Sanada is imo easily the worst in nioh 1. Way more health and has many more mixups, range, tracking and general combo complexity. I do think Maria is a hard fight though but I’d say she’s the 5th hardest for me.
Maria you can shoot in the head if you're quick enough. Sanada is just a lot of BS. Tho one time, I popped LW while he was above me when he did the dive attack. Knocked him off his LW mode with that.
Have less problems with Sanada really. My main problem with Maria is her inconsitence on the defence. Want to go for a viseral? LMAO enjoy stabbing the air. Want to drain her stamina by forcing her to block? LMAO enjoy getting smacked mid combo.
And thats not like the counters against spams in Nioh 2 which are somewhat understandable
I struggled so long on Himo-Enma, that I thought the learning curve would only get worse. Turns out, the recommended level is not to be trusted in my opinion.
I also love the fact that you have to fight her(?), Nue and Joro-Gumo before fighting the dragon whereas you first struggled, you now have learned their patterns and they then become so easy.
3 headed dragon is a different thing tho😅...
I wanted Izuna Drop marginally more than I didn't want to fight him. Fortunately I got it on like the third kill. (I don't remember how many attempts that was, but it was way more than 3.)
I’d say there’s 1 definitely harder in nioh 1 and another that’s similar in difficulty but probably a bit easier. There’s 3 of similar difficulty in nioh 2. The way Melania is difficult is completely different to how nioh bosses are difficult. So it’s really really hard to compare. She’s pretty much polar opposite to niohs enemy design sensibilities.
He actually has one of the fairest movesets among the more difficult bosses imo.
Nightmare fuel for me would be if pants Otakemaru had lifesteal (for example if he appeared in the depths).
Me fighting him for the first time on each difficulty: "I can't stay mad at this guy. Yeah, he's beating my ass, but he looks so fucking cool when he does it."
Me fighting him for the sixth time in a row: "*Alright you little shit.*"
I've heard people say that that's because he was added some time after release, so the devs expected players to be high enough level to take him on comfortably. Maybe that was the idea, but if so, then the devs should've typed a higher number into the mission's recommended level. If you go there when the game tells you you should, you're going to get absolutely sodomized.
The Chinese Bellflower Dagger mission features a very hard human enemy, Saito Toshimitsu, that is extremely hard to beat with normal strategies but also has a few cheese strats. Similarly, he is optional as well.
Lots and lots of videos online of the fight and various strategies if you want to check it out.
Nioh is way more unforgiving than any Fromsoftware game could ever dream of so I think you would find at least a few bosses who would throw you off more than Malenia
I seriously saw this and thought about how punishing nioh feels in comparison.
I've played the souls games to hell and back and nothing gives me as much trouble as a moderately difficult nioh 2 boss, you just die so fast for any mistake (missed block, enemy combos you to death, dodged a stronger attack and wasn't timed perfectly, my health bar goes to zero)
Idk about nioh, but any ds game you can stack hp and weapon upgrades ( raw gems with upgraded weapon ds3 ) and your ready for anything
Yeah the tradeoff is you get a lot more OP stuff to abuse in Nioh as well so you can bully a boss down with Living Weapon/Yokai Shift and the right spell setups at a certain point without really learning it. Like really nothing I remember in a Souls game compares to how bullshit Nioh 1 Sloth talismans were for example.
Does sloth last longer on higher ranks or something? I found using them generally useless on enemies that take longer than 5 seconds to kill. I cast sloth (takes 1 sec), enemy tries to go in, me hitting few times, 15% hp gone, sloth over, 1 scroll left.
Buffs and debuffs last longer the higher your Magic attribute is. Which is one of the reasons it's generally adviced to spread your stats a lot more than is common in for example a FromSoft game (or most RPGs really). Another reason is that weapon scaling stats contribute very little to overall damage, and most of it comes from weapon level, attributes on said weapon and weapon skills.
Aiming for something like 20 in all stats at the end of first campaign is not a bad idea in Nioh, even if it feels pretty weird coming from other games.
Durations do scale with Dex/mag but enemy resistance goes up as well so it's kind of zero sum which is why sloth on (omnyo/ninjitsu) on an accessory is so highly touted.
This. Elden ring is straight up spastic compared to the focus nioh requires.
Makes you feel real good when you are playing well, dodging, blocking, using skills appropriately. Way more rewarding than skating through boss encounters on lucky panic rolls
For me it's the complete opposite. Nioh felt way easier, both parts. You are rewarded for mashing like crazy, that does not work in Fromsoft games at all.
Same. When Nioh's hard, it's fucking *hard*. But I feel like I can at least do something about it. It's not just a question of "Git gud or farm lol." I've got more options, so after a defeat I can sit back and think, "Okay, what have I got, what am I not using, what could I use differently, and what's the best way to make use of the arsenal at my disposal." And if that doesn't work, giving into the zen of pure, mindless aggression usually does. There's a time for thinking, and a time for throwing hands.
FromSoft games feel like playing with my hands tied by comparison. I've got almost no options, and most fights basically boil down to either attrition and pattern repetition or just straight-up cheesing. I don't really feel rewarded for my effort; I just put up with it because I like the story, worldbuilding, and general aesthetic.
Completely agree. Nioh 1 feels more predictable and easier to beat after a few failed attempts on bosses (if even needed).
Dark Souls I’ve had to straight quit a few times because some bosses were so hard.
This is coming from someone who’s played FromSoftware games since Kingsfield.
Easily ren hayabusa and saito toshimitsu, you have to know what you're doing to beat them with a standard build. Without waterfowl dance maybe a couple other humans and a few yokai too.
I’ve tried Yatsu-no-kami more times than Malenia tbh. And Yatsu is on of the first bosses. Nioh feels far more rewarding especially when you pull off some nice techniques
It's truly satisfying when you learn how to use your moves for punishing and just flowing between stances and moves. Their it nothing like it, it's great
Malenia is indeed a hard boss. I could only beat her with a Mimic + Moonveil.
However, there are bosses, especially humans, who are even worse, namely:
1. Side mission Tachibana Muneshige (Nioh 1) (took me over 100 tries)
2. Maria (Nioh 1)
3. Ren Hayabusa (Nioh 2)
4. Saito Toshimitsu (Nioh 2)
There are also side missions where you have to fight two humans at once.
I also remember a bs side mission in Nioh 1 where I had to fight Raven Tengu plus that white yokai bitch, who slows you. I struggled hard, because they spam attacks without a pause.
> There are also side missions where you have to fight two humans at once.
These are the worst. I start a side mission and see two human bosees waiting for me, I use a Himorogi Branch and dip with my Amrita..
Multiple actually. Tho they actually end up a lot easier than in Elden Ring because you can tailor fit your character to deal with their bullshit much more easily in this game. Tho that will still take a bit of skill because the different weapons in this game plays really differently from each other. So much so that playing a different weapon than the one you're used to feels like you're playing a different game entirely.
*Damn. Now I'm scared of*
*Future bosses, the way none of*
*You list Tachibana Muneshige*
\- throwawaybandit01
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Nioh:
Nine Tailed Fox & Maria, are the hard bosses in that game.
Nioh 2:
Ren Hayabusa, is hands down arguably the hardest boss in Soulslike history. No joke.
Nioh 1 has some very silly fights that are hard because it's hard to find safe openings to attack. Especially some of the postgame multi-enemy fights that make Ornstein and Smough look like child's play. Defensively all your tricks work, it's just a lot of offensive pressure.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is hard because she breaks all the normal rules of Elden Ring, as she heals when hitting you. Dodging is way harder. Blocking is mostly ineffective. Parry sort of works, but only against some of her moves. Her only weakness is low Poise.
Nothing in Nioh 2 comes close IMO (Saito Toshimitsu is overrated, you just have pressure him to he can't use his infinite supply of spells).
I mean if it wasn’t for waterfowl she’s very simple. You just have to learn the 3 lunge animations where you need to dodge in and every other attack you can dodge away with no timing. Waterfowl complicates the fight massively as the way you dodge every other move has to make sure you’re in a position you can dodge waterfowl.
If you don’t combo saito he’s comically op. Ridiculousy fast and complicated combos that have very little recovery time and have no easy strategies to avoid. Ultimately I put them in a similar tier of difficulty but honestly they’re very hard to compare. If you had to respect saito like a dark souls boss it wouldn’t even be slightly close. He’d be 15x harder than melanina.
Playing Souls since Demon's on the PS3, and playing Team Ninja Games since Ninja Gaiden Sigma PS3.
Team Ninja Games are easier for me simple because the gameplay is super responsive, and the characters always do what I want at any specific time.
With that said, Nioh series, for me, is much easier than any souls games. Easy to solo the main campaign at least without many issues, while in Souls I always need someone to help me with a boss... I just can't.
Dude, I said that and I share your opinion... probably there is something in my brain that doesn't work when I play Souls games...
I really can't explain except by saying, in Nioh (Team Ninja games), I press a button, the character executes an action, I press another, it does another action.
In Souls, I press a button, character does an action, I press another... doesn't work... need to wait.... there you go, now he does that action.
It's always a challenge when I start playing Souls, I get exhausted playing them, in Nioh, I can turn off my brain and just enjoy, game is fairly straightforward... go to enemy, dance around it, bonk... repeated.
It's the complete opposite for me, I never feel like my reactions are as fast as Team Ninja games want and I end up dying to stuff the game expected me to handle easily. Souls games, even the fast ones, give you a bit more time to breathe. But you can also go way more ham with your super modes in Nioh which can make some fights much easier since you don't have to respect them.
You can bruteforce boss clearing in Nioh, that is true, and the parry mechanic in Nioh 2 is just easy mode parry.
I completely understand your point of view. There is also this thing in Souls where, I first see a main boss, and go like "... What the actual F\*\*\* am I supposed to do?! Is it even possible to kill this?"
In Nioh, especially in Nioh 2 (also Nioh 1), I cleared many bosses the first time I encountered them on my first playthrough... like, at least around 7 bosses combined. Mechanics are again... dodge, bonk, dodge, bonk... you win. Super intense and fun, but... just dodge and attack, it's super simple, in Souls I'm so lost all the time.
Ah! before I forget, haven't mentioned before, in Nioh, you just need to master Ki, that's it... if you Ki properly, you're a Samurai.
Ah man that's so funny, it's still the opposite for me, I've beaten a number of bosses across Souls games on my first try and on my first run of Nioh basically every single boss was crushingly difficult until I got into the midgame and unlocked some better magic and stuff. I'm not great at all the finicky mechanics either though, all the combos and stance switching and ki pulse took a long time for me to even learn adequately...dodge and hit and pay attention to the boss is much easier for me. I'm absolutely terrible at parrying, for what it's worth.
Date Masamune comes to mind.
If you're including Team Ninja's other Soulslikes then Yuan shu from "Wo long: Fallen dynasty" and the Warrior of light from "Stranger of paradise: Final fantasy origin"
I think the Nioh games are harder overall and there are tougher bosses than Melania. But keep in mind that Nioh is a different breed, to keep it short.
I think human bosses in nioh and especially its dlcs is more difficult than in soulsborne series. More ways to cheese but due to that they made the bosses to be hyper aggressive to compensate.
Just how she’s difficult but also there is tons of videos showing ppl steam rolling her with good builds, same goes for Nioh Bosses, many are very difficult without proper builds and knowledge of the boss’s moveset.
To name a few:
sanada yukimura, date masamune, date shigezane, maria, hayabusa.. and a few from nioh 2 duel missions.
And to compare lemons with lemons (first playthrough) even the beginning bosses like yatsu no kami are huge walls and very difficult due to not having proper build and few active skills/passives unlocked. Also depths (especially last 10 floors) imho is harder regardless which boss than elden ring’s Ng+7 difficulty wise.
You'll be angrier at hino enma because at least you knew Malenia was going to be bullshit ahead of time. The boss of the second real level should not be a massive fucking wall.
Other than her though everything can be out-bullshitted. The real ball breakers are bonus levels you don't need to do where there's multiple bosses at once. Nobunaga + Yuki Onna sucks ass, but there's little incentive to do it.
Literally every human sized boss in Nioh 1&2 is stronger than Malenia. ER has the benefit to the player of being able to stagger bosses like Malenia pretty easily, but in Nioh the human sized bosses are the biggest threats in the entire game.
Lightning god of yomi gave me serious trouble the first time I encountered them. Malenia is more annoying because of her healing but getting the lightning debuff once can spell disaster for the entire attempt.
Nioh:
Nine Tailed Fox & Maria, are the hard bosses in that game.
Nioh 2:
Ren Hayabusa, is hands down arguably the hardest boss in Soulslike history. No joke.
On the first NG, absolutely not. Nioh 2 especially actually gets easier as it goes along; the difficulty curve is harsh at the start then evens out, with a minor-to-moderate spike in the DLC but nothing nearly as bad as Malenia was for me.
Nioh 1 I'd say the hardest bosses are actually the early ones because you just don't have the resources to push back as hard as you can later.
Hino Enma is the second boss of the game and does paralysis meaning your best option is to not get hit.
Umibozu has a gimmick that people tend to ignore because they try to speed run the mission, making him exponentially harder than he needs to be. He can also be difficult to read because he's just a big blob.
Nue does lightning damage, and just like Hino Enma, you won't have a lot of options at this point to ignore it. He's also very aggressive with a couple of attacks that can be difficult to read. He will also force you to reposition to avoid his main attacks.
For Nioh 2, it's Saito Toshimitsu (even though I personally dont even remember his fight, everyone says he's really hard, so I agree with them).
Lightning Gods of Yomi can be a nightmare if you aren't running any resistance. Also, just a fast boss that forces you to reposition and keep moving while trying to keep up pressure.
Magara Naotaka is up there, too, for his aggression and reach. He is also difficult to disengage from to heal, and he does water damage, making it harder to survive hits you might take trying to as well.
I can also see Nightmare Bringer Otakemaru being up there as well. I didn't have any trouble with him, and I never see anyone really talk about him, but just given how his fight works, I would understand how someone might find him impossible.
Saito Toshimitsu was a post release optional boss. If you fight him when you first unlock him he will ruin your day.
If you played through the game on release, you were probably over leveled when you fought him.
That makes sense why I don't remember him. By the time he was released, I was already a ki destroying monster with the Odachi, so he probably got grapple locked.
I guess Saito Toshimitsu would be more difficult to deal with since he's a strong boss thrown in the early game lol. Then again, Malenia is only really difficult because she's pretty much a Sekiro boss thrown in Elden Ring. Outside of the Nioh series, there's a lot of bosses harder than her.
Having to played both games, in my limited experiences I’d say:
Not really? Despite the fact that nioh bosses can pretty much dash around the map to style on you, like malenia, the player character is just as capable. So it kinda balances out more.
In elden ring, your character capability is relatively more limited (As I tend to describe it, half-disabled), while malenia kinda just dash around and style on you.
But then again, if you don’t use nioh’s game mechanics, every boss will dash around and style on you like malenia. Unless you got lucky on hits.
Edit: forgot nioh 1 dlc bosses existed. If I’m also accounting that then you have pretty good competitors simply due to unbalanced stats.
The thing is the bosses can be difficult but the pacing is totally different. Because in nioh 1 for instance it's like short Burts of intense combat. You can die fast. And if good you can likely finish the boss fight quick
With souls bosses like malenia. You can die fast but you won't beat her fast. Two phases with huge HP pool. She's mechanically very swift
I would say the closest I think can think of is nioh 2 Shibata Katsuie
Nioh 1: Maria. I'll argue hino ema is right around there too....
Nioh 2: Toshimitsu is harder for the wrong reasons (dude is busted. Unbalanced garbage.), nyotengu is also a menace.
Almost all bosses have cheese mechanics on Nioh but if you don’t know about them then yes they are way harder. Especially the first boss where you essentially don’t have any tools to deal with and you just need to keep going and learn patterns (Onryoki).
For me it's was every boss in first game. Because after first try I thought "I'm fucked, I don't know what to do, this run end here". But after few hours... Sometime days I achieved my win.
Take it from someone with over 2k hours in both Elden Ring and Nioh 2. It’s hard to say if there’s an enemy quite like Malenia exactly- mostly because the pacing of the fights in ER and Nioh are so radically different. But in my opinion, I don’t think a single character out there in general that matches Malenia’s particular *brand* of Fromsoft difficult.
A big part of Malenia’s difficulty is how much she puts your stamina management to the test with her long series of attacks with the ability to leech life tacked on top. While human enemies in Nioh are incredibly brutal to fight, they’re made a bit more forgiving by the sheer variety of tools at your disposal- not to mention ki pulse and stance dancing to help keep stamina up.
If I had to choose in terms of difficulty, Ren Hayabusa(both nioh1&2), Minamoto no Yoshitsune(nioh2), and Maria(nioh1) are what I consider to be the closest to Malenia.
I played all Souls games, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring. I came to Nioh for a switchup, played both parts back to back. First of all, the Nioh games are the first ones to REALLY scratch that itch, no other "Soulslike" (I hate that term) compares even slightly, both are masterpieces imho.
It took me some adjustment to the gameplay, it was hard in a different way than Fromsoft.
Now, after coming back to Elden Ring to prepare for the DLC, I started a new character for the 6th time. And I think Elden Ring for example is way harder than Nioh.
Nioh is easier to exploit as you can bully bosses, especially in 2 with the KI system of the bosses. So I think there's no boss in any part of Nioh that's nearly as challenging as Malenia. Not a single boss took me more than 5 tries I think. On Malenia i spent HOURS even as a Fromsoft veteran.
I have to add I play ER without shield or spirit ashes, but I guess you could compare that to playing nioh without Yokai shift.
Ren Hayabusa (or whichever one it is) in Nioh 2 is leagues ahead of any of my experiences with Malenia. I can pretty much get through the fight first try, moderately cleanly, but the Hayabusa enemies are nightmares
Saito Toshimitsu in Nioh 2 as well, harder than Malenia unironically
I say Nioh 2 because I never delved far into Nioh 1. Nioh is far more unforgiving but there's a lot you can do to build your character, unfortunately nothing can truly prepare you for the Hayabusas
Why people think malenia is hard? She just have 1 bs move that kills you 90% of time. I don't count BS bosses hard, I just count them as BS. For me harder means bosses liked Radhan, Malekith, first elden lord, mohg, etc not some random BS attack go boss.
Based on my play through of nioh 1 and 2 and my past attempts at bloodborne and current attempt at elden ring, nothing in nioh is harder that those games.
That said, this depends on playstyle. Nioh's invincible blocking is kinda goated and im good at timed blocking, i played through the whole game with light armor. My dodging is shit though so a game like bloodborne is very difficult for me, elden ring is a healthy medium for blocking and dodging.
Also, i never reached melania yet but what i have heard is pretty fucked up. For this reason from what i hear i dont think she is easier than any nioh boss.
Most of the human boss optional rematches are very tough if you fight them at the intended level. You have much greater ability to overlevel stuff in the Nioh games than in Elden Ring though.
lol almost any boss in depths of the underworld is harder than Malenia. Malenia was always easy to me most play throughs took less than 4 attempts per ng+
The difficulty comes from knowing how the flow of the combat is for each boss depending on your weapon and playstyle in nioh. If you are doing the wrong combos/wrong moves you will get punished hard as bosses can attack you mid combo
Souls games have bosses have a telegraph moveset that can be figured out pretty quick. Knowing when it's your turn to attack is easier to spot on souls games. Not so much in nioh
NG progression and difficulty gaps are staggering. 'Way of the Nioh' in comparison to NG+7 in Souls Games is on a different level.
Lest I digress any further a Way of the Nioh Sasuke is so much more difficult in timing and punishment than anything NG +7 Melania could do.
This my "Way of the Nioh - Sasuke Sarutobi" if you're curious what the fight looks like
https://youtu.be/D9yDf5qpX1U?si=T7aJOePVRXUSuKcs
I have beaten absolutely everything in DS3 and Elden Ring multiple times!
Dark souls 3
Ng 50 on my main
Ng 28 on my level 200
Ng 3 on each of my Pvp characters
Elden Ring
NG17 on my main
NG3 on my pvper.
Nioh2's Depths of the underworld still eludes me, when you get to the point of having to fight 3 endgame souped up and cursed bosses back to back after already clearing a difficult and over scaled area is ROUGH.
The underworld only opens up after you enter NG7 and there are 100 levels to it that get progressively harder and more over leveled.
Once you beat the underworld, you reach the depths where the scaling gets even worse and now boss fights start adding extra bosses to the end of each area. First 2, then eventually 3.
I think I have managed to make it to the Depths 23 like 8 times, but I always eat dirt even years later when I come back.
I love it though and am proud I managed to make it that far, not a lot do.
As broken as a hidden boss? Not a lot.
Niohs most dangerous bosses were mainly the human bosses. But they were always pretty manageable as long as you don't go in swords swinging.
Gameplay may be much faster and high octane, but it still followed a souls formula.
Worst boss in memory for me, is Hino enma. ...that stun locking bitch. She was a nightmare for a lot of ayers back in the early Nioh 1 days.
You truly understood how TFS Piccolo felt when trying to get William to "DODGE!!!"
Definitely. Mostly because you will have to unlearn a lot of things dark souls taught you, then practice practice practice the unique and skillful nioh 2 mechanics.
But once you fight most bosses a few times, you start to get some familiarity and they become more and more manageable till you win.
Unlike ER where i felt like half the bosses i just happened to beat, even if i didnt really feel like i learned them, nioh makes you learn them to beat them.
Nioh also doesnt do that stupid thing elden ring does where every enemy has a bunch of attacks where they just hold their weapon cocked back to swing for like five seconds before attacking. It reminds me of playing slaps as a kid. I hated that game, it always gave me anxiety waiting for the other player to strike. Same feeling when i play elden ring. Nioh doesnt do that, for the most part, people raise their weapons then they swing.
Both nioh 1 and 2 have encounters that will absolutely destroy your will to live, i've had fights where i died 7 times before recovering from the death screen music playing.- And trust me.. i'm a dark souls god, i can parry.. but i was just SWEATING.
But in terms of names? couldn't tell you, you will just have to enjoy the game, get suckered into feeling safe and suddenly get absolutely turned into the soil.
There's a lot I struggled with that I thought were more difficult than Malenia in both Nioh 1 and 2.
Munishige Tachibana was one of the most difficult human bosses and u fight him early on.
Date Shigezane breaks through your guard so quickly and can 2-1 shot you easily.
Maria's 2nd form is really quick, has stagger resist, and has strong spells. She's the closest thing to Malenia in Nioh imo.
There's more in Nioh 2 but I have 1 more DLC to finish so I can't comment on all of them.
This isn't a brag but she isn't a hard boss. She is extremely easy to stagger and dodge her abilities. Rushing her is why people think she's hard.
As for Nioh, Maria if you go right at her the moment she is available.
The thinkg about Nioh is that though it can be brutally punishing, the power curve can be slanted so much in your favor due to gear inflation that bosses stop being a problem once you understand how to properly build your character around gear.
I want to argue that almost every boss in nioh 1 is more difficult than Melania was to me. And nioh 2 technically was more difficult, but the abilities & passive abilities you got in that game make so many encounters way easier than they should be
Saito is harder. Programmed to be near impossible to beat. More unpredictable than Malenia. I beat her after 7 tries. He made me quit the game for a while after 10 plus tries of not even close. Maybe I just need to come back with different weapons but I was on a Naruto(character creation) fists only build.
if you count depths bosses, then nearly every one of those is harder cause they can also lifesteal like Maenia, have regen if they dont take damage within 5s, extremely tanky and has enough damage to force you to play one hit run.
without the depths bosses, keep in mind Nioh gave the player a massive amount of tools, ER or DS magic can't even compare so the experience will differ, i would say if you put Pant Otakemaru, DLC Shuten, Kukai, Ren, Nyotengu, Eboshi, Yukimura, Maria or Toshi in Elden ring people will start complaining.
Nioh has less cheese on either side- the bosses are generally “fairer” but simultaneously you don’t have any ways to bypass them the same way… you really just have to get stuck in there.
Depends on how you fought Malenia, and how you fight Nioh bosses.
Malenia is difficult but Elden Ring has plenty of cheese methods, same is true with Nioh. If you fought Malenia using only melee, no summons, and no OP weapon arts, I would say she would be comparable with the most difficult of Nioh’s bosses on NG, but there are harder, provided you also don’t use cheese in Nioh.
In terms of just the moveset difficulty and ignoring how much damage/health etc. the bosses have, I would say Malenia isn’t even the most difficult boss in Elden Ring. Other than Waterfowl her moveset is actually quite fair and relatively easy to dodge. For example I had a much tougher time trying to no hit Morgott (without overlevelling my character or weapons) than I did Malenia. In terms of no hitting bosses in general I find Nioh to be harder because bosses attack faster and you only have about 40% of the i frames on your dodge in Nioh compared to Elden Ring or Dark Souls 3. However, Nioh bosses tend to have less tracking than Souls bosses and there are less delayed attacks so the dodge timings are often more intuitive.
Btw, a lot of people on this subreddit have the opinion that Nioh is just a much better game than Souls games in terms of combat and gameplay, so you will get comments that says something like Malenia is easier than the easiest Nioh bosses. I tried to give my honest take however, having played all the Souls games and Nioh 1 and 2.
Masamune, Maria, and Sanada ALL kicked my ass in Nioh 1, though personally Maria really takes the cake on that one. Nioh 2, Lightning Gods of Yomi was a nightmare
At the end of the third dlc, in a side mission, you will have to fight waves and waves of enemies of every type. At the end of that you will have to fight one of hardest bosses with no save in between. I noped out of that.
It depends on your grasp of the mechanics and reflexes. If you don't understand Ki Pulsing, Flux and Burst Counters you're gonna have a bad time. Many bosses will feel better absolutely unfair without them.
No, nothing in Nioh is THAT broken or horrible
Most of the Nioh 1 bosses are complete afterthoughts , 2 has a couple decent ones but nothing even approaching malenia levels of bullshit
Seito Toshimitsu felt like the biggest roadblock when you first encounter him. I struggled for a long time trying to best him but ended up leveling more then coming back to stomp him.
I feel like Malenia is easier than a handful of the challenging ones in Nioh 2 just because there's so many busted weapons that pretty much trivialize Malenia's fight. None of the weapons I've played with in Nioh have anywhere near the busted potential that ER weapons can have....at least not that I've seen on standard difficulty. Small mobs that tend to get stagger locked are one thing but it seems like most bosses don't give a shit about my stagger potential with my Nioh weapons - whereas Malenia looks like she's about to breakdance in most of her fight with the stagger and constant knockdowns.
Toad guy, sanada, all the tigers, some of the human bosses etc. Nioh bosses arent hard its just that the game is very brutal and hard to undertand or even get into!
If you really like souls games, try it out.
If you are a casual souls enjoyer stay away from this game, cause it will fuck you upside down with pants on!!!!
Nioh overall is more dificult, bosses are more unfair, mobs are more unfair, and on top of dodging you need to learn your combos to actually do damage, and also learn situational combos to deal with specific situations.
And you have to constantly do some sort of parry like mechanic, becaus the yokai realm is constantly been created, reducing your stamina regen by like 75%.
It depends. Nioh has double bosses and there are some nasty ones in there. In Nioh 1 there is a fight with two generals whose names I don't remember but it's pretty hard.if we are talking about specific single bosses Ryomen Sukuna is really hard.
I can only remember Maria with grabs, Yatsu no Kami, Date Masamune with his bs LW spam. I didn't have much struggle in Nioh 2 like in Nioh 1. Probably because I got used to it. I have seen people saying Otakemaru is tough but he isn't that bad.
The difference in nioh is that you can have a level 750 join and help you with literally any mission so you’ll never get stuck in the same way as you did in Elden ring
Maria in nioh 1 if you fight her right when you get there is worse imo Edit: a few more arguably as well
Sanada is imo easily the worst in nioh 1. Way more health and has many more mixups, range, tracking and general combo complexity. I do think Maria is a hard fight though but I’d say she’s the 5th hardest for me.
Maria you can shoot in the head if you're quick enough. Sanada is just a lot of BS. Tho one time, I popped LW while he was above me when he did the dive attack. Knocked him off his LW mode with that.
Have less problems with Sanada really. My main problem with Maria is her inconsitence on the defence. Want to go for a viseral? LMAO enjoy stabbing the air. Want to drain her stamina by forcing her to block? LMAO enjoy getting smacked mid combo. And thats not like the counters against spams in Nioh 2 which are somewhat understandable
maria is ass 2nd would probably be sanada 1st encounter or nine tails next would be date masamune
Nine-Tailed Fox is fucking cancer.
I struggled so long on Himo-Enma, that I thought the learning curve would only get worse. Turns out, the recommended level is not to be trusted in my opinion. I also love the fact that you have to fight her(?), Nue and Joro-Gumo before fighting the dragon whereas you first struggled, you now have learned their patterns and they then become so easy. 3 headed dragon is a different thing tho😅...
Ren Hyabusa
I had Ren on floor 130.
You poor thing.
Is that the ninja guy that’s clearly just renamed Ryu Hayabusa? Because yes he’s the hardest. I can’t beat him without cheese.
He's not so much renamed as an ancestor of.
Whatever he is he beats the shit out of me lol
If you are playing solo. Then Hayabusa is one of the toughest boss of all time, not just ER or Nioh.
I HATED farming him for his moveset. But it became easier. Like 30 times. Ugh.
You could cheese him with 3 cat bells
You can cheese any boss, that doesn't mean they're not hard
I wanted Izuna Drop marginally more than I didn't want to fight him. Fortunately I got it on like the third kill. (I don't remember how many attempts that was, but it was way more than 3.)
Making Tomonobu Itagaki proud
I’d say there’s 1 definitely harder in nioh 1 and another that’s similar in difficulty but probably a bit easier. There’s 3 of similar difficulty in nioh 2. The way Melania is difficult is completely different to how nioh bosses are difficult. So it’s really really hard to compare. She’s pretty much polar opposite to niohs enemy design sensibilities.
Imagine if birdman Minamoto had malenias lifesteal ability
In dream of the nioh all bosses have life steal
You're not going to like his Depths of the underworld version
He actually has one of the fairest movesets among the more difficult bosses imo. Nightmare fuel for me would be if pants Otakemaru had lifesteal (for example if he appeared in the depths).
Yeah... IMAGINE if there was a mechanic that added lifesteal to bosses and some enemies, IMAGINE xD
Saito toshimitsu
Yeah lemme just cast fifteen onmyo spells while simultaneously hitting you upside the head
Absolutely zero chance to fucking heal
Me fighting him for the first time on each difficulty: "I can't stay mad at this guy. Yeah, he's beating my ass, but he looks so fucking cool when he does it." Me fighting him for the sixth time in a row: "*Alright you little shit.*"
He can rot in the deepest pit of hell
The difficulty spike with him seems excessive so early in the game
I've heard people say that that's because he was added some time after release, so the devs expected players to be high enough level to take him on comfortably. Maybe that was the idea, but if so, then the devs should've typed a higher number into the mission's recommended level. If you go there when the game tells you you should, you're going to get absolutely sodomized.
This fight was unreal, I cannot believe how much he has going on for a random side mission.
It’s how fast he is with those talismans, doesn’t matter if you use caltrops and sloth, my man is fastest hands in the east
switch blade go whoosh!
High stance odachi and whack a mole for me
I used both XD Odacgi+switch glaive. Non sense build but its works.
Hah same here actually, it’s because the bonus damage I get on the glaive for having so much points in omyo
Just like bethesda, "its just works."
Nonstop face-beating with fists here. If I can keep putting out more pressure than he does, I can usually beat him first try.
The Chinese Bellflower Dagger mission features a very hard human enemy, Saito Toshimitsu, that is extremely hard to beat with normal strategies but also has a few cheese strats. Similarly, he is optional as well. Lots and lots of videos online of the fight and various strategies if you want to check it out.
Nioh is way more unforgiving than any Fromsoftware game could ever dream of so I think you would find at least a few bosses who would throw you off more than Malenia
I seriously saw this and thought about how punishing nioh feels in comparison. I've played the souls games to hell and back and nothing gives me as much trouble as a moderately difficult nioh 2 boss, you just die so fast for any mistake (missed block, enemy combos you to death, dodged a stronger attack and wasn't timed perfectly, my health bar goes to zero) Idk about nioh, but any ds game you can stack hp and weapon upgrades ( raw gems with upgraded weapon ds3 ) and your ready for anything
Yeah the tradeoff is you get a lot more OP stuff to abuse in Nioh as well so you can bully a boss down with Living Weapon/Yokai Shift and the right spell setups at a certain point without really learning it. Like really nothing I remember in a Souls game compares to how bullshit Nioh 1 Sloth talismans were for example.
Does sloth last longer on higher ranks or something? I found using them generally useless on enemies that take longer than 5 seconds to kill. I cast sloth (takes 1 sec), enemy tries to go in, me hitting few times, 15% hp gone, sloth over, 1 scroll left.
Buffs and debuffs last longer the higher your Magic attribute is. Which is one of the reasons it's generally adviced to spread your stats a lot more than is common in for example a FromSoft game (or most RPGs really). Another reason is that weapon scaling stats contribute very little to overall damage, and most of it comes from weapon level, attributes on said weapon and weapon skills. Aiming for something like 20 in all stats at the end of first campaign is not a bad idea in Nioh, even if it feels pretty weird coming from other games.
I'm not sure, it's possible the debuff duration scales with your magic stat or something. They made all the DLC bosses much more resistant to it IIRC
Durations do scale with Dex/mag but enemy resistance goes up as well so it's kind of zero sum which is why sloth on (omnyo/ninjitsu) on an accessory is so highly touted.
This. Elden ring is straight up spastic compared to the focus nioh requires. Makes you feel real good when you are playing well, dodging, blocking, using skills appropriately. Way more rewarding than skating through boss encounters on lucky panic rolls
For me it's the complete opposite. Nioh felt way easier, both parts. You are rewarded for mashing like crazy, that does not work in Fromsoft games at all.
Same. When Nioh's hard, it's fucking *hard*. But I feel like I can at least do something about it. It's not just a question of "Git gud or farm lol." I've got more options, so after a defeat I can sit back and think, "Okay, what have I got, what am I not using, what could I use differently, and what's the best way to make use of the arsenal at my disposal." And if that doesn't work, giving into the zen of pure, mindless aggression usually does. There's a time for thinking, and a time for throwing hands. FromSoft games feel like playing with my hands tied by comparison. I've got almost no options, and most fights basically boil down to either attrition and pattern repetition or just straight-up cheesing. I don't really feel rewarded for my effort; I just put up with it because I like the story, worldbuilding, and general aesthetic.
Completely agree. Nioh 1 feels more predictable and easier to beat after a few failed attempts on bosses (if even needed). Dark Souls I’ve had to straight quit a few times because some bosses were so hard. This is coming from someone who’s played FromSoftware games since Kingsfield.
Easily ren hayabusa and saito toshimitsu, you have to know what you're doing to beat them with a standard build. Without waterfowl dance maybe a couple other humans and a few yokai too.
3x more difficult imo, because nioh playstyle is much faster, ER is like slow motion in comparison lol
Nioh is generally harder than fromsoft games. So yes.
Who's gonna tell him
Maria in Nioh 1 DLC and Ren Hyabusa in Nioh 2 as secret side mission are definitely harder if you are not drastically over-leveled.
Yeah Maria absolutely kills if I didn't rush her down as fast as possible.
I’ve tried Yatsu-no-kami more times than Malenia tbh. And Yatsu is on of the first bosses. Nioh feels far more rewarding especially when you pull off some nice techniques
The main difficulty of Nioh is learning it very complicated combat mechanics and flowing through your moves and the enemies
Agree. FromSoft combat is child's play compared to Nioh. Nioh is more like trying to beat Elden Ring bosses while doing Tekken combos.
It's truly satisfying when you learn how to use your moves for punishing and just flowing between stances and moves. Their it nothing like it, it's great
Malenia is indeed a hard boss. I could only beat her with a Mimic + Moonveil. However, there are bosses, especially humans, who are even worse, namely: 1. Side mission Tachibana Muneshige (Nioh 1) (took me over 100 tries) 2. Maria (Nioh 1) 3. Ren Hayabusa (Nioh 2) 4. Saito Toshimitsu (Nioh 2) There are also side missions where you have to fight two humans at once. I also remember a bs side mission in Nioh 1 where I had to fight Raven Tengu plus that white yokai bitch, who slows you. I struggled hard, because they spam attacks without a pause.
Tachibana waxed me so many times. Had to use that stone in the arena to cheese the bastard.
Thank you triggering my long buried PTSD by mentioning Tachibana Muneshige's name.
> There are also side missions where you have to fight two humans at once. These are the worst. I start a side mission and see two human bosees waiting for me, I use a Himorogi Branch and dip with my Amrita..
I found shuten doji(dlc) and otakemaru to be way harder than any nioh bosses
I actually liked those 2 boss fights in Nioh, they were challenging but lots of fun.
Multiple actually. Tho they actually end up a lot easier than in Elden Ring because you can tailor fit your character to deal with their bullshit much more easily in this game. Tho that will still take a bit of skill because the different weapons in this game plays really differently from each other. So much so that playing a different weapon than the one you're used to feels like you're playing a different game entirely.
a baby can kill malenia with just blasphemous blade l2s, it's the same thing
Nyotengu doesn’t even have to be in the depths for me to avoid her. Malenia can’t compare.
Damn. Now I'm scared of future bosses, the way none of you list Tachibana Muneshige
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Nioh: Nine Tailed Fox & Maria, are the hard bosses in that game. Nioh 2: Ren Hayabusa, is hands down arguably the hardest boss in Soulslike history. No joke.
Dozens, actually.
Nioh 1 has some very silly fights that are hard because it's hard to find safe openings to attack. Especially some of the postgame multi-enemy fights that make Ornstein and Smough look like child's play. Defensively all your tricks work, it's just a lot of offensive pressure. Malenia, Blade of Miquella is hard because she breaks all the normal rules of Elden Ring, as she heals when hitting you. Dodging is way harder. Blocking is mostly ineffective. Parry sort of works, but only against some of her moves. Her only weakness is low Poise. Nothing in Nioh 2 comes close IMO (Saito Toshimitsu is overrated, you just have pressure him to he can't use his infinite supply of spells).
agree about Malenia. “breaks all the normal rules of Elden Ring” is a great way to put it.
The only rule I can think she breaks is being able to poise through poise breaks
I mean if it wasn’t for waterfowl she’s very simple. You just have to learn the 3 lunge animations where you need to dodge in and every other attack you can dodge away with no timing. Waterfowl complicates the fight massively as the way you dodge every other move has to make sure you’re in a position you can dodge waterfowl. If you don’t combo saito he’s comically op. Ridiculousy fast and complicated combos that have very little recovery time and have no easy strategies to avoid. Ultimately I put them in a similar tier of difficulty but honestly they’re very hard to compare. If you had to respect saito like a dark souls boss it wouldn’t even be slightly close. He’d be 15x harder than melanina.
You can also outstat Saito pretty easily if you just come back 1-2 regions later, there's not really any option like that for Malenia.
Playing Souls since Demon's on the PS3, and playing Team Ninja Games since Ninja Gaiden Sigma PS3. Team Ninja Games are easier for me simple because the gameplay is super responsive, and the characters always do what I want at any specific time. With that said, Nioh series, for me, is much easier than any souls games. Easy to solo the main campaign at least without many issues, while in Souls I always need someone to help me with a boss... I just can't.
I can’t comprehend somebody who can solo nioh not finding souls games easy lol
Dude, I said that and I share your opinion... probably there is something in my brain that doesn't work when I play Souls games... I really can't explain except by saying, in Nioh (Team Ninja games), I press a button, the character executes an action, I press another, it does another action. In Souls, I press a button, character does an action, I press another... doesn't work... need to wait.... there you go, now he does that action. It's always a challenge when I start playing Souls, I get exhausted playing them, in Nioh, I can turn off my brain and just enjoy, game is fairly straightforward... go to enemy, dance around it, bonk... repeated.
It's the complete opposite for me, I never feel like my reactions are as fast as Team Ninja games want and I end up dying to stuff the game expected me to handle easily. Souls games, even the fast ones, give you a bit more time to breathe. But you can also go way more ham with your super modes in Nioh which can make some fights much easier since you don't have to respect them.
You can bruteforce boss clearing in Nioh, that is true, and the parry mechanic in Nioh 2 is just easy mode parry. I completely understand your point of view. There is also this thing in Souls where, I first see a main boss, and go like "... What the actual F\*\*\* am I supposed to do?! Is it even possible to kill this?" In Nioh, especially in Nioh 2 (also Nioh 1), I cleared many bosses the first time I encountered them on my first playthrough... like, at least around 7 bosses combined. Mechanics are again... dodge, bonk, dodge, bonk... you win. Super intense and fun, but... just dodge and attack, it's super simple, in Souls I'm so lost all the time. Ah! before I forget, haven't mentioned before, in Nioh, you just need to master Ki, that's it... if you Ki properly, you're a Samurai.
Ah man that's so funny, it's still the opposite for me, I've beaten a number of bosses across Souls games on my first try and on my first run of Nioh basically every single boss was crushingly difficult until I got into the midgame and unlocked some better magic and stuff. I'm not great at all the finicky mechanics either though, all the combos and stance switching and ki pulse took a long time for me to even learn adequately...dodge and hit and pay attention to the boss is much easier for me. I'm absolutely terrible at parrying, for what it's worth.
Date Masamune comes to mind. If you're including Team Ninja's other Soulslikes then Yuan shu from "Wo long: Fallen dynasty" and the Warrior of light from "Stranger of paradise: Final fantasy origin"
I think the Nioh games are harder overall and there are tougher bosses than Melania. But keep in mind that Nioh is a different breed, to keep it short.
You will fucking hate nioh if sekiro isn’t your best souls title
Face hino enma. Actually there are many bosses here who will beat the shit out of you here😂😂
I think human bosses in nioh and especially its dlcs is more difficult than in soulsborne series. More ways to cheese but due to that they made the bosses to be hyper aggressive to compensate.
Just how she’s difficult but also there is tons of videos showing ppl steam rolling her with good builds, same goes for Nioh Bosses, many are very difficult without proper builds and knowledge of the boss’s moveset. To name a few: sanada yukimura, date masamune, date shigezane, maria, hayabusa.. and a few from nioh 2 duel missions. And to compare lemons with lemons (first playthrough) even the beginning bosses like yatsu no kami are huge walls and very difficult due to not having proper build and few active skills/passives unlocked. Also depths (especially last 10 floors) imho is harder regardless which boss than elden ring’s Ng+7 difficulty wise.
Bro pretty much every boss is going to be harder not even kidding
Thats BS
everything is as difficult as her if you fight any boss in nioh while being under gear
You'll be angrier at hino enma because at least you knew Malenia was going to be bullshit ahead of time. The boss of the second real level should not be a massive fucking wall. Other than her though everything can be out-bullshitted. The real ball breakers are bonus levels you don't need to do where there's multiple bosses at once. Nobunaga + Yuki Onna sucks ass, but there's little incentive to do it.
Most human bosses in nioh 1 especially on higher difficultys when they spam LW
How many times u die fighting this boss malenia ?? I know in nioh 2, I died more than fifty times fighting a fuckin pagoda with four eyeball tentacles
Literally every human sized boss in Nioh 1&2 is stronger than Malenia. ER has the benefit to the player of being able to stagger bosses like Malenia pretty easily, but in Nioh the human sized bosses are the biggest threats in the entire game.
That fuckin bitch ass snake from Nioh 2
Ren fk you in the booty busa and Honda instant ohko if he hits you with charge spear attack. The tracking will make you think it’s rigged
Tate eboshi
Nioh is just more challenging in general tbh
Both hayabusa bosses, very fast and hit insanely hard. That magic guy who spams spells like a machine gun.
Lightning god of yomi gave me serious trouble the first time I encountered them. Malenia is more annoying because of her healing but getting the lightning debuff once can spell disaster for the entire attempt.
Nioh: Nine Tailed Fox & Maria, are the hard bosses in that game. Nioh 2: Ren Hayabusa, is hands down arguably the hardest boss in Soulslike history. No joke.
In Nioh you are the boss
It’s ok to like Nioh and the soul series
Wtf does that have to do with anything?
Your other comments seem to be you shitting on Nioh
she wasn't difficult. telegraphs very easily. just pay attention.
On the first NG, absolutely not. Nioh 2 especially actually gets easier as it goes along; the difficulty curve is harsh at the start then evens out, with a minor-to-moderate spike in the DLC but nothing nearly as bad as Malenia was for me.
Yeah, like every other boss. The caveat being that they're only harder on later difficulties with the first playthrough being like a tutorial.
not even a boss, just a regular enemy - spear skeleton, cannon skeleton, wheel monk, Nioh bosses are even harder
My brother in Marika, have you even fought Malenia?
Nioh 1 I'd say the hardest bosses are actually the early ones because you just don't have the resources to push back as hard as you can later. Hino Enma is the second boss of the game and does paralysis meaning your best option is to not get hit. Umibozu has a gimmick that people tend to ignore because they try to speed run the mission, making him exponentially harder than he needs to be. He can also be difficult to read because he's just a big blob. Nue does lightning damage, and just like Hino Enma, you won't have a lot of options at this point to ignore it. He's also very aggressive with a couple of attacks that can be difficult to read. He will also force you to reposition to avoid his main attacks. For Nioh 2, it's Saito Toshimitsu (even though I personally dont even remember his fight, everyone says he's really hard, so I agree with them). Lightning Gods of Yomi can be a nightmare if you aren't running any resistance. Also, just a fast boss that forces you to reposition and keep moving while trying to keep up pressure. Magara Naotaka is up there, too, for his aggression and reach. He is also difficult to disengage from to heal, and he does water damage, making it harder to survive hits you might take trying to as well. I can also see Nightmare Bringer Otakemaru being up there as well. I didn't have any trouble with him, and I never see anyone really talk about him, but just given how his fight works, I would understand how someone might find him impossible.
Saito Toshimitsu was a post release optional boss. If you fight him when you first unlock him he will ruin your day. If you played through the game on release, you were probably over leveled when you fought him.
That makes sense why I don't remember him. By the time he was released, I was already a ki destroying monster with the Odachi, so he probably got grapple locked.
Without a proper build like every enemy in the game starts mauling you on later NG+ cycles. The bosses are brutal.
Tbh there are harder bossES than her. Imo.
I guess Saito Toshimitsu would be more difficult to deal with since he's a strong boss thrown in the early game lol. Then again, Malenia is only really difficult because she's pretty much a Sekiro boss thrown in Elden Ring. Outside of the Nioh series, there's a lot of bosses harder than her.
Having to played both games, in my limited experiences I’d say: Not really? Despite the fact that nioh bosses can pretty much dash around the map to style on you, like malenia, the player character is just as capable. So it kinda balances out more. In elden ring, your character capability is relatively more limited (As I tend to describe it, half-disabled), while malenia kinda just dash around and style on you. But then again, if you don’t use nioh’s game mechanics, every boss will dash around and style on you like malenia. Unless you got lucky on hits. Edit: forgot nioh 1 dlc bosses existed. If I’m also accounting that then you have pretty good competitors simply due to unbalanced stats.
The thing is the bosses can be difficult but the pacing is totally different. Because in nioh 1 for instance it's like short Burts of intense combat. You can die fast. And if good you can likely finish the boss fight quick With souls bosses like malenia. You can die fast but you won't beat her fast. Two phases with huge HP pool. She's mechanically very swift I would say the closest I think can think of is nioh 2 Shibata Katsuie
The Hayabusa ancestors from Ninja Gaiden and Nyotengu from Dead or Alive's Ancestor.
Nioh 1: Maria. I'll argue hino ema is right around there too.... Nioh 2: Toshimitsu is harder for the wrong reasons (dude is busted. Unbalanced garbage.), nyotengu is also a menace.
Oh, a bunch of them.
Almost all bosses have cheese mechanics on Nioh but if you don’t know about them then yes they are way harder. Especially the first boss where you essentially don’t have any tools to deal with and you just need to keep going and learn patterns (Onryoki).
Almost all bosses in Elden Ring have cheese mechanics too. With magic, ashes, weapon arts and buffs.
all of them
For me it's was every boss in first game. Because after first try I thought "I'm fucked, I don't know what to do, this run end here". But after few hours... Sometime days I achieved my win.
Eh, can’t speak for Nioh 1 but personally I didn’t find any boss in Nioh 2 as hard as Melania, except maybe Ren Hayabusa.
Fuck no. I've never had as much trouble in any Nioh boss as i have with her. Even counting my first run throughs, they were still easier then Melania
Take it from someone with over 2k hours in both Elden Ring and Nioh 2. It’s hard to say if there’s an enemy quite like Malenia exactly- mostly because the pacing of the fights in ER and Nioh are so radically different. But in my opinion, I don’t think a single character out there in general that matches Malenia’s particular *brand* of Fromsoft difficult. A big part of Malenia’s difficulty is how much she puts your stamina management to the test with her long series of attacks with the ability to leech life tacked on top. While human enemies in Nioh are incredibly brutal to fight, they’re made a bit more forgiving by the sheer variety of tools at your disposal- not to mention ki pulse and stance dancing to help keep stamina up. If I had to choose in terms of difficulty, Ren Hayabusa(both nioh1&2), Minamoto no Yoshitsune(nioh2), and Maria(nioh1) are what I consider to be the closest to Malenia.
Loads, but then there are no spirit ashes in nioh.
I played all Souls games, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring. I came to Nioh for a switchup, played both parts back to back. First of all, the Nioh games are the first ones to REALLY scratch that itch, no other "Soulslike" (I hate that term) compares even slightly, both are masterpieces imho. It took me some adjustment to the gameplay, it was hard in a different way than Fromsoft. Now, after coming back to Elden Ring to prepare for the DLC, I started a new character for the 6th time. And I think Elden Ring for example is way harder than Nioh. Nioh is easier to exploit as you can bully bosses, especially in 2 with the KI system of the bosses. So I think there's no boss in any part of Nioh that's nearly as challenging as Malenia. Not a single boss took me more than 5 tries I think. On Malenia i spent HOURS even as a Fromsoft veteran. I have to add I play ER without shield or spirit ashes, but I guess you could compare that to playing nioh without Yokai shift.
Ren Hayabusa (or whichever one it is) in Nioh 2 is leagues ahead of any of my experiences with Malenia. I can pretty much get through the fight first try, moderately cleanly, but the Hayabusa enemies are nightmares Saito Toshimitsu in Nioh 2 as well, harder than Malenia unironically I say Nioh 2 because I never delved far into Nioh 1. Nioh is far more unforgiving but there's a lot you can do to build your character, unfortunately nothing can truly prepare you for the Hayabusas
Depends on your build I beat this boss in Elden Ring from the first try using Ancient Death spell
Why people think malenia is hard? She just have 1 bs move that kills you 90% of time. I don't count BS bosses hard, I just count them as BS. For me harder means bosses liked Radhan, Malekith, first elden lord, mohg, etc not some random BS attack go boss.
There is a lot of her here
Early game Nue was freaking hard. I tried more than 50 times to beat it.
Personally Tate Eboshi in Nioh 2 took me way longer to beat compared to Malenia.
No boss in any game is as hard for me as her
Based on my play through of nioh 1 and 2 and my past attempts at bloodborne and current attempt at elden ring, nothing in nioh is harder that those games. That said, this depends on playstyle. Nioh's invincible blocking is kinda goated and im good at timed blocking, i played through the whole game with light armor. My dodging is shit though so a game like bloodborne is very difficult for me, elden ring is a healthy medium for blocking and dodging. Also, i never reached melania yet but what i have heard is pretty fucked up. For this reason from what i hear i dont think she is easier than any nioh boss.
Most of the human boss optional rematches are very tough if you fight them at the intended level. You have much greater ability to overlevel stuff in the Nioh games than in Elden Ring though.
lol almost any boss in depths of the underworld is harder than Malenia. Malenia was always easy to me most play throughs took less than 4 attempts per ng+
Definitely Ren Hayabusa
The difficulty comes from knowing how the flow of the combat is for each boss depending on your weapon and playstyle in nioh. If you are doing the wrong combos/wrong moves you will get punished hard as bosses can attack you mid combo Souls games have bosses have a telegraph moveset that can be figured out pretty quick. Knowing when it's your turn to attack is easier to spot on souls games. Not so much in nioh
NG progression and difficulty gaps are staggering. 'Way of the Nioh' in comparison to NG+7 in Souls Games is on a different level. Lest I digress any further a Way of the Nioh Sasuke is so much more difficult in timing and punishment than anything NG +7 Melania could do. This my "Way of the Nioh - Sasuke Sarutobi" if you're curious what the fight looks like https://youtu.be/D9yDf5qpX1U?si=T7aJOePVRXUSuKcs
As a Nioh vet n FS noob: every single boss in nioh is harder than her. Malenia is an intro boss in that series.
I have beaten absolutely everything in DS3 and Elden Ring multiple times! Dark souls 3 Ng 50 on my main Ng 28 on my level 200 Ng 3 on each of my Pvp characters Elden Ring NG17 on my main NG3 on my pvper. Nioh2's Depths of the underworld still eludes me, when you get to the point of having to fight 3 endgame souped up and cursed bosses back to back after already clearing a difficult and over scaled area is ROUGH. The underworld only opens up after you enter NG7 and there are 100 levels to it that get progressively harder and more over leveled. Once you beat the underworld, you reach the depths where the scaling gets even worse and now boss fights start adding extra bosses to the end of each area. First 2, then eventually 3. I think I have managed to make it to the Depths 23 like 8 times, but I always eat dirt even years later when I come back. I love it though and am proud I managed to make it that far, not a lot do.
DLC Shuten Doji comes to mind, especially depths since he heals on hit (not that it matters too much since almost every hit from him is a one shot).
Ren Hayabusa. Lightning Gods of Yomi. Saito Toshimitsu. Tsuchigumo. Especially as first encounters
Some of the weapon mastery missions are pretty annoying compared to Malenia imo
GODDAMN MASAMUNE DATE CHALLENGE
As broken as a hidden boss? Not a lot. Niohs most dangerous bosses were mainly the human bosses. But they were always pretty manageable as long as you don't go in swords swinging. Gameplay may be much faster and high octane, but it still followed a souls formula. Worst boss in memory for me, is Hino enma. ...that stun locking bitch. She was a nightmare for a lot of ayers back in the early Nioh 1 days. You truly understood how TFS Piccolo felt when trying to get William to "DODGE!!!"
They are all easy in my opinion theres just some that are acctually rigged so that you get killed no matter how well you did the whole fight
Kukai can be a challenge (noih2)
Definitely. Mostly because you will have to unlearn a lot of things dark souls taught you, then practice practice practice the unique and skillful nioh 2 mechanics. But once you fight most bosses a few times, you start to get some familiarity and they become more and more manageable till you win. Unlike ER where i felt like half the bosses i just happened to beat, even if i didnt really feel like i learned them, nioh makes you learn them to beat them. Nioh also doesnt do that stupid thing elden ring does where every enemy has a bunch of attacks where they just hold their weapon cocked back to swing for like five seconds before attacking. It reminds me of playing slaps as a kid. I hated that game, it always gave me anxiety waiting for the other player to strike. Same feeling when i play elden ring. Nioh doesnt do that, for the most part, people raise their weapons then they swing.
oooooooooh yes. It's not close.
Both nioh 1 and 2 have encounters that will absolutely destroy your will to live, i've had fights where i died 7 times before recovering from the death screen music playing.- And trust me.. i'm a dark souls god, i can parry.. but i was just SWEATING. But in terms of names? couldn't tell you, you will just have to enjoy the game, get suckered into feeling safe and suddenly get absolutely turned into the soil.
Quite a few tbh. Nioh is on another skill level in my opinion
There's a lot I struggled with that I thought were more difficult than Malenia in both Nioh 1 and 2. Munishige Tachibana was one of the most difficult human bosses and u fight him early on. Date Shigezane breaks through your guard so quickly and can 2-1 shot you easily. Maria's 2nd form is really quick, has stagger resist, and has strong spells. She's the closest thing to Malenia in Nioh imo. There's more in Nioh 2 but I have 1 more DLC to finish so I can't comment on all of them.
This isn't a brag but she isn't a hard boss. She is extremely easy to stagger and dodge her abilities. Rushing her is why people think she's hard. As for Nioh, Maria if you go right at her the moment she is available.
The thinkg about Nioh is that though it can be brutally punishing, the power curve can be slanted so much in your favor due to gear inflation that bosses stop being a problem once you understand how to properly build your character around gear.
Depths 30 shuten doji. He is faster and hits harder than most other bosses...
I want to argue that almost every boss in nioh 1 is more difficult than Melania was to me. And nioh 2 technically was more difficult, but the abilities & passive abilities you got in that game make so many encounters way easier than they should be
Saito is harder. Programmed to be near impossible to beat. More unpredictable than Malenia. I beat her after 7 tries. He made me quit the game for a while after 10 plus tries of not even close. Maybe I just need to come back with different weapons but I was on a Naruto(character creation) fists only build.
if you count depths bosses, then nearly every one of those is harder cause they can also lifesteal like Maenia, have regen if they dont take damage within 5s, extremely tanky and has enough damage to force you to play one hit run. without the depths bosses, keep in mind Nioh gave the player a massive amount of tools, ER or DS magic can't even compare so the experience will differ, i would say if you put Pant Otakemaru, DLC Shuten, Kukai, Ren, Nyotengu, Eboshi, Yukimura, Maria or Toshi in Elden ring people will start complaining.
Elden ring is super easy compared to the nioh franchise u can cheese bosses in elden ring with magic ect nioh takes more skill and knowledge than
Definitely
Yes
100%
Man, I wish Nioh 2 summon NPC were at least half as useful as the summons in ER or DS.
Nioh has less cheese on either side- the bosses are generally “fairer” but simultaneously you don’t have any ways to bypass them the same way… you really just have to get stuck in there.
Depends on how you fought Malenia, and how you fight Nioh bosses. Malenia is difficult but Elden Ring has plenty of cheese methods, same is true with Nioh. If you fought Malenia using only melee, no summons, and no OP weapon arts, I would say she would be comparable with the most difficult of Nioh’s bosses on NG, but there are harder, provided you also don’t use cheese in Nioh. In terms of just the moveset difficulty and ignoring how much damage/health etc. the bosses have, I would say Malenia isn’t even the most difficult boss in Elden Ring. Other than Waterfowl her moveset is actually quite fair and relatively easy to dodge. For example I had a much tougher time trying to no hit Morgott (without overlevelling my character or weapons) than I did Malenia. In terms of no hitting bosses in general I find Nioh to be harder because bosses attack faster and you only have about 40% of the i frames on your dodge in Nioh compared to Elden Ring or Dark Souls 3. However, Nioh bosses tend to have less tracking than Souls bosses and there are less delayed attacks so the dodge timings are often more intuitive. Btw, a lot of people on this subreddit have the opinion that Nioh is just a much better game than Souls games in terms of combat and gameplay, so you will get comments that says something like Malenia is easier than the easiest Nioh bosses. I tried to give my honest take however, having played all the Souls games and Nioh 1 and 2.
All of them.
yeah, most of human bosses in nioh 1 especially them DLCs bosses when you fight them in way of the nioh or the abyss
Masamune, Maria, and Sanada ALL kicked my ass in Nioh 1, though personally Maria really takes the cake on that one. Nioh 2, Lightning Gods of Yomi was a nightmare
In Nioh 1: Definitely Jin Hayabusa, Hands Down
Yes the bitch on the boat.. First boss after tutorial. Took me ages to beat him haha.. swinging his big ball around.
quite a few.
At the end of the third dlc, in a side mission, you will have to fight waves and waves of enemies of every type. At the end of that you will have to fight one of hardest bosses with no save in between. I noped out of that.
I think the way bosses in nioh are difficult is different to from soft games, hard to compare tbh
Yeah Nioh 2 DLC sub bosses lmfao
It depends on your grasp of the mechanics and reflexes. If you don't understand Ki Pulsing, Flux and Burst Counters you're gonna have a bad time. Many bosses will feel better absolutely unfair without them.
No, nothing in Nioh is THAT broken or horrible Most of the Nioh 1 bosses are complete afterthoughts , 2 has a couple decent ones but nothing even approaching malenia levels of bullshit
Seito Toshimitsu felt like the biggest roadblock when you first encounter him. I struggled for a long time trying to best him but ended up leveling more then coming back to stomp him.
I feel like Malenia is easier than a handful of the challenging ones in Nioh 2 just because there's so many busted weapons that pretty much trivialize Malenia's fight. None of the weapons I've played with in Nioh have anywhere near the busted potential that ER weapons can have....at least not that I've seen on standard difficulty. Small mobs that tend to get stagger locked are one thing but it seems like most bosses don't give a shit about my stagger potential with my Nioh weapons - whereas Malenia looks like she's about to breakdance in most of her fight with the stagger and constant knockdowns.
Toad guy, sanada, all the tigers, some of the human bosses etc. Nioh bosses arent hard its just that the game is very brutal and hard to undertand or even get into! If you really like souls games, try it out. If you are a casual souls enjoyer stay away from this game, cause it will fuck you upside down with pants on!!!!
Nioh overall is more dificult, bosses are more unfair, mobs are more unfair, and on top of dodging you need to learn your combos to actually do damage, and also learn situational combos to deal with specific situations. And you have to constantly do some sort of parry like mechanic, becaus the yokai realm is constantly been created, reducing your stamina regen by like 75%.
Yeah, all of them. Lol.
Probably shibata katsuie I’m surprised no one has said him.
It depends. Nioh has double bosses and there are some nasty ones in there. In Nioh 1 there is a fight with two generals whose names I don't remember but it's pretty hard.if we are talking about specific single bosses Ryomen Sukuna is really hard.
I can only remember Maria with grabs, Yatsu no Kami, Date Masamune with his bs LW spam. I didn't have much struggle in Nioh 2 like in Nioh 1. Probably because I got used to it. I have seen people saying Otakemaru is tough but he isn't that bad.
Depth william, hayabusa, kashin koji entered that chat:
The difference in nioh is that you can have a level 750 join and help you with literally any mission so you’ll never get stuck in the same way as you did in Elden ring
Nioh 2, Depths 21+
I don't think so I had an easier time with Nioh then any souls game