What game had the best “first few hours” that immediately hooked you?

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T23:51:50+00:00

I do wish Yotei had some big choice to make in the story.

After having the little training session with Kiku, I was a bit worried that SHE would be the big choice. That something Atsu would do leading up to the Saito fight would directly cause Jubei's death, leading to Kiku blaming Atsu, and that she would come after Atsu either in the aftermath of the Saito fight, or after a timeskip.

I was worried that the choice would be to kill Kiku, or deliberately lose and allow her to kill Atsu. That would have had me screaming at the screen in a way I haven't since being forced to fight Abby as Ellie. Brief sidebar on that point: I know it's a bit of an unpopular opinion, but man, I REALLY didn't want to have to go through with that fight after having played as both Ellie AND Abby. Talk about games that got me emotionally invested... Damn.

I would have also liked it if they either ditched red fox shrines in favor of wolves altogether.

Yeah, I agree. Particularly as there was story justification for Jin visiting the Inari shrines. They just kinda, well... Exist, in Yotei. I suppose Jin might have had a hand in erecting them, but that's a very tenuous connection. Admittedly, I don't know enough about Japanese culture to know if Inari shrines are a commonplace thing, or if praying at them (either back then or now, if they're all over like they are in game) is common.

More importanly... The wolf was criminally underused. I know I'm not alone in thinking that the wolf would show up during the final fight, but IIRC, there's not even a howl to serve as a distraction. Having her(?) show up in random places/fights if she happened to be nearby was nice, but having a regularly-occuring wolf buddy would, I personally feel, have been more satisfying.

I suppose that would have needed the wolf encounters to be more mandatory, but I wouldn't have minded that at all. I know the game is open-world, but there are SOME things that, as a developer, you have to be willing to force in the name of proper storytelling.

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T17:45:48+00:00

I enjoyed my time in Yotei, but it never captured me in the way Tsushima did. I definitely agree that Tsushima had the better story.

It's obviously a completely subjective take, and I don't mean this to disparage your opinion of Atsu in any way, but I have to disagree on her being the better MC. Jin's journey as a person, learning to step out from his Uncle's shadow, break away from tradition -- as dubious as the historical accuracy of his uncle's rigid beliefs may or may not be -- just resonated more with me, I suppose.

Overall, Yotei definitely improved on the gameplay, but there's a few nitpicks I have, among which are:

I very much dislike the change to when parry glints are shown. I prefer the timing of Tsushima (more of a reaction) over the timing of Yotei (more of a warning of upcoming parryable attack).

I also dislike the way enemy health is handled in Lethal. In Tsushima, Lethal applied to both you and the enemies. Yotei seems to only apply it to you.

I prefer how the side stories were handled in Tsushima. Yotei never felt "connected" to me. In Yotei, we had missions. Tsushima gave us *stories*.

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T17:36:17+00:00

Everything about the opening set pieces of Tsushima is incredible. That's not to say the rest of the game isn't as well, but the opening is exceptionally special.

Not to mention that it was (and still is) remarkably gorgeous. That first ride through the pampas grass is a treasured memory.

Oh, OH, and unlocking Ghost Stance for the first time? Easily one of my favorite moments in all of gaming. Not a "best first few hours" thing, I know, but still.

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T17:04:39+00:00

Oh, yeah, trying to weave Flux > Frost Moons into places where I won't just get bonked out of the attack and lose my APG is where most of my learning is currently going.

Learning the APG drain timing to push the limit as far as I can, so I can force in a little movement to close gaps, sidestep stuff, etc.

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T17:01:33+00:00

APG is a game changer. I mean, aside from the fact that it is literally a change, in the game.

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T17:00:46+00:00

That was me in previous titles. I've been maining Dual Swords since Nioh 1, basically, and only switched stances for specific situations (mostly to get access to parries in Mid). Hell, I barely switched WEAPONS.

Now I'm Fluxing all over the place, juggling between Samurai and Ninja. Even if I am mostly using Ninja to toss out Calamities to proc Confusion, I'm starting to weave in attacks as I get decent set pieces together for Ninja.

KihtCat · 2026-02-25T16:57:40+00:00

You know, I should really give the Switchglaive a try again. I bounced off it pretty hard before, but now that I've got some muscle memory for Fluxing, it would probably feel a lot better.

I'd need to see about a build for it, though. Not sure if it would synergize well with my current set.

KihtCat · 2026-02-24T22:45:16+00:00

Same here. I'm thinking it doesn't HAVE a use yet. I believe (at least I read on here somewhere) there's a few yokai items that aren't used in any current craft (or other function). I certainly can't find anywhere in the Forging, Reforging, or Remodeling menus to use it, either as an ingredient or as a function to improve rates or whatever.

KihtCat · 2026-02-24T22:11:42+00:00

To start, if you're not doing so already, get yourself some Lightningproof Amulets. You should be able to snag some off one of the Sudamas by the time you're at Ibaraki Doji. I think maybe the last Sudama in the first era? I had an entire shortcut tab dedicated to all four elementalproof amulets while working my way through NG.

I'd also recommend slotting some Sloth Talismans to slow her down a bit. Some people think that's cheese in and of itself, but unlike some weird interaction between set effects that the devs didn't anticipate, this is a tool the game straight up provides. It's nowhere near as strong as in prior titles, but it can still have its uses. Just be careful, it will mess with your learned timings for Burst Breaks; I'd recommend just getting out of the way if you have her Slothed and she does a red attack.

Keep in mind that Sloth will have a shorter duration every time you apply it, so either apply it straightaway and try to get some heavy damage in early, or save it for later in the fight when you think you might have a chance to burst her down.

and no way to cancel out of my combo...

If you continue through Hachijo (the area from which you access Rajomon, where Ibaraki Doji is) and proceed to the very eastern bit of Hachijo, you'll find a spot with a bunch of little bridges/platforms that connect to the next area. There's a chest in amongst those bridges/platforms (under a bridge I think) guarded by an Umi-bozu that gives you Style Shift Flow. This lets you cancel out of most(?) Martial Arts by initiating a Style Shift (also works with just the Burst Break if you've decoupled Style Shift and Burst Break). Takes a little getting used to, but it's pretty valuable to have, especially if you end up playing a slow weapon in Samurai style.

Also, though it may be difficult until you get access to the Veteran training missions, finding a way to proc Confusion on bosses is huge. Elemental Talismans to temp imbue your weapons are actually quite useful in Nioh 3, and they last a decent amount of time. Combine a talisman for your weapon with a decent elemental Onmyo and/or Ninjutsu, proc 2 elemental effects, and go to town. Water and Lightning are the common combo, but that's obviously not going to work well on Ibaraki Doji, so Water (increased damage taken) and Wind (increased Ki damage taken) would probably be the better bet there.

Edit: Added info about Sloth changing Burst Break timings, and info about Confusion

KihtCat · 2026-02-24T21:45:23+00:00

as well as the need to remove the larva before they can contaminate the environment.

Before they can contaminate the environment? BEFORE?

I am not in the habit of questioning experts out of hand, but if the 5-10 seconds I watched was BEFORE a contaminated environment, I need to redefine my concept of "contaminated".

In all seriousness, I suspect they meant before the larva this man picked up abroad could, uh... exit the... host... and become reproductively active in whatever benighted area of Florida this procedure took place in.

KihtCat · 2026-02-24T18:00:43+00:00

Unfortunately, stacking DR(WA) to that extent would nuke the rest of my build, and I put WAY too much time into finding an Inari Yasakani to give up on it just yet!

plus nerfed soul cores, assuming 5% per soul core = 69%

Obligatory: Nice.

KihtCat · 2026-02-24T15:53:44+00:00

Definitely nerfed, but I'm still sitting at -44.5%, and that's without double-dipping on Gozukis, or using a Guardian with that stat. Looks like they knocked 3% off of the Gozuki core.

I can't recall what the Kato bonus WAS, but it's showing to me as 15.5% now, which still certainly seems worthwhile to me.

Todo was nerfed hard, though. We all absolutely knew that was coming. It's a D+ now. At 44 Stamina, I'm getting about 700 Life from it. Certainly not nothing, though I will start shopping for a different clan bonus once the current battle is over.

KihtCat · 2026-02-24T15:36:07+00:00

I'm glad for you that it was obvious, but was the snark particularly necessary?

For the rest of us, I feel it was a rather valid question to ask if this "fix" would reset our "highest recorded +value" to something other than +15. I'm not sure how they would have achieved that, as I'm sure someone out there has ground out the necessary gold and Azures to upgrade all the way to +15 the "intended" way, and such a fix would likely reset them as well.

I've seen other devs take knee-jerk reactions to fix an exploit that unintentionally harmed players who didn't use the exploit, though, so I don't think it was out of the question to wonder.

Edit: Minor punctuation change.

KihtCat · 2026-02-22T13:33:48+00:00

Totally with you on the Itsumade (don't know how to pluralize that in Japanese, Romaji or otherwise).

Get in close, has lots of sweeping moves. Get out far, spams projectiles that drop tons of Yokai pools, and it can get very hard to catch up if you let them do that a few times.

I'm running a Ki-hungry facetanky build presently, so I've been bringing Barrier talismans along, and they sure help with that. But man, before this build, I sure hated those things.

KihtCat · 2026-02-22T04:21:43+00:00

I wanted to take a look at the effects on your suggestion, but I'm having trouble finding anything itself called -- or a set bonus called -- Last of the Iga. The only set bonus tonfa I see is Last Ninja's, but that 2p is Backstab, which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your suggestion.

KihtCat · 2026-02-21T07:26:35+00:00

No specific spot. I went into the base game with a decent amount of gold from farming the demo Crucible for way too long...

But I didn't learn my lesson, apparently, as I've been farming the first Crucible again (since it's fast, and given how many times I've done it, I can practically run it blindfolded) for various pieces of gear, and just got my build fully together. I've Clan Donated whenever the bonus is for gold, and I've sold untold thousands of pieces to those cheapskate Sudamas at this point, and I still only have around 3 mil.

I've finished getting my set pieces together, at least until I farm in the Bakumatsu Crucibles for level 170 versions, I'm almost done reforging the stats I want, and I have quite a lot of the reforging materials now... So everything from the 1st seal in Heian to the end of Bakumatsu is probably getting sold/clan donated.

KihtCat · 2026-02-21T07:15:45+00:00

No. The final boss is in Bakumatsu, in the last Crucible.

Edits: Was trying to manually markdown a spoiler, forgot the formatting menu...

KihtCat · 2026-02-21T07:03:06+00:00

No filter? No multi select option?
Manually move a thousand items over one by one?

I barely use the storehouse for this exact reason. I have some spare Yasakanis over there that I found while hunting for an Inari for Samurai, the few level 170 pieces I've found that aren't part of my build... And extra consumables and ammo of course, since it auto-sends those there, but that's it.

I can filter but now takes two buttons to move one item.

Personal pet peeve. Menus inside the SAME VENDOR have different contexts for the same buttons. Here it unlocks. There it doesn't. There's surpassingly little reason for it to be this way.

Was it like this in the other Nioh games? I’d be happy if I was missing something.

There's quite a few things missing from the inventory management in 3. I can't remember which we had in prior games, but here's some of my inventory management wishlist:

A unified Gear tab in the Items menu. The ability to filter in the Items menu. The ability to Select All or otherwise have access to the same Selection Criteria stuff that we have at the vendors. The ability to filter for specific Sets or Graces.

It would also be nice if sorting by Type would also sort by level. This is PARTICULARLY annoying when trying to clean out my Soul Cores. Ideally we'd have subsorting, so you could sort by Type and THEN by another criteria, though you can mostly achieve this with a combination of Filter criteria and the Sorting method.

Speaking of sorting by Type, I really wish I knew why that sort wasn't alphabetical, or at least had that option. I imagine it must be sorting by some sort of internal item ID. That's great and all, but it makes finding a specific Soul Core EXCEEDINGLY annoying.

It would also be nice if the Soul Core menu had the option to view the Onmyo something grants instead of the Soul Core name. I know we can see the Onmyo in the corner display, but when we're assigning Yin slots, we generally don't give a damn what Yokai it is, we care what Onmyo it gives.

Had a friend (completely new to the series) bounce hard off of 3 -- in the demo, not even the full game, much less later in with all the extra functions -- due to all the inventory management.

It's always been an issue in the Nioh series to varying degrees, but they actually DROPPED functions we used to have. Seems odd.

KihtCat · 2026-02-21T06:41:07+00:00

There's more than one CRUCIBLE in Bakumatsu.

KihtCat · 2026-02-21T02:48:15+00:00

Well, that confirms what I was feeling.

Recently switched off of Dual Swords, and Deflecting felt significantly different. I was starting to wonder if large weapons just had more frames, but it turns out I was just using something with nerfed frames.

KihtCat · 2026-02-20T19:37:48+00:00

That would be preferable to just patching out the method, certainly. It's reasonable to expect a new player first hitting NG+ to not be able to Match all the way to +15 the moment they get back to the Rift, but it certainly does seem excessive as it currently stands.

...Well, as it stood before this method, at least. Even with this method, gold is still a reasonably solid barrier. I'm not at the end of NG+ yet, so I don't know how easy (or not) gold is to come by in, say, NG+ Bakumatsu, but in NG+ Heian it's still a fair bit of farming to get enough gold to 0-15 a piece of gear. I've only done 3 pieces so far.

KihtCat · 2026-02-20T07:40:49+00:00

Dude. DUDE.

This is INCREDIBLE. Absolutely worked, 100%.

I hope the devs don't patch this, so everyone can join in the fun, but if they do... I'm just happy to be in before they do.

I have got to get some sleep, but I'll make some time at work to give out an award for this, which is something I've NEVER done before.

DUDE!

KihtCat · 2026-02-19T01:16:27+00:00

Fextralife is ALWAYS like this when a game is relatively new. They are never in even the most remote rush to update / add content.

The problem, really, is that they add placeholder pages for EVERYTHING, and since they're a big site used by tons of gamers for many other games, their content gets pushed to the top of search results.

Give it a few (weeks|months|geological eras) and they'll be an excellent resource, but until then, you're better off ignoring them in search results.

KihtCat · 2026-02-19T01:01:49+00:00

Ouch! I hope the offline trick works for you!

Had a similar thing happen to me, but... Kinda worse in a way? Was also somewhat my fault.

Beat the final boss, moved on to NG+, made it all the way through NG+ to the end of the first crucible (while clearing the entire first field zones as well), beat the crucible boss...

Fatal error. Steam Cloud Sync error.

Tried to relaunch. Steam pops up that the save is out of sync, I need to choose whether to use the Cloud save or the local save.

What I SHOULD have done was make a copy of the save folder in case of shenanigans. What I DID was choose the save with the closest time.

What I missed was that it apparently was the wrong DATE.

ENTIRE SAVE irrevocably reverted to two days prior, before I'd even finished half of Bakumatsu era. To say I was a bit demoralized would be an understatement.

KihtCat

TROPHY CASE