Nioh 2 to Have Character Customization, "More Satisfying Deaths"

One of the great pleasures of E3 this year was the reveal of Nioh 2, the follow-up to the massively successful and very good Dark Souls/Diablo mashup where you played William, an Irish-sailor-turned-Samurai and actual historic figure, as he goes to Japan to fight an insane alchemist who stole his spirit-wife, which is slightly less grounded in history. The trailer itself didn’t show us much, save a poor samurai chap getting beaten up by a bunch of demons and then transforming into one himself, but a new interview posted by Polygon reveals a few new details about the game that we’re all very excited to hear.

He called the series a “proper evolution, not a dramatic change,” which means that while there will be some fairly new systems, I imagine it will be very familiar to fans of the first game. While we didn’t get any details on the game’s story, location, or time period, he did say that it would follow the events of the first game in some form or fashion, which I would consider good news.

The biggest change he mentioned was that rather than playing one set character, this game would have character customization – giving you the option to play as any sex, or, surprisingly, any race. If that means you can choose to be black or white, or if you can choose to be human or demon, it’s hard to say, but I’m rather hopeful for the former, even if it does strike me as unlikely. Regardless, it strongly suggests that if William does show up again, he won’t be the star of the show.

The other cool detail promised by director Fumihiko Yasuda was that Nioh 2 features “more satisfying deaths for players.” If that means deaths will be more brutal and pushing or be more gentle, it’s hard to say, but I never found Nioh’s deaths to be particularly unsatisfying – about what I’d expect from a souls game, really.

Oh, and one final detail, one that really wets my panties: Team Ninja Director Tom Lee had this to say:

“This time around, the gloves are off. We’re gonna go in hard.The experience is going to be closer to what we really had in mind [the first time].”

Oh, daddy~

We still don’t have a release date for Nioh 2, but I would wager it’s still a ways off, considering the lackluster trailer. But I am so ready for when it arrives.