Ni-Oh is a Dark Souls-style Action-RPG, PSX Trailer

Sony has used its PlayStation Experience keynote to announce a few titles coming to its current generation platform, the PlayStation 4, and one of them is Ni-Oh, an action-RPG that was first unveiled for the Japanese audience earlier this year at the Tokyo Game Show. The title has been in development for a very long time, but in its current incarnation it’s an action-RPG developed by Tecmo Koei that seems to have taken some cues from From Software’s current crop of Souls titles.

Ni-Oh is supposed to come out in 2016 and the trailer released yesterday offers a decent idea of how it will look:

Admittedly, the action-RPG elements of the title aren’t very apparent in the trailer, but there’s strong evidence that suggests the folks at Tecmo Koei were at least familiar with the Souls formula while developing the title. In this gameplay footage captured from a livestream by YouTube user “ZhugeEX” it’s possible to see loot, an attribute system that seems to function exactly like the system used in all From Software’s action-RPGs since Demon’s Souls, and a new take on the bloodstain system. The combat seems to skew a little closer to dedicated Japanese action games, however, with separate stances and an overall faster and flashier feel:

The folks at VG247 previewed the game based on a hands-off demonstration at Tokyo Game Show, further reinforcing the impression that this is meant to Tecmo Koei’s take on the console-focused action-RPG genre:

Combat appears to emphasise dodging, blocking and precise timing over rushing in to hammer away at baddies. Groups of grunts are especially deadly. When you approach a location where a nasty knot of foes hang out, you’ll see a number of sword markers, presumably indicating the death of another player or NPC. I know it’s not your own death, because I saw the player character die and return to the same spot to retrieve whatever.

Do I need to go on? Because I can. For much of the footage shown the UI was hidden, but when it was visible you could see how the D-pad is used as item quick slots. Every action running, jumping, dodging, attacking required and consumed stamina, indicated by a green gauge by the health bar.

Opening the menu revealed row upon row of baffling text, including what seemed to be a pretty extensive inventory with lots of different armour pieces. You need to check in at specific locations shrines in order to level up, which requires resources. It’s Dark Souls. It’s Dark Souls.

Overall, I’m hoping to see more of Ni-Oh’s level design and systems next year to get a good idea of what Tecmo Koei is doing with it, but I find the idea of a Japanese-styled action-RPG in the vein (but not a clone of) Dark Souls to be pretty interesting. Time will tell, I suppose.