

Why spend time finding the perfect item when you are just going to level passed it? With it being completely luck dependent, I found that I always just ended up defaulting to the highest level gear I had in my inventory. The first problem with the random gear in the game is that there are simply way too many drops with too many varieties of modifiers to give players any sort of gratifying choice for the amount of time spent in the inventory, especially early on in the game. The stats on gear have not changed much from the original, which was a sort of a downer for me. With separate constellations for each weapon, magic, and discipline, the options for builds are simply dizzying to think about. With each node providing new moves and interesting gameplay improvements, they managed to make each individual upgrade feel impactful.

However, once you take a closer look, it’s quite intuitive.

Unlike the first’s simple skill tree, Nioh 2 features a skill constellation-a web of interlocking nodes that are both visually impressive and terrifying. Additionally, since you can only have two separate abilities equipped at a time, this encourages yet more player decision making. Although Nioh 2 isn’t much different in that regard, the addition of Yokai skills lets you use the demonic side without fully committing to the transformation.

One of the lackluster components of the spirits in the previous game was how you barely got to use the mechanic due to the fact that it took a while to build it up. There are also three different forms you can turn into which offer a nice bit of variety. A complete transformation that changes your moveset and playstyle, it is as fun to use as it is to look at. Previously, activating your guardian spirit just made your sword glow and improved your abilities, but now, you turn into a badass Yokai instead. First, I’ll tackle the most impressive change, the guardian spirits system which received the Yokai transformation ability. Like the original, Nioh is back with guardian spirits, skill trees and random gears with stats.
