Nioh: Defiant Honor

It's fascinating how Team Ninja is mostly catering to the hardcore crowd with this string of add-ons up through Nioh: Defiant Honor. You can't really just jump into these levels without having mastered everything up through the campaign, and although that mentality might feel a little unwelcoming for some, I feel like Koei Tecmo gets it, and knows their audience.

Nioh has become bigger, harder and a bit more diverse. Defiant Honor is a great addition to the excellent game, which can be criticized only for the traditionally not realized plot potential and modest size of the new content. However, fans of hardcore and hunters for the best equipment will have a real test, because the complexity of the Way of the Wise will make you die a million times in anticipation of the last planned DLC, which is called "Bloodshed's End"

There isn't really anything to be said negatively about Defiant Honor, other than, like Dragon of the North, I just want more.

Unfortunately the boss encounters and disposable side missions sully whatever good this content had going for it. Still, despite my grievances, I feel as though Team Ninja are finally finding their groove with the DLC and I'm hoping that the final one will knock it out of the park.

NiOh's "Defiant Honor" DLC is great, but sadly - pretty short. It doesn't offer much gameplay, that is if you don't like lengthy grinds.

An addition that is short on both content and imagination, with nothing really to set it apart from the main game. A difficult purchase to recommend unless you really want more Nioh regardless of quality.

Much like so many middle films in trilogies, it all feels like this is the stop-gap between the first part and the concluding chapter that will apparently release later this year.

Nioh, simply, is a game that throws more at you than you really need, something I've said before. It's nice then that Defiant Honor feels as though it was made to be something smarter, not necessarily bigger.