Creators generally look back on their old work with a mix of fond nostalgia and unendurable cringe. Likewise, even the proudest game developers will probably eventually tell you that an element or idea – or in my experience talking to devs, many elements – could've been handled better with the benefit of hindsight. But I was nevertheless pleased with how candidly Nioh 3, still warm from a February 6 launch and awaiting paid DLC, was assessed by two of its lead developers in an interview. Fumihiko Yasuda, Nioh 3 general producer and Team Ninja studio head, and Kohei Shibata, the game's producer, describe the excellent samurai action RPG as the latest link in a long and growing chain.
"Nioh 3 is a great game, but it's not perfect," Yasuda tells me (via interpreter). "I think there are a lot of things that we could improve upon. We want to take that knowledge that we gained with Nioh 3 and open-field elements and to be able to work on that, and hopefully incorporate and improve upon that in future titles as well."
Shibata describes Nioh 3, in part, as an evolution of Rise of the Ronin, Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja's previous open-world-y ninja game. From the beginning of development, which would've been around the end of the Nioh 2 DLC rollout, the team wanted Nioh 3 to take the series in an "open-field" direction that built on the series' mission-based structure – without totally discarding it, as many sub-areas in Nioh 3 feel like old-school levels.
I ask the two where they see room for improvement with Nioh 3. Yasuda points to the narrative and, in this expanded world, environmental storytelling.
"While we were successful with the immersion as well as the density of the game itself, I think in terms of being able to convey a lot more about the world, the narrative element, I think we could improve upon that," he says. "As well as the artistic elements, to give it a more distinctive look. Really understand why the yokai, or why that particular yokai, is in that environment. And why does that environment look like that? I think we could have done a lot more to really convey that aspect.
"It's not just a game where you sort of go in there, defeat the yokai, obtain the equipment or items in that area. There's a little bit more to the narrative that we could have added. And I think that's what we can see in some other titles that really give more to that experience as well. So that's something that we saw that we could improve upon, and something that we do hope to do more in the future."
Our Nioh 3 review is, like the broader critical reception, flush with praise, but there's been ample criticism of the game's enemy variety – a common Soulslike sticking point. Enemies and even a few bosses repeat throughout the game, which makes later areas and dungeons feel less special and distinct. On the topic of improvements, I put this point to Yasuda and Shibata.
"We are aware of the criticism on this," Shibata says. "In terms of how we respond to that, I think, with the yokai, these are creatures that have existed, in Japanese folklore, even before wild animals, even before humans had existed. These are creatures that existed much earlier. There is that element, that they appear as things that have been here in Japan before. We also wanted to incorporate some of the enemies that were in previous games, and we tried to make sure that there was a lot more variety to the battles against them so they didn't feel repetitive.
"But some people might have felt that there was a little bit of variety lacking there. So we do hear the criticism, and we do hope that, if there's future titles, we can improve upon this. We would like to take that opportunity to look into that and see what we can do better."
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