I'm of two minds about difficult games like Nioh 3—one mind thinks that difficulty's a matter of accessibility, that there's really no harm in adding a setting so that someone (for any reason) is able to see a game through. The other half of me thinks that difficulty's often kind of the point, and can be a part of a game itself. I'm also one of those pretentious gits that thinks videogames don't have to be fun to be worth making or playing, though.
Very much in the 'it's the point' camp is game director of Nioh 3 Masaki Fujita, who spoke with Eurogamer on the subject this week. In case you're unfamiliar, Nioh 3 is a soulslike action game with an emphasis on skill expression and difficulty.
As contributor Lewis Parker puts it in his Nioh 3 review, it has a "far more fine-tuned and in-depth approach to combat", more Sekiro than Elden Ring. But that's getting into the weeds a little bit: Point is, it's a bit hard.
Fujita tells the site that "We've never considered adding difficulty settings to the Nioh series. The value of clearing the game is something that is unifying, and since Nioh 3 has even more variations on strategies to clear the game compared to previous games in the series, our approach is not to change the difficulty setting when you can't clear it."
That point, "more variations on strategies", is the crux of the thing. Elden Ring is more accessible than the OG Dark Souls not because it's inherently easier, but because if you wanna go google a cheesy build that can melt through enemies and use the Mimic Tear summon, that's… basically a difficulty setting with more steps, right?
The idea that Nioh 3 offers a lot more variation on what weapons can be used to fell foes is something echoed by our own Fraser Brown, who wrote that the game's even more of an open-world romp than Elden Ring was: "If you want to get stronger right now, you can just look at the map and find opportunities. Along the way you'll almost certainly find some fancy new gear, or perhaps an entire set, with the extra bonuses that come with them."
Personally, this is also a style I'm at odds with (let no one tell you I'm not indecisive). I think it's cool that players who're having a hard time get to hedge their bets through in-world powerups, rather than a menu setting. However, one of my favourite FromSoftware games is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the most restrictive game in their entire catalogue when it comes to how you approach combat.
Still, Fujita continues: "The enjoyment and sense of accomplishment of being able to figure out on your own how to overcome a situation is what we see as one of the best parts of this series." Well, hey—my own personal inner turmoil aside, based on my coworker's glowing words? It clearly worked for Nioh 3. We don't just give 90s to anybody.
