After just 4 hours, I'm impressed by Nioh 3's snappy action and samurai-to-ninja combo transformations: "We want the player to have a rich experience of mastery"

Takasugi Shinsaku meets the player in Nioh 3, pointing a gun while a colorful yokai spirit floats behind him, cropped to give a closer view of the characters.

As I sit in a darkened room, taking near-endless punishment from a four hour build of Nioh 3, It's easy to forget that Soulslikes were once utter garbage. As Dark Souls fever swept the land in the 2010s, developers across the globe scrambled to cash in with their own off brand alternatives. CI Games borked it with 2014's shonky Lords of the Fallen. Deck 13 Interactive added a so-so sci-fi twist with The Surge, yet despite their best efforts, the first wave of Soulslikes felt like pale imitators, failing to capture that FromSoftware magic. Then Nioh came along.

Renowned for creating the hard as nails Ninja Gaiden series, Nioh developer Team Ninja were the perfect fit. "Soulslike – that's the first time I've heard that word," jokes Fumihiko Yasuda Nioh 3 general producer and head of Team Ninja, "yes, we're all big fans of Dark Souls at Team Ninja."