YMMV / Nioh 2

YMMV Page for Nioh 2

---

• Awesome Music: Nioh 2 greatly expands the collection of boss themes, delivering a grand cinematic score.
  • Imagawa Yoshimoto is a 3-piece theme that's fast and frantic, giving a taste of human bosses.
  • Azai Nagamasa utilizes a One-Woman Wail with heavy strings to accompany a tragic, inevitable duel.
  • Daigo Temple marks the beginning of the end to a decades-long journey, reprising elements of "Soaring" as Hide finds pieces of Tokichiro's buried conscience reflecting on their distant friendship.
  • Tokichiro II adds the bombastic climax to Hide's rematch with Tokichiro in Daigo Temple.
  • William provides an utterly incredible reprise of the series' main themes as heroes of the beginning and the end of the Sengoku era clash, which fans feel more than makes up for his status as an Anti-Climax Boss.
  • Otakemaru, the final boss, builds plenty of tension before bursting out in the final phases of the fight for a truly epic experience.
  • Minamoto no Yoshitsune, which plays for Yorimitsu as well, certainly fits two of the most skilled bosses in the series, playing emphasis on Yoshitsune's fondness for flutes.
• Badass Decay: Yoki were the archetypal yokai of the first game, being big, nasty Lightning Bruisers that served as the game's first wake-up call, and remaining a high-end threat throughout the game. In Nioh 2, thanks to the new mechanics, their threat level has gone down a few notches - their most dangerous attacks are Bursts, meaning they can be Burst Countered, and their old weak point (their horns) still works, except now it also cuts their maximum ki to almost nothing, and is easily-triggered by many types of attacks and Yokai abilities. Following this up with a strong Yokai ability, or even a sufficiently-strong melee string, can lead to a Grapple opportunity, and an easy kill. The game seems to acknowledge their downgrade, as they're much less common than in the first game. The Elemental and Confusion Yoki being cut also adds the decay as well.
• Best Boss Ever: The bosses in the first game were regarded as ranging from decent to bad, but this game's are FAR better by comparison. Specific examples include;
  • The first boss, Mezuki, who manages to be both an intimidating first boss without feeling too unfair, effectively teaching you the mechanics of all the Yokai bosses to come.
  • Enenra, a demonic sumo wrestler made from smoke capable of summoning fire pillars and tornadoes, as well as teleporting around and throwing himself at you in a tornado. Need we say more?
  • Yatsu-no-Kami, who manages to be a poison-using boss that doesn't rely on it to be a threat and has a number of very dangerous moves that need to be learned and properly responded to. Coming at the end of one of the better levels doesn't hurt.
  • Kamataichi, a giant weasel-cat-thing with blades on its arms and tail that jumps around the trees and forces you to constantly be on the move, lest you get comboed into oblivion.
  • Saito Yoshitatsu, who wields the two Guardian Spirits you didn't choose and can utilize their respective Yokai forms, switching between human and Yokai forms and all that entails.
  • Magara Naotaka is often a fan-favorite when players comment on their most enjoyable boss fights. His fast and frenetic combos provide a rush once growing accustomed to the dodge timing, while his Ki tends to be easier to drain than most bosses to avoid his Lightning Bruiser nature from being overwhelming, resulting in a fast but steady "push-and-pull" momentum to his fight. Players looking to show off their skills often pick this boss to demonstrate.
  • Gyuki, a massive bull-spider beast with wings that, while relatively easy, is such an entertaining spectacle that it doesn't matter.
  • Azai Nagamasa, who fights with a mixture of air dives, projectiles and sword swings, all set to a tragic but intense battle theme. It's so awesome, there's a sub-mission dedicated entirely to a rematch with no strings attached!
  • Ryomen Sukuna, who combines a terrifyingly awesome appearance with a frantic boss battle. Wielding a fiery sword, an axe, and a water bow along with homing magic of both elements, making it dangerous at any range, it boasts a number of attacks that are difficult to dodge without being unfair.
  • Shuten Doji, one of the most quintessential oni in mythology, uses his drunken fighting to create attacks that players are sure to remember in his erraticness, and the oddity of his rhythm compared to other bosses, all while incorporating kabuki-inspired movements, showcasing how far Team Ninja has come in designing bosses with such a simple appearance compared to the original game.
  • The final boss Otakemaru is sure to impress, as Team Ninja took complaints of Yamata-no-Orochi and Hundred Eyes to heart. To start, Otakemaru mirrors the Yokai Shift of whatever type you currently have set before cycling to the other two forms. He rapidly transitions in and out of the Dark Realm, when Tokichiro's Guardian Spirit will come to Hide's aid, providing large boosts to the Amrita Gauge to allow Hide to repeatedly match Otakemaru with their own Yokai Shift. When he reveals his true form, he stops pulling punches and brings out a plethora of powerful elemental attacks and sword combos as the background turns from a calm fog to a raging inferno. Upon finally bringing them down, Hide will brandish the complete Sohayamaru, stylishly overpowering Otakemaru's three swords to their one before running the blade through his heart while Tokichiro cheers Hide on and the music swells to a climax.
  • Minamoto no Yoshitsune is a lightning fast spectacle with an equally energetic theme, fighting with grace the likes of which no Yokai can hope to compare.
  • The first boss of "Darkness in the Capital," Minamoto no Yorimitsu is likewise not to be outdone. Once she pulls out her personal katana, all bets are off. Sword lovers will be crying they can't get any of her katana skills besides Severing Spin. It really sets the tone for the rest of the chapter.
  • Nightmare Bringer the empowered form of Otakemaru, is a fittingly monstrous True Final Boss for Nioh 2's DLC and the final boss of the series, a hulking centaur-like abomination that remixes the original as a brutish Mighty Glacier that offers a tough-but-fair (and visually spectacular) capstone to your journey.
• Breather Boss: Daidara Bocchi, as frightening as it looks, is a straight forward battle. It hits like a bus full of bricks but all of its attacks are telegraphed and easy to dodge. Plus, its one weakness, fire, is something that Hide probably has access to. It helps that Bocchi comes at the end of That One Level and is far easier to deal with than the hell Hide had to deal with to get to there.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • It is somewhat rare to see a player without the Enki soul core. The soul core's attack involves leaping into the air and hurling a spear, combining range, ki damage, quickness and a brief period of safety in one low-cost package. Combined with the Enki being accessible from the first level and the number of upgrades it has, it's easy to see why it's so common.
  • The Mezuki core is also popular, as it's just a giant machete slash that has a huge attack radius and good for dealing with groups. The only thing about Mezuki is that cores for it aren't as common as Enki cores.
  • The two most popular cores in Way of the Nioh are Gozuki and Ippon-Datara for a how reliably they can break Ki and their ability to stagger most bosses on hit, while also providing immunity to enemy grabs in a pinch.
  • Kasha's soul core, even after a nerf still sees plenty of use, especially with Ippon-Datara. Ippon-Datara provides a large boost to Yokai Ability Damage when enemies are Scorched, which Kasha quickly applies along with doing respectable damage even before said boost while providing a powerful, if somewhat random crowd control ability. The Life Drain on Yokai Abilties it provides certainly doesn't hurt either.
  • When it comes to what endgame set a player wants to specialize in, many are perfectly viable. However, when it comes to a supplementing set, the most common recommendation is Grace of Susano. It provides well-rounded, practical buffs, but its 6-piece effect, Versatility^*Provides a temporary stacking damage boost for each unique skill hitting an enemy (regardless whether it damages) starting at 8% and capping off at 9 stacks for 60% extra damage, is the defining feature. Most signature effects for Graces require 7-pieces, allowing it to be used in tandem with a full set bonus from anything else provided the player has an accessory that reduces set bonus requirements.
  • In Dream of the Wise/Nioh, players will likely have tools to inflict multiple elemental debuffs to set up Confusion, but if there's a "primary" element to choose, such as putting "(Element) Imbue" on their weapon, it'll likely Corruption or Purity. By Dream of the Demon, being able to deal ki damage becomes just as important, if not more important than health damage for a multitude of reasons. Corruption and Purity both happen to offer large ki damage bonuses when applying their debuffs while also being much more universally applicable compared to the standard three elements, which each have a number of bosses who are highly resistant, if not outright immune to an element. Purity also benefits considerably from Ho-oh, increasing damage to Purified enemies and increasing Purity application. Oh, and it provides a potent health regen when out of combat, allowing players to save Spectral Salves when exploring The Underworld. Unfortunately, these two statuses cannot coexist on one enemy, so these players end up butting heads a lot trying to keep their own status on. That said, Corruption has the benefit of being able to build around Weapon Awakenings on Yokai Weapons, curbing their reliance on needing to apply Corruption itself.
• Continuity Lockout: Mostly averted since this game is actually a prequel to the first, but then massively played straight in the final two missions. Time jumps forward after Hide sealed themselves away and suddenly you're confronted by William, who wakes you up so that you can go and defeat the villain from the first game's DLC. Hide is only presented with brief flashes of the first game through Saoirse's bonding, and as such players who only played this game are probably going to be very confused as to what the big deal is with the sudden appearance of these blonde westerners in the story.
• Cult Classic: Nioh 2 is made of many parts whose sum is, in the end, quite niche in comparison to the pioneer, Souls-like RPG meets Stylish Action with Randomly Generated Loot? At least one of these is bound to turn away a prospective player. The game can be finished without even uncovering half of what it has to offer, but the spectacle of high-level gameplay, skill ceiling, and player expression created an extremely dedicated and enduring playerbase who swear by this game and still do even with the release of the Creator-Driven Successor, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. While it was nominated for the "Best Action Game" category at the 2020 Video Game Awards, it ultimately lost to Hades.
• Demonic Spiders: A lot of the enemies would be this even in other Souls games, but a few stand out as particularly dangerous:
  • The Enki are spear wielding apes possessing frightening speed for their size and a small, yet effective moveset, including a grab from above over any loot.
    • Enkis are bad enough, but the DLC has Kiryoki, lethal variants that have access to onmyo magic.
  • Tengu, bird-like humanoids that have a lot of durability for their speed and strength, very long and space-filling combos, as well as a surprisingly accurate and hard-hitting ranged attack, return from the first one and are just as annoying as always.
  • Spiders are back from the first game, and they're as deadly as ever with their lightning fast attacks and high stamina. As a result, having to fight one in the Dark Realm, which buffs their already ludicrously high damage, is absolutely grilling, not to mention they're generally surrounded by their smaller offsprings whenever you encounter them as well.
  • Waira, Giant monstrosities with no legs that crawl surprisingly fast and a weakspot that's hidden really carefully. The difficulty of this enemy is mostly dependant on how much space you have, as one of the early missions include a buffed version in a small room that you need to kill to complete the mission, its crawling combo can easily trap you if you aren't careful.
  • Ippon-Datara. Massive poise, high health, absolutely ludicrous damage and fire DoT. They have a tendency to mix up how many times they use the slam attack, sometimes it can be once or twice or maybe even three times, this will heavily confuse the player into not anticipating a second or third attack and leaving themselves wide open to be insta-killed.
  • Nure-Onna. Huge poise for such agile monsters letting them easily retaliate, in addition to being able to cause both poison and paralysis. Better carry those antidotes and Antiparalysis needles! Worse yet, just like the Enki, they're far smarter than they look, as they can hover above loot.
  • One of the more bizarre examples pre Nerf was the Gaki, a starting enemy in the game. You'd think a basic enemy thats even weaker then the Dweller class would piece of cake, and they are, individually. but if an entire group swarmed you, you could get potentially ripped apart to death by their swipes even if you were playing on a very low level mission with End game gear. This was patched in the 1.05 version of the game.
  • For squishier builds, odachi and axe wielding humans can be a pain, solely for how much damage they can do.
  • Wheelmonks are back and are now worse than ever before. While still being able to potentially one-shot you with their charge and dealing fire DoT, they have a new combo that allows them to bounce around you and deal incredibly high fire-based damage, this can be even more difficult to avoid if you're in an enclosed area.
  • Namahage are huge and durable, requiring a lot of effort to even knock down once, but also surprisingly fast in both their travel and their attack speed. A two-attack combo from one is more than enough to completely drain a health or ki bar from all but the tankiest builds, and they have a number of devastating attacks to hassle you no matter your position, including a very fast double-blade throw and a ranged boulder scatter.
  • Magatsu Warriors (translated as "Disaster Warriors") appear in the late game. They are incredibly aggressive and hit like a ton of bricks, capable of wrecking high level builds easily. Fortunately the game seems to acknowledge their difficulty, and as such they are rarely encountered with other enemies nearby.
  • Yasha. A very large, female Yokai from the second DLC episode "Darkness in the Capitol." Using a Naginata with big hitboxes that do water damage and a combo that will kill you in 3 or 4 hits, they qualifiy for this spot many times over. Fighting one is an absolute gauntlet because they have long wind ups for attacks, which make it difficult to guess what's come at you, huge arcs that can hit a little over 180 degrees infront of them and more health than most other creatures.
  • Itsumade from the final DLC episode "The First Samurai" has been seen as potentially not only the biggest example of one of these in the game, but in Both the first and Second game put together! Massive, yet with absurdly fast and powerful melee attacks, and massive domes of explosive curse energy that can be hard to dodge create a foe that many see as harder then even most of the bosses in the game.
  • "The First Samurai" introduced Fuki, Kinki, Ongyoki, and Suiki as a Boss in Mook's Clothing, but in Dream of the Nioh, they become far more frequent and are no less dangerous for it, often replacing minibosses in older stages. To add insult to injury, Suiki is far more frequently appearing among them.
  • While Yoki overall aren't as threatening as they were in the first game, a few variants are still very dangerous. Yoki that wield hand cannons are effectively more powerful and durable versions of the Aberrant Soldiers, and Yoki that wield Kusarigama and dual blades are much faster and more agile than other Yoki while dealing frightening amounts of damage. They are more fragile than the standard Yoki, but their speed and damage output makes them more dangerous.
• Even Better Sequel: And how! While the original game had its fair share of skepticism and eventually overcame it, the result came with high expectations and many rough edges fans wanted addressed.
  • Character creation was by far the most requested featured for the sequel, and quite an in-depth one at that.
  • As noted up top, the quality of bosses was a major sticking point against the first game, rather than overly relying on gimmicks to differentiate bosses, the Dark Realm creates two alternating phases that help solidify boss identities by creating unique attacks. Additionally, there are many more unique boss themes. The other major criticism of the first game was its lack of enemy variety, so many more kinds of Yokai were created.
  • The first game's Living Weapon created an unmendable rift in game balance, particularly toward the end in the Abyss, either being maddeningly frustrating by not relying on it, to suddenly removing all challenge if one had. While its removal is sometimes lamented, fights are also balanced without needing such a feature. Gone are almost all instances of Lightning Bruiser paired bosses. To wit, the only examples are one in which you are provided an ally, the other only has its partner spawn once the first has been weakened to critical health. Compare the first game's myriad of post-game missions which placed two bosses which were clearly not designed to be fought together. Overall, the sequel's difficulty curve has been greatly smoothed out.
  • Anti-Frustration Features coming from both its predecessor and the subgenre as a whole. As mentioned in the main page, automatically reclaiming your Guardian Spirit upon entering a gauntlet or boss allows players to focus on fighting first. The Kodama Bazaar also acts as one outlet for unused equipment, allowing players to restock their ammo and elixirs to max instead of having to farm enemies for healing between each boss attempt, or even rent some jutsus that will stay until the end of the mission.
  • Expanding the gameplay started from expanding the weapon types and skills, with two more weapons from the start, and then another two with the DLC, to creating set bonuses that incentivize many different fighting styles. One such bonus empowers mages and ninjas to be able to recycle their jutsus that would normally be Too Awesome to Use before a boss by fighting, another, rewarding players who can string together different skills in the heat of battle, just to name a few.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Freeza for Yoshimoto, due to having the same voice actor and also being pale white.
  • Yokai Shift is also known as "Devil Trigger"
  • Reliance on Scampuss-summoning items as a boss strategy is known as "Cat-mancy" or "Neko-mancy"
• Fridge Brilliance: Minamoto no Yorimitsu's Bloodsucker from her personal Dual Swords, Bloodsucker and Spider-cutter, is indeed the same katana as the Doji-kiri Yasutsuna, but blood red rather than jade green. However, at the time Hide encounters her, she has yet to defeat Shuten Doji and mythologize the katana into the name it would be more widely known as. The Doji-kiri can also be briefly seen with Yorimitsu's body in Shuten's introduction cutscene.
• Game-Breaker: Now has its own page.
• Game-Breaking Bug: The game will sometimes forget to mark certain side missions as finished no matter how many times you complete them, locking you out of the other missions they unlock.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • The game's new Mook, the Gaki, falls under this. Unlike the old Dwellers, Gaki are smaller, faster, and more annoying. They have a rock throw they'll use from outside melee range that is surprisingly fast, accurate, and damaging, and once they get close, they have a couple of lunging attacks that come out very quickly, and can with numbers can potentially mob a player to death before they can defend and they have a puke attack that can paralyze the player, making them an easy prey for the more dangerous enemies nearby. The worst part, however, is that if they are allowed to land their grapples, or if one is ki-broken near another and they're allowed to feast on their fellow, the Gaki will evolve into a much larger, much more dangerous variant; they become much tougher, their rock throw becomes a boulder toss that does far more damage, their sudden, hard-to-avoid melee attacks become outright fatal against squishy or wounded players, and they gain a tricky-to-counter Burst grapple that deals heavy damage. Again, they're the new breed of Goomba, but can still easily kill a player who underestimates them.
  • Aberrant Soldiers are a new type of low-to-mid tier ranged/melee hybrid enemy, filling a similar role to Skeleton Warriors. What makes the Aberrants stand out are a few things - instead of a slow, easy-to-dodge bow shot, they shoot an explosive blast from their arm that is both faster and more damaging, and will fire it more regularly than the Skeletons fire their bows. For players who can close the gap and try to take them out in melee, they can break out a Burst attack that turns them into an Action Bomb that deals massive damage if not countered. While the Skeletons still show up, these guys are more common, and are quite a bit more dangerous.
  • Yamanba fall somewhere between this and Demonic Spiders. These small, frail old women wield a pair of deadly blades, and their attacks consist of a mixture of charging lunges, frenzied flailing, and projectiles (often included in or after the others) that deal VERY high damage and have surprising tracking, making them hard to dodge - meanwhile blocking can easily result in a ki break, quickly followed by death. Fortunately, they're fairly fragile Glass Cannons, meaning they're easy enough to take down if their attacks can be avoided, so they don't fully qualify for Demonic Spiders status.
• Good Bad Bugs: Increasing the length of ki pulse windows from the original game had an unintended side effect players call "Item Canceling." Ki pulse inputs override any action that isn't a Yokai Ability or Burst Counter, and the lengthened ki pulse windows allow a player to ki pulse moments into the beginning of another action, provided the first action's recovery is fast enough. Intentionally, this can be used to speed up jutsu casting even further, especially ninjutsu feathers, to make an even more relentless offense. Unintentionally, one might cancel their buff casting after a combo depending on how well they've internalized the technique. This effect leans more on the Awesome, but Impractical side, since it is difficult and requires plenty of practice, counter-intuitive to "intended" ki pulse muscule memory habits, and the effectiveness of the technique cannot be capitalized by many save the most dedicated players.
  • A technique dubbed "Evasion Canceling" comes from a quirk in the sheathing command taking priority over a dodge animation. Holding Guard in the middle of this will cancel the sheathing animation in turn while drawing the weapon again, repeated as necessary. It is most noticable on Sword and Spear's unique low stance side dodge spin. Again, Awesome, but Impractical, but if a hardcore player does it they're more likely showing off, because it's rather intensive on the fingers. Evasion Canceling would technically allow a player to gain control for another dodge as soon as their invulnerability period ended, but the more likely case is prematurely ending the invulnerability in the dodge in the middle of an active hitbox if trying to use it defensively.
  • In general, usage of Yokai Abilities or Burst Counters to cancel attacks can lead to unintended interactions. These didn't exist in the original game, so, for example, the ability to launch enemies with some skills in certain conditions was more of a gimmick than a useful function (i.e. Spear's Chidori, Odachi's Retrograde Flow, or Sword's Izuna Drop). With more ways to cancel animations in the sequel, certain players have been able to jury rig attacks to create brief juggle combos, like canceling Izuna Drop after it only uses the launching attack. The question is, why would someone do this given how strong the proper grapple is? For players messing around in game mechanics this deep, efficiency is hardly a concern anymore.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The release of "The First Samurai" included a new Grace set, Izanami's Grace, which has a unique effect called Living Dead^*Reduce health to 1 when taking fatal damage and become invincible for a period of time. The player can only regain health by attacking, and can only dispel the buff by healing to full or defeating all enemies. If the buff runs out before then, the player dies, similar to an ability for Dark Knights in Final Fantasy XIV. A few years after, the ability got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap for Dark Knights by making nearly the exact same change. By complete coincidence, Naoki Yoshida's likeness is a character creation preset in this game as well.
  • The above-mentioned makeshift juggle combos. Despite its clear trappings in the Souls-like RPG, the Nioh series has, since the original game's beta, been stated by Word of God to have drawn inspiration from the Onimusha series, from which the first game had a developmental bug involving juggling enemies that was part of the inspiration for Devil May Cry... which in turn was followed by the revival of Ninja Gaiden, whose series DNA is also a major part of Nioh. Talk about a grand tour of coming full circle.
• Magnificent Bastard: Otakemaru, often operating under his guise of "Kasshin Koji", was once a kind Youkai twisted into hatred by the persecution of humanity. After being defeated and sealed by his sister Suzuka, Otakemaru persists in a fragment of himself, manipulating numerous key figures throughout Japanese history, including Ashiya Doman, gathering energy to free himself and plans to unleash the Youkai and bring humanity to ruin. Masterminding the unsealing of the other Youkai as well as multiple wars, Otakemaru corrupts the kindly Tokichiro into the bloodthirsty Hideyoshi, with even death being insufficient to truly extinguish his spirit until a final battle with his sister's child Hide, passing to admit his wrongdoings in the afterlife.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • My NEET-hime can't be this weird.^ExplanationLady Osakabe, (who in Japanese folklore is an incredibly powerful spirit even by Yokai standards, taking the form of a woman who inhabits Himeji castle and can, among other things, control people like puppets without even trying), is a very obscure Yokai even amongst Japanese folklore. But before Nioh 2 introduced her, Lady Osakabe has already permeated the minds of fandom thanks to Fate/Grand Order, as Osakabehime, as a cute shut-in girl with tendencies of weebspeak mangling Japanese and English phrases to a ridiculously corny degree (something like "Gomenasorry"). Lady Osakabe is weird on her own, being an enormous, demonic sentient version of Himeji Castle with size on-par with Yamata-no Orochi from the first game as well as Posessed!Hideyoshi's so-called "bride" , but people tends to have a whiplash between Nioh-weird (just plain freaky like a normal youkai) to FGO-weird (Shut-in cute NEET)
• Moral Event Horizon: Tokichiro crosses this onscreen murdering the protagonist in cold blood. Although he was possessed at this point. The true MEH for Tokichiro is cutting down Saito Toshimitsu in cold blood just as he was freed of his Demonic Possession, then act like nothing had happened. This act is enough to turn the protagonist against him.
• One-Scene Wonder: Imagawa Yoshimoto only appears as the first human boss. But the rare sight of a badass Yoshimoto instead of the wimpy Yoshimoto you see everywhere else makes his sole appearance more memorable.
• Player Punch: Quite a few depending on how you feel about the various characters:
  • Did you become friends with Hachisuka Koroku? He becomes brainwashed and crazy, forcing you to kill him.
  • Alternatively, if you managed to win Shibata Katsuie's begrudging respect? He willingly becomes a Yokai to protect his wife, but loses his mind, again forcing you to kill him
    • Speaking of which, should you finally defeat Shibata Katsuie, you get rewarded with Oichi committing suicide out of grief after the fact you effectively killed both of her husbands. Good job.
• Scrappy Weapon: In a game whose largest appeal is its fast-paced, multi-layered melee combat, the Hatchets are a pair of axes who trade off short range, high ki use, low damage and abysmally bad melee comboes in exchange for a variety of throwing attacks, ostensibly to serve as a more zoning-based weapon; in practice, however, gameplay with these weapons often boils down to a "throw axe, dodge counterattack, repeat" playstyle that's at odds with the game's fast-paced core combat. While the Hatchets DO have their fans, they are easily the least-popular weapon type in the game, and the one that completionists typically dread having to grind proficiency with.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Not that the game is easy by any means, but it definitely has a softer on-boarding difficulty curve than the first game, which pulled no punches from the moment the tutorial level ends. Particularly with the Yokai. A specific example being the Yoki:in the first game, they were the first yokai you dealt with and they could in many situations shred your health from full to zero in a single combo. The first yokai you face in 2 (that you aren't expected to run from), the Enki, while having a more diverse move set, also hit less hard, giving you enough room for error to not immediately die the first time you mess up.
• Shocking Moments: William from the first Nioh being a boss, also The Reveal that the game doubles as a Stealth Sequel.
• Squick: One of the maps has you feeding a guy dung balls...and its an achievement that one can get. Even with the context that he's desperate to not die of starvation and is surrounded by various oni, nothing is done to ease this.
• That One Attack:
  • Nure-Onna's have a nasty eye-beam attack that can paralyze you and then follow up with a grab attack if you fail to burst counter, which will be likely since it's quite delayed.
  • Saito Yoshitatsu's grab while using the Odachi is so fast, the audio cue for grab attacks doesn't even finish before you'd realize you've been impaled by it.
  • Magara Naotaka's massive combo in Dark Realm can practically end the fight immediately unless you manage to burst counter, which isn't easy as the animation has a very small wind-up and can seriously punish you with its high damage, speed, and reach.
  • One of Shibata Katsuie's most hated attacks is his crawling-charge. It is not only difficult to dodge due to its speed but he seems to do this move constantly without end, it also spawns lines of fire that can really heighten the pressure as this will prohibit your movement which you absolutely need unless you want to be trampled by him. Before he received nerfs, his grab was equally infamous for its speed and reach, guaranteeing death for most players.
  • The Mysterious Warrior Monk's grapple attack, to be specific the variant that uses his mace. While he can use it with his lance, it's telegraphed enough so it's relatively easy to dodge. With mace in hand, however, he busts the move out in a split second, and if it hits it deals enough damage to almost certainly be a One-Hit Kill if you're not wearing the absolute sturdiest armor and have full health.
• That One Boss:
  • Of all the main bosses in the game, Shibata Katsuie is often considered to be THE most difficult boss in the main story aside from the game's final boss, and some even say that he might still be harder, to the point of being the hardest boss in the first and second games combined. Aside from his absurd strength, he's also faster than a speeding freight train despite his large size, being able to cover half the arena in less than 2 seconds, and has an absurd range of attacks that can be hard to keep track of.
  • Despite being the first available duel quest, Saito Toshimitsu is one of the hardest. He has a rather large attack radius due to his odachi and he casually wields both Fire and Water elements in his attacks, not to mention his attack speed far exceeds what the player can achieve with the same weapon. He also has a lot of zoning attacks, being able to summon 4 familiars (2 fire, 2 water) around him, forcing you to watch your footing lest you bump into one and receive heavy damage from the ensuing explosion, while Toshimitsu fires off two projectiles at once your way (a fast water projectile and a slower fire projectile that homes harder). Once his health starts to drop, he begins to buff himself with both an attack AND a defense buff, with the defense buff serving as a shield rather than a damage reduction ability. And on top of all of this, he is very aggressive, barely giving you any time to breath. The biggest offence, however, is that Toshimitsu input-reads like a bitch, and will immediately fire off his nigh uninterruptable Burst Attack the moment he detects an opening, throwing any semblance of fairness that remained in this fight out of the window.
  • The Gyuki is another boss that is much hated due to its size and massive health, making it hard to fight back without getting stomped on. Standing in front of it is a death sentence, as all its moves are incredibly damaging (a single charge can take out 90% of your health) and cover basically the entire area in front of it. It is, however, much easier if you stick to its sides, as it turns slowly and rarely even tries to reposition itself.
  • Enenra is Early Game Hell Incarnate for a lot of people. Has really fast melee attacks laced with fire damage, and a really hard to burst counter burst attack, and his Yokai realm creating move is the same fire tornado that can catch really aggressive players off guard.
  • Yatsu-no-kami is another fairly difficult boss early on. The fact that its attacks have large hitboxes is bad enough, but add in poison and its add-based Dark Realm phase, and you have a nasty snake oni to deal with. This fight can be even more brutal if you don't destroy the 3 snake statues in the mission, as you will have to deal with 3 poison pools which heavily limits your spacing in a boss fight where spacing is very important.
  • Magara Naotaka has a wide arsenal of punishing attacks that he can bust out quite quickly, including multiple Burst moves with different counter windows (one of which is That One Attack), various aggressive sword swinging combos, and a lightning-fast grab that shaves off most of a health bar. His basic swings aren't too hard to deal with, but his damage and unrelenting aggression mean all it takes is one slip-up to ruin your run.
  • Lady Osakabe is a rather obnoxious boss to deal with. She is essentially a possessed castle and attacks you with multiple furry tentacles that shoot various elemental orbs and beams at you. To damage her, you must beat up the tentacles on either side of the arena, as each tentacle that is defeated contributes to the stagger gauge that will let you attack the main core of the boss. But, at the start, the two tentacles are on opposite sides of the arena, so you will only be able to keep one within your peripheral at any given time, and just because the other is offscreen doesn't mean it won't spit elemental orbs at you. So you have to listen for the sounds of attacks so you can disengage at any given moment. And to make things worse, there are other tentacles that are out of reach that will also shoot orbs and lasers throughout the fight. And to top it off, when she goes into Demon Realm mode, all 4 tentacles spawn at once, making you deal with all of them rather than just two at a time. It's not a very fun fight to say the least.
  • In an aversion of the Squishy Wizard, Kashin Koji is rather durable and has a plethora of Area of effect attacks that can cause all sorts of ailments on the player, has a teleportation attack, and carries a sword, making him just as deadly up close. The fact that he's fought right after Tokichiro and has a second phase makes it all the more lovely to deal with him, though unlike most souls-likes if you lose to him you do not have to fight Tokichiro again.
  • Ren Hayabusa, the obligatory Ninja Gaiden Guest Fighter from the second DLC, can easily annihilate you the way he does to a mook from his home series. His attacks are lightning fast and often lead into devastatingly long combos. His Flying Swallow attack is nigh impossible to counter at close range, and he'll perform an Izuna Drop on you if he manages to break your posture, which is almost a guaranteed deathblow if you're below full health. You pretty much have no chance against him unless you stay ultra-aggressive at all times or cheese him with Onmyo Magic.
  • Otakemaru, (Kashin Koji's true form) does NOT disappoint as the final boss in terms of difficulty. In the first phase, Otakemaru will attack the player with all 3 of the Yokai forms and also has a much larger move-set than the player has when using these forms. Once his HP drops below 50%, he will go full One-Winged Angel and take on his original form, this is where the difficulty goes up to eleven as he has a large complicated That One Attack move-set with Fire, Frost, and Lightning based elemental attacks. He can completely punish aggressive and passive builds alike, with sudden heavy hitting AoE attacks that come out with little to no warning, can easily close the distance with the player and also has multiple variations of projectile attacks (some which come out of the freaking sky!).
  • Lightning Gods of Yomi, the final boss of the 2nd DLC can be incredibly difficult and annoying to fight since 90% of her attacks are lightning based which means you will be slowed for the entire fight if you get hit, which is very likely since majority of her attacks come out very quickly and cover large ground. You will most likely spend the majority of the fight running around the boss arena waiting for an opening, since her attacks come out very frequently and give you little breathing room. Also, Lightningstop Talisman absolutely trivializes this fight for obvious reasons.
  • Ancient Nyotengu, who is even more egregious than the above Guest Fighter. Their nature as a Yokai makes them Immune to Flinching, but is much smaller than any other Yokai boss but similarly as fast as Ren. As if it couldn't get any worse, their attacks can be difficult to read but equally devastating. This makes it difficult to discern when it's the player's turn to attack. Fighting with any helpers is sure to turn the fight into a headache as the player randomly gets slapped for half their health trying to see what's happening. Encountering them in the Underworld Depths becomes so much worse than any other boss.
• That One Level:
  • "The Viper's Den" is probably the first major hurdle casual players will run into. It's a low-key Marathon Level whose first half isn't too bad, but everything goes downhill once you reach the cave; a confusing, samey-looking layout filled with Nure-Onna (see Demonic Spiders above), obnoxious enemy placement, pools of poison-inflicting sludge, and plenty of enemies waiting to ambush the unwary player, which makes making any meaningful progress towards the next shrine an exercise in tedium. On top of that, the second and third shrines have dangerous enemies between them and the rest of the level, including a respawning Nure-Onna between the last shrine and the boss. The cherry on the sundae is the level boss, Yatsu-no-Kami, a frustratingly-aggressive poison-wielding foe with an annoying add-based Dark Realm mechanic, massive reach on many of his attacks (making approaching him to actually fight back a daunting prospect outside of the one-or-two attacks he has that leaves him wide open), and his Burst attack doesn't follow the game's established rules so far on counter timing, making it very unpredictable and unreliable to counter - but fail to do so, and it results in a lunge with massive damage and heavy tracking. Overall, this is widely considered to be Nioh 2's "barrier" that will turn off non-dedicated players (who aren't willing to resort to coop) from continuing.
  • "The Mysterious One Night Castle" is another mission that starts out with a decent-enough first half, but devolves into a nightmare by the second. Firstly, it's another generic forest-and-ruined-fort map, with samey terrain and environments that blend together and aren't very visually-distinct or appealing, making it easy to get turned around. The enemies in the first half aren't too bad, and you even get an NPC companion early on who helps with a significant chunk of the level. However, from roughly the halfway mark onwards, the mission takes a nosedive - arrangements of highly-dangerous yokai enemies supported by out-of-the-way ranged units to harass you, combined with treacherous terrain that often leaves minimal room to avoid the volleys of arrows/arm cannons and the hyper-aggressive attacks of Enki, Nure-Onna, and Yamanba. Players will frequently be faced with the Sadistic Choice of eating an almost-certainly fatal attack or dodging off a platform to their death. Thankfully, once that rough patch is over, the actual boss, the Kamaitachi, is actually fairly easy overall.
  • "The Hollow Fortress", the Disc-One Final Dungeon. It's built up as the climactic dungeon of the first arc, and is an absolute Marathon Level that could easily be broken into two or three other entire levels and still feel long. You start in a large, multi-level mineshaft, with plenty of deadly drops and a linear, but indirect means of progression that makes mapping the place and keeping track of where you have and haven't been difficult. The map could very well end when you finally reach the mine's exit, but instead, it leads into the castle grounds, which is full of treacherous paths and deadly yokai like Karasu Tengu and One-Eyed Oni over tight pathways, and with plenty of ranged enemies to make your life hell. Once you finally make it to the castle entrance, you now have to scale it, and while it's smaller than the prior two areas, it's still a multi-level area stuffed with dangerous enemies. Probably the most frustrating part of this level are the shortcuts - the first shortcut and the second shrine are simple enough to get to, but the second shortcut in the mines can be missed entirely due to the confusing layout, the third shortcut (the one after the second shrine) is in an out-of-the-way area some players may not even approach, and the LAST shrine, the one before the boss, is locked by a Dark Realm that requires fighting a pair of dangerous yokai in the castle basement. There aren't any parts of the map that are ball-bustingly difficult like the other maps on this list, but its sheer length and above-average difficulty can simply wear a player down. Thankfully, the Disc-One Final Boss at the end is an absolute Anticlimax Boss and a pushover, even for a poorly-built character.
  • "A Way Out" thanks to the level boss having scouts flashing large spotlights in several parts of the level. Should they spot Hide, all yokai in the immediate area will be alerted to their location AND will send Hide into the dark realm for good measure. Thankfully once the scouts are dealt with they stay defeated. Stealth and strategic luring are required to survive. Also be careful of Enkis and Gakis hanging over loot.
  • "Bird in a Cage" is a region 3 mission where the difficulty spike becomes apparent. Filled with new, returning and in some cases random enemies who now hit like trucks at a point in the game where gaining more levels will now require a great deal of grinding, and a still fairly new status effect that inhibits your ability to properly heal after being hit. You start off the mission by running through caves and fortifications where you are constantly fighting beefy enemies in very close quarters or dodging to avoid a powerful AOE artillery attack. Shortcuts are difficult to find and the aforementioned cramped areas are absolutely filled with enemies. To top it all off, the mission reaches it's climax in a castle with a puzzle system that you need to navigate to access the boss, Azai Nagamasa, who is also not a pushover. Even an experienced player could fine themselves stuck here for longer than expected.
  • "The High-spirited Demon" is an absolute gauntlet. Mumyo will be there to help out early on, but she gets injured and sits out the rest of the level halfway through. Several bosses return as Elite Mooks and are fought in very cramped areas. Think you're done after defeating a Brainwashed and Crazy Hachisuka? Wrong! Hide has to traverse an open area with the level boss shooting projectiles that deal huge damage on top of having to deal with several Demonic Spiders that show no mercy. Throw in some hidden baddies and rolling boulders that deal huge damage (if not one-shotting you) and you have yourself a level where the player will NEVER feel safe. Thankfully the level boss isn't too difficult once you learn its weakness.
  • "Restless Spirits" is most likely the hardest mission in the base-game due to how insanely difficult its enemy gauntlets are, first you're going to have to fight a group of enemies on a bridge full of holes to fall in and die, then you're going to have to fight enemies in a small enclosed area with fire all around you, and THEN you're going to have to fight That One Boss Shibata Katsuie right at the end IN A SMALLER ARENA, yes... as if the huge gauntlets with Demonic Spiders weren't enough, you have to fight possibly the hardest boss in the game once again. Thank god it's only a side-mission.
  • "A Song To Calm The Storm" starts the first DLC with a strong right hook, with two nasty new miniboss Yokai before you even hit the first shortcut, tons of water to drown in, and a horrifically powerful boss, the Mysterious Warrior Monk...who marks the halfway point. Then you need to fight your way through even more bullshit to reach the ACTUAL level boss, a souped-up version of the Umi-Bozu from the first Nioh called Uminyudo (though fortunately, just like Umi-Bozu, Uminyudo is HORRIBLY weak to fire damage. Bring enough spells/tools to deal fire damage and you can absolutely trivialize it).
  • "Dawn of the Demon", the first mission of the third DLC, starts out simply enough, with a reasonably straightforward village area and not too many difficult enemies. Then the player finds themselves thrown into a rematch with none other than the base game's final boss, already in his One-Winged Angel form from the start. Though the fight ends once he's lost 80% of his health, he's still an absurdly dangerous foe. And even once he's defeated, the mission doesn't stop there. He was merely the midboss. The second half of the level more than makes up for the ease of the first segment, with a huge gauntlet of difficult enemies, including the debut of the absolutely vicious Itsumade. To cap it all off, the real boss of the mission, Tate Eboshi, is no pushover, being extremely aggressive with a wide suite of hard-hitting attacks.
• That One Sidequest: "Master of the Two Evils," not because of the mission itself, but because it requires the Dual Blade Mastery mission to be completed first. If you haven't been using dual blades, prepare to undertake a lot of grinding or miss out on 100% Completion.
• They Changed It, So It Sucks: One change between 1 and 2 that is a little contentious is the focus on Anima as a resource and the Yokai attacks that are fueled by it. This on it's own isn't an issue, but Guardian Spirits were heavily rebalanced with them in mind. Each spirit now has one stat dedicated to Anima regeneration and often have stats dedicated to how much damage Yokai abilities will do. On top of this, the more generalized stat bonuses they provide tend to be weaker or a lot more niche. This ultimately means that if you tend to ignore Yokai abilities, Guardian Spirits will benefit you a lot less than they did in the first game.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Hide is related to a number of characters in the early game, but only meets them for the first time during the events of the story. They're the child of Saito Dosan. They're the half-sibling of Nohime, and the sibling-in-law of Oda Nobunaga, as well as being twin siblings with mid-game villain Saito Yoshitatsu. This could lead to many interesting character interactions that could have affected Hide in many ways, but Saito Dosan performs a Heroic Sacrifice within a minute of finding out Hide's identity, Yoshitatsu is killed within seconds of realizing that they have a twin, and it just never seems to occur to Hide to tell anyone else, Nohime included. There's a second and equally important reason Hide feels wasted by fans; As a Silent Protagonist, there's no way for him to engage with the emotional potential of his own character.
  • To say that the Battle of Nagashino was a turning point in Japanese warfare would be an understatement. While the story is viewed from Hide's perspective with Tokichiro rather than Nobunaga, it is completely glossed over without any mention, largely due to Team Ninja's assumption that players will at least have an outline of key points in the Sengoku-era to fill in the blanks. That being said, its cut can possibly be attributed to the fact that it was a rather (famously) one-sided battle in the Oda's favor.
  • The Battle of Tedorigawa is the one encounter the Oda clan have with the Uesugi clan, and the final battle waged by Uesugi Kenshin, known as the "Dragon of Echigo," before his sudden death. One can only wonder what kind of battle with a man whose followers believed him to be Bishamonten, the God of War, would be like. Unlike Nagashino, the Oda suffered a decisive loss. Unfortunately, like Nagashino, the location of this battle is very far away from much of the action most of the story of Nioh 2 takes place in, so it's cut is likely a pragmatic concern. It's a bit jarring since Hideyoshi is listed as a participant in both Nagashino and Tedorigawa.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Yoshitatsu Saito is the overarching villain of the early regions, and also Hide's evil twin. Despite that, we get no scenes of Saito interacting with anyone and the reveal comes literal seconds before their death.
  • Suzuka was hyped up by materials for "The First Samurai" as a key figure in its story, like Yoshitsune and Yorimitsu were for their DLC chapters. While she gets a Big Damn Heroes moment saving Hide halfway into the first mission of the chapter, she almost immediately gets hit with The Worf Effect as she gets knocked out by Tate Eboshi with a single attack. Then she is forced to give up her memories to forge to Sohayamaru for Hide, for the sake of maintaining the Stable Time Loop. Overall, she has very little time to spend with her future child, and didn't get the chance to show off her prowess like the previous DLC allies did, as more of its story focuses on Otakemaru's Start of Darkness, and Hide's embodiment of the ideals they once shared.
    • This is compounded with the fact that the post-game mission "A Familiar Glow" is based around being able to summon Hide's True Companions, with Tokichiro, Yoshitsune, and Yorimitsu to choose from, Suzuka is notably absent. At best, players will randomly run into her as an assisting character in the Underworld. Yoshitsune and Yorimitsu also both had friendly duel Sub Missions, and one secret Sohayamaru technique they can learn from each. Players expected "The First Samurai" to follow this trend by having a post-game duel with Suzuka, but alas, it was not to be.
• The Woobie: Lady Oichi just can't catch a break. First, she's married off to a rival warlord, Azai Nagamasa, in a political move by her brother. Despite this, she grows to genuinely love him. Then the protagonist cuts Nagamasa down in front of her. Later, her brother and sister-in-law are both murdered. She bounces back from this and marries her brother's old retainer, Shibata Katsuie, again growing to love him deeply. The protagonist cuts him down in front of her as well, though it was more of a Mercy Kill as Katsuie had lost his mind. It's no wonder she ends up Driven to Suicide.