As you may know, Nioh was released recently by Sony and Koei Tecmo and in an effort to get fans excited about the release not only has the developer released the intense looking opening movie for the game but they have also released the third in a series of story trailers. This latest story trailer is called “Battle of Those Who Lived in the Darkness” and tells the untold history of William Adams, also known as Anjin Miura, who takes on a giant monster that was born from the souls of samurai.
You can check out both videos below and as for the game, Nioh is currently available for the PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe with the Japanese release of the title occurring tomorrow.
Opening Movie
Story Trailer #3
Story
Gameplay
The town itself that you begin at is actually one of the most interesting parts of the experience. Players can bring Digimon back to this area, where they will be a part of the community, setting up shop – creating more items while upgrading the overall appearance of the area slowly as you progress. This means that as you move forward, the reward for progression is slowly creating a bigger world for your creatures to inhabit.
One thing I will give Digimon World: Next Order is its pride in its own complexity. This title does not seem deep from the start, but the massive amount of little stats to keep up with, Digimon to train, and little invisible checkboxes to tick before molding the ideal your experience are so infinite that fans will still be able to look past any flaws and spend a ton of time in this world. Sure, the timing system is tedious and Digimon die within 20 in-game days, meaning you constantly have to work to obtain the spoils, but much like any other title with heavy farming yet mindless monotony, Next Order certainly carries its weight well to keep the player intrigued, just because the rewards feel exciting enough to keep on grinding.
The sound I actually loved. The music sounds familiar and the general soundtrack beams with upbeat tunes that pull out a great atmosphere for the whole experience. The voice acting is also well done, with our digital and human friends alike all sounding fully focused and in tune with the little story in the game. Yes folks, the voice acting here is what will make you get that nostalgia for the anime, as it simply adds another layer to keep fans immersed and entertained.
Unfortunately for Nero, her and her master barely have a chance to examine their new realm when they learn that the digital world of SE.RA.PH created by the Moon Cell Automation has been intruded upon by others that also possess Regalia Rings. As such it is up to Nero, paired with her master, and the few Servants that still obey her to take to the battlefield and conquer what is rightfully theirs.
That being said, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star’s storyline is very enjoyable once it gets going as this is a game that is something of a split between action game and visual novel. This means between every battle section there is quite a bit of dialogue as the story unfolds and the player interacts with their current Servant in order to grow their bond level by selecting various dialogue choices. Higher bond levels allow players to equip them with more passive boosts as well as the potential to unlock special unique scenes. The story features quite a bit of explanation as you progress through it so things that may catch familiar fans off guard is generally explained over time and considering players unlock additional full storylines following the viewpoints of a certain tailed Caster class and white haired Saber class, as well as small side-stories for the lesser featured Servants, and you’ll find that there is quite a lot of content to enjoy here for fans of the series’ lore and characters.
You see, each area in a battlefield contains a certain number of keys that are used to eventually conquer an area in SE.RA.PH and generally the final boss (enemy general) won’t make an appearance until you’ve obtained a certain number of keys. This means that taking a certain area might provide the player with only one and another could gift them with five. The problem is that thanks to some fairly poor ally AI, the battlefield never feels entirely safe for the player despite the actual combat being simple to understand.
Combat in the game, as mentioned before, is incredibly easy to understand and master as players will find that each character has light attacks and heavy attacks that can be combed together into different move strings, special moves that take up parts of a refillable gauge, and even certain characters (the ones that players will likely be controlling the most) have the ability to transform into Moon Crux forms that increases their stats, changes up their attack strings, and makes their attacks nigh unblockable. This makes for an easy to learn and master combat system that is incredibly fast feeling with enemies spawning in quick enough and in enough number that combos over 2,000 are quite frequent and kill counts over 10,000 are more than feasible.
The generic enemies you battle against often offer very little challenge but facing off against enemy Servants is another story. They often have special quirks about them and can utilize some incredibly devastating skills that may leave the player backpedaling a bit to use an item from their raiment. These battles tend to be quite rewarding and are often the highlight of any stage. As for the raiment, players will unlock various materials and in-game currency that can be equipped to give the player various boosts that can be used in battle ranging from healing, boosting stats, swapping to an ally, or even creating decoys though since players are not able to select specific skills when creating a piece of equipment, sometimes it is best to choose what fits your playstyle or a stage even if it may not be the best available at the time.
Thankfully thanks to the style of the main characters and the artwork used in visual novel segments, players will still find quite a bit to enjoy in the core aspect. As for the soundtrack and voice work, it is worth noting that almost everything in the game is voiced in Japanese with English subtitles as only the player character is left unvoiced. The soundtrack features quite an array of memorable sounding tunes that fit well with the fast paced action of the battlefield as well as the more dramatic moments of the story.
With both girls nicknamed Shallie, and calling each other Lotte and Stera, it is up to players to decide which of the two characters they wish to be the main character of their game. It is worth noting that while a number of aspects and various events in each heroines’ storylines are unique, which means the game is ripe for a second playthrough to see the story from a different viewpoint and experience new events, that a large amount of events take place when both Lotte and Stera are present.
One of my key critiques about the original release of this game was the fact that a large number of story elements and plot points were left with unsatisfying explanations or completely ignored such as the origin of the Dusk and why it swept the land. Thankfully this issue has been rectified in this version of the game. While there is still a certain lack of urgency now that the time limit has been removed from the game a number of new story chapters have been added into the game to provide extra explanation and details into the game’s story that were sorely lacking in the original. Combine this more solid conclusion to the story with the addition of Ayesha and Logy added into the game as playable characters that have their own little snippets here and there and you’ll find that Atelier Shallie Plus manages to deliver a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
The alchemy system remains continues to be streamlined with many of the basic mechanics being very familiar to those who have played the titles before. Through the use of using high quality ingredients and aiming for special elemental values, players will be able to unlock special enhancements that will make them more effective while Shallie can also use various abilities she has unlocked to modify the outcome of the synthesis and give players more control than before while presenting it in an easy to understand manner.
Another new feature is the Burst mechanic. At the top of the combat screen a meter will fill up that will allow players to trigger a Field Burst when filled. The Field Burst allows the player to select a certain member’s special ability to take effect during the fight and this can drastically change the way combat unfolds as these boosts range from auto-reviving from death, to recovering large amounts of health and MP, to buffing the party’s statuses and even triggering a large Variable Strike with a unique animation.
What replaces the time system is a far less restrictive “Life Task” system that will see the player taking on requests, including side-character development quests, and accomplishing various goals in order to progress to the next chapter in the story. These goals can be anything from synthesizing a certain number of items, to cleaning up garbage or harvesting items, to slaying a boss enemy in a dungeon.
The voice work for the series remains as strong as ever with the title releasing with the English voice option as well as the Japanese voice track being available if you so choose. The voice work for the returning characters matches well with what fans should expect and as for the soundtrack, players will be hard pressed finding a bad sounding piece of background music throughout the game. Whether it is calming exploration music, tunes to listen to while battling enemies, or providing atmosphere to important scene, every track feels like a perfect fit for the situation.