Nioh 2 Beta Survey Results Revealed

Back in November 2019, Team Ninja put together a Nioh 2 open beta for PlayStation 4 owners to play. The goal was to give people a chance to sample the latest installment in the series, while help the developer find things that might need adjustments. Now that it has come and gone, Team Ninja has done the same thing with it as it did with the original Nioh beta: released survey data.

There is only one infographic this time. However, once again Team Ninja explains exactly what it will change in Nioh 2 going forward. Balancing is in order, and it will tweak Dark Realm rewards and penalties. It will also include a better tutorial and allow people to customize its controls.

Here are the full Nioh 2 beta survey results from Team Ninja’s site.

Nioh 2 Beta Survey Results

Overall Direction

• Improve parts that felt unbalanced, and adjust the difficulty level
• Adjust the penalties against the players in the Dark Realm, and introduce greater returns.
• Alleviate the overall strictness of the player’s Ki management
• Expand and improve tutorial elements
• Make refinements to the action and level design

Key Aspects to be Addressed

Player Action & Controls

• Improve the lock-on tracking for the switchglaive. In addition to this, increase the amount of damage inflicted by low attacks.
• Add Active Skills to all weapons. In particular, add several Active Skills for the new weapons (hand axe, switchglaive)
• Strengthen several Yokai Abilities, and make them easier to use. Adjust the balance for all Yokai Abilities
• Adjust the Yokai Shift and Burst Counters. Adjust the balance of the Brute, Feral, and Phantom, and adjust the counter ability against Burst Attacks
• Adjust the Ki Pulse Bonus
• Add a custom setting in controls, making it possible for more flexible key configurations

Enemy Action

• Adjust the life and attack strength parameters of enemies. In particular, reduce the Ki damage inflicted on the player
• Make performance adjustments to enemy attack tracking and hit frames
• Make adjustments so that yokai enemies become downed when their maximum Ki limit is reduced
• Change some enemy yokai, so that they express hit reactions when they have Ki remaining.
• Reduce the Ki recovery speed for yokai in the Yokai Realm

Level Design, Stages

• Adjust the placement of enemies and the collision detection in narrow spots, and areas where it is possible to fall.
• Improve the camera behaviour in narrow areas
• Adjust areas where multiple enemies are placed
• Adjust the location of shrines. In particular, shrines that were in hard to find places will be easier to find
• Make adjustments so that status enhancements are not removed when entering hot springs

Dark Realm

• Alleviate the penalty to Ki recovery speed while inside the Dark Realm
• Add merits which increase the damage made to the maximum Ki limits of enemy yokai.
• Adjust the bonus amount of Yokai Force earned in the Dark Realm
• Adjust the conditions determining when bosses generate and dispel the Dark Realm to make them easier to understand

Tutorial

• Expand the Interim tutorial to include basic actions and Yokai Shift controls
• Add and improve information shown on-screen after a death

Character Advancement Elements

• Make adjustments to increase the number of Core Stats that can improve the Ki Recovery Rate
• Make adjustments to increase the number of Core Stats that can improve the Ki Pulse Bonus
• Expand the Soul Fusion functions
• Improve the AI for Acolytes and NPC characters.
• Revise some of the specifications related to increasing the proficiency of Ninja and Onmyo skills.

UI

• Add a system which allows Active Skill customisation settings to be saved/loaded.
• Divide the tabs for shrine Offerings, and Blacksmith disassembly and selling
• Add icons to identify consumable items that raise the proficiency of Ninjutsu and Onmyo Magic
• Other interface and usability related improvements

Character Creation

• Add additional settings for more precise facial adjustments
• Improve the level of detail for all settings

Online Mode

• Adjust the enemy’s strength and Ki during multiplayer mode
• Improve the stability of matching and online play

Sound

• Improve the sound effects for weapon hits, Ki Pulses, and Yokai Shifts
• Improve the volume of damping based on camera distance

Other Adjustments

• Stabilize the frame rate through rendering optimization
• Other various bug fixes

Nioh 2 will appear on the PlayStation 4 on March 13, 2020. As a reminder, people who played the open beta can now safely delete it and its save file. They will still get the The Mark of the Demon Slayer as a reward for participating if they do.