Samurai & Ninja Styles collide in a stunning return to Edo Castle.
Team Ninja kicked off 2026 with Nioh 3, now available on PS5 and Steam since February 6.
Fumihiko Yasuda is the President and Head of Team Ninja and Managing Executive Officer at Koei Tecmo Games. He directed the prior Nioh games and now serves as General Producer for Nioh 3.
Nioh 3 is going to take you back to the year 1622 at Edo Castle, a period of the Tokugawa Shogunate. While the story blends with yokai lore and dark fantasy, you won’t be disappointed. The environment and art look exactly how I expected, with the vibe of Japanese culture made for all gamers to travel in Asian culture. The protagonist Tokugawa Takechiyo is the grandson of Tokugawa Leyasu, and from childhood, Takechiyo could see and draw guardian spirits that made him special. He is favored by many to be the future shogun. The journey will take you to many challenges.
In Nioh 3, the advancements that Team Ninja has made across their recent titles are particularly evident in the combat system. For example, compared to Nioh 2, where combat could feel rigid due to slower recovery after attacks and less seamless stance switching, Nioh 3 demonstrates greater fluidity and responsiveness, allowing for smoother transitions between attacks and defensive maneuvers. Unlike the prior games, where some weapon animations and parrying mechanics felt less refined, the new installment integrates faster movement and more intuitive controls. This progression highlights the developers’ commitment to refining gameplay mechanics, resulting in a more engaging and polished combat experience.
The combat demands mastery of stamina management, with many ideas taken from the Souls-like genre, which is not a bad thing. I am honestly happy that they are improving combat in their games.
There are 2 Styles of combat in Nioh 3 – Samurai and Ninja – and the ability to switch them in combat as you see fit, and to complement to your playstyle.
For each style of combat, you will have different weapons and animations to contribute to the combat that the game offers.
The pace of the game seems just right, not too slow and not too fast. At times few enemies may seem to move faster than expected, but as for the enemies encountered on the game this feels amazing.
It seems that Nioh 3 has polished the game’s foundation and optimized it well.
According to a hands-on report from PlayStation. Blog, Nioh 3 gives players a wide range of combat options to manage, which can feel overwhelming at first. However, as you spend more time with the game, these abilities blend to create fast, fluid, and powerful combat that stands out, even if the camera projection and field of view might not be perfect.
Overall, the game looks and feels good; all the improvements of the previous titles have been made. Team Ninja is proving once again, after releasing last year’s Ninja Gaiden 4, that they may be the best development studio for Ninja-style games.
There are some areas where the game could be improved, such as UI navigation, inventory management, and performance. The performance on PS5 was not outstanding, and we experienced some frame drops during our gameplay.
But all in all, this game is very good.
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