After an excruciating wait to hear about Nioh 2, Fumihiko Yasuda, producer of Nioh 2, has revealed quite a bit of information about their upcoming sequel, including a release date, open beta scheduling, and launch editions.
If you haven’t had a chance to play Nioh and you love games with a wide array of challenges, you’re absolutely missing out, and you absolutely should be diving right back in. However, if you have played it, you have a lot to be excited about after today’s big reveal on both the European and North American PlayStation blogs.
The biggest part aside from the March 13th, 2020, the release date is that there is an upcoming Open Beta for the game set to take place from November 1st through November 10th, 2019. The beta will be available exclusively through the PlayStation Store, which means, anyone and everyone can play it.
You will get to check out new features during the beta which includes character customization features, the Switchglaive weapon, cooperative play, and – well – plenty more to come when the beta launches this weekend. So, what do we know about the beta? A lot actually.
During the beta, it’s revealed that you’ll be taken to a place called the Interim. This locale will replace the dojo you used to visit in the first title, which served as your training grounds, and a nice refresher course in case you’d been gone for a little while.
In the Interim you will have the chance to choose your weapons, test out basic moves, and then transition to the actual world when you are good and ready. The Interim, as described by Yasuda-san is “based on the Tibetan Buddhist concept of intermediate, transitional state between life and death. I’m actually very fond of the environment we created which is modeled after the Sanzu river surrounded in tranquility (similar to the river Styx from Greek mythology).
As you move on from the Interim, you will start your journey in a stage called Sunomata. This stage is based on the Sunomata castle which by some accounts was constructed in just one night by Hideyoshi. The experience will be an interpretation of historical actualities combined with a healthy injection of Yokai adventure!”
You will find a lot has changed, with new stages such as The Village of the Cursed Blossoms, which will highlight a beautiful and astonishing time of the year within Japan’s seasons, which is when their cherry blossom tree’s go into bloom. However, Yasuda-san wasn’t done.
It’s confirmed that players who complete the open beta will obtain “The Mark of the Demon Slayer” reward that will entitle them to the Kamaitachi Helmet for the in-game Shrine to use in the full game when it releases. Additionally, if you like what you played, you can pre-order today from the PlayStation Store or, you know, head over to your favorite retailer and place your pre-orders today.
Don’t forget to grab Nioh from the PlayStation Store next week when it goes up as one of the free PlayStation Plus titles.
About the Writer(s):
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the borders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.