Lies of P boss fights were so good they inspired Nioh 3's director to improve the bosses in his own Soulslike: "I really had a lot of fun"

Having once called Lies of P the best Soulslike ever made outside FromSoftware's walls, I find myself nodding along to comments from Nioh 3 director Masaki Fujita, who says the bosses in Neowiz's Pinocchio-inspired game pushed him and Team Ninja to do more with the third game's yokai boss fights.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Fujita notes that Team Ninja's own output since Nioh 2 has, of course, had a big impact on its vision for Nioh 3. You can see muscles trained with the likes of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Rise of the Ronin flexed in Nioh 3's expanded ninja combat, polished buildcrafting, and ambitious open world. But outside influences also provided some guiding stars, or at least some encouragement and direction.

"In addition to [Lies of P's] solid action that requires careful use of guarding and evading, I really had a lot of fun in the battles against the bosses, who had a wide variety of designs," Fujita said. "In particular, the bosses' attack actions made full use of their distinctive designs, so it was great stimulation in giving me inspiration when thinking about the yokai actions in Nioh."

Lies of P, together with its Overture DLC, features dozens of distinct bosses, with many riffing on the mechanical puppet motif that defines the steampunk setting. Machines and monsters of all shapes and sizes hit you with an array of flashy, inventive attacks that make clever use of bizarre weapons and appendages – and this, I gather, is what Nioh 3 was looking to capture.

Some early Nioh 3 bosses are regular old dudes with weapons just like yours – which are fun, too – but you're quickly thrown into the ring with a demon grandma dual-wielding giant snakes. This is just the dungeon boss of the area included in the free demo and it's still among the best (main game) bosses in Nioh history, for my money.

Combat is similar to Nioh 2 overall but it feels a lot better, and bosses, especially, benefit from movements and attacks with greater style and clarity. A lot of Nioh 2 bosses blur together in my mind; Nioh 3 fights have been markedly more distinct. It seems we can thank Lies of P for some of that.

Here are the Nioh 3 release times and dates for your region and platform. Check out our Nioh 3 review for a full breakdown of what makes this open-world samurai Soulslike so great.

Nioh 3 devs "never considered adding difficulty settings" to the notoriously brutal Soulslike games, because "one of the best parts" is getting good.