I almost quit Nioh 3 after a couple of hours — but now I’m obsessed with this delightfully difficult action-RPG

If this Nioh 3 review were based on my initial impressions, it would not be positive. It’s fair to say my experience with Nioh 3 got off to a rocky start. The enemies seemed overtuned, the core narrative felt tonally inconsistent, and the overwhelming menu management quickly grated on me. After the prologue, I was dreading the vast and tough adventure to come.

Fast forward several dozen hours, and I’m completely obsessed with Nioh 3. And that’s not a word I use lightly. Not since Elden Ring have I played an open-world game where I’m this desperate to see everything. The unique combat flow has clicked, I’m constantly trying to optimise my character build, and each new upgrade that I earn feels deeply rewarding.

That’s not to say all the friction has evaporated; having to spend so much time in menus rather than in the open fields fighting tough enemies is still a little frustrating, and I wish the game had more memorable bosses. But what initially seemed like major flaws that would derail the whole game have rapidly become minor inconveniences I can easily overlook.

If you’re looking for a remarkably content-rich game that offers mechanically deep combat and a hugely rewarding level of challenge, Nioh 3 is the first must-play game of 2026.

Nioh 3: The Basics

• What is it? The third game in the Nioh franchise, this action-RPG combines elements of FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series with the loot-based grind of Diablo. New to Nioh 3 are larger open-world levels that offer plenty of distractions.
• Who is it for? Nioh 3 is definitely a game for players who crave difficulty, as its enemies and bosses put up a real fight. It’ll also appeal to gamers who love exploring large open worlds.
• What's the price? Nioh 3 costs $69 as standard. There is also a Digital Deluxe Edition for $109, which includes the Season Pass and additional in-game items and weapons.
• What other games has the developer made? Nioh 3 comes from Team Ninja. The Japanese developer has been the steward of the Nioh franchise since its inception in 2017. It also created the popular Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series, as well as Souls-style games Rise of the Ronin and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
• What games is this similar to? As a sequel, Nioh 3 is naturally very similar to its predecessor, but its biggest inspiration appears to be Elden Ring. The mission-based approach of past Nioh games has been swapped for multiple open-world zones.

A vast land full of dangers

After letting you lose in the game’s impressively deep character creator suite, Nioh 3 funnels you into a very linear introduction to highlight the basics of combat. This section of the game also sets the stakes of the main story. Unlike its Souls-inspiration, Nioh offers a more straightforward tale, conveyed through well-animated cutscenes and character interactions.

Set in 1600s Japan, you play a custom protagonist who is next in line to become the shogun. However, before you can take up the position, you are betrayed, and the region is thrown into chaos as yokai forces (think supernatural monsters) invade. So, what else is a shogun in-waiting to do but hop through time to save the land from darkness? It’s a serviceable yarn, but it’s rather melodramatic, and Nioh 3 sometimes struggles to mesh its grand stakes with its more eccentric characters.

Fortunately, Nioh 3 didn’t need an especially strong narrative hook to keep me invested; the compelling open-world regions were more than enough to have me eager to explore every single corner for hours at a time. Unlike its predecessors, which were mission-based, Nioh 3 takes cues from Elden Ring with large “open field” levels that you can explore at your leisure.

The regions are visually diverse, from grassy plains to snow-capped mountains, and each is packed with side quests, optional bosses, and all sorts of doodads to collect. All of these open-world distractions are technically optional, but in practice, not so much. Due to Nioh’s overall demanding difficulty, you’re going to want every upgrade you can get, which makes exploring the open world near essential unless you’re willing to be extremely underleveled.

Nioh 3’s approach to open-world design is definitely more Ubisoft than FromSoftware, with a visible checklist and map markers to guide you to each point of interest, but because side questing is so well rewarded, open-world activities never feel like busywork. I neglected mandatory quests for hours on end in favor of clearing each map before progressing.

When it comes to difficulty level, Nioh strikes a solid balance. If you opt to fully explore each open zone before continuing on the gold path, you’ll be well-equipped to handle each new hurdle. But if you attempt to rush through to the end, expect to very quickly find yourself struggling against foes who obliterate you in a few hits while your weapons barely scratch.

If you do find yourself stuck, you can always summon a co-op partner to assist or activate an NPC companion to make the hardest encounters a little easier. However, in my experience, most bosses seem to completely ignore summonable allies in favor of targeting the player character, so you’ll still need sharp dodging skills to survive more than a few seconds.

Ways of the warrior

Nioh has always been a combat-first franchise, and it’s Nioh 3’s challenging skirmishes that shine brightest. You are given a frankly staggering amount of options. At a basic level, there are 17 unique weapon types, including the expected assortment of samurai swords, spears and gigantic axes, but also exotic weaponry like dual wooden batons and razor-sharp claws.

Midway through the campaign, you’re granted the ability to select two melee weapons at once, letting you quickly switch between armaments to create dazzling combos. And your base weapon is just the start of your combat options. You also have ranged weapons (bows and firearms), magic abilities, and special Guardian Spirit attacks tied to a cool-down bar.

The crux of Nioh’s combat flow revolves around two distinct classes: Samurai and Ninja. With the press of a button, you can instantly switch between styles. Each can be fitted with their own unique loadout, with Samurai recovering stamina via the returning “Ki Pulse” system, and Ninja being quicker, giving you access to useful “Ninjutsu” skills like Shuriken projectiles and homing fireballs. It’s a blast hopping between these two distinct styles, and crafting builds that complement each other. However, I did find Ninja mode most useful.

Even after I’ve slayed several thousand enemies, per the in-game tracker, each new battle is a joy because there’s just so much choice in how you approach encounters. Enemy variety doesn’t match the number of options at your disposal, but it’s hard to get bored with culling the same demon hundreds of times when you have so many ways to send them back to hell.

In many Souls games, the bosses are a memorable highlight, and while Nioh 3 is stuffed with “formidable foes” to vanquish. I was disappointed by how few of them really stuck out. Many are intimidating in scale, but actually fighting them feels less like an exercise in learning their unique moveset and more like a battle of attrition. Most bosses have hugely bloated health bars, which favour hit-and-run tactics over learning to counter their attacks.

Though, shoutout to an early game boss with a flaming spear and a lightning-quick horse. This tough battle represented my first real roadblock, and while I was able to send him packing in a handful of tries, it was a rare time a Nioh 3 boss reached Dark Souls-quality.

Growing stronger all the time

Nioh 3 might have the most overwhelming number of upgrade trees and skills to level up in any game I’ve ever played. At a certain point in the early game, it became almost comical how often I would unlock a new upgrade path. Expect to spend hours in the various menus.

Of course, there’s the standard character level, which is increased using a currency gained from defeating enemies, but this is just the start. Rest at a shrine, and you’ll nearly always have something that can be leveled up, whether it’s your chosen Spirit Guardians, your various skill trees (both classes have one, as does every weapon type), or your Blessings, which offer useful abilities like increased health restoration when using a healing item.

Having so much to level up is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it ensures you’re practically always getting stronger. Play for even 15 minutes, and you’ll likely get an upgrade point to spend somewhere. But it does become a little tedious trying to keep track of so many upgrade paths, and most importantly, ensure your abilities synergize with each other.

Then there’s the loot. So much loot. Every enemy, from the smallest trash mobs to the most fearsome bosses, drops hordes of gear. Your inventory will quickly be overloaded with armor and weapons. Most of what you pick up will be too low-powered to be useful, but you can easily convert it into more useful resources, like upgrade materials to make your currently equipped weapon/gear even stronger. However, the inability to mark items as “junk” for selling is baffling and makes inventory management more cumbersome than it should be.

Nioh 3 review: verdict

Nioh 3 is a staggeringly large game. If you want to see all the sights and sounds of its corrupted historical Japan, you’re going to need to set aside close to 100 hours. Just the first act alone took me almost 20 hours to complete, and that’s only the start of the epic journey.

Some friction points remain long-term, and even on PS5 Pro, it’s far from the most graphically impressive game I’ve played. Nevertheless, after a brief adjustment period to Nioh’s particular brand of RPG action, I found myself falling more and more in love with each play session. The option-rich combat is exceptional, the exploration is compelling, and players who enjoy creating a character build that fits their playstyle will be in heaven.