Nioh is a 2017 action role-playing game created by Team Ninja and Kou Shibusawa and released by Koei Tecmo for the PlayStation 4. Sony Interactive Entertainment published the game outside Japan on PlayStation consoles. Nioh 2, which tells a story that happens before Nioh, was released for PlayStation 4 on March 12, 2020. A version for Windows, including all extra content, was released the same year. A remastered version for PlayStation 5 came out on February 5, 2021.
The game is based on a made-up version of Japan’s history and includes real people from history, though they are changed a lot, as well as supernatural creatures. It takes place in the year 1600 and follows William Adams, a foreigner who becomes a samurai. He searches for a sorcerer named Edward Kelley while fighting supernatural creatures called yōkai during the final battles of the Sengoku period, a time when Tokugawa Ieyasu tried to unite Japan. Players move through levels and fight yōkai that have taken over areas. Combat involves managing energy called “Ki” and using different sword styles that work better or worse against certain enemies.
Nioh began development in 2004 for PlayStation 3 as part of a project based on an unfinished script by Akira Kurosawa. The project had many changes and delays, and development for the PlayStation 4 version started in 2014. Information about the game was not widely shared until 2015.
Test versions of the game were released in 2016 to see how people reacted and to make improvements. The game was originally planned for a 2016 release but was delayed until 2017. After its release, Nioh received good reviews for its gameplay and graphics but was criticized for its unclear or confusing story. It sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Nioh had two sequels: Nioh 2 (2020) and Nioh 3 (2026).
Gameplay
Nioh is an action role-playing game set in Japan during the year 1600. Players control an Irish samurai named William. William completes missions in enclosed areas, fighting human enemies and supernatural creatures called yokai. Each mission is self-contained, with alternate paths and chosen from a menu instead of being explored in an open world. During missions, William can collect items such as Amrita (experience points), gold (in-game currency), weapons, armor, and consumable items like bombs. Weapons and armor found in the environment can be sold to a blacksmith or broken down into materials. Shrines located throughout levels allow players to save progress, restore health, and gain experience points. Using experience points at shrines also resets normal enemies in the area. Skill points earned in battle are assigned at shrines.
Combat is fast-paced and involves hacking and slashing enemies. William can attack, block, run, dodge, and sprint. These actions use his Ki stamina bar. When Ki is empty, William becomes vulnerable to attacks. William can restore Ki with a move called "Ki pulse," which gives him special abilities and removes harmful effects from yokai. Defeated enemies drop loot, including money and weapons. The weight of William’s armor affects his movement speed; heavier armor drains Ki faster. If William dies, all experience points earned up to that point are left where he fell. He must return to collect them, but if he dies again and fails to reach them, the experience is lost. His spirit animal is automatically recovered.
William can use various melee weapons, such as swords, axes, polearms, and kusarigama. He can also use ranged weapons like a bow, rifle, and hand cannon. Using a weapon repeatedly makes it stronger. In combat, William can switch between three Stances with melee weapons: High Stance deals more damage but lowers defense, Low Stance allows quick attacks and better defense, and Middle Stance balances both. Each Stance uses different amounts of Ki. William can summon Guardian Spirits, which combine his health and Ki into one meter and provide stat boosts like increased attack power or defense. Guardian Spirits can only be changed at shrines and are lost if William dies. They can be recovered at shrines by spending experience points. William can also summon Revenants, hostile ghosts based on other players, to fight alongside him and gain rewards. A cooperative multiplayer feature allows other players to join battles.
William’s character growth depends on experience points. After the game’s opening mission, players can assign stat points to William’s attributes, such as strength and speed. Stat points are divided into three skill trees: "Samurai" for melee combat skills, "Ninja" for ranged weapons like shurikens and poisons, and "Onmyo" for creating talismans that give temporary stat boosts. If William guides Kodama (spirit creatures) to shrines, he can buy special items and weapons. Players can also offer items at shrines in exchange for experience points. Additional benefits can be earned using Prestige Points, which are gained by completing tasks like dealing a certain amount of damage or defeating enemies with specific weapons.
Synopsis
Nioh is set in the year 1600 in a made-up version of the late Sengoku period, a time in Japan when different clans were fighting each other before the Tokugawa shogunate unified the country and the Edo period began. During these wars, many people died, and supernatural creatures called yōkai appeared, causing chaos. Some major yōkai in the game include Hinoenma, Jorōgumo, and a Yuki-onna, a spirit born from the wife of Oda Nobunaga after the Honnō-ji incident.
The main character is William Adams, a blond-haired Irishman who travels to Japan to find an enemy. He meets Tokugawa Ieyasu, a powerful leader, and his ninja servant Hattori Hanzō. Together, they form an alliance to fight William’s enemy and the yōkai threatening Japan. William learns combat skills from Yagyū Munetoshi, Hōzōin In'ei, and Marume Nagayoshi. The main villain is Edward Kelley, a Westerner who uses dark alchemy to cause conflict under the orders of John Dee, a advisor to Queen Elizabeth I of England.
William meets many real people from Japan’s history, such as Ieyasu’s allies Ii Naomasa and Honda Tadakatsu, daimyo Kuroda Yoshitaka and his son Kuroda Nagamasa, Ieyasu’s rival Ishida Mitsunari and his allies Shima Sakon and Ōtani Yoshitsugu, Tachibana Ginchiyo and her husband Muneshige, mercenary Suzuki Magoichi, Yasuke, a former servant of Nobunaga, members of the Date clan, Sanada Yukimura and the Sanada Ten Braves, and Tenkai, a monk who uses yin and yang magic. Other characters include Okatsu, a female ninja in Hanzō’s clan, and Fuku, Tenkai’s student.
The game begins with William describing Amrita, a golden stone found in Japan that Queen Elizabeth I’s government wants to use in the Anglo-Spanish War. William was hired to find Amrita but was later imprisoned in the Tower of London to keep its location secret. He escapes with help from Saoirse, a water spirit who saved him as a child. William is then confronted by Edward Kelley, who steals Saoirse and travels to Japan. William follows Kelley to Japan, where he fights Oni (demons) and meets Hattori Hanzō, who helps him find Kelley in exchange for fighting Oni. During one mission, William meets a Nekomata, a spirit that helps him understand Japanese and explains that war has disrupted the balance between good and evil spirits.
William earns the trust of Ieyasu by helping defeat yōkai and saving important people, while Mitsunari and his followers support Kelley, hoping Mitsunari can create a fairer society. William later learns from Okatsu, Ieyasu’s illegitimate daughter, that Ieyasu made cruel choices to gain power. Kelley continues to attack William, including pretending to be Tachibana Muneshige to harm his wife and resurrecting Princess Nō, a spirit version of Oda Nobunaga’s wife. Kelley weakens a seal protecting Kyoto, but William and others stop the evil spirits with help from Tenkai, Fuku, and the Nekomata, who sacrifices itself. William later saves Okatsu from Kelley’s control and escapes with her when Ieyasu arrives, though he is upset to see Ieyasu let Okatsu die. William realizes Ieyasu is sorry for his past actions and continues helping him.
The story reaches its climax during the Battle of Sekigahara, where William fights Ōtani Yoshitsugu and Shima Sakon. After Mitsunari’s army is defeated, Kelley convinces Mitsunari to use a ritual to create a Gashadokuro, a giant demon, which William defeats with help from Hattori and Tenkai. Ieyasu captures Mitsunari, and Tenkai is revealed to be Akechi Mitsuhide. William pursues Kelley, who tries to resurrect Oda Nobunaga, but Nobunaga rebels against Kelley. Kelley is defeated and uses his powers to bring back Yamata no Orochi, a giant eight-headed serpent, which William defeats. Kelley confesses he was collecting Amrita for John Dee. William escapes, allowing Hattori to lie about his death. Okatsu is sad to see William leave, but Ieyasu secretly knows William is alive and is happy about the outcome.
Three years later, William returns to England and confronts John Dee, learning Edward Kelley was one of many artificial beings created by Dee. William refuses Dee’s offer to help conquer the world and defeats Dee, who becomes a monstrous form called Hundred Eyes. William leaves England after seeing a vision of Hattori’s death and decides to return to Japan.
The story continues in downloadable content (DLC). In the first DLC, William returns to Japan and meets the resurrected Nekomata. Ieyasu tells him Hattori is missing while investigating Date Masamune, who is secretly planning a rebellion with yōkai. William rescues Hattori and learns Masamune was helped by a Spanish spy named Maria, who joins Toyotomi Hideyori to cause more chaos in Japan. The second and third DLCs continue the story.
Development
Nioh was created by Team Ninja, a group within Koei Tecmo. This group had previously made games like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Team Ninja worked with another group called Kou Shibusawa on Nioh. The director of Kou Shibusawa and the founder of Koei, Yoichi Erikawa, wrote the story and helped make the game. The game was directed by Fumihiko Yasuda and Yosuke Hayashi, and produced by Hisashi Koinuma. The opening movie was directed by Shinji Higuchi, who also worked on Shin Godzilla. The overall movie style for the game was handled by Makoto Kamiya, who had previously worked on special effects for Death Note: Light Up the New World and the movie version of I Am a Hero. The music was composed by Yugo Kanno, who had worked on the Bayside Shakedown TV series and the game Rain. The idea for the game came from Shibusawa, who kept a strong vision for the project throughout development.
The first version of Nioh was based on an unfinished script by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa called Oni. According to Yasuda, this early version did not work, and the team had to start over. Only a few parts remained in the final game: the setting, a foreigner with blond hair as the main character, and a basic story idea. The rest of the story was changed to focus on William Adams, an Englishman who became a samurai serving Ieyasu during the Sengoku period. While the original Kurosawa script was not used, the game’s art and battle styles were inspired by Kurosawa’s films like Yojimbo and Seven Samurai. The first version of the new story, written by the team behind the Kessen series, gave the main character a major role in the Sengoku period. This version was later completely changed.
Development of the game began in 2004 as a traditional Japanese role-playing game. It was made by Koei before the company merged with Tecmo in 2008. Work on this version lasted from 2004 to 2008, but it was scrapped because it lacked fun elements. The project was then moved to Omega Force, a group within Koei Tecmo, and changed into a fast-paced action game similar to Dynasty Warriors. This version was also scrapped because Shibusawa was not happy with the direction.
Team Ninja joined the project in 2010 to help with the action gameplay. At this time, the game began to become an action role-playing game. When Team Ninja first saw the project, they were unsure if it was another Dynasty Warriors-style game. In 2012, full development was handed to Team Ninja, and work continued for about four years. At this point, only basic ideas were set, but when Team Ninja started full development, the game became a complete action title. Team Ninja handled gameplay, while earlier staff from Koei worked on the story.
The alpha version of the game was completed in August 2012. The team used the Ninja Gaiden engine, but Shibusawa worried the game was becoming too similar to Ninja Gaiden. Yasuda joined the team around this time. Hayashi struggled to make the gameplay fit a samurai character and paused development for six months. When Koei Tecmo began making games for the PlayStation 4, Shibusawa and the company’s CEO, Hisashi Suganuma, asked Hayashi to develop Nioh for that platform. This version took three years to make. In total, the game was in development for 12 to 13 years. Shibusawa said fan interest in Japan was the only reason the game was not canceled.
When development was confirmed in 2014, Shibusawa said the team needed to rethink the story. Early on, Yasuda and Hayashi disagreed about the story’s tone. Yasuda wanted something closer to Ninja Gaiden, while Hayashi wanted a serious story about war and death. The focus on death came from the setting and the samurai code called Bushido. The game’s opening in the Tower of London, which has dark stories, fit this theme. The game’s main idea was the cycle of life and death, shown through William and the enemy yokai. Yasuda was in charge of the parts about hunting yokai, which Hayashi strongly opposed.
The final game had a Western main character, but the original idea had a Japanese samurai as the hero in a new story. Koei had experience making games about history, like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga’s Ambition, so they chose the Sengoku period as the setting. This was a time in Japanese history with many battles and conflicts, making it good for an action game. Shibusawa was also interested in William Adams’ life, so the story focused on real events from his life in Japan, which was an isolated country at the time. They added magical elements like yokai to the story.
A major influence on the story was the 1975 novel Shōgun by James Clavell, which was about a fictional English samurai based on Adams. William was first imagined as a pirate who became a samurai, then changed into his current form. His design stayed mostly the same, but small details were adjusted over time. The game’s focus on death was different from Team Ninja’s earlier games, which sometimes had light romantic scenes. At the company’s request, brighter or funnier elements, like the kodama, were added.
A special part of the story was hiring famous actors to voice and act out the characters. The team wanted to bring the characters to life and show the historical parts of the story clearly. While Koei had experience with historical games, they usually focused more on style than on realistic acting. Most of the cast spoke Japanese, but William spoke English. At first, it was planned for William to speak Japanese, but the team thought it would not be realistic even in the game’s fantasy setting, so they changed it. This also showed how William could communicate despite the language difference.
When Team Ninja first joined the project, they tested many ideas to find the best gameplay style for the game’s tone. Shibusawa told them to “complete the mission of creating Nioh.” The decision to give the project to Team Ninja was influenced by the success of games like Dark Souls, which are known for their tough but rewarding gameplay. Many at Team Ninja liked Dark Souls and said its popularity helped save Nioh from being canceled. Other influences included Bloodborne, Ninja Gaiden, Onimusha, and Diablo. The main goal for the developers was to copy the challenging gameplay of the Souls series and
Release
In 2004, the game Nioh was first announced by its original developer, Koei, with the working title "Oni." A movie was planned to be made alongside the game, directed by Hisao Kurosawa, Kurosawa's son. The movie and game were expected to cost about three billion yen. However, the movie was canceled in 2005 because of problems that were not explained, and the game became a separate project. Nioh was first shown in a trailer at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, where it was announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. At that time, the title was written as "Ni-Oh." The game was originally planned for a 2006 release but missed its date. No updates were given until 2009, when Koei Tecmo said the game was still being developed. Similar updates were shared over the next six years. The game was renamed slightly as Nioh and reintroduced at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, with a planned release in Japan in 2016. Later, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced an international release at the PlayStation Experience event in December 2016. A manga titled Nioh: The Golden Samurai was written by Yosuke Katayama and began being published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in May 2016.
The game was initially planned for release in October 2016 but was delayed to allow final changes based on player feedback from demos. Koei Tecmo prioritized localization because the game was being released worldwide. The game was announced for a worldwide release in February 2017. Koei Tecmo published the game in Japan, while Sony Interactive Entertainment handled publishing in mainland Asia, North America, and Europe to reach as many players as possible. The game was released on February 7 in North America, February 8 in Europe, and February 9 in Japan. Two versions were available: the standard edition with the full game and a Digital Deluxe Edition with extra content, including a weapon pack, a PS4 theme, and a season pass. Pre-order bonuses included costumes inspired by Japanese temple guardian statues and the samurai Sanada Yukimura. The game supported the PlayStation 4 Pro model, which improved graphics and helped maintain a smooth gameplay experience.
A manga titled Nioh: The Golden Samurai was written by Yosuke Katayama and began being published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in May 2016. The manga lasted for 12 issues until May 2017 and was collected into three books published by Kodansha between February and May 2017. An official soundtrack with all 45 pieces of music from the game was released in Japan on February 15. An art book titled Nioh & Nioh 2 Official Artworks was published in Japan by Kadokawa in June 2020, with an English version by Udon Entertainment released in February 2023.
A demo version of the game, called the "alpha demo," was released on PlayStation Network on April 26, 2016, and was available until May 5. Completing the demo unlocked access to a free downloadable content (DLC) pack called "Mark of the Conqueror." This demo was released so Team Ninja could gather feedback to improve the game. The demo was downloaded by over 850,000 people worldwide, and most feedback was positive, though players often mentioned the lack of tutorials, high difficulty, and awkward controls. Based on this, the team made changes to the gameplay. A second demo, called the "beta" demo, was released from August 23 to September 6. It included new stages, more weapons, and updated gameplay based on feedback from the alpha demo. Completing the beta demo gave access to both the original "Mark of the Conqueror" pack and a new DLC pack called "Mark of the Warrior." A survey was conducted again, and the team made further changes to the game based on this feedback. The game's release was delayed from 2016 to 2017 because of these adjustments. A third demo, called "Last Chance Trial," was released from January 20 to January 23 in North America and Europe. It provided access to previous DLC and a final reward for the full game.
At the Tokyo Game Show 2018, producer Fumihiko Yasuda said that the success of Nioh was partly due to the "demo strategy." He explained that the demos helped the team get player feedback and showed players that their opinions were valued, which helped build support for the game.
Reception
Nioh received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. Most critics praised the game's combat, difficulty, setting, use of Japanese folklore, and visual style. They also noted that players could choose different graphical settings for the PS4 version. Some critics gave less positive feedback about the game's story and how players managed items in the game. Eurogamer ranked Nioh 35th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017," while Polygon ranked it 42nd on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. The game was nominated for "Best PS4 Game" in Destructoid's Game of the Year Awards 2017, and for "Best PlayStation 4 Game" and "Best RPG" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. Nioh was later invited to the Global Game Business Summit at Tokyo Game Show 2018 as an example of a game that succeeded globally.
In a review of Nioh in Black Gate, Matt Drought wrote, "I found Nioh to be a deeply engaging game that kept me coming back for the fun combat mechanics and to see the incredible enemies that inhabited this world."
Nioh opened at number 2 in the UK sales charts. Retailers Amazon and Walmart sold all their stock of Nioh within the first week of release. It sold 75,477 copies in its first week in Japan, reaching number 2 on the charts. On February 24, 2017, Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja announced that Nioh had shipped over one million units worldwide within its first two weeks of sale. These numbers included both retail sales and digital purchases. By February 2020, the game had shipped over three million copies worldwide. In October 2022, sales of both Nioh and Nioh 2 had exceeded seven million units worldwide. As of May 2025, the Nioh series—including both Nioh and Nioh 2—has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.
Sequels
Nioh 2, a game that comes before Nioh, was released for PlayStation 4 in March 2020. A third game in the series, Nioh 3, was released in February 2026. An early test version of the game for PlayStation 5 was available from June 4, 2025, to June 18, 2025.