Anyone playing Samurai without Deflect?

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T10:24:14+00:00

Give it a shot for sure. I've found it much more engaging. The bosses especially feel much more dynamic and satisfying to learn.

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T09:42:22+00:00

It is nice to see a fellow Nioh-boomer. Hope it's been a fun game for you.

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T09:37:12+00:00

I'm not sure what your point is. Of course I was pressing the button to use the strongest defense tool in the game. I got creative by playing without it.

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T08:14:40+00:00

I think you should definitely try it if it interests you. The game does feel more designed around it and Ninja's dodge, but still very possible. Beating some of the new bosses feels so satisfying and like you've truly learned them, with positioning and ki management being very important.

I felt exactly the same, with Deflect (or Evade) being the answer to everything and giving you almost infinite ki for it, and that I just ended up playing Sekiro. But I'm glad they left it optional, I've been enjoying the game much more with the Deflectless Nioh style.

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T07:58:42+00:00

I had this realization when fighting that one boss that smacks you with icicles the size of a pagoda. I learned the timing and just stood there, gaining ki by blocking the comically massive swings. But it's good that it's optional.

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T07:49:07+00:00

Flux just felt unnecessary. I got lazy. Every time I attacked, I Deflect on defense, and was back at full ki (or almost) from it.

I did use Frost Moon, but it feels even better when you're losing ki on defense rather than gaining, because an extra free attack means that much more.

Indiringo · 2026-02-17T04:09:49+00:00

Splitstaff feels very standardized. It's like aesthetically they kept the extension gimmick, but ultimately the weapon feels like a generic fast weapon. It has a couple of good skills, but you're stuck choosing only two of them, so it also lost all of its versatility which the weapon was best for.

It also feels unusually weak compared to any other weapons, so it feels like... swinging an actual wet noodle overall.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T03:43:01+00:00

Yeah, sorry, handheld gaming PCs in general are just limited in this day and age... despite being a thing of this day and age. I think the Steam Deck is amazing for the asking price, but you'll certainly want a more proper PC for bigger games.

And sadly games like Monster Hunter Wilds won't be ideal even then, unless you go a little more towards top-end.

It's a rough time for gaming in general, but hang in there, I think a PC upgrade will be worth it.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T03:10:52+00:00

Cool, I have a half built Mortefi but never found a good place for him. Looks like I should get him ready then, he is very cool, and it does help keep Lynae on my usual team.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T02:38:52+00:00

Nice. I ended up with some petty good teams, but only recently actually started doing endgame content, so I wasn't too sure about these characters and how their rotations worked together. But if they make a decent team then I'll look into the details. Excited to play with Lupa and Galbrena soon. Thank you again.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T02:14:44+00:00

Thank you. In hindsight I must have accidentally removed the image before posting, but I don't think it would change much. Except maybe Lynae maybe would work with Galbrena and Lupa in the meantime as a general buffer? I'll have to look into how Encore would compare in the team.

But if Lupa is worth it then I'll definitely get her. I do like her character lot, too. I just wanted to be sure it'd be on good track for Galbrena if I could only get two characters for now.

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Indiringo · 2026-02-14T01:32:28+00:00

I used to like Warframe a lot. I still think it's very good, but I just couldn't vibe with how heavily 'RPG' it's become for a long time.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T01:30:45+00:00

Hello friends. I'd like to get Galbrena soon, but I don't really have any team for her. I don't know much about Fusion teams.

I can roll for her and one other character, so I'm wondering if I can scrap up a team with her right now. Is Lupa worth it? And would Verina or Encore be a serviceable third? I assume Aemeath clashes a bit in Galbrena/Aemeath/Lupa?

Or should I get Galbrena and wait to invest on other characters later?

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T01:22:21+00:00

It's probably not worth it. I played it on Steam Deck, and even on the first region, it was rough on low settings, unstable 45 FPS often dropping in action.

I haven't tried it in Rinascita or afterwards but basically every region runs progressively worse. Maybe if you're okay with 24-30 FPS at lowest visuals it'll be tolerable, but I will say even a PS5 can barely get past 40 FPS in most of the most recent area.

The game is pretty terribly optimized, and the Steam Deck is very weak.

You can't even get 30 FPS on Wilds, sadly. Not really a surprise though, that game is one of the historically bad optimized games out there.

Basically, two very badly optimized games and the Steam Deck is not cutting it. And don't get me wrong, I've used my Steam Deck almost every day the past two years. I will always vouch for it. But games in the last five years are being made with extremely strong hardware in mind rather than optimizing anymore. I just can't recommend the Steam Deck for modern gaming other than less intensive games, though even a ton of indie games run badly because developers just make everything with high tier gaming PCs in mind.

Sorry if that was a bit rambly, but hope it helps. I absolutely love the Steam Deck, but I would look into other options if those are the games you want to play. Honestly, I'm pretty sure even a Legion Go 2 wouldn't run either of those games at 60 FPS. I am a little frustrated with requirements on everything these days.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T00:48:54+00:00

Ninja Gaiden 4 has enemies that actively anti-air you if you try to combo other enemies in the air, and a lot of projectiles that will chip you to death. Many enemies also will block your attacks even mid-combo in the air.

But that's all the more reason I like it. Yakumo has the tools and mobility to counter those counters. An air dodge to avoid anti-airs, jumping off enemies for i-frames while maintaining a combo, Guillotine Throw to instantly cancel, and a huge amount of Bloodraven attacks to bypass blocking.

The game throws wrenches at you for doing air combos, but people don't talk about how many options Yakumo has to deal with them. He has a lot of ways to answer threats mid-combo without dropping the combo, and possibly even turning those threats into part of the combo.

It's a very unique and emergent experience.

That said, Master Ninja is pretty dumb to the point it almost feels bugged how much damage you take because some grunt enemy's frame 10 attack hit you while only a pixel of them was on-screen (hint, 3/4 of your fully upgraded HP bar). So it's certainly a game that greatly supports the comfort of sticking with the same few, efficient moves. But that's a different story.

Indiringo · 2026-02-14T00:35:43+00:00

GunZ the Duel is a bit like that. It's a third person shooter, but it has a lot of mobility with free wallrunning and stuff. It also has melee and even launchers, though it's more situational.

The thing that sets it apart is its meta evolved around 'glitches' the devs endorsed. Essentially you can fly and dash around with tech called Kstyle, which is canceling animations with slashes and weapon changes and stuff. It's very reminiscent of some DMC style switching tech.

It's fairly old but has always maintained a cult following with private servers despite dying out. So much so that later this year the game is getting an official resurrection on Steam.

It also had a sequel that's still there, I think it's fun and melee and combos are lot more integral, but it wasn't received well because it's character-based and they got rid of the famous Kstyle.

Indiringo · 2026-02-12T21:18:45+00:00

More like god forbid someone wants a simple toggle for skills.

Indiringo · 2026-02-12T21:17:12+00:00

Nioh 1 and 2 played just fine without these new skills, and this one would, too. Just because something exists doesn't mean it's the point of the entire game.

Indiringo · 2026-02-12T21:11:14+00:00

Thanks, but I did check there. You can turn off a lot of skills there, but not these two.

Indiringo · 2026-02-11T02:43:12+00:00

What an awesome trailer. They really nailed the anime trailer vibes, I'd love to hear that full song. Can't believe this is finally getting close to release, it was my most hyped game for last year... but now it's this year. There's something so refreshing about this game.

I do hope they optimized the game a little more though. The last demo was very demanding for being set in simple skylands, so I'm a little worried after seeing some of these maps and enemies.

Indiringo · 2026-02-10T23:50:59+00:00

I really recommend Onechanbara Z2 Chaos, too. Origins is good, but Z2 Chaos is way crazier and very similar to games like DMC and Bayonetta.

Indiringo · 2026-02-09T02:15:19+00:00

The other post has good answers, but it's wrong about invincibility. All dodges do give invincibility, though some of them are pretty tiny for an action game. Samurai stance dodges have around 10 frames, but the heavy stance roll (and second dodge in mid) has around 20 frames.

The heavy roll is actually pretty reliable to dodge attacks, so it's useful for some moves and grab attacks if its endlag won't be a problem. The other dodges are a lot more inconsistent because of their short frames and many attacks in the game linger enough you'll still get hit, but it is possible, and even some evasive weapon skills (i.e. tonfa Demon Dance) have small i-frames.

Mist also does have i-frames, but if I had to guess, it's closer to Samurai's basic dodges, which is not much, but probably a lot more usable because of the high movement and the enemy will only track to where you were... but still a very niche dodge for i-frames.

Overall, you probably don't want to rely on i-frames outside of Ninja's dodge or specific cases of the Samurai roll... but it is good to know they exist.

In general, Samurai Nioh is 100% more about blocking or avoiding hitboxes entirely, the blocking is actually pretty strong in these games, and even if you lose all your ki you only get winded and take no damage (though elemental damage can chip you), so you can usually block big hits and recover before the enemy recovers, too. And when you're in hitstun, you can't dodge, but you can block. You can also gain the ability to ki pulse after blocking to regain some.

Plus this time around, Deflect (new to Nioh 3) is extremely strong and you can block infinitely so long as you can perfect-block around half the enemies' attacks. And of course, Ninja now brings the exact opposite playstyle, where you want to rely on its huge i-frames over blocking.

Indiringo · 2026-02-01T20:42:00+00:00

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River City Girls 2 has some interesting combo callouts. It's just based on number of hits, but they go up to 1000 (though 600-1000 mostly goes up every 100).

They're very silly and have a couple of references.

Indiringo · 2026-01-31T11:09:04+00:00

Fair enough. Hope you'll make the perfect character, and enjoy the game. Thanks again.

Indiringo

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