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 #31: Yuki-onna and Oda Nobunaga
Ahhhh, shit. Another two-on-one battle right after the first one. And this one includes that damn Yuki-onna, who was bad enough on her own, but now she was teamed up with Nobunaga (which is appropriate, I guess, since she was Nobunaga’s wife back when she was human and before she became an ice demon-woman). Both these spirits have returned from the dead for some reason, and they wish to fight William because…….this is a video game, so bullshit plot devices that offer nonsense explanations as to why William has to fight every opponent repeatedly are a dime a dozen in games like this where it’s all about the combat. Well, I knew I was in for a real rough battle this time. While Nobunaga is not too troublesome of a boss, the fact he was being backed up this time by one of the more challenging bosses in the game had me rather apprehensive when I started this fight. I figured, much like the previous two-on-one battle with Tachibana Muneshige and Honda Tadakatsu, I would have a much better chance of success in this battle if I could separate these two from each other as much as I could so I could try to concentrate on one at a time. Since Nobunaga is considerably faster than Yuki-onna, I decided to concentrate on luring him away first so I could take him out and then go after his pain in the ass concubine. My first attempt didn’t go too badly, I managed to do a lot of damage to Nobunaga, but in the end it wasn’t quite enough.
This fight ended up frustrating the hell out of me to the point where I wasn’t sure if I would be able to beat it at all. While Yuki-onna was kind of slow, similarly to Honda Tadakatsu in the previous battle, she still had several long-range attacks that could really hurt me, and she would actually run after me on occasion. This combined with Nobunaga’s constant use of his Living Weapon and dashing around everywhere made this two-on-one fight considerably more difficult than the previous one. But after about 8 or so attempts (give or take), I finally managed to defeat this crappy couple through use of hit and run tactics and LOTS of patience, though even in my last attempt below I won by the skin of my teeth (take a careful look at how many health items I have left by the end of the battle).
Boss #32: Hundred Eyes
Now we come to the real final boss of Nioh (for the main game, anyway). I was prepared for a real tough challenge here, though given the fact that I had already made it through two f@$king boss battles where I had to fight two bosses at the same time, I was mostly just glad to be back to fighting only one boss mano-e-mano, the way the video game gods always intended. Anyway, I reached the end of the mission and ran into Kelley’s boss, the true mastermind behind the events of the game: John Dee. Yeah, that name certainly doesn’t inspire any kind of fear or even reverence, it’s unusually plain. Naturally, this boredom didn’t last, and soon enough John Dee transforms into a hideous monstrosity known as Hundred Eyes. This guy looked pretty tough, so let’s see how I do against him in the video below.
Well, turns out he’s not THAT tough after all. Yes, he managed to kill me on my first attempt, but as far as I’m concerned, he got lucky. I just happened to use a health item right when he used a new attack I hadn’t seen yet, and “bang”, I got hit by it and was dead. Most of Hundred Eyes’ attacks weren’t so hard to avoid, so I just had to make sure to keep an eye out (no pun intended) for that “multi-energy spike” attack, and I should be golden, right? Let’s find out in the video below.
Yep, I was right, I was able to beat Hundred Eyes, the true final boss, in just two attempts. How strange that both Yamata-no-Orochi and Hundred Eyes, the “fake” and real final bosses in my first Souls-Type game, ended up not being all that difficult to defeat. Hell, I had a harder time fighting a bunch of “Kelley clones” that I encountered not long before fighting Hundred Eyes in the final mission. But what’s important is that I had conquered Nioh…..well, the main game at least. As with many RPGs, even the true final boss isn’t always the last challenge you’ll have to face.
Boss #33: Ishida Mitsunari and Otani Yoshitsugu
This two-on-one boss battle made me miss the one I had earlier with Yuki-onna and Nobunaga. I mean HOLY SHIT, this battle was EXCRUTIATING! So cheap and unfair was this boss battle that I completely forgot to record my first attempt. While I had beaten Otani Yoshitsugu earlier in the game on two separate occasions without too much trouble, it turns out he becomes a nigh unstoppable force when he’s teamed up with Ishida Mitsunari. As to why I’m fighting these two at all, it seems the corruption their demonic spirits left behind took on physical form and created Yoshitsugu and Mitsunari clones…..ah, you know what, who gives a shit? It’s the usual “convenient but nonsensical plot device” spiel that offers half-assed explanations for these forced rematch battles. Okay, after around 10 attempts or so, it was clear to me that I simply could not fight both of these assholes at once. They were all over me, and I couldn’t get a shot in without getting f@#ked up immediately afterward. Even using my most powerful Onmyo magic items wasn’t enough for me to avoid getting massacred. I had basically hit a brick wall here.
But then I noticed something. Something that could be my only hope of victory. The battle actually begins with me fighting Otani Yoshitsugu by himself, then just under a minute later, Ishida Mitsunari shows up, which is the point where I’m basically screwed. In case you haven’t noticed by now, when I fight enemies and bosses, I prefer to study my opponents and use my Onmyo magic items sparingly so I don’t waste them all too early, running the risk of having nothing left to fall back on if things start to turn sour. Well, things were now more sour than a twenty-foot lemon, so it was time to change tactics. To that end, I came up with the idea of throwing everything I had at Otani Yoshitsugu once the battle begins. I would weaken and slow him down with my strongest Onmyo magic items and let loose on him with reckless abandon; hopefully, by the time Ishida Mitsunari shows up, I will have either killed Otani Yoshitsugu or at least emptied out most of his health. After that, I would finish off Yoshitsugu and then concentrate on Mitsunari, making sure to be extra careful at this point since I would have already used up most of my items in the beginning of the battle. Let’s see if this plan works.
If you watched the video, then you’ll know that my plan did work…barely. F@#king Ishida Mitsunari was a bigger pain in the ass than usual with how he kept spamming that damn slicing wind wave attack, not to mention that absolutely annoying and cheap-ass Guardian Spirit attack of his where it Izuna Drops me into the ground (I HATE that damn move!). Nevertheless, I defeated both these bastards at the same time, and it felt GREAT. But seriously, Team Ninja, what the hell?! Whoever it is in your team that enjoys making gamers’ lives miserable with these ridiculous two-on-one battles needs to get his ass pushed down a flight of stairs or something. That way he’ll experience a modicum of the pain I (and likely other gamers) suffered when playing through these damn two-on-one boss battles.
Two more freakin’ two-on-one boss battles broken up by the main game’s final boss. It looks like things are starting to get a little more intense with the endgame content here. And there’s still more to come. But will things calm down, or will I go through even more ball-busting experiences? Find out by joining us next Friday.
