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 #16: Okatsu
Wasn’t expecting to fight another human opponent this soon after the previous one, let alone in the same mission. Assuming you guys watched the ending of my battle with the Ogress, you would know that Okatsu is one of main character William’s allies, but now she is under the influence of the corrupted Amrita crystals that were scattered within this mission, which explains why she’s suddenly trying to kill him. Fortunately, there aren’t any corrupted Amrita crystals within close proximity of the fighting arena, so Okatsu won’t have the benefit of rapid health regeneration or increased attack power like Honda did. Still, Okatsu is a quick and nimble little thing. As you will see in the video below, she ended up giving me a pretty good fight, but in the end she was definitely one of the easier bosses in the game since I manage to defeat her on my first attempt. Plus, I did kind of go easy on her. Well, a better way to put it would be that I kind of forgot to take advantage of my more powerful Onmyo magic abilities in this battle and fought her using only my melee attacks, a rather foolish oversight, I admit, and one that I rather stupidly allow to happen again more than once. Anyway, enjoy the fight.
Boss #17: Giant Toad
F@#k. I DID NOT want to face this son of a bitch again. But this was just the first of many sub-missions that require William to have a rematch with an enemy he has already defeated/killed in one of the main missions, most of which involve a former enemy in the underworld challenging William to an honorable duel. Why this damn Giant Toad had to be one of them is beyond me. But I’m not one to hide when someone challenges me to a duel, so I answered the call. I was determined not to let this fat shit take me down more than 8 times like when I first faced him. Unfortunately, as you will see in the video below, my first attempt at this rematch did not go well at all. Prepare yourselves, what you’re about to see is not pretty.
Clearly, I still hadn’t fully developed my timing with regards to dodging certain enemy attacks. At this point, I was afraid that I was in for another crusade where I would die repeatedly against this bastard before I could defeat him. Fortunately, I managed to take this guy down on my second attempt thanks to a slight change in tactics: Basically, I made sure not to be as defensive as I normally am and tried to be more aggressive in my attacks, which seemed to help. The Giant Toad still smacked me around a fair bit, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t argue with my results.
Boss #18: Honda Tadakatsu
Now THIS was the rematch I was hoping for! Like I mentioned in last week’s article with my first encounter with Honda Tadakatsu, I was itching for a rematch against this guy without those damn corrupted Amrita crystals upping his attack power and granting him with fast-acting health regeneration. And now I was getting that rematch. It was just him and me now, mano-e-mano, no unfair advantages for either of us. But even without the corrupted Amrita crystals, Honda Tadakatsu is a pretty tough dude; that damn spear thrust of his is especially annoying. However, what really makes this guy such a pain in the ass is one of his Guardian Spirit abilities that…..regenerates his health at an alarmingly high rate, JUST like when he was being empowered by those damn corrupted Amrita cyrstals. As you will see in the video of my first attempt below, I tried my damndest to throw as many attacks as I could at Honda so he didn’t regain too much of his health after using his Guardian Spirit, but the rate of health regeneration was so great that I simply couldn’t deal any lasting damage on this guy. My efforts ended up draining me of my own health and Onmyo magic items, and even though I eventually came close to killing this guy on my first attempt, he was able to outlast me in the end.
I knew I had to change tactics if I was going to beat Honda on my second attempt. This time when he used his damn health regeneration ability, I made sure not to be too aggressive with my attacks, instead I used hit and run tactics: I would hit him with a combo, retreat to let my Ki regenerate while avoiding his attacks, then quickly get back in there and hit him with another combo before retreating again. This tactic (barely) kept him from fully regenerating his health and also kept me from using up all my health and Onmyo magic items, that way when his health regeneration spell wore off, I could go hog wild on the guy with my strongest abilities and put him down. As you will see in the video below, it worked! Final thoughts: Honda Tadakatsu is moderately tough, but thanks to that damn health regeneration ability of his, he’s definitely one of the more annoying human enemies in the game.
I think I’m improving, right? I defeated all three of these bosses in one or two attempts, and one of them was the piece of shit Giant Toad whom I despise above most other bosses in this game (emphasis on “most”). I’ll just come right out and say that it’s at this point in my playthrough of Nioh where I start hitting my stride. I know when to strike, when to guard/dodge, and my battle instincts have greatly improved compared to how I fumbled about in my earlier videos. Join us next Friday as I continue to dominate my opponents like the most badass Souls-Type noob you’ve ever seen.
