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 #4: Nue
I still feel a strange sense of pride over the fact that I managed to avoid being killed by the first three bosses in Nioh (yes, it only happened because of my time with the beta preparing me for those specific challenges, but I still say that’s pretty impressive for a “Souls noob”). I tend to get easily frustrated when I die in video games, especially after repeated deaths, but the fact I spent a good 10 minutes fighting this fourth boss, Nue, only to die when I was quite close to defeating him…well, it didn’t upset me as much as it normally would. I mean, Nue is a tough boss with a crap-ton of different lightning-based attacks that cannot be blocked and must instead be completely avoided; furthermore, this was my very first time encountering this boss, and yet I almost defeated it on my first attempt. Well, wait until you hear this: I managed to defeat Nue on my second attempt, and I was fully expecting to end up fighting this “monster Pikachu” at least another 3 or 4 times. That’s impressive, right? Right?!
Fair warning, if you plan on watching both gameplay videos below in their entirety, then make sure to take a quick stroll to the restroom and maybe get yourself a little snack as well. These are long, drawn out battles here. Also, keep in mind that at the time of these recordings, I was still new at this game and had not yet gotten used to all the nuances of its in-depth combat system, like effectively using the Ki Pulse or the fact the demon enemies become more vulnerable to attacks when they momentarily run out of stamina, so try to cut me some slack. Remember, this is “Blade of the Noob” not “Blade of the Samurai Master”.
Boss #5: Tachibana Muneshige (Edward Kelley)
Given the experience I had with Tachibana Muneshige in the Nioh beta (which I will get to later), I was rather concerned about this boss battle. But, since here I was actually fighting main villain Edward Kelley taking on the form of Tachibana Muneshige, it turns out I didn’t have much to worry about. While this “fake Tachibana Muneshige” is a decent fighter, he’s nowhere near to being one of the tougher bosses in this game, as evidenced below where I again manage to win another boss battle on my first attempt. I’m kind of on a roll here!
Boss #6: Tachibana Muneshige
And this is where my “roll” officially comes to an end. This is the real Tachibana Muneshige…and the real Tachibana Muneshige is an infuriating BASTARD who managed to anger me in a way that few other bosses have, both in this game and in other games. This guy kicked my ass more times than I can count in the beta, probably more than Hino-enma and Onryoki combined. But since I had already fought and eventually defeated him in the beta, I figured I’d be able to beat him after maybe just a few attempts in the full game. Unfortunately, I was not meant to have another easy or even moderately easy time against yet another boss. Nioh had other plans for me. While I did better in my first attempt with Tachibana Muneshige than I thought I would, it just wasn’t enough.
Objectively speaking, Tachibana Muneshige is not actually one of the most difficult bosses in the game, at least as far as abilities and powers go. He is very skilled in sword combat, but there are other enemies who are just generally more difficult when you take their full range of abilities into account. Thing is, Tachibana Muneshige is a very tough boss to face this early in the game, especially since at this point I still hadn’t acquired William’s more useful attacks and abilities. Even though I’ve never played Bloodborne, I’ve done my fair bit of research on the game’s bosses, and I’d say that Tachibana Muneshige is the Father Gascoigne of Nioh, a very tough early boss who gives lots of gamers real trouble early on (except for fellow Gaming Respawn associate Ian Cooper, who informed me he didn’t have too much trouble with Tachibana Muneshige…which only served to further tear me out of the “kickass high” I was on up to this point). Even though I managed to deal a lot of damage to the guy in my first attempt, I didn’t get so lucky again until my last attempt, which numbered probably somewhere in the 30s. It should also be mentioned that no other boss in the entire game managed to kill me as many times as Tachibana Muneshige. While he was not THE most difficult boss in the game, he’s certainly one of the more memorable ones for me. Annoying asshole. Still, it was very satisfying when I finally bested him, so check out my last attempt below.
Well, all things considered, I wasn’t doing too badly in Nioh at this point. Tachibana Muneshige was just as much a pain in the ass for me as he was in the beta, but otherwise, I was content with having beaten the majority of the bosses I had faced so far in just one or two attempts. Join us next week and find out if I’m able to sustain those numbers with the next three bosses.