Nioh 3 review: A winding road of demons & duels

Three games into the Nioh series, I’ve been consistently impressed with how Koei Tecmo has evolved this IP game to game. The first Nioh was a solid and challenging first step into this new Souls-like take on the mythology-infested world of Feudal Japan. The second refined that formula with new weapons, ninjutsu, and magic, as well as the new Core system that let us harvest souls from our foes. Now, Nioh 3 takes one of the biggest steps of all by taking the series into an open-world format with a lengthy free-flowing adventure. Nioh 3 makes some big marks on the series, and it does so while keeping its challenging action-RPG elements intact, with only a few caveats.

Takedas, Tokugawas, and Yoki, oh my

Nioh 3 takes us back to the era of 1572 CE, when the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu was fending off the invading forces of Takeda Shingen. If you know Nioh, then you know that its pseudo-historical world is filled with demons (Yoki) that prey on humans, guardian spirits based on gods and myths that bind themselves to powerful figures, and the mystical Amrita, which is the essence of souls and spirit crystalized into physical form. Humans and Yoki alike crave Amrita, and it stirs greed and lust for power in the hearts of ambitious figures. To that end, Takeda allies himself with demons to try to bring Tokugawa Ieyasu low once and for all, turning the region into a demon battlefield in the process.

Players take the role of one of Ieyasu’s grandchildren, Tokugawa Takechiyo, heir to the Shogunate, created in whatever image you want them to be in the game’s impeccable character creator. Takechiyo and their brother Kunimatsu are forced to escape from an attack by demons and the Takeda clan. However, on their way out, Kunimatsu betrays them. Accompanied by a monstrous and demonic guardian force, Kunimatsu almost cuts Takechiyo down to secure his own way to the Shogunate throne, but Takechiyo’s own spirit, the fiery Kusanagi, intervenes and whisks Takechiyo to safety. With the invading forces of Takeda in front of them, their murderous brother at their back, and demonic Yoki bringing turmoil to the land, Takechiyo resolves to become stronger, seize their rightful place on the throne, and strive to bring about peace.

I love Nioh 3’s premise. It’s an enemies-on-all-sides ordeal that sets up for one of the biggest changes from the previous games: Nioh 3 puts the player in an open world, ridding itself of the strictly mission-based system in Nioh 1 and Nioh 2. In fact, I would say it leans more towards Koei Tecmo’s more recent action-RPG, Rise of the Ronin, which I also found to be excellent. The war-torn provinces you explore in Nioh 3 are tragically beautiful, filled with Koei Tecmo’s latest gorgeous take on the Japanese countryside and the towns, villages, castles, temples, and other settlements strewn throughout. Of course, it’s also filled to the brim with secret nooks, tunnels, caves, forests, and mountains, often with the unnatural taint of demonic influence strewn throughout them and waiting for your intrepid exploration.

Nioh 3’s open world is refreshing in how much it allows you to do. Once I reached a point of free roam, I was wandering all over the place dueling humans, slaying demons, interacting with myths and legends, engaging in quests and side stories, and more. It’s quite a stretch to get to Nioh’s main quests, which I take just a little bit of issue with. One strength of the previous Nioh games is that they were focused experiences, even if sometimes it rehashed its own locations with repeating missions. Nioh 3’s open world and the sheer variety of things to do mean you’ll always find a new opportunity right around the corner, but it also makes the pacing to its main events feel meandering and, at worst, much too far apart for the levels you need to grind to advance the story. Don’t get me wrong, I loved exploring the lands of this game, but if you’re trying to beeline the main quest, it’s actually a bit difficult to do that.

Good thing that in addition to looking pretty, Nioh 3 also sounds great. The music is once again spot on, and used appropriately. It feels worth mentioning that I had qualms recently with Code Vein 2 using music too sparingly in its open world. Nioh 3 hits that balance better. It’s still often quiet traveling the open world, and you get battle music in almost any prolonged encounter like Code Vein 2, but dungeons and the demon world also have distinct and dramatic tracks to keep the energy up. Also, some of the better music from previous games returns to round out and give awesome emotional weight where it feels necessary throughout the game.

So many swords… so many

]The Nioh series gameplay has always had me in a bit of a bind on how I feel about it, and that continues to be the case in Nioh 3. Nioh’s combat has always been satisfying. Its high, medium, and low stances with unique skill trees for each position in each weapon class have always provided a highly customizable combat system. Nioh 3 improves upon this by once again adding new weapon classes and even separating all of its ninja gear and ninjutsu skills into a separate combat system. Now, you can build and change between Samurai and Ninja loadouts with just a button combo to switch, and with different equipment sets and skills for each.

On one hand, this is a neat way to differentiate styles. You still level up attributes that would better suit an upfront fighter or a squirrely assassin, so you can focus your growth into one side or the other, but always having the option to change it up was quite nice. On the other hand, I’m not crazy about how having a specific Ninja style divides the equipment and resources you can use. The Samurai side can’t use Ninja class weapons like the sickle and chain and the Ninja can’t use the odachi or axe weapon classes. I kind of wish I was still able to blend my favored equipment into the hybrid style I wanted. Clearly dividing these styles puts everything they can do a dangerous button press apart from once another, and that also means having to learn two different gameplay styles at once if you want to utilize them appropriately. I opted to favor Samurai style with just a few situational pieces from the Ninja side.

I have always hated how Nioh handles equipment, and thanks to having two styles, its inventory problem is worse than ever. Every enemy you defeat explodes into assorted bits of money, Amrita souls (for level-ups), and gear like a Borderlands-like loot pinata. After about 30 minutes of play, that has historically amounted to you having to sift through dozens of weapons and armor pieces trying to figure out what’s useful. While you can just lump everything into a fast recycle, it’s still tedious trying to make sure you have good gear with the stats you want, and now even more so with two separate equipment loadouts to manage. That’s before you even get into the return of Nioh 2’s Soul Core system, which sometimes rewards players with the equippable souls of a defeated enemies. The sheer amount of inventory management is exhaustive in letting you build your favored playstyle, but also exhausting.

Thank goodness Nioh is still engaging and challenging in its action. Duels against humans and demons feel as brutal as ever, not to mention satisfying when you find your flow and increase your abilities. And the enemies take on all sorts of cool forms, be it unique human characters that will utilize all of the battle options available against you or grotesque demons that push you to change up your flow enough to match their unnatural potential. Nioh also does a good job of bringing back familiar foes while also introducing new threats that keep you on edge.

There’s one combat feature I’m divided on, which is the Break Burst. In the past, when an enemy spun up a powerful red aura attack, you could use a special resource called Anima to do a Burst Counter. Break Burst is Nioh 3’s Burst Counter, but it’s an almost free move now. You can parry those attacks right before they hit with a Break Burst for just a little bit of stamina, stunning your enemy and doing major damage to their stance. I would say this is a cool and dramatic system in tough fights, but I also feel like it devolved many fights, especially with foes I had encountered in previous games, into me defending until I saw a red aura attack. Depending on the enemy, that took a lot of previous strategy out of the battle and simplified things a little too much. In some cases, it felt unsafe to do anything but wait for a Burst Break. Thankfully, there are also challenging foes where you will absolutely have to do more than wait for a Break Burst opportunity.

Cutting a path through history

Nioh 3 is definitely the most different of the Nioh games, if just for its open world and the distinct split between Samurai and Ninja styles. I was pretty divided on these. There are good and bad aspects to both. Nioh’s tedious inventory systems just make more work for the player when you put a full second loadout on top of it. Meanwhile, the journey feels far less directed than the first two games, even if the land and its diverse encounters can still be quite fun. Nioh is at its best when it makes you fear for your life, back against the wall, desperately trying to use everything you’ve got to survive a deadly fight. In that way, Nioh 3 shines just like the rest of the series in both presentation and gameplay. Just be prepared for long journeys between the truly big moments, and plenty of gear recycling along the way.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 digital copy provided by the publishers. Nioh 3 comes out on February 6, 2026 on PS5 and PC with a standard edition retailing at $69.99 USD.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.