>>FULL REVIEW
Nioh 3 is the kind of game that can show you five menus, twelve pieces of loot and three mechanics before you have completely figured out what you were doing with the first weapon.
That sounds like criticism because sometimes it absolutely is. It is also why people can put hundreds of hours into these games.
Calling Nioh 3 another Soulslike gets the general idea across but does not really explain how it feels. You still lose progress when you die. Enemies can destroy you quickly. Boss fights expect you to pay attention rather than mash through attacks. The difference is that Team Ninja piles a much faster and more technical combat system on top of that foundation.
The biggest addition this time is switching between Samurai and Ninja styles.
Samurai leans closer to the stance-based weapon combat longtime Nioh players already know while Ninja prioritizes speed, movement and ninjutsu. Being able to swap styles during combat makes the distinction useful instead of feeling like two separate character classes chosen at the beginning. A fight can start with deliberate Samurai attacks before you switch approaches when the situation changes.
It adds even more options to a series that was not exactly lacking them.
Weapons have large movesets. Skills feed into other skills. Equipment drops constantly. Soul Cores and magic add more possibilities. Then you start considering stats, bonuses, armor sets and whatever ridiculous build somebody online has discovered that week.
For experienced players, this depth is the attraction. For a more casual gamer, it is the biggest warning I can give.
Nioh 3 does not always know when enough is enough. The loot system throws so much equipment at you that sorting your inventory eventually becomes its own activity. Learning what matters takes time and the game does not become dramatically simpler just because you ignore half of it. You can absolutely enjoy the combat without mastering every number, but anyone expecting the clean equipment progression of a normal action game may get tired quickly.
The new open-field structure works better than I expected. Team Ninja has not simply tried to make its own Elden Ring. The larger areas mainly give exploration more freedom between major fights, letting you find optional encounters, resources and side objectives without destroying the focused combat design that made Nioh work.
There is some repetition, though. Veterans will recognize plenty of enemies and ideas from the previous games. After three entries, seeing familiar Yokai return yet again can make parts of the world feel less fresh than the combat deserves. Visually it is similar. Nioh 3 can produce some impressive environments and effects, but compared with other major 2026 releases it does not look particularly cutting-edge.
Performance is another place where public complaints are justified, especially on PC. The game has improved since launch but optimization remains inconsistent enough that I would check how it is running on hardware similar to yours before assuming everything will be flawless.
Where I have far fewer reservations is value. There is a huge amount to learn, replay and build toward, and cooperative progression makes bringing friends along less annoying than it has been in plenty of other difficult RPGs.
That package is about to get larger too. The first major expansion, Nioh 3: Hell Rising, releases August 19 and takes players to Edo in 1651 with a new open field, additional enemies, equipment and the Hoko & Shield weapon style. I am not scoring unreleased DLC as part of this review, but anyone looking at Nioh 3 right now should know that a major content drop is only days away.
For someone already comfortable with Nioh or mechanically dense action games, 8.6 may actually sound conservative. The combat really is that good.
The score stays there because Nioh 3 asks a lot from the player outside those fights too. It has incredible depth but does not always make that depth convenient, clean or approachable.
If sorting through another pile of swords sounds almost as enjoyable as using one, you are probably exactly who this was made for.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Players who enjoy difficult action games and want far more control over builds weapons and combat styles than the average Soulslike provides.
SKIP IT IF
You want a simple action RPG or hate managing large amounts of gear and learning several overlapping combat systems.
