TGS 2025 – Nioh 3 Hands-On Preview: Going the Distance With the Takeda Shingen

Koei Tecmo has a lot of swords in their arsenal. Amongst their massive zone at Tokyo Game Show 2025, they featured demos of the soon-to-be-released Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, developed by KT’s AAA Games Studio, and Ninja Gaiden 4, developed by Team Ninja. But what drew me was Team Ninja’s craggy peak in the far distance of February 2026: Nioh 3. As I was ushered towards one game station in a sea of monitors, I watched the other screens flashing with variants of the same battle against a hulking Yokai beast, the Takeda Shingen, with its demonic horns and wild, white mane. I watched the other players die over and over, slapping their knees and groaning in frustration. With the fifteen minutes I was provided, I had two options: explore an open “Heian Era” field or take on the Takeda Shingen. Need I say which I chose?

There were a few easier fights leading up to the Takeda Shingen. Very early in my visit to demon-infested 15th century Japan, I was reminded that the Nioh series is no mere Souls-like. Returning in Nioh 3 is the low-mid-high stances with each weapon. The higher you raise your weapon, the more damage you do, but the slower you swing and the more open you leave yourself. There’s dashing and rolling, sure, but the series encourages you to stay up close to your enemies and use your formidable block so long as your stamina allows. Managing stamina would be the most important aspect of Nioh 3’s combat were it not for the flowing ki system of “breathing” and empowering your next moves after each series of attacks so you end up pushing and stunning your enemies with increasingly enchanted attacks… unfortunately, it’d been a long time since I played Nioh 1 or 2 and so I was a bit overwhelmed by the depth of its fighting mechanics (if only our reviewer Jerry Williams were there—he loved Nioh 2!).

Still, sheer reflexes were enough to get me through a few early enemies, and I learned mid-fight that hitting the R2 button transformed my samurai warrior into a more agile ninja type, with a whole new set of armour and weapons. This Ninja Mode replaced the three stances with traditional shinobi tools like a throwable kunai. I was surprised to see that there’s no discernible lag or pause when switching between Samurai and Ninja styles, suggesting that Nioh 3‘s later bosses will almost certainly require on-the-fly swapping. Also surprising was the emphasis on martial arts-styled attacks in my combo strings, though I’d never say no to giving a demon a swift kick.

Like previous Nioh games, you spend enemy-dropped Amrita to level up Constitution, Heart (relating to ki management), Strength, Skill, and so on. There’s a lot of variable stats and bars, though not too much actual number crunching, thankfully. Using the character build I was given, I rested at a shrine and entered a dark-infested temple in which the Takeda Shingen resided. I’m not ashamed to say that I died many times in the twelve minutes or so remaining of the demo. As the adage in Japan goes: “fall seven times, stand up eight.”

Beasts in Nioh 3 are not so big that many of their attacks can’t be blocked and parried. Just don’t expect to get any huge reward from a parry beyond saving some stamina and building ki. The boss was at first relentless, but within a few deaths I saw through his wiles. I could simply block this attack, roll through this grab, stand back from this slam. Like in many of Team Ninja’s games, death instilled in me a kind of fearlessness in the face of overwhelming adversity—the runback to the boss, after all, took only seconds.

Still, I wasn’t doing enough damage! That’s what led to me playing around with Nioh 3‘s ki and magic systems. I grew more confident with each rematch with the boss, trying more moves from my sizable choice of approaches, both as a Samurai and a Ninja. Eventually, I knocked the Takeda Shingen into his enraged second state… only to die once again. Still, with only seconds remaining, I threw myself back into the temple and back at the monster, until the end of the demo forced us to stop. I felt like Rocky (albeit less muscular) going the distance against Apollo Creed.

Evidently like those around me, I did not conquer the boss in the short time I had with Nioh 3. But with the many butt-whoopings I received, I also got a strong desire to jump into all the expanded depth of the combat come the game’s full release. That boss is just lucky we had only fifteen minutes…

Nioh 3 is Team Ninja’s combat at its most intricate, and I look forward to the rematch I’ll get with the Takeda Shingen when the game releases February 6th, 2026, on PS5 and PC.

Nioh 3 Screenshots