Team Ninja has been working on their Samurai hack and slash RPG Nioh for awhile now, ten years to be exact, and after all that time players are about to get their hands on the game for the first time starting this month.
The news came via the PlayStation Blog from Peter Garza, the overseas producer on the game. Kou Shibusawa, General Producer for Nioh had this to say:
Now, finally, Nioh — a game created with the entire power of Koei Tecmo — will be released in 2016. In appreciation to all the fans who have waited so long, and in order to have gamers everywhere try Nioh as soon as possible, we will release the Alpha Demo this month. We hope you enjoy overcoming the challenges in this masocore (Dark Souls-like gameplay) take on samurai action — Nioh.
The demo will be available exclusively on PS4 from April 26th to May 3rd. For those who give Nioh a try and what to give Team Ninja some feedback on their experience, the developer will have an online survey available while the demo is live.
Team Ninja will also be offering “The Mark of The Conqueror” DLC free to anyone who makes it through the demo. It’s unclear what the DLC will be but considering it will be free, it will most likely be some weapons, armor and other consumables.
About a month ago, we wrote an article about Tokyo Game Show walk through on the game that Team Ninja posted, calling the game essentially Dark Souls set in ancient Japan. Here’s the description from the blog post:
Set in a time of civil war in Japan, Nioh not only incorporates classic elements such as samurai and supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore, but also offers the exhilaration of an authentic samurai sword fight straight from Team Ninja, the team that defined brutal action games.
Still no word on an official release date, but Nioh will come out sometime this year as a PS4 exclusive.