Are you a gamer who has an interest in playing a Souls-Type game but have avoided trying one for fear of getting your virtual ass handed to you over and over, leading to you rage quitting and questioning why you play games to begin with? I’ve been there. But what if I told you that playing and beating a Souls-Type game is not the impossible task that you may have been led to believe it is? Join me as I share my experiences and gameplay footage of the many boss battles I fought my way through in Nioh; you might even learn a thing or two, like how to properly beat some of these bosses after seeing them smack me around a bit. Welcome to Nioh Respawn: Blade of the Noob, and enjoy yourselves.
Boss #22: Gasha-dokuro
Welcome to the boss entry that comes with officially THE longest video in this feature. After fighting human enemy after human enemy, Gasha-dokuro is the first “large demon” boss to make an appearance in quite a while (if you watched the video included in last week’s entry on Shima Sakon, then you would have seen Gasha-dokuro appear at the very end). Furthermore, this guy is easily the biggest enemy thus far, even bigger than the Umi-bozu. But you know what they say: “Size doesn’t matter.” That’s probably the first time in years that phrase hasn’t been used as some sort of lame sex joke. Anyway, Gasha-dokuro is, as mentioned before, a very large enemy who is capable of smacking William around with damaging swipes and stomps. And it also doesn’t help that the occasional Skeleton Warriors and Oni-bi (those annoying elemental floating heads) get summoned at times to pester William further….well, actually they do kind of help since killing them can cause them to drop precious health items or ammo for your firearms.
When first fighting Gasha-dokuro, the most challenging aspect is figuring out how to effectively damage him. He has several vulnerable points on him, namely his hands, feet, and what I suppose pass as intestines. Took me some time to figure out that emptying out the health bars on either his hands and/or feet weakens him enough so that two of William’s allies (namely Hattori Hanzo and Tenkai) use their weapons and magic, respectively, to momentarily knock Gasha-dokuro down, giving William the opportunity to attack its main weak point: the head. Although, figuring out how to reach Gasha-dokuro’s head to damage it also took me a little time as well. So, between figuring out how to damage this guy, coupled with learning how to avoid his attacks (or at least trying to avoid them), one can see why this boss took such a long time for me to (barely) beat….even more so since it was done in one sitting. That’s four late game bosses in a row I managed to defeat in one go. I must be getting better at this, right?
In hindsight, I probably could have blocked Gasha-dokuro’s attacks instead of trying to dodge them and getting myself pummeled and squashed half the time as a result. Dammit.
Boss #23: Saika Magoichi
Looks like another rematch with another boss I already schooled. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with having to fight Saika Magoichi again, but what can you do? Even though I pretty much knew what to expect in this battle, this guy kind of gave me a slightly more difficult time than when I first fought him, though that was mostly due to me getting a bit careless. Nevertheless, I was never more confident at being victorious in a battle as I was during this rematch, and lo and behold, I won this battle on my first attempt as well. Niiiiice.
Boss #24: Ishida Mitsunari
The confidence I had gained from winning five boss battles in a row in just one attempt each immediately dwindled once I came face to face with Ishida Mitsunari. Like a couple of the other boss battles I discussed earlier in this feature, I watched a brief gameplay video of the battle against Ishida Mitsunari (technically, I only watched part of it) before the game released, and he looked like a really tough son of a bitch. I was CERTAIN this guy was going to kill me multiple times. In fact, I was quite sure he was going to be my next “Tachibana Muneshige”, or at least my next “Giant Toad”. When I started fighting Ishida Mitsunari though, I was slightly relieved to see that he was not quite as tough as I thought he would be. Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying here, this guy is not easy, as you will see in the video below.
This guy was another human-turned-demon enemy with an especially annoying Guardian Spirit that grants him with the Living Weapon ability. Despite how intimidated I was by this guy, I was NOT going to lie down and take that shit he pulled where he spammed his f@$king Guardian Spirit and used it to basically Izuna Drop my ass twice in a row (the fact this Guardian Spirit is actually named “Izuna” is not likely a coincidence, I gather). I pulled out all the stops in my second attempt, and while Mitsunari managed to get some good shots in, I was too much for him in the end, and I actually managed to avoid some of his trickier (and cheaper) attacks quite effectively. Now watch as I make this energy wave-spamming shithead my bitch.
I have once again surpassed my own expectations here. After beating two more bosses in one attempt each, I then manage to defeat Ishida Mitsunari, supposedly one of the tougher bosses in the game, in just two attempts. I was on Cloud 9 at this point……but how long could that possibly last? This is a game developed by Team Ninja, after all, one of the most sadistic game developers who are notorious for torturing those who play their games by adding insurmountable challenges in them that many view as cheap. So far, I had dealt with several challenging enemies in Nioh, but I had not encountered any truly cheap enemies (though Tachibana Muneshige and the Giant Toad came close), so I figured I was due for an encounter with a truly cheap boss, and that it’d come sooner rather than later. Join us next Friday and find out if just such an encounter takes place within the next collection of boss battles.