Back in 2006, when this website was still a fairly young and innocent little corner in cyberspace, I optimistically covered the announcement of a new video game that would be based on an unwritten screenplay by the then-still-fairly-recently-deceased Akira Kurosawa. It was called Oni.
Fast forward ten years. Each subsequent piece of news that we have received about the game over the years has taken it further away from its Kurosawa origins. First, Kurosawa Production company no longer seemed involved in the project. All references to Kurosawa soon disappeared. The story seemed to change. The game changed its name to Nioh.
Frankly, only one thing remains the same: the main character is still a blonde-haired samurai.
Well, two things, really. I am still covering it. Because my mom taught me that if you start something, you not only better see it to the end, but also put your best effort into doing so.
So. Today, Nioh enters a public beta that runs until September 6. You will be able to download it if you own a Playstation 4 console. If you do so, please drop a line or two in the comments section below as I have no access to Sony’s latest gaming machine and would love hear your take on Nioh.
Here’s the latest trailer.
Nioh is scheduled to come out sometime later this year.
I’ve extensively played the alpha version, but I only played the beta for some minutes. From what I could see, the playable parts haven’t changed much from one version to another.
I don’t see it as a Kurosawa-inspired game, perhaps some of the clothing designs, but that’s it.
PS: I was the writer in Tokyo 1923 and I was really happy to read your article about it!