HiGame

Over a decade ago, Koei announced a game based on an unproduced Kurosawa script called “Oni.” The game was shown off in the mid-aughts as “Ni-Oh,” Koei merged with Tecmo, and then an entire console generation slipped by. We went long stretches without hearing much of anything about this game, but it was evidently put under the tutelage of Team Ninja at some point. 2015 rolled around, and it finally showed up as “Nioh” at the Tokyo Game Show. As it turns out, this game really does exist, and a demo was released exclusively on the PS4 earlier this week. Finally, we get to see if it was worth all this turmoil.

This demo is listed as an alpha in the PlayStation Store, and the developers hit you over the head with the disclaimer that this is still a work in progress. Strangely, the demo is only available until May 5th, and it requires Internet access, so it seems that Koei Tecmo is legitimately attempting to collect real-world data to improve the game. This isn’t just a crude attempt to get headlines or build hype.


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