Nioh is "not the kind of game that lives or dies on things like atmosphere or graphics," producer says – and we can thank fan feedback for bringing the brutal action RPG series "so far"

Nioh 3.

The Nioh duology (soon to be trilogy, with Nioh 3 coming early next year) is widely regarded as one of the best amid others of the action RPG genre – and according to Koei Tecmo, its good reputation may be due in part to playable demos.

Speaking in a recent interview with Denfaminicogamer (translated by Automaton), producer Fumihiko Yasuda states as much. "For the Nioh series, we've always released demos so that we could incorporate player feedback, but the reaction was particularly strong in the recent alpha," he explains, recalling the alpha Nioh 3 demo from earlier this summer. According to Yasuda, Koei Tecmo opted for a similar approach while developing the original Nioh, too.