Can You Beat Nioh 2 with Only Ninjutsu?

[@NotcNorck]

Nioh2 is real life feudal Japanese history mixed with yokai and they kinda assume that you know famous historical events and people from the time period. The plot also jumps through historical events quite often and doesn't really explain who is who. Some say this was because the game was originally planned for domestic audiences and planned only to be released in Japan. Anyway, this mixed with names being foreign to most westerners makes following the plot quite difficult, but you did a very good job following with the plot and what's happening. Not to mention your challenge run was awesome as always.

[@Darkness5423]

Funny enough Samurai Warriors 1/2 prepared me well, nioh series has always been very enjoyable, despite some bosses being brutal at times.

[@handsomezack]

Or, orrrrrrrr as fun as team ninja's games are, their story telling is extremely consistent i.e dogs**it

[@kingcow8003]

Can tell you have never played dynasty warrior or samurai warriors. Also what you said is wrong there was always going to be a western release.

[@bye1551]

​@@handsomezackteam ninja is fantastic at mechanics, they are masters at this genre and I am very happy they make games.... That being said they should hire some fucking writers.

[@Travisaurus]

I disagree, I knew nothing about Japanese history other than events from nioh 1, which you’re probably expected to play before this since it’s a sequel and all, but anyways I was able to follow the story just fine, and was able to actually get immersed enough into it where I would play through a mission or beat a boss just to see what happens next in the story. I’ve seen this argument against the game several times and I just really don’t get it, so I had to step in.

[@dah_goofster]

The nioh 1 ninjutsu only was legendary but this wasn’t bad either. Made me chuckle here and there. The talk about moving on regardless of how long it takes really hit home. Healing can take a year and even more but you need to stay alive to do that and the world really does deserve the best version of yourself.

[@SpuddyCube]

That's good to hear! On both counts. I absolutely understand the desire to get results quickly. The want for things to just feel okay. But healing emotionally tends to be anything but quick, and you deserve the time that it takes to get there. As hard as it can/will be, people deserve the time to be happy.

[@Fermenton]

i wasnt expecting the 18:55 part, but i absolutely needed to hear it today. Thank you.

[@SpuddyCube]

Well then I'm really glad that you could! You absolutely deserve the reminder.

[@KoAkaiTengami]

After playing Nioh 1, Nioh 2, the entire Souls series, and Bloodborne, I still hold to this date that Nioh 2 is the best game in this "souls like" genre. A lot of people who haven't played Nioh 2 just have no idea how in depth and fun it is or even understand how it brings an astronomical amount of technicality to the souls like combat in comparison to its contemporaries.

[@SpuddyCube]

It feels a bit overwhelming to try to get a handle on all of the different systems that come into play, but it seems so satisfying to sink your teeth into. I can't speak for the moment to moment combat for casual play, but I love just how much there is to do to tweak different builds. I absolutely adore the sheer variety.

[@elkmeatenjoyer3409]

I wonder if you played the new souls like games and if your opinion changed.

[@KoAkaiTengami]

@@elkmeatenjoyer3409 I've played Elden Ring, Lies of P, and even Lords of the Fallen. My opinion has no changed, Nioh 2's combat and build mechanics are still yet to even come close to being competed with. I'll likely recant my statement if a Nioh 3 is released.

[@elkmeatenjoyer3409]

@@KoAkaiTengami hopefully they don't get rid of the stance mechanic.

[@justinfischer5555]

The only one with an arguably better combat system is sekiro. Unfortunately the mission-based formula lets nioh down slightly as a complete piece.

[@azuremage4403]

So, the woman who kills herself is Oichi, Nobunaga's sister, she loses both of her husbands to you in Nagamasa and Katsuie along with her brother, so by that point she's given up. Plus, ritual suicide was a whole thing in feudal Japan. Not condoning it, but explaining it at least. Appreciate the heck out of the speech you gave after that moment though

[@rorschach4089]

Love the nioh content. Would love to see other “soulsbornekiro likes” in the future.

[@SpuddyCube]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad to hear that you'd want to see more! I have at least a good handful of them that I'd love to try, and even some more runs that I'm looking forward to doing for Nioh. I'm a huge fan of the genre, despite not being particularly good at any of them.

[@insaneskunk2424]

I absolutely love Nioh 2 so I was really excited to see this video and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve seen a lot of ninjitsu only runs but this was my favorite due to your narration and humor throughout. I personally really like the story of Nioh 2 and was able to follow it pretty well, which ironically I struggled with in Nioh 1 as neither William nor Kelley *snort* were able to get me invested in the game. Can’t wait to see if you do more Nioh 2 videos!

[@ИльяПавлов-г8щ]

Just want to say: "thank you". Thank you for small reminder about selfcare. This really helped me broke loop sad and hopeless thoughts about myself and my situation. I think that reminder was thing i was needed, just short warm words in bad time from another non-known human in the internet. Now i feel a little bit better. Funny to know, how a few words can change future of human... In that moment when you said this words i played dlc nioh 1. When i heard these words, i feeled calm and beated boss with first try. So thank you for peace in my heart in that moment. I really enjoy yours videos about challenge runs, they funny and interesting and have a unique warm atmosphere. So please, keep going in that direction, you doing well, and keep that little reminders and lyric notes because they can help someone, and do great atmosphere in videos. Sorry if my english is bad, i did my best. Have a nice day!

[@Drakkanoth]

I just really love your challenge videos. You have a real talent for commentating. I was invested the entire time. Appreciate the dedication to the run, as well as the unexpected, but welcome, message of kindness halfway through. One of those painful mobile game ads started playing immediately after, which I would normally skip, but it ended up being a few minutes of well timed white noise while I sat there and processed your words. Sincere, kind words from a stranger over the internet can sometimes resonate in ways that the same words from someone you know simply cannot. Thanks for including that bit in the video, and I look forward to whatever you put out next.

[@SpuddyCube]

Thank you! I really appreciate that. In ways that are really hard to put into words, let alone text. I pretty regularly struggle with my own mental issues. Can't help but feel passionately about people getting the help that they need. It took far too much of my life to come to the conclusion that it's okay to not be okay. To find the people that could help me through emotional trials that I wasn't ready to handle by myself. Because... you don't need to. There aren't any rules against friends helping to pick you up. There's no deadline for reaching a point where you're happy and healthy. You might be able to guess, but I genuinely really love games. They've been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. These runs are a great opporunity to talk about a lot of things in game and out that I'm passionate about, and this one just felt right. It's too easy to forget your own worth, and people deserve to be reminded. You're worth the time and effort that it takes to be happy.

[@uidsea]

Yatsu-No-Kami was the brick wall that stopped my first attempt at Nioh. I'm really bad but I love this game.

[@SpuddyCube]

I can strongly relate to that. After the first boss took two and the second boss took four, a part of me was worried that I would continue to double the required number of tries. Luckily, I bucked that trend, and it only took over ten times as many... I hate that snake. Similarly, I'm far from good at the game, but I love it all the same.

[@katanamaru1]

Go back and try again! Once you're past her there is so much fun to be had. Anytime you fight her after that is essentially an easy victory.

[@abhishekjm8611]

Wonderful run. Glad that you didn't use the cheese with the feathers to steam roll through the game. Having you not use elixir to heal felt like an odd choice given that you can't block as well. Might decrease the frustration for future runs if you allowed the use. Also thanks for calling out how good the levels are designed. Wo long absolutely face planted in front of nioh 2 in terms of visuals.

[@Ashen_squad]

When Spuddy cube uploads a Nioh 2 video: *Happiness noises* Also, the mission with Magoichi Saika and Gyuki was the most frustrating thing i've ever experienced in a video game, and it was also the first thing that ever made me rage so hard i ended up breaking my headphones. I was even more annoyed when i got Gyuki to 1hp and died before i could finish him off because of his stupid water spit attack that seemed to one-shot me if i was anywhere under 100% health

[@SpuddyCube]

I'm glad to hear it! The first part, not the second. Magoichi Saika was a painful experience followed up by another. It hadn't even occurred to me that there would be a follow up boss. At least I'll know for the next time around.

[@Ashen_squad]

@@SpuddyCube Honestly though, i feel like Gyuki would even have been that bad of a boss if Magoichi hadn't used up all my heals before i got to him, or if there was at least an enemy or two on the way to his arena we could farm for elixirs

[@Apudurangdinya]

am i the only one who think this boss is trash bc how easy he was, never know people got so much trouble with him, but again different build make you play this game differently, there are a lot of booses i find difficult and this dude mow em down with shuriken

[@Ashen_squad]

@@Apudurangdinya If you're talking about Gyuki, he isn't that tough on his own, but it was the fact that he immediately follows up Magoichi Saika with no way to refresh your Elixirs that he causes so much pain

[@seb24789]

@@Ashen_squad There's a shrine in front of Magoichi's building though. Just turn left after you get out and fight Gyuki fresh.

[@RazireKVD]

Ah, excellent. I have been looking forward to this upload. To give some brief historical context to the game, you play as one half of an obviously fictionalized two-person version of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second of the three great unifiers of Japan. The first being Oda Nobunaga and the third being Tokugawa Ieyasu. The game jumps time a lot between major events during the Sengoku period, and even skips other major events entirely (as far as I know), like Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea. In reality, he died before the game's ending from an illness. William is featured, and he didn't make it to Japan until 1600. Hideyoshi died in 1598, which is why he never appears in the first game, but the second takes place before and after it with all the time jumps. They just keep resurrecting the non-player half of Hideyoshi for the character's personal story with the Sengoku period going on in the background, because if he died when he was supposed to in-game, we would've never seen William and it wouldn't have made for a bossfight... unless you fought the illness killing him or the bed he died on transformed into a yokai. Just like the first one, it is a fantasy version of a very real and important part in Japan's history, but it's still confusing to keep up with if you don't know about all the events going on. Oh, and I realize the character models look similar, but you work for Tokugawa Ieyasu in the first game, not Hideyoshi. And now with my historical fact dump done as I did with the first game, I await the magic challenge run for whenever you get around to doing that.

[@SpuddyCube]

Aw, hell yeah! Thank you for the history dump! A part of me is glad that I didn't know more going in so I got to experience the ride, rather than wondering what was going to lead to one or both of us taking control of Japan. I am curious as to why they'd leave out something as big as an invasion of Korea. A part of me is disappointed that we didn't get that sort of battle between Hideyoshi and their health. In retrospect, would it be much of a stretch to say that him turning into a yokai/dying as a result of his possession could be seen as a metaphor for the real event? As for my realization way too late into the game, it was seeing Oda with his facial hair/armor that I realized was in fact in the first game. Dates have a way of just going over my head, so seeing him alive and well made it click, "Oh, this is a prequel!" After the fact, I started seeing more and more familiar faces. Then after the time skip, there was the whole William thing, so I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but everything eventually lined up. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the last enough to wait for the this one/the inevitable magic run. I look forward to putting it the next together. And really, thank you for these! Nothing makes a topic more interesting than someone that's passionate in talking about it.

[@Fhrag161]

Love the inclusion of a death meter, it’s cool to compare experiences to other people when it comes to bosses cause it’s always different

[@itsjustGffs]

I think the story based yokai stuff should get a pass, anyone whos played the game would know that at that point a yokai only run would only be the true viable run.

[@SpuddyCube]

The worst part there is that technically the final boss just goes down via Sohayamaru. Which absolutely isn't going to stop me from trying a yokai run.

[@Lunaraia]

@@SpuddyCube well even then it's viable, as that sword is made from the horn of a Yokai, so it IS a Yokai being killed by the horn of a Yokai.

[@duckyduckington9736]

@@Lunaraia Isnt the sword made from spirit stones and a sword your mother used? She was the sister of the final boss and since it was made by her (she even gave up alot of her strength) it could slay any yokai and grant immortality.

[@Lunaraia]

IIRC your character takes a 20ish years long powernap. Long enough for William to arrive, beat Kelly, settle down, marry and have a 5-7 year old kid.

[@SpuddyCube]

It's amazing how well your body held up then while being out for a couple of decades. Up to fighting condition in seconds. Takes me longer to get outta bed.

[@Lunaraia]

@@SpuddyCube BTW, the Hanzo in this game is the frog you fight in Nioh, since this is a prequel :p

[@duckyduckington9736]

@@SpuddyCube you're a yokai... and immortal. Shiftling is the term or aratama (I think?) and you're very chill with it. You're a shiftling that resembles otakemaru and thats because he's literally your uncle. Yes the entire game's story is family drama.

[@kimbleesmith858]

I doubt too many people care since the story is so hard to follow anyway, but some lore context, back in the day some clans in Japan had a inherited sort of name, whoever was the head of the clan just had that name, even if it wasn't their birth name. I don't recall if it was ever outright stated but characters like Hanzo and Saika Magoichi are not the same characters that are interacting with William, but are actually those characters fathers. Hanzo is really interesting because at some point he turns into a giant toad, the one William fought, and I thought it was neat that they made him use a spear in Nioh 2. Honda Tadakatsu however is the same guy through both games

[@SpuddyCube]

For what it's worth, I absolutely care. That's a really cool detail having him using the same weapon. I'm really bad about picking up that sort of thing, but that doesn't detract from how much I appreciate the care those goes into writing these sorts of things. In that case, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that the successor to the Saika clan was significantly less imposing than his predecessor.

[@kimbleesmith858]

@@SpuddyCube I'm sorry if that came out as condescending! I wasn't trying to say you didn't care, I was just giving a nerdy history lesson for those who didn't know since the game doesn't outright tell you. I loved the video my dude thank you for showing one of my favorite games some love 💙

[@SpuddyCube]

@@kimbleesmith858 Oh, no! Not at all! Genuinely, I really appreciate that kind of thing being pointed out. I'm not much of a history buff, but I find cultural influences and subtle details fascinating. (Despite my lack of an eye for that sort of thing.) I know putting thoughts out can sometimes feel like just shouting into the void, and I wanted to assure you that it makes me happy to see. I'm absolutely a nerd, and learning is generally fun. That being said, I'm really not great at picking things up while playing. So sincerely, thank you for the kindness, your time, and for putting in the effort of teaching a little bit more about history. It's much appreciated!

[@kimbleesmith858]

@@SpuddyCube No u

[@bruselsproutgaming7615]

I was searching up this stuff and couldn’t find it nowhere and then you posted it Ty I am subscribing

[@victorcalero9855]

I wish you knew just how accurate you commentary mid video was to me for personal circumstances, thank you so much for the small reminder brother, I wish you the best

[@redmondthealien7840]

I loved this game, though I definitely thought 1s ninjuitsu was better. Great vid, as usual.

[@SpuddyCube]

It was definitely toned down a lot, but it does have more variety to work with. Granted, it seems to be more limited in terms of how much of that you can access via skill points. Also, thank you! It was a lot of fun to work on!

[@pixelmaster9964]

Ninjutsu is just less upfront power and much more synergistic in nioh 2 compared to 1. Feathers obliterate but you need ki damage from your weapon first. Ninjutsu can be monstrous for anima generation with the right setup, especially with the DLC. The biggest difference for me is the status effects. Poison was always pretty useless in normal runs. It just ends up dealing a fairly insignificant percentage of the damage I’m dealing. Paralyze is absolutely useless in 2, but that’s more reflective of Ia-QuickDraw and the like no longer being able to one shot everything.

[@duckyduckington9736]

its more balanced now, in nioh 2 the feathers are just ridiculously good. Nioh 1 just had insane numbers u could pull for low effort and thats why it was so good.

[@duckyduckington9736]

@@pixelmaster9964 Paralyze is fine, Ia-QuickDraw got nerfed because it was (obviously) carrying entire playthroughs. Also Izuna Drop is the coolest and most fun move in the entire game and no im not counting the switchglaive moveset because thats cheating.

[@conventionaloven7038]

was not expecting the therapy session mid video. but it was a nice addition and helped make my day. thank you

[@flyingbuscit7037]

Ohhh yeah it’s always a good day when you post a new video!

[@Rensonius]

Watching a challenge video of nioh 2 of a very funny youtuber, yet i didnt think i would be crying. Thank you

[@SpuddyCube]

No, thank you! I hope they're coming from a place of joy. There are few things in life that I take so seriously. I really hope you're doing well. Your comment absolutely made my day, and I find myself lacking the words to say how much I appreciate it. I'm glad you're here.

[@deliriushunter]

Thank you youtube algorhythm to recommend me this channel!!!

[@lofe-is]

just want to say thank you for being a awsome dude and for being my hero

[@Peter_mikaelson]

Dude your quips and funny humor freaking hilarious

[@pokedude61]

I lost my sister, and the speech you gave really hit me. I love your vids

[@SpuddyCube]

I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad if I can provide even an ounce of comfort in such a difficult time. I know that things can't always get better per se, but I hope every day gets at least a little bit easier.

[@duckyduckington9736]

nioh 2''s story is explained well through flow charts and by reading everything (if you go to the HUT you can read about npc's u meet and stuff) and the story sorts itself out by doing all the sub missions and you build better connections and have access to more varied area's by doing them. Oh and you get unique items that are unobtainable without them.

[@GreelTheMindRaker]

Dang, really caught me off guard around the 19 min mark. Thank you

[@immortalolive3576]

Ahhh hell yeah a dream come true! Great vid as usual

[@Aderon]

I have to say that the story of Nioh 2 was a lot more memorable imo than the story in Nioh; The entire story feels like a culmination of failures and setbacks. Sure, there are battles won, but they're battles that came at cost to both sides. One thing the Japanese audio really emphasized for me was how hurt Tokochiro was when you abandon him at mount Tenno. It may have been two people, one name, but at that point, he had already chosen Amrita as his path to victory, and while this isn't an excuse for the tens of thousands of Yokai and people slain, unfortunately for many, their amrita being taken from them just to become the strength to destroy the evil which corrupts them is often the best their souls could hope for in that regard.

[@SpuddyCube]

It could just have been due to acclimation to the style of the games, but I found it a lot more digestible than the first game. It also felt a lot more heartfelt with just how well animated and voiced Tokichiro was. It was at least fairly obvious where the story was going, but his voice coming through during the final boss fight still makes me sad. It was done so wonderfully.

[@vihicringe]

18:56 This came out of nowhere, but honestly, I don't mind this was very nice

[@amlowww1654]

Yesssss I had notifications turned on waiting for this❤❤❤❤

[@pockystyx4087]

Nioh 2's ninjutsu aping Ninja Gaiden stuff was wild. Made it feel more like a spellcaster build than Omnyo late game lol

[@Busy_Bee619]

Took me a week to catch up and watch all your content, you’re amazing man this video was fun! Also hope ya do the rest of the Batman games with gadgets :)

[@SpuddyCube]

Thank you! That means a lot to hear. And I don't think I've seen anyone requesting more Batman before. I would genuinely like to see what the Arkham Knights run would look like, despite how it reviewed. I'm also curious about the upcoming Suicide Squad game. I did try looking into Arkham Origins, and it... even allowing for quick time events can't get out of the tutorial.

[@Busy_Bee619]

@@SpuddyCube Of course! Honestly some of my faves the Batman ones were. But dang tutorial was that bad? Crazy, but uh yea hope you do the Arkham Knights sometime and can’t wait to see what awesome content you keep putting out.

[@Respawn0_o]

everyone gets lost in that house, no one wants to admit it

[@reinesschnitzelp9120]

Do not let this man play the second DLC

[@soheilnabiloo6701]

You mean the third?

[@chimericpaladin35813]

great video, great run, cant wait for the onmyo run as ive always liked eastern magic also did that seriously say switchglaive, who made this and whats their relation to monster hunter

[@SpuddyCube]

Thank you, and I look forward to bringing it to you! I haven't gotten to try any of the weapons yet, but if it has a Zero Sum Discharge, then I'm interested.

[@Merepyareshyamradhe42]

25:40 hanzo really said that on .5 hp

[@SpuddyCube]

To his credit, that attempt came just short of having enough fight left in me. So much RNG in that fight...

[@Merepyareshyamradhe42]

@@SpuddyCube you know you are a really hardcore gamer keep up the good work 👏

[@jackierobinson7838]

What are the chances I just watched the other nioh challenges this morning and then this drops. An absolute godsend 💯

[@duckyduckington9736]

hope you see this because fun fact you CAN damage the big tentacles in lady osakabe's fight. They just cant be locked onto, but they take 100% damage and can be headshot, meaning u can kill them with projectiles.

[@Flarztheburningsoul]

18:15 That run is straight up Tigrex

[@Wormopera]

12:32 he's azai nagamasa, and oda lied to you about him Historically he was oda's brother in law and a really good man, after a while he realized oda was gonna betray him and attack him but it was too late and he had lots of people with him betray him and oda was already at his castle The reason he says that he was responsible for this in the cutscene, is basically a white lie to keep oda powerful(by making sure you don't betray him) and thus making sure his wife is safe Also oda burnt his infant child on a stake, fun stuff.

[@Reckless_charge]

I truly appreciate your “take care of yourself” message. ❤

[@trevorburke8660]

Ahh, the return of Captain Sharp Things. This was a lot of fun to watch, so I'm rewatching it at work. It's a shame William grew up to be such a cheater though

[@SpuddyCube]

To think that he'd throw away such a promising future like that...

[@ProjectHunter571]

Im glad you also suffered with yatsu no kami (the snake boss) as i did too

[@SpuddyCube]

If it could just hold its head still... for five seconds!

[@Kazealaine]

Very enjoyable first 9 minutes but I haven't played Nioh 2 or the first yet so I don't want to see too much of it, Thanks for making this video though

[@SpuddyCube]

Understandable. If you're into looters, soulslikes, and can handle a bit of jankiness, I'd highly recommend them when you have the time. They've been a lot of fun to get into!

[@Kostej]

I love Nioh 2 BUT 7:14 This is like worst story dead. WTF why he sacriface him self that was 0 reason to do that. I was really mad about that.... Still love this game and now i replay the game with tomfa.

[@SpuddyCube]

I'm not familiar with the historic events that this game incorporated, but I'm fairly sure he had to die to keep timelines somewhat accurate. It doesn't really make it feel any more meaningful though from a narrative perspective.

[@trustinid6721]

Now this right here, this is beautiful

[@scurrathetrickster6879]

about elemental ninjutsu my favourite thing to do was to choose 1 element and max out it dmg by doing this you could get around +70% of your chosen element and another +50% form confusion debuff if your weapon had purify element on it... also from my testing your weapon lvl influence your ninjutsu/omnyo dmg a bit

[@KaiisKlips]

Nioh 2 story was awesome I believe in one of the DLC actually shows you and involves the undergound area where you fought william and how Shutin Doji was sealed there and another yokai

[@SpuddyCube]

I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I thought I would like the game, but the story was surprisingly nice. I still do want to see the DLC at some point. It was just... already a long experience by itself to have binged the way that I did.

[@Gunzerkingidiot]

The DLCs involve us time traveling and meeting ancestors who were sick badasses. The part you were talking about was Minamoto Raikou and the Omnyo mage I can't remember the name of sealing Shuten Doji and the 9 tailed fox (Who also possesses a 'villian' in a Nioh 1 DLC who was the victim of our buddy Toshiro turned tyrant)

[@KaiisKlips]

@@SpuddyCube I'd love to see how you would build and handle dream of the demon/wise/nioh as you can't really farm for inheritables any more due to the lower player base so the kunai/ninjutsu build falls off. I've been able to speedrun through dream of the demon. With my ninjutsu build but wise is a whole other kettle of fish. Theres also a dlc boss that nullifies projectiles. Which kinda sucks.

[@grrman]

Solid effort dude

[@LendyVi]

I play nioh 2 everyday but still bad lol ^^ love this game so much ... thank u for playing nioh 2

[@plaguedr.crowvin3349]

Hay how about an interesting challenge for you. Yokai only, you can only use yokai abilities and yokai shift, consumables are allowed and if you want you can do it in ng+ if you’d like it’s really one of my favorite build types in the game, of course if you wish to make the meta version of that kind of build you’ll have to have all 3 dlcs (because of the ng++ dotD, ng+++dotW, and ng++++dotN are lock behind having the dlcs and have all three of the gives you the true endgame of nioh 2 after beating the game 3 times each with an additional modifier to enemies and changing enemy spawns, like Devil May Cry.)

[@SpuddyCube]

I am interested in trying out the yokai abilities, but I don't know that I'll be wanting to go all the way through the various new game+ levels. I adore the game, but it's already a fairly substantial time investment for the one playthrough. Starting already on the second cycle, I'd miss out on all of the progression of getting different cores.

[@plaguedr.crowvin3349]

@@SpuddyCube no worries I’m just happy someone new got into this beautiful game.

[@Respawn0_o]

everyone gets lost in that house, no one wants to admit it. Asdfmovie

[@lookupandfindout]

I caught that asdf movie reference

[@imbouttoendthismansholecar9478]

This is basically like saying “can you beat Elden ring with the rivers of blood”

[@SpuddyCube]

Care to elaborate?

[@imbouttoendthismansholecar9478]

@@SpuddyCube it’ll be shitty in the beginning but takes off hella well late game if you use it right

[@SpuddyCube]

So I take it you haven't actually tried doing this.

[@makaronibalboni4237]

Great video !

[@conan2096]

okasabe was tough, but i would have probably quit there if you were able to fall off the arena. was blob in 1 was bad enough for that, but this things tentacles are really far out so if youre attacking when it pulls back youd be fucked lol. koji was really fun, and that last gasp he gets made me panic hard.

[@pixelmaster9964]

Surprised to see feathers not useful in this run. Ig it makes sense. Ninjutsu themselves don’t deal massive KI damage, and that’s what you need for them to absolutely obliterate any yokai enemy, but I figured the confusion would be good anyways.

[@SpuddyCube]

More than anything, I had an issue with hitting things while also not getting hit. Lightning/water were both really easy for most enemies to avoid by just walking. Even the tracking fire would miss faster moving enemies. The damage/status potential was incredible, but I usually just got hit/died while stuck in the casting animation. And while they can be canceled via burst counter, that really didn't feel like it was in the spirit of things.

[@NobleOneA259]

anything that forces you to do something to progress that is against the the run (magic only, ninjutsu only, etc) is never held against the player.

[@SpuddyCube]

I appreciate that. Some games do have some really weird ways around things, but I'm not aware of any for Nioh. Never feels great getting to those sorts of events without recourse.

[@Ian-lp2hd]

I love both the games. Ninjutsu was broken in the first game but in second I definitely took advantage of the fists mixed with Scrampuss and Spirit

[@kirramcdowell]

15:57 - he survives death because of the quick change scroll which you can make yourself in ninjutsu. Fyi for future nioh challenges. Eta. I see you used the scroll later on.

[@kaiadkins3865]

Elemental jutsu does massive damage if the enemy has no stamina if you didn't know

[@SpecShadow]

That twist with narrator being attacked reminds me similat situation with Drakengard 3 on PS4. Great game (from creator of NIER Automata), but abysmal performace...

[@ianian348]

I liked the skill tree of the first game how u could lvl one weapon and use those points on a different weapon

[@SpuddyCube]

I think it's meant to incentivize trying out the other weapons. It also means you can spend points on one without taking away from another. Granted, it means you more or less have to start over in terms of skills if you swap. My understanding of the weapon trees though are fairly rudimentary, as I've yet to really try them in either game.

[@rhyso1472]

28:03 he means Agni and Rudra right? I'm not making things up am I.

[@Bamboo_bazooka]

come on you could have said "culled the castle"

[@FatDoby]

This is my favourite game

[@alephnole7009]

Have yet to do a ninjutsu build in N2 but by N1 build was fantastic. NG++ was a cake walk compared to my original character.

[@alephnole7009]

Maxed out crit damage with rapid fire triple kunai to an enemies back or weak spot point blank melted even the strongest bosses. Never used bombs but I've seen other players use them quite impressively.

[@JuliusCaesar103]

You are the man!

[@MrLocoSuave]

7:48 by this time you should've been using the feathers already

[@katanamaru1]

Did you establish a 'no ninja tool replenish' kit? I thought you allowed that in another run? It would have saved you time. Still very entertaining and I liked the boss counter.

[@SpuddyCube]

I was generally going for as few consumables as possible. Honestly though, by the time they would have helped me, I forgot all about them. I did allow for the use of one in the magic run for the first game, because that particular fight was hellish. And thank you! Both for the kindness and the feedback!

[@tzeentchnco.7441]

I don't play Souls-genres. But I did play Nioh 1 and 2. I find it a lot more engaging, I even find it higher than Elden Ring in many aspects! To me, the Nioh series is my bread and butter. I don't mind the history as much, I think its just real cool involving yokai. If these two are gems, then Nioh 1 is an emerald while Nioh 2 is a diamond.

[@Chimbamsex]

I agree to it

[@arcuz7862]

Ah man I'm thinking about buying Nioh 2 and now this guy has to upload a video about it. Guess I'll buy it.

[@SpuddyCube]

It's really fun! Highly recommend it! I do personally tend to wait for games to go on sale though.

[@arcuz7862]

@@SpuddyCube Yeah well I was heavily addicted to Nioh and now six days later I'm heavily addicted to Nioh 2. Damn it.

[@jtnachos16]

'when you wear light armor you get one-shot' No. When you wear underleveled light armor and put nothing into constitution, you get one-shot. Normal light armor wearing works fine. Also, being allowed to block stops you from getting stunlocked. On that note, you can actually block barehanded, and iirc the barehand parry obtained through the samurai skill tree doesn't get instant-guardbroken when you time it properly, even against attacks it can't actually parry. I'm aware this is an attempt at an overspecific challenge run, but still might be best to cover more generalties of how the the game actually works, so prospective new players who see it because of your video don't get the wrong idea about the mechanics. There were also a number of times in this playthrough where you could have made your life a LOT easier by something as simple as allowing the consumables that are identical to jutsu items (or that any reasonable person would class as 'ninja trickery'). Kashin Koji is also much more manageable if you bring rankansen coin ninjutsu (no appreciable damage, but infinite use, so long as you have even a little bit of money) to remove the copies the flood the arena with AOE. Or, if allowing consumables, just throw rocks at them. You could have also notably improved the damage of your bombs by also stacking +fire damage (you don't ever mention doing this in the video, and your damage would seem to indicate you didn't), as the biggest proportion of their damage is fire element. It may also effect the DOT, I don't remember for certain. While I've not done the super strict 'only ninjutsu items' run, I have run with just consumables + the ability to block.

[@mothermushroom_]

the consequences of, for some reason, doing challenge runs on your 1st time through a game

[@Peter_mikaelson]

I NOW DON YOU A SHINOBI SAMURAI

[@modernus67]

The reason the elemental ninjutsu didn't work too well at times is they normally don't do much damage. They do Ki (stamina) damage. If the enemy is out of Ki, then the Ki damage is converted to health damage. I personally find the water one is ass though since its hard to actually hit.

[@SpuddyCube]

I think it was primarily the second bit, really. The frequency that I watched enemies effortlessly just walk past/sidestep the shadow arts to hit me in the face made it really hard to justify vs the reliability of some really pointy objects.

[@modernus67]

@@SpuddyCube Yeah I find myself only ever using elemental ninjutsu on a staggered enemy even then its still terrible outside of potential damage.

[@Axetwin]

@@modernus67 My issue with trying to use feathers on staggered enemies is they almost always seemed to recover faster than the animation needed to use the feathers.

[@modernus67]

@@Axetwin And unlike magic we don't get an ability to make it faster x.x

[@iHF95]

​​@@modernus67ou can make it faster by using yokai skills and burst counter or ki pulse to cancel your casting animation. " Double feather cancel jutsu" look it up. Of course in this challenge run wouldn't be allowed

[@aerow2965]

I really like this game, much more than the first one. Though when a friend told me I have to get to ng+5 or something to get the « true » experience I said fuck that lol.

[@SpuddyCube]

I've really enjoyed my time with it, and I'm really looking forward to more runs through it, but it feels like a mentality deeply rooted in gatekeeping. I've heard fairly similar, and again, I do genuinely love this game, but finding the time to play the same game on loop to "really" play it feels... wrong. It's not exactly a short experience, and I'm really glad that there's more there for the folks that want to get really deep into it, but I feel like it's really important to understand that not everyone can/will.

[@waldatheboye]

another banger of a video.

[@Hanayama-san]

now i dont make the rules here, Obviously BUT, why did you not use a weapon if you infused it with lets say poison the poison broth is a Ninjutsu Skill, so by my count, as long as its active on your weapon it should count anyway, Great Run and Video as per usual and Welcome to Nioh 2 :)

[@SpuddyCube]

Largely because then only half of what I would be using would be a jutsu. Some/a lot of the damage would be coming from the weapon itself. A pretty large amount of the difficulty through the run comes from managing resources properly. In some cases, the margin for error was really thin, so having damage coming from another source would just feel wrong. Thank you though! I appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to doing more in the game. There's a lot to wrap my head around, but it has been absolutely worth doing.

[@Hanayama-san]

@@SpuddyCube there would be weapon damage ofc, but depending on your stats, your weapon damage is also only good because you skilled into the right stat but i get what you mean and just wanted to bring it up, cause after 700+ hrs in Nioh 2, i know how hard certain stuff can be if you only rely on consumables :) speaking of consumables tho, don't forget you have Shinobi Tools (name of the item) to get Ninja Items back and a Sacred Brush for Magic items to get a few of them back, cheers ^^

[@Jared_42]

28:00 "I don’t like any double bosses...no, not even the two you're thinking of right now." Is this referring to the Ornstein and Smough boss fight from DS 1? Is that really a hot take? Does anyone genuinely like that boss fight? As a lover of Dark Souls, any admiration of that fight from me is purely ironic. I hate it and it's the biggest hangup I have whenever I think of replaying Dark Souls.

[@ianian348]

Wish u we're allowed to help monkey before he went evil

[@SpuddyCube]

The protagonist is unfortunately silent, and as in all things, communication is key.

[@blacqcentinal8135]

Now we need an onmyo run

[@SpuddyCube]

All in due time... Really though, I am excited to run it. Gonna take a short break from Nioh to avoid burning out on it, but I'm really excited to see what magic can do.

[@blacqcentinal8135]

@SpuddyCube onmyo is super powerful in nioh 2. And any run any game you do will be good, so a break is more than ok

[@eeveefrisk5659]

“Maybe it’s be just be cause I’m wearing light armor.” Um damage output from enemies is just fucking stupid at times. Looking at the Kasaru Tengu and Nure-onna specifically.

[@SpuddyCube]

What got me more than anything was the stun locks. One hit was fine, but I couldn't move to avoid the second hit that'd take what little health I had left.

[@eeveefrisk5659]

@@SpuddyCube fair for stun locks. Out of curiosity why do you never have elixirs on you?

[@SpuddyCube]

Because elixirs aren't ninjutsu, of course. I didn't use any. I think the only healing I used throughout the run was the shrines and the few times I used hot springs.

[@boom-jr8vi]

NOT THE ASDF MOVIE REFERENCE NOT THE ASDF MOVIE REFERENCE NOT THE ASDF MOVIE REFERENCE NOT THE ASDF MOVIE REFERENCE seriously though it's been years among years since I've heard that "snake arms" line used.

[@SpuddyCube]

You're never completely safe from ASDF Movie references.

[@linneal5105]

finished the game and currently getting 100% achievements, a yokai only run would be cool to see, also why is your game freezing so often? I never had any kind of framerate/freeze issues

[@SpuddyCube]

I'm pretty interested in trying out a yokai run. I'm not one hundred percent sure what it'll look like, but that's part of the fun! As for the game's performance... I'm not really sure. My setup isn't technically top of the line anymore, but it really shouldn't be struggling with anything outside of some of the newer titles with downright malicious specs. It runs perfectly well, with a couple of consistent exceptions and some rare/random frame drops.

[@wickedraptor2651]

lady osakabe fucking sucked even with a normal playthrough, it really does just boil down to luck for her attacks and praying she does attacks that leave her open for melee. so i don't even want to think about how annoying a ninjutsu only playthrough osakabe really is just "Get lucky lmao" the fight. which is a shame. but we do have to give thanks to the person that made sure there was an invisible wall to prevent you from falling off

[@SpuddyCube]

Honestly, there was probably at least an hour or better of time in which I wasn't even remotely sure if it was doable. With how close I had to get to the edges to effectively use the shadow arts, I don't even want to think about the fight without those barriers.

[@AmazingOpants_music]

Nobady likes osakabehime…

[@ashenphoenix6869]

Ohhh boy here we go~

[@hb29886]

tough challenge. so first off, nice job to the player!. BUT... the ability to cheese these bosses (especially incorporating elemental damage and confusion) is why as good as this game is, it will never be harder than dark souls imo. Mix in this with ability to slow bosses and all abilities... easy mode. If ever I got stuck on my first playthrough (beat nioh prior and wanted to avoid "cheesing"), slow or electricity and poison were often more than enough. Love the game though. Fave souls like

[@renelmateo1829]

Thanks for your videos.. now nioh games became easy now...😁😁😁😁

[@user-zl8cp7sb6d]

Love Nioh 2, Bloodborne will always be my all time favorite

[@SpuddyCube]

One day, should there maybe be a PC release, I look forward to trying it. I adore the setting and general style of play. There is the possibility that I eventually break down and get a Playstation, but I find it unlikely.

[@user-zl8cp7sb6d]

@@SpuddyCube I used PSNow for PC so I can stream Bloodborne never had a PlayStation til only recently but Bloodborne is a masterpiece . Nioh 2 is like Dark Souls on roids it just has everything and the combat/smithing/tempering/ridiculously amount of gear to farm but I absolutely love it. It made me into a GD farming addict

[@JamesW609]

I don't consider burst counter as breaking the rules its a key part of the game like deflections in sekiro and I also consider forced executions as just in game cutscenes

[@SpuddyCube]

Fair, but I know you can also get around parrying in Sekiro, as difficult as that is. The executions/deathblows on the other hand...

[@pezyg]

Im surprised you never used the giant iga-style bombs. 4 or 5 of these would easily end bosses in my run

[@azvelyn]

7:32 Not sure why she's helping? Who cares Mumyo appreciation

[@sakura368]

"a spirit that won't have any bearing on anything that i do" which isn't true because some spirits do buff your ninjutsu, even though he does mention it later

[@SpuddyCube]

It's true that some do, but none that I would be starting with. The bird arguably could later down the line, but that would require a stat investment that I just couldn't make.

[@AleXelerate8]

Theres 2 types; Dealing damage only through a specific type of damage. The only way you are offensive is though a specific type of playstyle. This is 100% fine but I assumed this video was the later.

[@SpuddyCube]

I don't think I understand what you mean.

[@bruhhunter8258]

very nice video, if possible, could you do one with only yokai shift?

[@SpuddyCube]

Thank you! It won't be right away, but I am interested in trying out a playthrough with only yokai abilities. Shift, core abilities, etc. I think I will have to allow blocking or healing though to have enough health to generate the needed anima.

[@bruhhunter8258]

@@SpuddyCube seems fair.

[@lvadimass]

@@SpuddyCube then the pain and suffering will continue with a onmyo only run afterwards

[@brandonsharp1996]

I assume this was on pc? I’m just glad to see mine isnt the only system on which this game loves to hitch frequently.

[@brandonsharp1996]

25:30 pc confirmed