Is it worth dozens of hours? Yes — on the condition that you are willing to accept its temperament.
A Blade, Not a Crowd-Pleaser
Nioh Complete Edition is not the kind of all-rounder that everyone falls for on contact. It plays more like a blade honed to a fine edge: concentrated strengths, a vivid personality, awkward and abrasive in the wrong hands and very hard to set down once the grip clicks. The combat system is the absolute core. High difficulty, clearly defined rewards, and a steady churn of shifting foes and bosses keep the whole run locked in a state of constant engagement, where every encounter feels like it is asking a real question.
Exploration pushes that thrill one step further, tangling danger and secrets together so tightly that you are perpetually nudged into "one more try, one more look." The ki frame and stance system mean no exchange ever runs on autopilot, and the loot economy guarantees there is always a next build to test. This is a game that rewards curiosity and punishes complacency in equal, deliberate measure. The longer you stay with it, the more you appreciate how little of that difficulty is arbitrary; almost every wall it puts in front of you is teaching you something about its systems, and clearing that wall feels like mastery you actually earned rather than a number you out-leveled. That is the difference between a game that is merely hard and a game that is hard on purpose, and Nioh is firmly the latter.
The Trade-Offs and Where It Lands
Its visuals and art do not chase technical showboating; they instead sew Sengoku history and yokai fantasy into a genuinely effective atmosphere, one that serves combat legibility more than it serves postcards. The story is not top tier, and the lead carries a little less weight than he should — but the overall journey, the supporting cast, and the consistency of the narrative tone still carry you to the finish. The audio follows the same logic: it is not the main course, yet it is the layer of salt the dish cannot do without.
Against its closest rival, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the contrast is instructive. Sekiro narrows combat to a single, exquisitely tuned parry rhythm — pure and razor-sharp, but narrow. Nioh trades that purity for breadth: multiple stances, randomized affixes, and guardian-spirit synergies open up a far wider space of viable approaches and long-term build progression. Where Sekiro perfects one answer, Nioh hands you a workshop of them, and which you prefer says a lot about what you actually want from a Souls-like.
Media scores land it squarely in the strong-but-not-flawless band — IGN's 9, an 88 on Metacritic, steady eights elsewhere — which matches its opinionated profile exactly. If raw narrative impact is what you prize above all, Nioh may not make your year-end list. But if you are hunting an action game that is well-built, mechanically hard, generously stocked, and possessed of a flavor entirely its own, it falls comfortably inside the recommended range. The time you sink in is not wasted. At worst, it is lost to something that earned it. Takes a beating that genuinely stings — but winning feels even better.
