Samurai, Get Ready to Slash Yōkai Souls Again in Nioh 2 Open Beta

Fresh off releasing a new trailer at the Tokyo Game Show, developer Team Ninja has announced an open beta for the action-role playing game Nioh 2.

Nioh 2 Open Beta Details

Scheduled to kick off on Nov. 1 and run until Nov. 10, the beta will only be available for PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store. As for the full release, publishers Sony and Koei Tecmo revealed last week that Nioh 2 is slated to drop sometime in early 2020 as a PlayStation 4 exclusive.

In Tweet straddling the announcement, Team Ninja said the beta features a new stage and a new Yōkai enemy to battle.

Team Ninja describes Nioh 2 as a prequel to 2017’s well-received original Nioh, which acted as a statement of intent for the studio. Having been responsible for the cult Ninja Gaiden series, Team Ninja has carried the heavy burden of fan calls to create a game that matches those same auspicious heights. Nioh did just that finding its roots in an abandoned Akira Kurosawa script despite a near 13-year development cycle.

With Nioh 2, Team Ninja looks to follow in those same footsteps – albeit cutting down significantly on the development process – and pits players against hordes of samurai phantoms and demonic animal-like beasts that draw heavily from the darker heritage of Japanese Yōkai folklore.

Protagonist William Makes Way For A Player-Created Character

Swapping out the original’s Irish sailor, William (based off the historical figure and Engish navigator William Adams), for a player-created semi-Yōkai and semi-human protagonist, Nioh 2 returns to the tumultuous Sengoku period in Japanese history.

Although we’ve seen quite a bit of Nioh 2 courtesy of game play trailers and a 50,000 player closed Alpha that ran back in late May, we’re light on story details as of writing. Team Ninja says Nioh 2 will crutch on the mechanics and systems of the original while introducing a flurry of new features.

The Nioh series has been described as a merger between Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls. It’s a tired comparison but one that nevertheless highlights Nioh’s difficulty and tight, methodical, almost choreographed combat.