[[2026 Games]]  ## 2026-02-22 I’ve been taking forever to write anything about **Nioh 3** because there’s truly nothing I can say about it that isn’t going to be a 10 minute glazing session that would put a Krispy Kreme factory to shame. What I’ll say is that **Nioh 3** is the closest thing to a perfect videogame for me, specifically. It’s a game that is hard for me to find any flaws in. This is partially because **Team Ninja** owns me at this point. But it’s also because it serves as a culmination of everything that studio has made up to this point — **Stranger of Paradise’s** class swapping, **Wo Long’s** parry system and jump, [[Rise of the Ronin]]’s open world and fashion game. The works. Given I loved all of those games, fusing them together makes it hard to find flaws. But I’m gonna try. Uh…the PC performance could probably be better if your rig can’t brute force it. I am kind of iffy on how Onmyo magic works now, but I never used it because it felt too cheesy anyways. The camera still struggles sometimes. And the plot is absolutely horrendous. Don’t play this if you’re looking for game with a good story. Or any story at all, really. That’s all I got. The nicest part about **Nioh 3** is that it’s the easiest game in the series. The first reason for this is the pure deluge of options available to you at any given moment. Samurai and Ninja forms to adapt to different combat scenarios, seamless co-op, the tightest combat in the series so far, a cool Super Saiyan install, and tons of QOL to tie all of it together. But the other reason for that is the smoother curve. **Nioh 2** has a lot of early-game walls, and **Nioh** is even worse. I never hit a wall in the third game, and while part of that is probably the 1000 hours of experience, I do think the challenge ramps up appropriately. No boss feels like a real spike. And as I mentioned, even if it does, you can power through with co-op. Gear is still king, but there’s now an auto-equip that will save your entire life during your first playthrough. You can easily just set it with your preferred armor weight and keep it pushing. The game is keen to not waste your time (outside of the boring story cutscenes that you should just skip). I’m not kidding when I say this is the best the combat in a **Team Ninja** game has ever been. There was a point, deep into New Game+ build crafting, where I ripped through dozens of enemies with stylish, powerful combos built through 60 hours of breathless experience, that I felt something. Something that can only really be described with this gif. ![[Nioh 3-1771785979137.gif]] There was a pure sense of soaring elation that feels a bit embarrassing to admit in public, to be honest. But it’s true. **Nioh 3** is a reminder of everything I love about videogames. Pure, unadulterated [[Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain|goop]], distilled into a well-timed Izuna Drop that turns a Heian era samurai into a confetti blast of loot. It’s not a game that will change your life, or have a narrative that will bring you to tears. But it is a fucking capital V, italicized *Videogame*. I never thought I’d top my playtime in **Nioh 2**, but if the DLC’s end-game editions hold up, it’ll be easy to surpass it. ![[Nioh 3 - 2026-02-12 1-50-22 PM.mp4]] If you’re even slightly interested, get this game.