With the Nioh timed demo having come and gone, Team Ninja has posted a breakdown of feedback received from players. According to the Ninja Gaiden developer, more than 850,000 users downloaded the alpha for its upcoming PlayStation 4 action RPG.
Generally, the response from players was positive, especially in regards to Nioh’s combat and atmosphere. Predictably, many commented on the game’s lack of information surrounding advanced mechanics and a number of UI elements, something Team Ninja is currently looking into. Here a more comprehensive look at their survey results:
OVERALL• Add tutorials regarding the game system.• Adjust balance mainly in the opening sections to make battles fairer.• Improve controls and camera system.• Improve the understandability and usability of the UI.• Improve graphic performanceTutorials• Implement a training stage for tutorials on basic controls and core game actions.Action & Controls• Improve player & camera behavior during lock-on.• Change the conditions under which the player character becomes unresponsive when the Ki Gauge is empty.• Expand item shortcut slots.• Revise the objects which require holding a button and the response to the hold input.• Improve detection for the half-circle analog stick input.Enemies• Adjust attack and defense parameters of enemies.• Revise enemy pursuit of the player.• Revise superarmor (stagger/no stagger) for each enemy and attack.• Adjust Revenant AI.Level Design/Stages• Improve exploration elements such as shortcuts, etc.• Add hints to guide players to boss areas.• Revise the display of objects that block the view of the player character.• Adjust fire area damage.UI• Improve layout and displayed information.• Adjust text size.• When making an offering at a shrine, allow the player to perform all actions at once.Online• Improve online synchronization.• Allow the host to use the Shrine menu during co-op play with a Visitor.• Adjust the rate at which enemy parameters increase during co-op play.Other• Remove durability stat for weapons and armor.• Adjust the drop rate for equipment.• Add a new control type.• Implement a flow to allow players to exit a mission.• Fix other bugs.
Although alpha and beta testing are common staples in today’s gaming industry, it’s refreshing to see a developer collate and respond to feedback so transparently.
From what we played of Nioh it holds up surprisingly well, borrowing a whole spread of ideas from other games and genres to create something familiar yet intriguing all the same.
Source: Nioh – Alpha Demo Survey Results
TSBonyman
The beta was punishing but had a definite appeal, the above changes sound promising too so i might have to have another look when it releases.