Sony picks up samurai action-RPG Nioh for North America and Europe

Still set for February 9, 2017

While Koei Tecmo is still publishing Nioh for PlayStation 4 in Japan, Sony has stepped in to rep Team Ninja’s oni-slaying samurai game in North America, Europe, and Asia (outside of Japan).

Considering this is the game many of us hungry Souls fans are anticipating in a post-Dark Souls III world, that’s a fairly big move. Infamously, Sony decided against publishing From Software’s 2009 dark-fantasy action-RPG Demon’s Souls in North America, instead leaving that job to Atlus.

I’m not quite sure what this means for Nioh‘s future on other platforms (I would hope it doesn’t remain an exclusive forever), but Sony should at least be in a good position to promote this game hard. There aren’t too many companies making these sorts of titles, and I’d hate to see it bomb.

If you tried one of the early versions of Nioh but didn’t read up on it further, you might be surprised by this story-focused extended TGS trailer. Which is to say there actually is a narrative here, one that weaves legends and folklore around the real-world Western samurai William Adams.

Sony has also covered the various visual options we’ll get to choose between in the final version of the game, whether we’re playing on a standard PS4 or a PS4 Pro. This is the good stuff right here:

• PS4, Option 1: “Movie Mode”
  This mode focuses on resolution over frame rate, offering beautiful high resolution graphics with stable 30fps

• PS4, Option 2: “Action Mode”
  Here the emphasis is on frame rate, providing a stable 60fps

• PS4, Option 3: “Movie Mode (Variable frame rate)”
  Finally, this option provides high resolution graphics with a variable frame rate that may go over 30fps.

• PS4 Pro, HD display. Option 1: “Movie Mode”
  Stable 1920×1080 resolution with high quality anti-aliasing at 30fps

• PS4 Pro, HD display. Option 2: “Action Mode”
  Stable 1920×1080 resolution at 60fps

• PS4 Pro, 4K display. Option 1: “Movie Mode”
  Stable 3840×2160 resolution at 30fps

• PS4 Pro, 4K display. Option 2: “Action Mode”
  Stable 1920×1080 resolution at 60fps

Early 2017 is positively stacked for games, but I’ll be sure to set aside time for Nioh in February (unless something goes horribly, tragically awry leading up to release; I loved the public alpha).

Action RPG Nioh to be published by SIE, PS4 Pro enhancements detailed [PlayStation Blog EU]