God damn I love Nioh 2.

I was so excited to play Wo Long, that new Team Ninja game, before it came out, but ultimately it never grabbed me the same way. Played the first few missions, but sorta fell off. Much like with Sekiro, I think the lack of a stamina system hurts the combat more than it helps.

With stamina, you get this fun push-pull in combat. You cannot be aggressive 100% of the time, you have to slow down and back off, even for just a couple seconds. The Nioh games go a step further and give enemies a stamina (or rather ki) bar as well! They are also managing a resource, and you can take advantage of it at critical moments.

Fundamentally, the thing that makes me enjoy playing Nioh 2 so much (besides the buttery smooth controls) is the mechnical maximalism. There are so many goddamned mechanics in this game. You'll finish the whole campaign and still be introduced to like half a dozen new things in the postgame. There are so many things going on, there's no obvious single solution to any situation you're in. Because you don't have a one-size-fits-all tool like the deflect or parry, you have to engage with other systems to get an edge.