I realized yesterday that leaving a mission in Nioh 2 (Team Ninja) is not as dire as I’ve always thought it was. I mean, the penalty is steep, yes, but not as bad as I had outlined in the last post. Yes, you have to go back to the beginning of the mission and yes you have to do the whole thing again. And, sure, you lose whatever souls you have (what is it called in this game? Amitra, I think), and, yes, it’s frustrating as heck. But! you don’t lose the stuff you collect, and you can do waht I did on the last sub-mission I was re-exploring. I reached enoughm to level up, did that, and then left the sub-mission.
Side note: It’s funny to watch people play these kinds of games. Everyone calls the things you accumulate souls, even though that is obviously not what it’s called in the Niohs. I will say that I don’t call the shrines bonfires because they are visually different. In Elden Ring, though, I sometimes call the sites of graces bonfires and the runes are absolutely souls more often than I care to admit.
I will say that in all the games I’ve played, I have not been a sword aficionado, which is sad to me since I love them so much in real life. I lean towards axes, probably in part because the Pyro starts with a Hand Axe in Dark Souls. I found a Battle Axe early on (after killing an enemy who had one, if I remember correctly) and mained it for the rest of the game.
Later, I did learn to enjoy the Zwei, but that is not like any sword I use in real life. That myght be part of it–none of the swords in the games I play are like the swords I use in real life. In general, though, I didn’t care for swords–which made me sad.
Then, I got a pair of dual corrupted swords in Nioh 2. Corrupted weapons/demon weapons are sentient with demon souls. I still don’t know if they are better for human or for yokai, but they’re loads of fun to use. The more you use them, the more sentient they become. By the way, I love that you get more skill points in the weapon you’re using the more experience you have with it.
The dual swords are fast and quick. They are called Weathered Fang & Bleached Twig, and mine are blue, which is second from the top in terms of rarest. It’s purple, blue, green, yellow, and white. I can do four or five fast hits without running out of ki. I am in love with them, and I’m happy that I have finally found swords that I like in a game. It might be because they are dual, which is my jam. Double sabers, i mean. My favorite form of all.
I’ve been doing past sub-missions just to get a hang of my new weapons. I tend to stick to one weapon (original game) or two (this game), and I know there is such a wide array of weapons in this game. It’s funny because I’m doing a sub-mission that is level 20, so not that far behind where I am now. It was a recent sub-mission I have done, and I’m moving through it much more easily this time. i want to try my new guardian spirit, which is the snake. It’s considered a feral guardian spirit, which is interesting.
For whatever reason, there is are three dojo missions that you can’t unlock until after you finish the third story mission. The suggested level for attempting these dojo missions is 35. Which is five higher than where I am now. But I was curious so I did the Onmyo dojo mission as I’m all about the magicks. It showed me how to pick up a Mage’s Lock to get a skill point in Onmyo magic. Then, it informed me that I could level up my Onmyo and train in it at the shrine. The first thing you can attune is the Purification Talisman (at least that’s what the dojo mission teaches you), which is great against yokai.
Which, why? I mean, why wait until then to have this dojo mission? There is a similar ninja mission and warrior mission, and you can do all this earlrier. You can do the warrior stuff at the beginning of the game, the ninja stuff in the first few missions, and the mage stuff in the secaond main mission.
I’m excited, though, because after doing that mission, I’ve unlocked a bunch of Onmyo skill points–inculding fireballs. It’s not aclled that. It’s fire shot, but that’s what it is. I can attune up to 8 at a shrine, depending on how much, uh, stuff I want to spend on it. Ok. I Googled it. It’s called Capacity. Which, boring. Anyway, each use of fire shot costs, say 2 Capacity. So if I want 8 of them, I need to use 16 Capacity.
I get why it’s this way, but I like FromSoft’s magicks systems better. In the first two Souls games, you had a number of uses for each spell. In the second game, there were ways to increase the number of each spell, but it had nothing to do with ‘paying’ for each use. In the third game, there is mana (Focus Points) and Ashen Estus Flasks rather than spell usages, and I much prefer that. Elden Ring also has FP and Flasks of Cerulean Tears. You get flasks back for defeating a mob of enemies, which means basically limitless spells. It’s by far, my favorite magicks system in a From game.
I find it clunky in Nioh 2 (and the original game) that you have to equip each spell in a different slot. There are eight consumable slots, but it’s two sets of four, so you have to flip back and forth between two of them by using….I want to say RB + left or right arrows. RB is like shift as Ian said to me.
I have the Elixirs (Estus/Blood Vials) on the up arrow on one of these menus. I hate not having it on screen, which is the case when I flip to the second set of consumables. It’s a clunky system that still doesn’t feel comfortable.
I’m suddenly tired. I’m going to end this post here, but will probably pick it up tomorrow. I will s ay that I’m glad I’m about to be a Pyro. Fire Shot plus Fire Talisman (adding fire to my weapon) is a good start to being the pyro I know I can be.