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 #34: Obsidian Samurai and Oda Nobunaga
Dammit, not another one! Team Ninja, you guys are seriously pushing it. Since the advent of video gaming, we have been fighting bosses ONE AT A F@#KING TIME! Why do you guys feel the need to screw with such a time-honored tradition, huh?! Well, now I’m fighting Nobunaga again, and this time he’s teamed up with his former loyal servant, the Obsidian Samurai. As you may recall, I defeated both of these guys in one go when I fought them individually, so I figured this two-on-one boss battle would be more manageable like the first one with Tachibana Muneshige and Honda Tadakatsu. I wasn’t that lucky. While this battle wasn’t the same type of ball-buster like the previous one with Otani Yoshitsugu and Ishida Mitsunari, it was easily as difficult as the one where Nobunaga teamed up with Yuki-onna, in fact, it was more difficult. I was so surprised at how tough this fight was that I, once again, forgot to record my first attempt.
The issue with this battle was that both bosses moved quickly, so luring one away from the other was pretty much a no-go. Therefore, I eventually figured it would be better to try to take out the heavy hitter first, the Obsidian Samurai, through hit and run tactics while avoiding both his and Nobunaga’s attacks in the process. Even worse still, before fighting these guys, I first have to fight against a bunch of Revenant enemies, tough ones. I don’t remember how many attempts this battle took, but I’m pretty sure it was at least six or seven. As you will no doubt be able to tell by watching my last attempt below (the video starts after I’ve killed the Revenants, by the way), this whole experience was a huge pain in the ass.
Boss #35: Date Shigezane
This marks the first boss in Nioh’s first DLC, Dragon of the North, and also the first one-on-one boss fight since the final boss in the main game, Hundred Eyes. It felt good to go back to fighting only one boss at a time. Unfortunately, that good feeling did not last. Readers/viewers, I’d like to introduce you to Date Shigezane, THE toughest and downright CHEAPEST boss in the entire f@#king game, as far as I’m concerned. The two-on-one boss battle against Otani Yoshitsugu and Ishida Mitsunari was easily among the top three most difficult battles in the game, but this son of a bitch was just one opponent, and he easily takes the cake for most difficult single boss in the game (the only other one that comes close will be in a later article). By this point in the game, I knew what I was doing. I wouldn’t dare to call myself a pro or anything, but I knew most of the ins and outs of combat and how best to deal with most enemies I came across. It was at this point where I believe Team Ninja decided to grant bosses with extraordinary abilities (many of them cheap) that easily eclipse those that William would ever gain access to. Anyway, just take a look at my first attempt against Date Shigezane.
It had been a while since a boss had so blatantly shamed me like that (damn Giant Toad), but back then I wasn’t nearly as experienced as I was at this point. Yet this guy utterly destroyed me. Forgive me for repeating myself, but Date Shigezane is just a cheap bastard who leaves himself with practically ZERO openings. The second he’s done with one of his four to eight-hit combos that have incredible reach, he’s back to swinging his sword or his f@#ked up “centipede arm” at me by the time I’ve barely landed two hits on him. Oh, and as I found out in one of my later attempts against him where I somehow managed to bring him down to half his health, he also possesses his own Guardian Spirit that lets him make use of the Living Weapon ability. Eventually, after ten or more failed attempts, I decided to stock up on Sloth Talismans, an item that greatly slows down enemy movement and makes their attacks easier to dodge. I try not to rely on those items too much and normally only carry one or two of them so I can use them when I really need to. Well, this guy forced my hand. If he was going to be a cheap bastard, then I was going to be a cheap bastard as well by covering him in Sloth Talismans and smacking him silly as he moves around like a snail slithering through syrup. Now, enjoy the next video as I take my revenge on Date Shigezane.
Boss #36: Katakura Shigenaga
Well, this is a nice surprise. A human boss with no Guardian Spirit or Living Weapon ability and with relatively average fighting techniques. While Katakura Shigenaga does have a wide array of bomb weapons and uses some stat-boosting items as well, he’s a relatively easy boss in general, comparable to some of the earlier bosses I fought in the main game. As you will see in the video below, he did manage to get a couple of good shots in since I rather foolishly underestimated him and got kind of sloppy, but I wasn’t going to let this little upstart get the better of me, not after having defeated far more powerful enemies beforehand. It really had been quite some time since I last defeated a boss in one go. Thank you, Katakura Shigenaga, for being the little sissy that you are.
Yeah, Team Ninja is definitely turning up the heat now. Not only did completing the main game require going through a number of annoying two-on-one boss battles, but the first boss in the first DLC ended up being a real ball buster. While the second boss wasn’t much to write home about, I had this nagging feeling that the outrageously cheap Date Shigezane wasn’t going to be the only boss in this and future DLCs to make me contemplate breaking my copy of Nioh in half, burning the pieces, and then pissing on the ashes. Or maybe my experience with that nasty centipede-looking asswipe would help prepare me for any tougher bosses that I may encounter later. Join us next Friday and see how my next three boss battles go.