Bloodborne’s impact on Soulslikes cannot be understated, with its frenetic, high-octane movement bleeding into FromSoftware’s future games, such as Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, pushing the combat loop to its absolute limit and inspiring other developers to do the same.
Lies of P is the most obvious example of a Soulslike inspired by the Lovecraftian horrors of Yharnam, sending Pinocchio hurtling into a nightmare of his own, but it proved such a resounding success that now other developers are using it as inspiration.
As reported by PC Gamer, the open-world threequel in Team Ninja’s hit dark action Samurai series, Nioh 3, learned a lot from Lies of P when it came to rhythmic boss fights and marrying visual creativity and combat animations as we saw throughout Krat.
“In addition to [Lies of P’s] solid action that requires careful use of guarding and evading, I really had a lot of fun in battles against the bosses, who had a wide variety of designs,” Nioh 3 director Masaki Fujita said. “In particular, the bosses’ attack actions made full use of their distinctive designs, so it was great stimulation in giving me inspiration when thinking about the yokai actions in Nioh.”
What Team Ninja Learned From Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty And Rise Of The Ronin
Of course, Team Ninja also learned from its own Soulslikes after spending the last few years branching out beyond Nioh with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Rise of the Ronin, noting that feedback from players pushed them to “go into more depth” with character relationships, and implement “more to enjoy in exploration,” such a side quests.
“As to how we used these learnings in this game, I’d like you to explore the open field of Nioh 3 and see for yourself,” Fujita teased, explaining that Rise of the Ronin showed the team that there is “benefit to holding back on fantasy-like elements”.
Nioh 3 is available right now on PS5 and PC for $69.99. If you’d like to find out more about the game, check out our interview with producer Kohei Shibata.
