Review for Nioh 2. Game for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 13/03/2020
Net of an excessively derivative nature, in some points the daughter of a lazy and in the long run potentially counterproductive politics, Nioh 2 however it turned out to be an excellent product.
The sequel (but a thematic prequel) of the action souls-like by Team Ninja has been a great success both with the public and the specialized press, but undoubtedly has missed the appointment with the story, remaining nothing but an excellent more of the same but basically nothing else. For this reason, honestly, we approached with a certain coldness and a fuller dose of doubts to the first of the three additional contents provided for the title, with the specter of finding ourselves making a comparison with the excellent post-launch support of the first chapter. inevitably around the corner.
With a hint of regret, we are unfortunately forced to confirm the concerns of the eve which, after testing the new content, have revealed themselves inexorable and, perhaps, in a more ferocious and oppressive way than we could have imagined. Following the lines of the "base" game, the first DLC of Nioh 2, The Disciple of Tengu, it turned out to be a product characterized by a desire for innovation which is practically nil, firmly resting on the excellent foundations of a winning formula that needs updating for a possible future.
After spending about ten hours in the company of the aforementioned expansion we are ready to expose you our opinion, which in all honesty, is not completely negative: some ideas, in fact, have somehow gilded the pill, but overall we would have expected a little something more from this first contact with the post-launch support of Nioh 2.
Different times, different stories, same setting
Before going into the specifics, it is necessary to make a small premise: The Disciple of Tengu it is clearly designed for those who have already completed the main campaign of Nioh 2, and for this reason it requires a very high character level (at least 115-120) and consequently a certain mastery of the gameplay and its most important traits.
The new available area, teeming with new and old opponents decidedly aggressive and threatening, takes the player into a real different time reality. Touching a particular sanctuary, in fact, our alter ego finds itself catapulted towards the end of 1100, in a very particular historical period, known as the Heian period. Without too many explanations and without trying too much to give the player the right contextualization dictated by a profoundly different era, the Disciple of the Tengu presents us with a continuous and fundamentally complex challenge, distributed in a handful of main and various secondary missions, from the overall duration that struggles to exceed five hours, if clearly you were particularly familiar with production.
As per tradition for the series, this time jump is the perfect opportunity to rework and adapt to the narrative styles of the title some historical characters that really existed, in this case Minamoto Yoshitsune and Benkei, two of the greatest warriors in history who thus become an integral part of an excessively bland story from the point of view of intensity and which seems to fit with difficulty with the main narrative vein, even if the faces in question still seem to have a lot to say in the future.
Even from a strictly aesthetic point of view, the new location does not offer particular points of interest, on the contrary, except for the aesthetics of some characters, it does not distance itself too much from the source material, from which it draws too much evident, pushing dangerously towards the limit of recycling, especially in some points.
Is a weapon forever?
If the narrative novelties do not excite in the least, Il Discipolo del Tengu still brings good news under the aspect of gameplay.
The fundamental traits of the first expansion of Nioh 2 are highlighted with a good number of new creatures to face, both original and represented by variants with new moveset or new aesthetic and elemental elements. The new opponents are immediately very difficult to deal with, especially as regards the high number of damage they can inflict, and represent a decidedly upward challenge. It goes without saying that the expansion requires a good dose of farming, fortunately facilitated by the new creatures, in most cases able to bestow a good number of Amrita once defeated.
Luckily, the players arrive to the rescue Composite Bo, the first new weapon introduced precisely in conjunction with the DLC in that of Nioh 2.
Weapon similar to a stick, very agile and above all capable of giving its user an inordinate amount of combos and offensive solutions, it rightfully places itself among the best of the entire production. It must be said that having a character based on the Magic (parameter from which the composite Bo scales) we could have an altered judgment of it, but having made numerous tests with all (or almost) the available weapons, we are quite convinced of the goodness of this instrument of death.
Bosses (few) and not very convincing!
Let's face it, any player loyal to the souls-like genre and in this case to Nioh 2 from a DLC basically expects one thing in particular: new bosses and new challenges.
Unfortunately, The Disciple of Tengu also disappoints from this point of view, bringing a small number of bosses to the screen, some clearly recycled from the base game or even from the first Nioh. We happened, for example, to run into a Nue, one of the bosses of the first chapter, or to collide with the fearsome Uminyudo, a variant all too similar to the more famous Umi-bozu, one of the main bosses of the first Nioh, which we have already talked about in our previous works related to the title of Tecmo Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja.
The original bosses, on the other hand, although sufficiently aligned with those of the base game for production values and difficulty index, have left us a bitter taste from the point of view of thematic inspiration. They did not leave their mark on us, in short, they did not remain impressed in some way, such as for example Maria, Date Shigezane or the legendary Nine-tailed fox, but, on the contrary, we found them excessively static in their being nothing more than “simple” passing opponents.
Overall, therefore, the work done by Team Ninja and Tecmo Koei in packaging this first post-launch content of Nioh 2 appeared to us renouncing and perhaps voted too much to play it safe. It's not all to be thrown away, of course, but we would have expected much more, and we expect more from the next expansion.
The Disciple of Tengu is a content without infamy and without praise, ideal for those who simply wanted to return to breathe the air of Yokai in the company of Nioh 2, but from which we would have expected much more. We would like to praise the composite Bo in particular, a weapon that we found really interesting and that we would like to suggest to all players, both the more “aggressive” and the more tactical ones. If a good morning starts in the morning, however, we do not feel like sleeping peacefully: already the base game had disappointed us a bit from the point of view of general inspiration and the ghosts of the past, with this first DLC, are back stronger. that never.
► Nioh 2 is an Action-RPG type game developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 13/03/2020
