Hello everyone. Gin here. I've been playing Nioh 2 for the last 3 hours since the Open Beta came out yesterday and I decided to make a first impressions thread. Now, my relationship with Nioh is very love-hate. At the best of times, it's a thrilling joy ride of dodging foes and cutting them down when their open. Yuki-Onna is the best boss I've fought in the original Nioh (Up to where I am. I just beat Ogress last I remember) for that reason. Fun fight with easily readable moves when your paying attention but still challenging as she mixes the attacks up to keep you on your toes. At the worst of times, it's an unfair, ridiculous game. This is due to the ludicrous damage everything in the game does. When you have around 1000 health, expect enemies to be doing 700 damage. It's stupid. Certain bosses like White Tiger feel unfair due to being quick and dealing a lot of damage in an unpredictable manner. So, for Nioh 2, they have a way better opening area that lets you choose your weapons in an area where you can actually test them out before going into the actual game. All the old weapons are still in the game, including the Odachi and Tonfa from the DLC expansions, along with two new weapons: Dual axes and a weapon that shifts between a Glaive, a Scythe and one of those folded spear-axe things. The Glaive is my new favourite weapon and the axes are alright but a bit slow for my taste. The game is a prequel to Nioh. This isn't a spoiler. Hidetori (AKA Hideyoshi Toyotomi) starts the mission complaining about needing to make a fort into a castle t impress Nobunaga Oda. Then Aquaman shows up. Not joking. I'm assuming the actual game explains why he's there, cause the beta sure as hell doesn't. Apart from that, not much about the story is shown. Katsuie has a boar spirit. You fight a demon weasel at the end of the stage. That's about it. As for the game play, if you've played Nioh, you know what to expect. The old weapons are identical to how they played in Nioh, which I enjoy as a low stance twin sword main, and the new weapons I mentioned above are pretty nice aditions. There's a new leveling grid that shows the different things in a Yakuza esque wheel of upgrades. Weapons have their own points with the basic stuff that's shared between them being under a new tab called "Samurai". The main selling point is the Yokai form. Replacing Living Weapon from Nioh is the Yokai form. Instead of changing on the weapon you have on hand when used, you instead change into a Yokai depending on the type of Spirit you have equipped. One is a big brute similar to the masses of Yokai you cut through as William, one is a ninja like one with higher agility and the other is a floating spirit type that prioritises defences. You can also equip Yokai Cores to your character that allow you to use moves based on those Yokai. For example, there's a new bird Yokai that has a spear throwing move. You can turn into that bird and throw it's spear and it's also useful cause it jumps over certain attacks.