 |
| A samurai and his Guardian Spirit overlook a war-torn valley in Nioh 3 key art. |
Nioh 3 is the point where Team Ninja stops letting you coast on old habits. The foundation hasn’t changed: you’re still watching Ki, reading enemy swings, and getting punished when you overextend. What’s new is how much freedom you have in how you answer those threats and how often the game nudges you to change gears instead of relying on one routine.
You’re no longer clearing a line of self-contained stages. Nioh 3 spreads combat across broad open-field regions, ties them together with time travel across four eras of Japanese history, and then hands you two fully fleshed-out styles – Samurai and Ninja – that you swap between constantly. When everything clicks, it turns into a fast, demanding action game that still gives you room to back off, regroup, and try again on your terms.
Nioh 3 Details
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Genre: Action Role-Playing, Soulslike
Game Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
Power Struggles, Yokai, and a Story That Keeps Moving
You step into the role of Tokugawa Takechiyo, preparing to take over as shogun when your younger brother Kunimatsu ignites a civil conflict to claim power for himself. That would be trouble on its own, but the coup draws in yokai, twisting a family power grab into something closer to a supernatural disaster.
Kusanagi, your Guardian Spirit, pulls you out of a single time period and turns the journey into a chase across multiple eras. You move through Heian, Sengoku, Edo, and the Bakumatsu period, tracking a force called the Crucible that spills into different points in history and warps events along the way. The Eternal Rift acts as a kind of crossroads outside time, linking these periods together and giving you a clear base to return to between major steps.
Most of the storytelling happens through short scenes before and after key missions. If you know the real history, you’ll notice names and events; if you don’t, the game still gives you enough to follow who’s on which side and what’s at stake. Some characters even pick up on the fact that you’re out of place, which adds a bit of extra edge to certain encounters.
The story doesn’t try to take over the experience. It gives structure to your journey, justifies the variety in locations and enemies, and gradually tightens up toward a strong final stretch. The focus stays on moving into the next region, facing the next threat, and pushing the Crucible back, rather than long stretches of exposition.
 |
| A mid-air clash between Takechiyo and a horned yokai sets the tone for Nioh 3’s story-driven battles. |
Combat That Wants You To Use Every Tool
If you’ve played earlier Nioh games, the basics are familiar. Ki is the heart of combat, and your timing with attacks, dodges, and recovery is what keeps you alive. The difference in Nioh 3 is how often the game pushes you to rely on both Samurai and Ninja styles instead of building everything around one idea.Samurai is the more grounded discipline. You manage stances to adjust reach and speed, weave Ki Pulses into your rhythm to recover quickly after attacks, and rely on precise Deflects to turn enemy swings against them. Once you drain an opponent’s Ki, you can close in for a crushing follow-up that turns the tide of a fight. It’s the style that lets you plant your feet, read the situation, and punish mistakes one slip-up at a time.
Ninja takes the opposite approach. Movement is quicker, Ki drains more slowly, and Ninjutsu tools let you lay traps, pressure enemies from different angles, or disrupt tricky attacks. Mist gives you a spectral double that pulls attention while you slip to a new position or set up something bigger. It’s built around staying mobile, taking advantage of small openings, and avoiding situations where you’re stuck trading blows.
Style Shifting ties everything together. Swapping between Samurai and Ninja is mapped to a quick input, and Nioh 3 keeps throwing you into situations where changing style mid-fight makes more sense than clinging to one approach. Bosses love red-halo Burst Attacks that can drop you in a single mistake, but a well-timed shift can counter them and flip pressure back in your favour.
 |
| Switching between fast Ninja tools and grounded Samurai strikes makes Nioh 3’s fights feel sharp and reactive. |
Open Fields, Crucibles, and Ways To Push Back
The move to semi-open regions is more than just a layout change. Each area comes with an Exploration Level that tracks how much you’ve done there, from finding shrines and helpful yokai to clearing enemy bases, taking on Masters duels, and working through Myth side activities. When a path feels overwhelming, you’re rarely stuck. You can explore a different route, pick off side encounters, and come back later with better gear and a stronger feel for the enemies.Crucible zones are where the pressure really ramps up. These corrupted pockets are packed with tougher foes and carry a Life Corrosion effect that lowers your maximum HP when you take damage. You can’t just trade hits and rely on healing here. You have to manage items carefully, use your Guardian Spirit tools, and swap styles smartly if you want to get out in one piece.
Progression runs through shrines and Bodhisattva Statues, where you spend Amrita to bump up stats like Constitution, Heart, Stamina, Strength, Skill, Intellect, and Magic. The interface clearly shows how each upgrade affects Samurai and Ninja performance and your current weapons and armour. You can also reset your build whenever you like, without a penalty, which makes it easier to test new weapons or shift toward a different style when something interesting drops.
Soul Cores pull yokai straight into your toolkit. Defeated yokai sometimes leave behind cores that you purify at shrines and then slot into the Onmyo Box. Yin slots create Onmyo items tied to those cores, while Yang slots produce Summoning Seals that call yokai to fight for you. Both can be mapped to your shortcut bar and come with limited uses that refresh when you pray. Between Soul Cores, Guardian Spirits, and respecs, the game lets you tune how you play.
 |
| Wide routes leading up to distant fortresses show how Nioh 3’s open-field regions let you choose how to approach each area. |
Co-Op, Clans, and Long-Term Goals
If you’d rather not face everything on your own, Nioh 3 gives you familiar and flexible co-op options. At shrines, you can spend Ochoko Cups to bring up to two Visitors into your world or jump into another player’s run as a Visitor yourself. You can focus that on individual missions or tackle story content together, with the important caveat that campaign progress moves forward for the host only.
Clan Battles return through the Hidden Teahouse. You join a clan, gain access to passive perks, and earn Glory by defeating Revenant ghosts or finishing co-op missions. After a set period, clans are compared based on how much Glory they’ve earned, and rewards are paid out based on performance. It’s a simple but effective long-term hook if you enjoy chasing goals that sit above your personal progression.
Once you see the credits, New Game+ unlocks with meaner enemies and higher-grade loot. That extra layer suits the game well. Nioh 3 is built for players who like digging into builds and testing new combinations, and the post-game gives you space to keep tweaking. The flip side is that sorting through gear can get tiring over long stretches, especially if you care about small stat differences.
Vistas, Yokai, and Audio That Sells Every Hit
On PS5, Nioh 3 looks immediately familiar if you’ve played the earlier games, but the wider layouts give the art room to breathe. Open-field regions show off distant fortresses, heavy forests, and battle-scarred routes, and each time period has its own mood. It’s easier to read the environment in the middle of a fight, which matters a lot when you’re backing up toward a ledge or trying to avoid getting boxed into a corner.
Enemy designs pull straight from Japanese folklore, with familiar yokai returning alongside new creatures that feel right at home in this world. Human enemies show up often in larger skirmishes, and their attacks are simpler to read than before, making it clearer when to dodge or Deflect. Calling in Guardian Spirits shifts the camera to a more dramatic angle and fills the screen with effects, but it avoids making fights hard to follow.
Performance on PS5 is solid where it counts. Fights stay responsive, inputs feel sharp, and even busy encounters hold together. I hit the odd frame dip in later zones when a lot was happening at once, but it never threw off timing in a way that ruined attempts or made deaths feel cheap.
Sound work quietly carries a lot. Weapon clashes have real bite, enemy sounds help you track threats outside your immediate view, and audio cues make it easier to tell when a parry or counter landed. The soundtrack matches the historical fantasy tone and ramps up nicely for bosses, even if some tracks can wear out their welcome when you’re retrying tougher fights. Overall, the presentation keeps your focus on movement and decision-making instead of fighting the camera or the mix.
 |
| Detailed character models and Guardian Spirits help Nioh 3’s cutscenes feel sharp and grounded in its mythic setting. |
Nioh 3 Pushes The Series Further Without Losing Its Edge
Nioh 3 doesn’t try to turn Nioh into something completely different. Instead, it takes what worked in the first two games, gives you bigger spaces to move through, and builds combat around the idea that you should actually use the full range of tools on offer. The split between Samurai and Ninja, the pressure of Crucible zones, and the way regions open up all support that goal.
It isn’t perfect. Sorting through loot can drag on, and the story mostly sits in the background as a reason to jump between eras instead of something that’s going to stick with you. Even so, when you’re deep in a region, swapping styles mid-fight, calling in yokai, and scraping through a Crucible with just enough health left, Nioh 3 delivers exactly the kind of sharp, demanding action that this series is known for.
If you already enjoy Nioh, this PS5 version comes across as the cleanest, most flexible take so far. And if earlier entries lost you because they pushed you toward one narrow approach, Nioh 3 does a much better job of letting you learn, experiment, and come back stronger without softening the challenge.
Nioh 3 Review Summary
Liked
- Dual Samurai and Ninja combat styles that encourage switching on the fly
- Semi-open regions that let you tackle challenges in different orders
- Crucible zones that add tougher encounters with real stakes
- Build flexibility with free respecs, Soul Cores, and Guardian Spirits
- Strong yokai designs and clear visual feedback in hectic fights
Didn’t Like
- Story mostly sits in the background as simple context
- Loot and gear management can feel overwhelming over long play
- Occasional performance dips in later areas on PS5
Overall Assessment of Nioh 3
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½☆ (4.5 / 5)
Presentation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4.0 / 5)
Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4.0 / 5)
Story / Narrative: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3.0 / 5)
Fun Factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½☆ (4.5 / 5)
Overall Value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½☆ (4.5 / 5)
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. Please stay respectful and on topic.