Nioh
Sengoku Japan as a loot game: the soulslike skeleton with stance switching, a gear churn, and difficulty that comes from systems rather than from level design.
Recommended first play
What to play first, and in what order, if you are starting cold.
A curator’s claim about what to play first, not a fact about the series. It moves 2 entries out of release order, and each one says why.
The second game is a prequel, so lore and release run in opposite directions for the first two entries. Recommended follows lore here, unusually — Nioh 2 is both earlier in the story and the better-taught game, so there is no tension to resolve.
- 1Nioh 2
2020 · Team Ninja
A prequel set before the first game, and the one to start with. It teaches the same systems more patiently and adds the yokai forms the first game never had.
Entry point1 place earlier than release - 2Nioh
2017 · Team Ninja
The original: a Western sailor in a civil war, and the game where stance switching first has to become muscle memory rather than a menu.
1 place later than release - 3Nioh 3
2026 · Team Ninja
Placed last on the strength of its announced Edo setting, which is later than either of the others. That is a claim about a game barely out, and it is the weakest link in this ordering.
