Nioh 3 is all I Wanted it to be and More

Article at a glance:

• A flawed but sincere evolution of Nioh’s formula, Nioh 3 trades tight mission pacing for an open world that mostly works, while staying brutally punishing despite being slightly easier than its predecessors.
• Combat remains king, somehow improving on Nioh 2 with deeper, smoother systems and a dual-style setup that fits naturally into the series’ DNA.
• Not beginner-friendly in the slightest, Nioh 3 still overwhelms newcomers with layered mechanics and loot complexity, but for veterans, it’s a rewarding, long-term game worth the commitment.

I initially didn’t plan on reviewing Nioh 3 here because, well, it took me quite a bit of time to get through the game, and I wasn’t sure it would fit here. But I decided to do it anyway. Because I was ranting about Code Vein 2 just a few days ago. And I think it is unfair of me to cover games only in a negative light. While not perfect, Nioh 3 is a valiant effort at evolving the franchise’s formula further. It is a decent attempt at an open world. And don’t get it twisted, even if Nioh 3 is a bit easier than Nioh 1/2, it will still kick your teeth in.

So welcome to my review of Nioh 3. At this point, I have beaten the game. It took me a long time, as you might expect, but it was well worth it. This review will be completely spoiler-free because I know some people are pretty touchy about even minor spoilers in these games. So let’s get started.

My Thoughts on Nioh 3

Let’s start with my complaints first, since I don’t have many. The biggest complaint has to be the performance issues. On launch, the game had some pretty bad stutter issues that have mostly been resolved at this point. But still, I am tired of unoptimized PC releases. The game still struggles a bit with pop-in for some reason, but the stuttering and framerate issues have been resolved, so it feels a lot smoother to play now.

Aside from that, I know some people wanted this game to look better, but I am glad that it is not another UE5 mess and remains playable on most devices. Nioh 2 still holds up really well, and Nioh 3 has a similar level of fidelity. And of course, the art direction is once again cooking hard here.

Despite being easier than Nioh 1/2, Nioh 3 is absolutely NOT beginner-friendly. If you are not familiar with the older games, the layers upon layers of mechanics and complex loot systems will drown you. It happened to all of us when we first picked up this series. So, only try these games if the thought of having so many mechanics to keep track of. Combat remains the star of the show. I can’t believe how they did it, but they improved the combat over Nioh 2, somehow.

The combat feels incredibly satisfying. It is somehow deeper and smoother than Nioh 2. They improved pretty much all aspects of combat. The dual style system fits effortlessly into the franchise’s foundation. The open-world nature of the game does mean that the tight pacing of the first two games is gone, but the open world is pretty damn good, so it does make up for that somewhat.

That is all for now

In summary, this is what I wanted Code Vein 2 to be like. They did such an amazing job on Nioh 3. They kept everything that made the first two games iconic and made it better. Sure, the game is a little easier, but all the complicated mechanics are still there, and they made a decent attempt at a proper open world. And yeah, while not Nioh 2 levels, Nioh 3 is still fairly challenging.

I can totally see Nioh 3 becoming a permanent fixture in my games in rotation among titles like Hades, Elden Ring, Borderlands 2, etc. So I highly recommend this game if you are into difficult games like these. I would go as far as saying that Nioh 3 is the first GOOD video game of 2026. With that said, I will take my leave here. See ya!