Trivia / Nioh

• Actor-Shared Background: The Nioh version of William Adams is Irish just like his actor Ben Peel.
• Author's Saving Throw
  • After more than 10 years of Development Hell, Koei Tecmo released multiple demos throughout its development cycle for a limited time so players can see what the game looks and plays like, with an added incentive of Downloadable Content unlocked in the final product upon completing them. Furthermore, Nioh offering an in-game option between a more stable frame rate or displaying at a higher resolution has been lauded.
  • Following the reception of the alpha demo, Team Ninja took players' opinions about the Scrappy Mechanics (see below) and implemented multiple changes into the product, one of which includes a tutorial, a common complaint regarding the alpha. A beta was released in August 2016 for players to take these changes into account before the developer finalized the game.
  • The 1.06 patch update allows players to finally pause the game, something its inspirations do not have.
  • After it was rumored that the PC release would have Denuvo, and be limited to the console version's two video options, Word of God has stated that neither rumor was true.
  • The Complete Edition patch removed the "mission already cleared" requirement from coop with friends; while you still can't do them with random people, it's now significantly easier for two friends to play the game together.
• Descended Creator: The game's producer (and one half of the duo who founded Koei) Kou Shibusawa voices Oda Nobunaga.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Okatsu is modeled after and voiced by Real Life Japanese actress Emi Takei.
  • Ieyasu is modeled after his voice actor, Masachika Ichimura, looking almost exactly like Ichimura's Ieyasu◊.
• Moved to the Next Console: Nioh was announced at E3 2005 at the same time that Sony revealed the PlayStation 3 with a release date planned for near the console's launch. The game then entered Development Hell and didn't end up launching until 2017 on the PlayStation 4, over 12 years and one console generation after its announcement.
• Saved from Development Hell: And how - based on an unfinished script by Akira Kurosawa entitled "Oni", then-Koei (pre-merger with Tecmo) announced its inception in 2004 as "Ni-Oh", slated for a summer 2006 release on the Sony PlayStation 3, yet it missed its launch window with nary a comment from Koei until 2009, when the company insisted the game was still in development. A year later, the now-merged Koei Tecmo brought in Team Ninja to help with development, which the publisher admitted they had suspended previously; even Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi subtly replied they had to go through multiple trial-and-error tests to decide what "style [that] fits this title". Increment news of development would slowly trickle out in 2012 and 2014, until finally September 2015, where the game is re-branded as "Nioh", released for the Sony PlayStation 4 on February 7, 2017.
• Shown Their Work: Aside from some historical liberties taken here and there (and supernatural elements notwithstanding), literally all named characters in the game (including the first boss) are closely identical to their Real Life counterparts.
• What Could Have Been: William was originally going to be half-English, half-Japanese, but is changed to an Irishman (which is more accurate to his Real Life counterpart, though not completely) in the final game.
  • The first game, in addition to being influenced by Dark Souls, was originally gonna have a more Metroidvania esque approach to level design like the series it takes influence from, but getting it to run at a native 60 Frames Per second on the PS4 was near impossible.

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