We come bearing sad news today. Director Fumihiko Yasuda has confirmed that Team Ninja will no longer keep working on the Nioh franchise, which means that Nioh 2 will be the last game in the series.
Published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and Sony Interactive Entertainment in other parts of the world, the Nioh franchise only consists of two games since the first title went into production last 2010. However, Yasuda firmly believes that two entries are more than enough for this epic samurai saga.
The original Nioh was released on the PlayStation 4 in 2017, and the plot is basically about the one and only Western-born samurai, William Adams, and his adventures during the Sengoku period. The sequel comes in the form of Nioh 2, which was launched this year in March.
Interestingly, Nioh 2 is considered to be both a prequel and a sequel to the first game, since it has chapters that are set before and after what happens in Nioh. This time around, players follow the exciting undertakings of the half-yokai Hide, as well as witness the events that take place during the Siege of Osaka.
Fans couldn’t help but notice that both titles were similar to the highly-acclaimed Dark Souls franchise in terms of combat and level of difficulty. Overall, the series received positive remarks from players and critics and was more or less successful. As a matter of fact, Nioh was even one of the nominees for Best Action in The Game Awards 2020, but it wasn’t able to win against Hades.
In an interview with Famitsu (via Twinfinite), Yasuda simply confirmed that the development of the series has finally come to an end. On the bright side, he states that the studio will begin working on several projects beginning next year.
Kou Shibusawa, who is the current president of Koei Tecmo — of which Team Ninja is a subsection of — also said that he plans to keep creating games that take inspiration from the rich Japanese culture and history. In other words, the Nioh series may be wrapping things up, but its end is possibly just the beginning.
This news may be sad and disappointing for fans who were looking forward to more games from this series, but we can’t deny the fact that Nioh wasn’t exactly the flagship franchise in Team Ninja’s portfolio of video games. As such, its end isn’t that surprising at the same time.
What’s more, the series’ storyline itself was pretty much self-sufficient and therefore, didn’t leave enough room for the possibility of sequels and spin-offs to squeeze into. So while many commended Nioh for its refreshing take on the RPG genre, we reckon that Team Ninja most likely couldn’t find room for expansions and the like.
That being said, the fact that Shibusawa wants to focus on developing games that put a spotlight on Japanese culture and history could potentially mean that forthcoming titles may be following the footsteps of Nioh, and titles such as Dead or Alive won’t be getting as much attention.
In any case, Team Ninja will be releasing Nioh 2: Complete Edition this 2021, which is the perfect game to play for new and revisiting players as they wait for the developer to release new yet similar titles.
