The unusual way Nioh handles multiplayer has always been one of the most interesting things about this tough game series. I’m not talking about the complicated ways friends can team up to play together. I’m talking about the special kind of online play that’s built right into the game itself. For example, if you walk around in the open areas of Nioh 3, you’ll see red graves scattered everywhere. Each of these shows where another player has died, and if you check it, you’ll find out how they met their end.
Just like in the Souls games, these markers are like ghostly hands from other travelers who walked the same path as you. They reach out from the past to say, ‘Watch out, friend, there’s trouble ahead.’ But in Nioh, because the folks at Team Ninja like to make things hard, these hands don’t just warn you. They can also cause you trouble. If you call forth a spirit (or ‘revenant,’ as the game calls it) from one of these ‘bloody graves,’ you can fight another human player exactly as they were when they died.
When I was playing Nioh 3 before it came out, and there weren’t many other players yet, I started to get to know some of these doomed ghosts. The same names would pop up again and again. I’d learn that one person always had trouble with the big, ugly demons hiding behind walls, while another often fell off high ledges or into water. It might seem like a small thing, but it helps tell a story in the game, a very human touch in a world full of demons in old Japan.
Even better, I managed to get at least two full sets of armor by beating these restless ghosts of other players who had died. Early in the game, I got three pieces of rare ‘Crimson General’ armor from a good boss fight. In the next area, I looked for as many ‘bloody graves’ as I could find. I was able to complete the whole ‘Pride of the Crimson Army’ set, which came with a powerful long sword, my favorite Samurai weapon. This armor helped me easily get through the middle part of the game.
Later, feeling lucky about getting more stuff from ‘bloody graves,’ I finished collecting my Ninja gear in the last part of the game. Since I ended up using the Ninja style in most of my fights (yes, really, I think its extra damage from back attacks and its ability to drain enemy energy is amazing!), having a set as good as ‘Devious Loyalty’ with its skill-based attack boosts for the final battles really saved me.
It’s always been a fun and strange part of the series that Team Ninja gives you the choice to fight these ‘bloody graves’ and their restless spirits instead of just fighting the same bosses over and over or replaying levels. But because Nioh 3 is more open, I found myself wanting to call up spirits from ‘bloody graves’ whenever I could. Some players might have items that are usually harder to find on the map, for example, and you can easily put together strong armor sets from the stuff you take after just a few minutes of trying.
But the helpfulness of Nioh’s odd online multiplayer goes beyond just making your character stronger. If you go a little off the main path (or go back to an area you’ve already visited), you’ll find a blue grave near most of the big bosses. This is called a ‘benevolent grave,’ and if you use it, a friendly computer-controlled helper will join you until their health runs out or a timer counts down. Now, fighting many enemies at once in Nioh usually means you’ll die. So, having a helper to draw enemy attention or thin out the crowd can make even some of the hardest bosses much easier (I’m looking at you, Takeda Shingen).
Team Ninja has put a good number of its own ghosts and helpers around the game. But now that over 70,000 people are playing Nioh 3 just on Steam, you’ll all get to experience the game at its best. It will be full of foolish deaths, generous player-placed ghosts to help with tough mini-bosses or big bosses, and a huge amount of different character setups to help you get through all the different historical times in the game.
Just be careful. I often got too confident. I’d face a surprise attack from a one-eyed demon, or a big monkey-like creature, or a group of skeleton soldiers, and then I’d see a red grave. “Stomped to death by Gaki Chief,” it would say. “You fool, you idiot!” I’d yell at myself, and then I’d call them up, thinking I’d steal all this clown’s items before riding off into the sunset with my loot. More times than I’d like to admit, I would push myself too hard against a strong human enemy, get tired, and then get taken down by a special grab move that would kill me in one hit. Oh, the shame. Just like in Nioh, I would keep dying like this, and I guess someone else would find my grave on the ground and call me up, hoping for my stuff. I just hope my angry, ghostly spirit was smart enough to kill that unsuspecting player in return.
Of course, you can finish Nioh 3 without ever using this feature. But it really feels like it’s a part of the game, a nice way to show you how failing is built into the whole Nioh experience. You die so you can live again. Stronger samurai cut you down so you can learn to block, to dodge, to overpower and win. Seeing failure happen so often and so clearly across the map makes you feel stronger, it encourages you. “I won’t just be another red grave for my enemies to rob,” you tell yourself, as you grit your teeth and fight your rival brother for the fifteenth time that night. “I will win this time, I’ll show them. I’ll show them all.”
And then one day, you do. And you leave a blue grave in front of the boss to tell those who come after that there is hope, after all. They just have to trust in you.
