Thank you to everyone who played the “Nioh 3” demo available from June 5, 2025 to June 18, 2025, and to everyone who took the time to answer our survey, which enabled us to collect opinions and impressions from players around the world. We will do our best to use these surveys to make adjustments and improvements so that all of our users will be able to enjoy the final release version of the game to the fullest. We have also created a report detailing our planned adjustments and improvements based on the survey results, and we encourage our users to take a look!
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You may delete the “Nioh 3 Alpha Demo” game data, but please do not delete the demo save data.
Alpha Demo Survey Result
How would you rate your overall experience with the Nioh 3 Alpha Demo?
Positive 90.9%
Average 6.4%
Negative 2.7%
How would you rate the difficulty of the Nioh 3 Alpha Demo?
Just right 56.0%
Easy 12.0%
Difficult 32.0%
How would you rate the graphics of the Nioh 3 Alpha Demo?
Positive 62.7%
Average 25.5%
Negative 11.8%
How would you rate the music and sound effects of the Nioh 3 Alpha Demo?
Positive 85.1%
Average 13.3%
Negative 1.6%
Did you enjoy Samurai Style?
Positive 80.5%
Average 13.2%
Negative 6.3%
Did you enjoy Ninja Style?
Positive 80.1%
Average 11.3%
Negative 8.6%
Did you enjoy the differences and switching between Samurai and Ninja Styles?
Positive 70.6%
Average 14.6%
Negative 14.8%
How did you feel about Guardian Spirit Skills?
Positive 72.9%
Average 22.9%
Negative 4.2%
How did you feel about Living Artifact?
Positive 77.3%
Average 19.7%
Negative 3.0%
Please give us your impressions of the Nioh 3 Alpha Demo's stages.
Positive 84.5%
Average 11.6%
Negative 3.9%
Please give us your impressions of the Nioh 3 Alpha Demo's co-op mode, “Expedition.”
Positive 80.1%
Average 16.5%
Negative 3.4%
Did the tutorials feel comprehensive enough?
Positive 75.1%
Average 13.8%
Negative 11.1%
Were the menus and screens easy to navigate?
Positive 74.2%
Average 14.8%
Negative 11.0%
From the Development Team
We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who answered the survey.
Your thoughts are extremely important to us and will serve as a basis for further development. This report will allow our team of developers to take our next steps for this project and bring you the final polished version of “Nioh 3”.
Our Next Steps
Overall Adjustment Plans
Improve controls in response to high demand from players.
Improve problem areas in control responsiveness.
Make controls more customizable by adding options.
Adjust gimmicks and enemies that were unreasonably difficult.
Add and improve tutorial visibility.
Adjust the performance and balance of various actions.
Improve the overall quality of background graphics.
Improve the visibility and balance of stages and the open field, and make exploration elements easier to understand and more well-balanced.
Make notifications and other elements that appear on screen during combat less distracting, and make it possible to dismiss such notifications via button/key input.
Improve the balance of progression elements.
Improve the quality of multiplayer mode.
Player Actions and Controls
Make it easier to perform Martial Arts that require the use of the control stick, and add an option to perform those Arts using buttons.
Make changes to prioritize Martial Arts rather than grappling when the player presses △ following a Quick Attack against an enemy whose Ki has been depleted.
Add an option to perform Guardian Spirit Skills with different inputs.
Decrease the negative effects that come from using Transformed Arts.
Enable the use of Ninjutsu after canceling Mist.
Increase the number of actions that can be canceled using Guardian Spirit Skills.
Increase the window during which a Guardian Spirit Skill can be canceled.
Make the motions for using Elixirs faster.
Make it possible to perform Martial Arts while using Living Artifact.
Increase the Martial Arts commands available for use with all ninja weapons, and increase the types of Martial Arts that can be set.
Make it easier to open the Gesture menu.
Make it possible to unlock the option to swap weapons, allowing the player to switch between two equipped melee weapons in each play style, through game progression.
Style Shift and Burst Break
Make it possible to change the method of differentiating Style Shift and Burst Break (by either pressing or holding the appropriate button) in the Options menu rather than the Skills menu.
Add an option to differentiate Style Shift and Burst Break via different inputs.
Shorten the recovery frame for Burst Break.
Summoning Seals
Make it possible to use Summoning Seals while moving and improve usability.
Add a skill to cancel other actions when the player uses a Summoning Seal.
Enemies
Make highly requested adjustments while maintaining the tension of encounters with formidable enemies.
Make adjustments to the performance of some overpowered enemies.
Reduce the HP for some overpowered enemies.
Make is so that Crucible Wasps can no longer movie to heights that are impossible to reach with jump attacks.
Adjust the movement speed and behavior of Crucible Wasps so that it will be easier for Ninjutsu attacks to land.
Reduce the target tracking abilities of enemies to make it possible to flee from them.
Level Design and Stages
Improve GI (global illumination) behavior.
Lessen the fog in some areas where it was too thick.
Adjust elements that look as if they have a matte texture.
Make it clearer which locations or elevations cannot be accessed.
Improve visibility in dark or shadowed areas like inside buildings or in the Crucible.
Reduce the amount of fall damage taken.
The Crucible
Improve replayability by making it possible for players to fully recover from Life Corrosion when their Guardian Spirits return to their side.
Make it possible to recover from Life Corrosion by using Elixirs via the effects of Jizo Blessings.
Tutorials
Change the timing of some tutorials to make them appear after battle instead of during combat.
Shorten the display time for tutorials that appear during combat.
Increase the font size for Tips.
Add Tips notifying the player when they can save certain options, such as changing the controls for dashing.
Exploration Elements
Make changes so that players can view the number and status of exploration elements for each region on the map.
Add powerful equipment to pickups like treasure chests.
Decrease the speed of Scampusses just after they have moved.
Increase the range at which Scampusses can be heard.
Add indicators to show the initial location of a Chijiko or Scampuss discovered by the player on the compass and map.
Add a special effect to show the current location of a Chijiko or Scampuss on the compass.
Add indicators to show Crucible Wraiths that have been discovered by the player on the map.
Progression Elements
Increase the amount of items the player can carry.
Make it easier to increase Attack across two weapon types if the player raises one of the three corresponding reference stats for one of the weapons.
Add skills with reference stats for weapons that correspond to both Samurai and Ninja Styles.
Make it easier to increase Ki recovery speed by increasing Intellect rather than Heart.
Adjust the balance of power for the effects obtained via Prestige from titles.
Improve the balance of other types of performance and stats.
UI
Improve responsiveness of menus, including the main part of the Shrine menu.
Add a Ki gauge animation to more clearly show when an enemy yokai's Ki has been depleted.
Add a function to automatically use only the amount Spirit Stones necessary for the Level Up feature at shrines.
Shorten the display time for notifications when obtaining important items during combat, and make it possible to dismiss notifications via button/key input.
Change the overall layout and design of the Martial Arts skill tree to make it easier to see and understand.
Add a filtering function to menus like the Equipment and Offering menus.
Add style-specific items like samurai weapons and ninja tools to the Items tab.
Add details about the technique prepared when the player selects Soul Cores in the Onmyo Box in the Shrine menu.
Make it possible to set Soul Cores of the same type into both the Yang and Yin Positions in the Onmyo Box in the Shrine menu.
Make it possible to keep the map zoomed in.
Improve issues making it difficult to see area borders on the map.
Add an option to increase the font size of subtitles.
Add a level information to the simplified notifications for obtaining equipment.
Make it possible to learn all Martial Arts at once, including those in the highest levels of the skill tree.
Improve other elements in terms of interface and usability.
Online Multiplayer Mode
Improve guidance and tutorials for multiplayer mode.
Improve the stability of matching and online play.
Improve tutorials to make it clear that the online play menu exists.
Make changes so that each player's assigned color is uniform for all players in that multiplayer session.
Add sound effects whenever another player places a marker on the map.
Make the notification for when a companion dies more obvious and add sound effects.
Add a function to restrict lobby recruitment to friends only.
Add a function to search for lobbies created by friends.
Audio
Adjust the balance of sound effect volume during combat.
Improve balance issues with voice volume.
Other
Stabilize the framerate for rendering optimization, etc.
From the Development Team
We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who answered the survey.Your thoughts are extremely important to us and will serve as a basis for further development. This report will allow our team of developers to take our next steps for this project and bring you the final polished version of “Nioh 3”.