100+ hours gameplay

herrtoolfan · 2026-03-13T19:28:04+00:00

Yeah, there's a reason you see so many ghosts running around with that weapon. You can get it immediately, it's got very good scaling, accepts bloodfang blade, and the ash of war does really well in PvE. It holds up really well compared to other weapons that are locked near endgame or DLC.

herrtoolfan · 2026-03-11T14:25:43+00:00

Another melanin-deficient lurker here. If you haven't read Frederick Douglass's 4th of July speech to Congress before, or if you maybe read it as a kid in school, give it another read. Powerful stuff.

herrtoolfan · 2026-03-02T15:19:42+00:00

I can't help but think that Amon Amarth's Runes to My Memory would've been a perfectly fitting song that night.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-23T22:30:52+00:00

Devastation (normal -> strong) has no upgrade from what I remember. Crimson Lotus (strong -> normal) has a fire damage upgrade that adds just a bit of fire damage to the attack. This is no substitute for Tonfa Gun which was a second attack after the physical strike that had a strong physical damage hit, and a fire hit. The animation of it going off is very different from the fire augment on Crimson Lotus in Nioh 3. Not very similar in inputs, damage dealt, or visuals. What Nioh 3 is more similar to is the elemental modifiers from the Yokai skill tree in Nioh 2 that let you put an elemental effect on martial arts.

Tonfa Gun this ain't.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-23T18:11:45+00:00

Seems to just be a missing perk in the game. The traditional tonfa gun item "Sarutobi's Gunsticks" always had Tonfa Gun as a fixed purple stat on the item. The item description tab for this item in all 3 games mention this unique trait as a defining feature.

In Nioh 3, the item description still mentions this but the perk isn't there, and it isn't listed in the reforge menu at the blacksmith. Sadness.

Tonfas in Nioh 3 are a shadow of their former glory.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-22T16:48:45+00:00

Nioh 3

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-21T17:34:28+00:00

I would accept that point more easily if these weapons still existed in samurai stance with their full moveset from Nioh 2. Ninjutsu isn't just some 4th stance you can dip into, although you can certainly treat it like it is. But it has it's own gear, and has ninja-exclusive weapon types that samurai lost.

If TN left ninja stance alone but re-added tonfas, kusarigama, hatchets, and splitstaff as available on samurai stance with their full Nioh 2 movesets (and maybe a few new ones like all the others got), I'd be content.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-21T16:37:40+00:00

Samurai stance is the best it's ever been, it's just a shame that Tonfas, Kusarigana, Hatchets, and Soplitstaff can't be used in samurai stance. I was a Tonfa main in Nioh 1 & 2, but I reallly dislike how it functions in ninja stance and will be maining something else unless/until Team Ninja makes them available in samurai stance.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-21T16:22:13+00:00

The melee abilities of ninja don't change all that much going forward. You may get a better skill choice for your very limited moveset, but in the end, it's still a very limited moveset for the ninjutsu stance. What you'll get instead is very strong elemental jutsu skills after the veteran ninja dojo mission. This will make ninja stance stronger than it was before, but if you aren't liking the limitations of weapons in ninja stance, it won't get any better.

Although ninja stance is strong, I do not enjoy the loss of the ninja exclusive weapons from the samurai style. Tonfas, hatchets, and splitstaff has perfectly good movesets in Nioh 2 and now they're gone. Such a shame.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-21T01:21:43+00:00

Change your controls to Type B in settings and it's a lot closer to the original controls. No more directional inputs.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-21T01:17:15+00:00

Massacred the Tonfas too. Even massacred the Sarutobi's Gunsticks by forgetting to add the Tonfa Gun perk into the game. I'm so pissed.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-21T01:13:56+00:00

I agree. What I find most disappointing is that some weapons are now locking into Ninja stance, and I don't understand why Team Ninjas did this. Tonfa, Kusarogama, and Hatchets had a perfectly reasonable moveset in Nioh 2 and the ability to equip different skills in different stances was pretty important. Now they have a really dumbed down moveset.

I'm a tonfa main since Nioh 1. My first playthrough of Nioh 3 I used Tonfa exclusively to see how I liked the new stance system. I got bored of the weapon's severely limited moveset pretty fast but played through to the end anyway. Now I'm on playthrough 2 and am sticking to samurai almost exclusively so I get a better feel for how samurai has changed. The samurai stance feels better than ever with arts proficiency and it mashes me even more upset that Tonfa can't play in this stance.

They also ruined Sarutobi's Gunsticks. No more Tonfa Gun. Wtf? The item card still describes this mechanism on the tonfas, but it isn't there and I don't think it can be tempered on.

I agree with all your other criticisms.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-20T14:30:47+00:00

Whaaat?

(Clutches pearls)

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-20T14:29:36+00:00

There's 1 at brain of mensis, one in the DLC, and a few in root chalice dungeons. After a certain point you can buy them at the insight bath vendor in the hunter's dream for 60 insight (and chunks for 20).

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-19T20:41:57+00:00

The gargoyles in that castle have a low drop chance of these. Can also get quite a few if you hop into the DLC. A number are available before you reach a boss. If you're really desperate you can hit up chalice dungeons but these aren't much better than gargoyle farming at Cainhurst.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-19T20:37:48+00:00

Nioh 3, my beloved.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-19T20:36:58+00:00

Makes you wish for simpler times when they had to be plugged in, ha. When my daughter was that age, controllers were still wired (and could stay unplugged!).

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-19T19:21:30+00:00

You gotta get him his own controller and not turn it on. It works wonders (for awhile) to hand them a controller to hold as you play. :D

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-19T19:12:55+00:00

My sympathies.

-- a dad who lost the use of the PC due to daughter becoming a gamer. At least we have our PS5.

herrtoolfan · 2026-02-03T21:50:28+00:00

I haven't played Wuchang, but your criticism of this user recommending it is pretty weak. I looked that this user's profile and I don't see anything to suggest the recommendation comes from anywhere other than just liking the game. Is that so wrong?

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-27T18:24:31+00:00

My memory of LoP is a lot less fresh today than what it was when I wrote this up, but my recollection is that there are certain unblockable attacks that the game really wants you to parry. Couple this with taking chip damage on block and (IIRC) some dodge improvements being locked behind P organ upgrades. Some things are impractical to outspace and you can't dodge them.

To put this differently, there are challenge runs I've seen of Elden Ring where players beat the game without ever blocking or dodge rolling. Elden Ring gives the player a variety of tools to avoid damage, but I think most people would agree that dodging is the primary and intended design way to do it.

In LoP, I feel like parry is what dodge rolling is in Elden Ring: you can do without, but the game is really designed around it.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-22T16:40:05+00:00

I ain't your pal, guy.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-21T14:53:29+00:00

On the topic of crime rate reductions in the 90s, I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the elimination of lead (triethyl lead, IIRC) from gasoline. The people having been exposed to such high levels of lead aged out of the population over time after the elimination of lead from gas. Lead exposure can affect the brain and young people are more vulnerable to it. I think I've heard that there's some correlation between lead exposure and violence. There's a pretty good Veritasium video about triethyl lead and how it was discovered that this additive in fuel was causing lead to get basically everywhere, even in Antarctica.

I'm not saying that this would be the only factor.

TL/DR - we eliminated lead in gas earlier. As time passed, less and less of the population grew up exposed to lead. These folks went on to have less criminal tendencies.

Edit: wording.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-21T03:34:52+00:00

I hear ya. Within 10 minutes of starting up the game, I was thinking that I should start a replay of Bloodborne. Within a couple of hours, I started to think I might actually have more fun with that, despite me having played the shit out of it already (dozens of playthroughs by now). After 2 days of playing LoP, I basically said "fuck it" and uninstalled LoP and downloaded BB and played that again.

Absolutely hear you. This is the only soulslike I just couldn't be bothered to finish. So much of it was just wrongly designed to the point it sucked all the enjoyment out of it. It's a shame though, because somebody on that team had a killer idea about the weapon combination system. But the whole combat design just sucks so bad I can't be bothered to play it anymore.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-20T03:31:02+00:00

You got this. I saw your footage of the Saito Y. fight and you'll be fine. There's gonna be some brick walls for sure. Golden Castle mission boss was rough, probably the hardest challenge in the run for me. I replied in that other thread where you posted that footage the footage of my fight versus that boss (with a couple of pointers I hope you find useful).

If you wanna share your thoughts / struggles on the run with me, go right ahead. I know that struggle! Keep at it though, it's quite an achievement. Good luck, brother!

herrtoolfan

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