PlayStation Plus Essential November 2022 - NioH 2, Heavenly Bodies, LEGO Harry Potter Collection

[Timmo]

This is the cheapest tier, ie. the one everyone has. With the new tier system being so confusing, I wanted to make this thread to make sure everyone picks up NioH 2, which in my opinion is one of the games of the generation. I’m going to paste something I posted elsewhere:

 

Spoiler

There's no doubt that the NioHs are influenced by Fromsoft's Souls games, but they really are so, so much more than that.

I'll try and sum it up simply. The Souls games excel at world-building, level and enemy design, with good, serviceable, combat and new game plus. Nioh has much less inspired level design and world-building, but the combat is best-in-class, provided you get into it, and the new game plus features are way beyond other, similar games.

The sheer depth to the combat systems in these games is far beyond what anyone could expect.

Each of the weapon types has three stances, and each stance has tons of moves to unlock and choose from. Then you have tons of techniques and tricks. Watching someone good at the game play can be mesmerising.

Two good in-depth guides I've been watching on YouTube are PooferLlama, who is very accessible, and Xelod93, who goes insanely in depth. His "University" series has stupid amounts of content. He really holds your hand through it all.

 

NioH definitely isn't for everyone. It can be overwhelming. It rewards patience. But those rewards are huge. For anyone who enjoys action games with depth I couldn't recommend it more.

 

[Qazimod]

I might need some onboarding for Nioh 2 I think. My only experience of the series was... I think some limited beta of the first game?

 

I guess the main things are: do I need to have played 1 to enjoy 2, and will I ruin things for myself if I try to play it with a Souls mindset? Or a Ninja Gaiden mindset? Or whatever?

[Timmo]

Some NioH fans would vilify me for this, but I’d skip the first game, for three main reasons:

 

• The second has a new move called a burst counter which adds another layer and actually makes the game a bit easier
• The second has soul cores which are a little like Pokemon, basically every monster you fight has a chance to drop one and each has a special move. You want to use these a lot
• The second has overall better balancing

 

Some people play the second game for thousands of hours. Thousands! The amount of content is insane.

 

There is DLC but I'd wait to see if you like the game first. If you do it adds a ludicrous amount of content.

 

There is a lot to learn but once you have it all down the game becomes way more friendly. Much of the difficulty fades when you learn the systems and how the game wants you to play. Use arrows a lot. Abuse the magic and ninjitsu as much as you want to - have fun with it. Remember that it isn't Souls! Dodging through an attack is nowhere near as useful. 

 

[SozzlyJoe]

That's interesting - I liked the first one a lot but was soon pummelled into surrender by the difficulty to the extent I was in no hurry to play the sequel. Might give it a blast if it is even slightly easier.

[df0]

Original was fine until it was not, the steep challenge made me give up late into the game. Will give the sequel a try.

[Qazimod]

A note if you're trying to add to your library from the What's New page - the Nioh 2 page it links to initially throws a £49.99 "Add to cart" button at you - you need to scroll down to the "Editions" bit and look for "Nioh 2 (PlayStation Plus)", which you can then add to your library.

[Goemon]

On 02/11/2022 at 11:05, Timmo said:

Some NioH fans would vilify me for this, but I’d skip the first game, for three main reasons:

 

• The second has a new move called a burst counter which adds another layer and actually makes the game a bit easier
• The second has soul cores which are a little like Pokemon, basically every monster you fight has a chance to drop one and each has a special move. You want to use these a lot
• The second has overall better balancing

 

Some people play the second game for thousands of hours. Thousands! The amount of content is insane.

 

There is DLC but I'd wait to see if you like the game first. If you do it adds a ludicrous amount of content.

 

There is a lot to learn but once you have it all down the game becomes way more friendly. Much of the difficulty fades when you learn the systems and how the game wants you to play. Use arrows a lot. Abuse the magic and ninjitsu as much as you want to - have fun with it. Remember that it isn't Souls! Dodging through an attack is nowhere near as useful. 

 

I would 100% agree to skipping the first for the reasons @Timmo suggests. You don’t lose anything for not playing the first, so no worries there. It’s not souls and it’s not Ninja Gaiden, it’s its own thing so just find your own way.

 

There’s tonnes to learn but there’s tonnes to do, so I wouldn’t worry about not knowing, understanding, being aware etc. just jump into the Nioh 2 thread and ask your questions. Someone will be on hand to answer.

[df0]

On 02/11/2022 at 12:20, df0 said:

Original was fine until it was not, the steep challenge made me give up late into the game. Will give the sequel a try.

Ok, I’m out. Utterly not in the mood for this during the second enemy.

[Uncle Mike]

First time for ages I've not "bought" all three titles. Harry Potter can go fuck its transphobic self.

[Uncle Mike]

Yes, this is the sum total of my rebellion. It's not a lot really.

[MansizeRooster]

13 hours ago, Uncle Mike said:

First time for ages I've not "bought" all three titles. Harry Potter can go fuck its transphobic self.

 

Sorry - is the game transphobic?

[hmm]

Heavenly Bodies is the kind of game where I'm very prone to writing it off as twee indie nonsense at a glance and never bothering. This is obviously a terrible character defect but it's largely conditioned by the utter crap they've padded PS+ out with over the years.

 

Anyway, I'm glad I did bother in this case. What a beautifully designed little game. The whole aesthetic is glorious, especially all the increasingly complex schematic briefings, in an almost IKEA style. The prettiness does come in almost equal proportion to the frustration as you try to control your flailing astronaut, but for now I figure that's my fault as much as theirs. We'll see - it is a little bit unintuitive so I reserve the right to blame the game after all.

[Quest]

Yeah, I finished it earlier today and agree with all of that. Great little game.

[Timmo]

Got the Platinum for the main part of NioH 2 yesterday and still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface. It’s so good.

[Gavin]

17 minutes ago, Timmo said:

Got the Platinum for the main part of NioH 2 yesterday and still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface. It’s so good.

 

I'm currently wrapping up NIOH one (just 3 boss-rush type side missions, 2 twilight missions and 2 blacksmith perks to buy for platinum) and I thought it was pretty great.

 

I've been playing it on disc and cancelled my PS+ sub long ago as I'm usually on Xbox BUT I'm tempted to resubscribe to claim NIOH 2.

 

Can I keep playing it from my library even if I cancel my sub or do I need to keep paying monthly to keep playing? 

 

If that's the case I'll wait for it to be cheap in cex in a year or so...

[dreamylittledream]

The latter. You need to keep paying to play the games once claimed 

[Gavin]

Ah ok thanks, I'll pass for now then...

[CrichStand]

I’ve just completed the first mission in Heavenly Bodies. It’s really good! Well worth a play.

 

Edit - Scratch that. Just finished the 2nd mission. It’s fucking brilliant!