greatly reduces the difficulty of things.
• Bullfight Boss: Actually subverted by Shibata Katsuie, who becomes a monstrous boar-like creature when fought. His most dangerous attack is a very fast crawling charge which can cover the whole arena and, in his Yokai realm, leaves behind trails of fire. You'd think that dodging to the sides is the right call here, but if you do that he'll turn almost on a dime and keep coming right at you. The optimal solution is to dodge under him because it makes him end his combo early and leaves him open for a couple of seconds. He also can't stun himself against walls, further averting the trope.
• Cain and Abel: The "First Samurai" DLC reveals that Otakemaru and Suzuka Gozen, AKA Hide's mother, were siblings that came to blows over their differing ideals on whether humans and youkai could co-exist.
• Canon Name: The protagonist is named "Hide", which means "excellence". Fans often mistakenly believe it to be a nickname due to it being written on the main character's dagger, but the character illustrations reveal that is literally the name their father gave them at birth.
• Chest Monster: Mujina return from the first game, hiding in random treasure chests. Amusingly, it will give you its treasure for free if you can mimic him in return, by responding in time with the same emote it greets you with.
• Collective Identity: Toyotomi Hideyoshi turns out to be one for Tokichiro and Hide, though after he turns evil Tokichiro usurps the identity for himself.
• Combat Pragmatist: Just like in the first game, you're heavily encouraged to develop this mindset. Enemies are fast, hard-hitting, and fond of ambushes, making honorable up-front combat challenging at best, and you're given a vast and powerful toolkit that lets you play just as dirty as they do, from pelting them with projectiles to crippling them with magical debuffs... or just blowing their heads off with a rifle when they're too far away to notice you.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Though it is generally pretty fair play, there are certain boss fights where it becomes clear that the enemy is capable of reading your controller inputs. Particularly when a human with ranged attacks proceeds to use those attacks the very second you use a healing item, making the ranged attack unavoidable due to the healing animation.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: The Sohaya, a clan of masked warriors who hunt yokai for a living. They're the inventors of the switchglaive that you see everywhere. While some, like Mumyo, are allies to you, the majority attack you on sight for being half-yokai. Enemy Sohaya are invariably Elite Mooks among your human opponents and must be dealt with extremely cautiously, as it's very easy for them to one shot you.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Many clan bonuses fall into this, such as the Sanada Clan providing buffs only if you have a Cross Spear equipped.
  • Chosokabe Motochika's armor, Tosa Governor, has the Singular Mastery effect, which provides high skill damage increase if the user has only one skill set to any of their stances. Later on, Graces will provide much larger damage bonuses without being nearly as restricting. It would explain why Motochika only uses Twisting Spear.
  • Izanami's Grace offers higher bonuses with its common effects than any other Ethereal Grace, with the condition that the user must be within the Dark Realm.
  • Futsunushi's Grace specializes in Sheathed Active Skills. There are a total of eight such skills, half of which belong to Sword. This is only a marginally wider net than the original game's version of the set which applied only to Iai Quickdraw.
• Cute Monster Girl: Downplayed with the female protagonist's yokai forms, which are monstrous and intimidating, but more conventionally attractive than the male versions, with natural armour that resembles lingerie rather than a full bodysuit. Played straighter with the protagonist's mother, who is an attractive horned humanoid.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: The introduction to "The First Samurai" has Hide kill a Tatarimokke in a single thrust with the Sohayamaru. No amount of overleveling will get you the same results with your proper Sohayamaru skills even if you revisited Dream of the Samurai.
• Death Equals Redemption: Every boss Yokai is either grateful that you killed them and released them from their pitiful state of being or acknowledges you as their superior and pledges to serve you in your efforts. You wouldn't know this in the early game however, because the angry sounding Yokai-speak will untranslated.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Mumyo the Sohaya, who starts the game just barely restraining herself from killing you for your yokai heritage, but is a good friend to you by the end.
• Demon Slaying: The protagonist's main targets are yokai. Might also count as Hunter of Their Own Kind considering the protagonist is half yokai.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • As in the first game, guest party members will react if the player character chooses to bathe in hot springs while in their company. If a male Hide joins a bathing Koroku in the spring, he amiably remarks that he feels like he knows Hide better now; a female Hide instead prompts him to sputter that she surely isn’t shy, but he likes her style. Yasuke will likewise protest to a female Hide that he’s standing right there while instead exasperatedly reminding a male Hide that they’re in the middle of a battle trying to find and rescue the lord they both serve. Okuni will simply facepalm regardless of gender.
  • In "The Sunomata Yokai Hunt" Sub Mission, Koroku joins Hide in pursuing a nigitama Kappa who stole his weapon, with the end revealing that stronger Yokai threatened the Kappa into stealing. It is unlikely a new player will be able to kill it before it runs away, but it is possible to prematurely kill it when revisiting the mission by, say, blasting it with a hand cannon. Koroku can only make a close guess at the Kappa's predicament. Becomes Video Game Cruelty Potential if a player chooses to return to the mission to specifically try and kill the Kappa as a result.
  • If Hide mimics a Mujina’s gesture back at it with Mumyo in the party, she will chide them for wasting time messing around.
  • If Hide activates their yokai shift in battle while accompanying Okuni in search of her lost hairpin, she’ll remark that the strange scent she’s previously noticed about them makes sense now that she knows they’re part yokai.
  • Using yokai shift in the first fight against Tokichiro will have him react with indignation that his former friend would use that power against him.
  • You can get special reactions from different characters if you transform into NPCs with the tea house. For instance, your mother has a special reaction if you speak to her while looking like Dosan, aka your father/her husband.
  • Taken to its logical conclusion at the end of the "Immovable" Sub Mission, wherein Hide can use the "Relax" gesture to listen to the final words of the spirit of Mumyo's Sohaya foster father, or simply bypass the method to the alternate ending to the mission by talking to him with Mumyo's transformation.
• Didn't Think This Through: Maria tries to resurrect Tokichiro to keep the war going to gather Amrita, owing to his status as a "traitor". However, because she was Locked Out of the Loop and didn't know he was possessed by the Big Bad during his reign, and is actually really nice once freed of it. She is understandably confused about the situation.
• Driven to Suicide: Lady Oichi loses both her brother and sister-in-law on the same night, and has both her husbands (both of whom she loved deeply) cut down before her very eyes. When the second one passes, she draws a knife and stabs herself to death rather than endure any more heartbreak.
• Drunken Master: Shuten Douji, who is both a massively powerful yokai and constantly drunk off his ass.
• Dual Boss: Some late-game missions feature a 2-versus-1 battle against both Gozuki and Mezuki. As you might imagine, Mook Chivalry is not in effect for these fights.
• Epic Flail: The Kusarigama is an unorthodox weapon consisting of a sickle and a length of chain with a weight on the end. It functions as two weapons in one: the sickle allows you to strike quickly and the chain is very long, even more than a spear. It has some unusual moves that open up interesting plays, and appropriate to its associations with ninja and assassins, it is an ideal weapon choice for somebody looking to use Ninjutsu powers (since it scales off Dexterity). The downside is the weapon lacks a strong guard and any kind of big, one-hit high-damage attacks.
• Evil Twin: Saito Yoshitatsu is your character's twin who got possessed by the Big Bad, meaning they look exactly like your created character. As Yoshitatsu was in fact an actual person, this means he can undergo a Gender Flip if you made a female character.
• Fartillery: A big part of a Tesso's arsenal. The fumes are so foul they induce the Sickness ailment, rendering elixirs much less effective and making your character puke, stunning them momentarily, when you try to use one. Amusingly, Tesso's soul core lets you fart at enemies as well.
• Feed It a Bomb: The Nuppeppo, an enemy from the "Tengu's Disciple" DLC, will sometimes try to inhale and bite into Hide. Tossing a bomb or a cannonball into its mouth will stun it long enough for Hide to initiate a critical attack.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Club wielding Brute Yokai, ranged Phantom Yokai with twin blades that can shoot, and Feral Yokai with daggers favoring speed over power.
• Finale Title Drop: A visual example. The cutscene in "A Distant Dream" introducing The Very Definitely Final Dungeon as the final Main Mission of the DLCs and wrapping up the series saga evokes the horns in the game's logo with the shape of the two rock formations forming Onigajo.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Earth and Wind were cut from the first Nioh, leaving Fire, Water and Lighting as the core elements.
• Foregone Conclusion: A double whammy since the game is both based on historical events and is largely a prequel to another game, meaning that even if you didn't play the first game you may likely already know what's going to happen to, say, Nobunaga, if you're familiar with Japanese history.
• Gang Up on the Human: While there is a handful of specific locations where enemies are scripted to fight each other, in the vast majority of the game they will gang up on you even when it makes absolutely no logical sense (e.g. demon hunters will team up with demons against a perfectly human-looking protagonist).
• Giant Enemy Crab: Bakegani, One of the new Yokai from DLC 1 is literally one of these, and you even have to Attack Its Weakpoint.
• Gory Discretion Shot: A hapless soldier tries in vain to block Ryomen Sukuna's axe: we don't see the axe snap the spear like a dry twig and split the soldier from crown to crotch, but the shot of the axe plowing unhindered to the ground between the soldier's legs amid a shower of blood makes it clear what just happened.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The Five Man Bows found on some of the Minamoto ships require, well, five men to shoot. Hide is able to use them by their lonesome, albeit with great exertion, with their yokai horns manifesting as they do, suggesting that they need to draw on their inhuman side to muster the strength for it. The recoil is intense enough to snap the bows in half.
  • Sohayamaru skills are simultaneously this and the below trope. Humans suffer too much knockback to be able to land every empowered swing in Sacred Bird Cry, so it is better suited to yokai that are Immune to Flinching, but it won't kill them instantly for what is supposedly the ultimate yokai-slaying blade. What it instead offers is unusually potent Amrita Gauge charge when using the empowered version of the skill, given the blade is made of Amrita this makes sense.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • In the final act that takes place after the first game, Senji Toyo is still the blacksmith with her grandfather despite the fact she'd be much older and he'd be dead. Yet neither have aged a day apparently.
  • No matter what weapon you have equipped, Hide will only use a regular samurai sword in cutscenes.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The Protagonist is half human, half yokai. Their father is Saito Dosan, the father of the woman who would later marry Nobunaga, Nou-Hime.
• Hard Mode Perks: Aside from the increased Amrita gain that is typical of Soulsborne NG+, on Dreams of the Strong, certain missions (often duels) have the weapon and/or armor schematics for various characters as guaranteed rewards for completing the mission, which is not the case in NG, where you'd have to farm them for a chance of dropping.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: As opposed to most of his portrayals that depict him as an incompetent buffoon, Imagawa Yoshimoto is a much more competent individual for a first human boss. He's seen waiting for his 'next meal' (read: victims to be cut down by him), fights not with silly weapons like kemari ball or disco ball and fan but being a Multi-Melee Master (and a bow) and possesses a six-tusked elephant Guardian Spirit that shoots out lightning. He also speaks with a more precise, non-silly voice, provided by Ryūsei Nakao, better known in voice acting business as the voice of Frieza. Overall, this is far truer to history than most depictions of him.
• Historical Fantasy: As with the original game, Nioh 2 incorporates the yokai from Japanese Mythology into the Sengoku Jidai period.
• Historical In-Joke: Ishikawa Goemon appears as an NPC Revenant whose grave is found next to a Hot Spring, with "drowning" listed as his cause of death, much like he is said to have been boiled alive. Bonus points for this grave only appearing in a Sub Mission where the player accompanies Okuni, in a castle owned by Tokichiro.
• History Repeats: Lady Maria's plan is done in by the exact same issue Edward Kelley ran into all those years back: the tyrannical warlord she intended to resurrect, in her case Tokichiro, was simply not interested in doing her bidding.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: A variation. The New Game Plus loops, from least difficult to most difficult, are labelled as:
  • Dream of the Samurai (The base difficulty)
  • Dream of the Strong
  • Dream of the Demon
  • Dream of the Wise
  • Dream of the Nioh
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: Nure-Onna's hair conveniently hides her red eyes and only leave her human-like nose and mouth visible.
• Interspecies Romance: The main character and their twin are born from one. The relationship didn't last in life, due to the heavy stigma associated with such a romance, but near the end of the story the protagonist's mother joins her late husband to be Together in Death. A less wholesome example can be seen later in the mission Cherry Blossom Viewing in Daigo, when it turns out Tokichiro's party was attended by at least two disguised Nure-Onna: monstrous but also very busty snake women. Then there's the devotion Lady Osakabe, a yokai possessing an entire castle, shows him...
• Katanas Are Just Better: Though not exactly the "best" weapon choice, Swords are the most versatile weapon in the game. They boast excellent burst damage and a large amount of active skills, allowing you to customize your playstyle to suit you. It's really hard to go wrong with Swords, especially as an offhand or tertiary weapon.
• Killer Gorilla: A new enemy called Enkis are ape-like yokai that are as mean as they look. They have a more powerful variant, the Kiryoki, that can use onmyo magic.
• Leitmotif: In a departure from the first game, where boss themes were shared between 2 or 3 bosses, every single boss in the main story has its own battle theme. Some are brand new pieces while others are reused from the first game, but each is still only used once.
• Magikarp Power: Ninjutsu falls squarely into this. Anyone who's played a Soulslike knows that being able to cut down an enemy from a safe distance is incredibly useful, but ninja tools start out weak and light on ammo. They do not, however, stay that way, and a high-level ninja is a terrifying offensive powerhouse who can simply choose not to engage with many of the more troublesome enemies in the game, and instead choose to obliterate them with kunai and shrapnel bombs or use poison and fire to inflict horrendous damage over time on them.
  • Oddly enough, the Sword very much embodies this trope as well. The sheer size of its skill list means Sword users will be scraping by for every skill point they can get when starting a playthrough with it. Early on it lacks access to its signature reversal skills, and by design lacks a powerful basic offensive skill like Odachi's Twin Moons, Tonfa's Pulverize, or Dual Swords' Sign of the Cross/God of Wind. Until then, it comes down to really learning the fundamentals and having to work around how to approach enemies and dealing with the weapon's gaps in its ability to apply pressure. It also has more secret skills than any other weapon type in the game, with each DLC having at least one more move for it. Once its skill list is built up, the sum becomes much greater than its individual parts. It may not reach Master of All territory, but it becomes a damn good Jack of All Stats par excellence.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Ubume's screams are loud enough to materialize as a sphere of negative energy, heavily damaging your Ki should you come into contact with it. She uses it both as a defense mechanism, to break your combos, and to end her own combos with.
• Mama Bear: Ubume in spades. Clutching Amrita close to their chest thinking it the child they lost will have them fly into a frenzy if they lose it. Yet the reverse is also true, where one Sub Mission can have players summoning a unique child Benevolent Grave, which will have one thank you for reuniting her with her child instead of having to Mercy Kill her. And another instance where recovering the spirit stone baby will have an Ubume use their screams to assist you against other Yokai.
  • An NPC grave found very late into the game is named Yasutoki the Child Snatcher, his cause of death? Impaled by Ubume.
• Marathon Boss: The final battle of the mission "Cherry Blossom Viewing in Daigo" is rather long. It starts with the final battle against Tokichiro, this time as a full demon. Then immediately after that when you suspect this mission must be over, Otakemaru rises from his corpse and attacks Hide. And then once you have drained all of his health, he refills to full HP and continues the fight. Only after defeating him a second time does the mission finally end. And you must complete all three fights in a row without any chance to refill your stock, and the third fight begins immediately after the second ends. Fortunately, nothing in the battle is harder than things you have already faced.
• Master of the Levitating Blades: The final boss Otakemaru is a variation/subversion of this trope: Tri-wielding colossal blades, one in his normal arms and two more in the disembodied hands behind him. It's also a cue for his elemental attacks- the element he's using matches the sword in his normal hands.
• Maybe Ever After: William is seen in the ending visiting a young boy who is clearly of mixed race and who possesses Okatsu's Guardian Spirit, Gyukuto, heavily implying that William and Okatsu resolved the Ship Tease between them in the first game. Nothing completely concrete is stated however.
  • The post game sub-mission "Dawn of Hope" gets rid of any ambiguity, outright calling the boy, Joseph, William's son with the vision shown after receiving Gyukoto having a focus on Okatsu. For bonus points, he's given the same name as the historical William Adams' actual son born from his Japanese wife.
• Mirror Boss: Saito Yoshitatsu is a nearly literal example, as not only do they have Yokai shift just like you (and they in fact use the two forms you don't pick at the beginning of the game), they look exactly like you.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: The new Onmyo weapon, the switchglaive, is a weapon that combines a huge Scythe, a glaive, and a Bloodborne-esque saw.
• Moral Event Horizon: In-universe. Akechi Mitsuhide crosses this when he betrays Oda Nobunaga and sets ablaze all of Honnoji.^NoteIt should be noted that this is due to a major case of Historical Villain Downgrade on Nobunaga's part. The game makes no mention of his massacre of Buddhist monks or his bungled handling of a hostage situation which resulted in the death of Mitsuhide's mother, both of which are more than enough cause for wanting someone dead. Some historical sources even suggest that Hideyoshi had a hand in the assassination, conveniently keeping the bulk of the Oda forces away to goad Mitsuhide into action. However, this is most likely a Foregone Conclusion since Mitsuhide would end up being Tenkai from the first game, helping William with the Amrita problems of his time, and it was stated that he willingly stained his honor irrevocably, thus Honnoji would become the very act that drove him to become Tenkai.
• Multiple Endings: Severely Downplayed, as they only apply to a number of Sub Missions rather than affecting the overarching story, but certain missions have different concluding messages depending on the player's actions, usually by keeping someone alive or by taking a third option.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules:
  • Like in the first game, Ki functions differently whether you're facing a human or yokai foe. Humans have the same Ki gauge as the player, with it regenerating on its own, enemies spending it to dodge, block and attack and opening them up to a lethal grapple should they be struck while their Ki is depleted. Yokai Ki is functionally Super Armor: while it does not regenerate on its own, they do not spend it to attack or dodge and it prevents them from staggering from hits as long as they have some. In a departure from the first game, a new mechanic has been added in which once a yokai's Ki has been depleted, additional attacks will take chunks out of their maximum Ki gauge; on top of limiting their maximum Ki, if this secondary gauge is depleted, they will collapse, allowing the player to grapple them. While there were yokai that could be grappled in the first Nioh, it was usually a one-time deal on a few species after striking a hard-to-hit weak point: this new mechanic makes grapples on yokai much easier.
  • In general, fights against human bosses are blatantly rigged against the player, as their damage output and health are multitudes higher than that of the player. By virtue of being controlled by the computer, in combination with their damage output, their Ki also rarely runs out. Regular human opponents are more on level with the player character, but even they show signs of it sometimes.
  • The Player Character, as special as they are shown to be, is the only person in the game who can't initiate a burst attack. This one is arguably balanced by the fact that they're the only one with access to Yokai Skills and Yokai Shift.
    • Speaking of, Yokai Skills are almost always a significant downgrade to when they were originally used by the Yokai themselves. Many of them have simplified properties, shorter reach, or don't stay out as long and they always, ALWAYS, deal far less damage than they originally did.
• Mythology Gag:
  • At the beginning of the "Twilight" chapter, Hide encounters Hanzo the Demon, and after the brief misunderstanding is cleared, reaches into his garb to pull out his cat to check the time, as with William's first encounter with his son. Both William and Hide are similarly alert before they realize it's a cat. Additionally, Hanzo's spear is directly lifted from the Giant Toad's from the original game, which was his first appearance in the series.
  • In the scene following William's boss fight, the animation he uses to invoke Saorise as a Living Weapon to remove Otakemaru's influence from Hide is identical to him defeating Derrick the Executioner at the beginning of the original game.
  • The context and circumstances in which White Tiger is fought in "Darkness in the Capital" is nearly identical to the original game.
  • Once again, the Giant Toad appears as a boss wanting to test the player character.
• New Game Plus: Nioh 2 has four additional NG+ loops with an Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels naming scheme. Not only are enemies significantly tougher and more numerous with each consecutive loop, in the later loops, bosses and eventually basic enemies will receive new attacks and modified (or completely removed) Burst Counter opportunities, which will force you to stay on your toes even with familiar threats.
• Nintendo Hard: Arguably even harder than the first Nioh as the mechanics and boss fights are more complex the second time around
• Non-Malicious Monster: It turns out Yokai are no more or less inclined to evil than humans, and they certainly aren't all inherently bad.
• Nostalgia Level: Whole maps from the first game reappear almost unchanged, particularly the bath house and field which were the settings of numerous side missions and fulfill the same function here.
• Old Save Bonus: Having save data from the first game gives you a William Adams transformation much earlier than one could normally unlock it.
• Optional Boss:
  • Just like in the first game, a Hayabusa serves as the bonus boss in the "Darkness in the Capital" DLC, this time being Ren Hayabusa.
  • The "First Samurai" DLC adds a new secret boss fight against the Ancient Nyotengu, the mother of present day Nyotengu.
• Power at a Price: Scrolls of the Damned provide a unique effect from a list of "Path of..." buffs, offering significant boosts with equally significant drawbacks, from traditional increases to damage dealt and damage taken, to extending status enhancement duration while extending ailment durations and removing the ability to cure ailments with items, to name a few.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Hatchets, one of the new weapon types, look oddly cartoony, with huge heads and stubby little handles. This isn't actually artistic licence, but a result of the game drawing inspiration from real weapons appropriate to the characters and time period.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Scampuss. They're these adorable, perfectly round kittens who will roll around and attack enemies for you if you pet them. Whenever you stop moving, they'll take the opportunity to nuzzle against your legs, like their mythological basis. If you enter a Dark Realm with a Scampuss, it'll puff up and grow spikes like a pufferfish.
• Schmuck Bait: Always assume an enemy is nearby when you see a dead body with loot on it. On the ceiling, around a corner, behind a breakable wall...
  • Among the different kinds of behavior twists enemies will get as the difficulty rises, some Yokai gain the power to cut their Ki break state short and instantly transition to a counterattack. Failing to catch on and trying to close for the easy Finishing Move will often result in pain.
• Set Bonus: There are many sets of equipment available that provide bonuses based on the number of pieces you have equipped. There is also a special attribute (guaranteed to be on the late game accessory Yasakani Magatama) that reduces set requirements by one. There are also Divine Graces in the postgame, which allow special set bonuses to appear on non-set Divine gear, essentially allowing you to customize your own set bonuses.
• Shout-Out: One of the phantom enemies is called "Orin the Troublemaker," and is a depicted as a woman in a straw-hat, very similar to another ghostly lady called Orin who wears a straw hat and causes a lot of trouble.
  • Before the game's release, there was a contest to create a Hide who would be a preset option in the final game. One of the winners ended up being a dead ringer for Naoki Yoshida, most famous for being the director of Final Fantasy XIV.
• Stable Time Loop: At the end of "The First Samurai" DLC, Hide takes the place of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro as the one to ultimately defeat Otakemaru after being displaced to the past; after using the Sohayamaru to Cleanse Otakemaru once and for all, Hide chooses to leave the Sohayamaru given my Suzuka Gozen behind in the past. That Sohayamru is passed down through the generations until the events that took place before Nioh 2 led to it being shattered, and the knife fragment ending up in Hide's hands and kicking off their journey in the first place. As a result, after the DLC the Sohayamaru knife they wield in the Present loses its magic, and Time Travel with it is no longer possible.
• Stealth Sequel:
  • An unusual example. The game is presented as a prequel, but the final act takes place after the events of the first game, making Nioh 2 a prequel/sequel hybrid of sorts.
  • The existence of the DLC Bonus bosses from here and the previous game means that the whole series act as a prequel of or happening in the same timeline as both Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series, with the two Hayabusa/Dragon Ninja ancestors (Jin and Ren) of the former (actually both) as well as the mother of Nyotengu who appeared in the latter.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Subverted somewhat. Hattori Hanzo uses a spear primarily, and Hide can learn and use Ninjutsu but is free to use whatever weapon they wish - nodachi ninja, anyone?
• Straight for the Commander: Hide gets a lot of these sorts of assignments, and they're responsible for the majority of the human or former human bosses in the main storyline. Imagawa Yoshimoto, Saito Yoshitatsu, Magara Naotaka, Azai Nagamasa, Saika Magoichi, and Tokichiro himself are all taken out in this manner. The vast majority are Duel Bosses or Mirror Bosses of one sort or another, with most having Yokai abilities to rival your own.
• Super Drowning Skills : Like the first Nioh, your character swims like a brick, falling into a pool of water resulting in instant death. Applies to enemies as well.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Hide's Yokai form takes over the spot that the living weapon buff had, being a supercharged state.
• Taking the Bullet: Hide jumps into the path of Otakemaru's avatar, Kashin Koji, to prevent him from possessing the newly resurrected Tokichiro. This leads directly to the final boss fight inside Hide's mind.
• The Unfought: Hide gets to fight two of the Three Great Yokai of Japan, Otakemaru and Shuten Doji. The third, the nine-tailed fox, immediately flees upon being freed from her imprisonment, and that's the last Hide sees of her. She's defeated some years later by William in the first game's DLC.
• Unorthodox Reload: The famous "spin cock" made famous by Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Grit... but with a matchlock musket. No, it doesn't make any sense. Yes, it is awesome.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The Sohaya kill all yokai they come across, no matter how harmless. This naturally includes you.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Played with. The mission "Cherry Blossom Viewing in Daigo" feels like it should be the final dungeon. It's long, it's very dramatic, and ends with your final battle with Tokichiro followed by a duel with the Big Bad. But then the game continues for a few more "missions", one where you seal away Otakemaru which leads to you falling into a deep slumber for 25 years, then a mission that's just a duel with William of all people, then a very short final mission that goes through some of the bottom layer of the level from "The Mauseleum of Evil" that concludes with a battle against the Final Boss. So the above mentioned dungeon isn't technically the true final dungeon, but it's the last dungeon that involves any real effort to reach the boss fight. And thematically and emotionally it fits the bill.
  • "A Distant Dream", the final main mission of the final DLC takes place on Onigajo, the hideout of Otakemaru, and feels just as, if not more final then Cherry Blossom viewing in Daigo, as its just as long, in a much more intimadating castle and a confrontation with Otakemaru at his absolute strongest, and as arguably the most powerful Yokai in history as The Nightmare Bringer, to the point where its been argued he's even more powerful then the Vigoor Emperor from the related Ninja Gaiden games, and the result is a truly conclusive dungeon to the entire Nioh series up to this point.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: Downplayed. Every weapon type has an AI moveset for inexperienced combatants who are bad at using it (like bandits and fresh conscripts). Their attacks can still deal solid damage if they connect, but are slow, highly telegraphed, and visibly throw their wielder off-balance, making them much easier to avoid and punish than the standard weapon movesets that you and your properly-trained enemies use.
• You Dirty Rat!: Tesso are giant humanoid rats who can debuff you with their farts and poison you with their shit. They make the Guardian Ape look like a germaphobe.