Nioh 3 is Team Ninja’s new open-world-ish Soulslike. All things considered, it’s pretty great. The action is top-notch. You can play a sizable chunk of the start of the game for free via the demo, which includes a prologue boss fight against Yamagata Masakage. He might kill you a bunch. You might end up thinking Nioh 3 isn’t for you. But that would be a dumb reason to lose out on experiencing a very good video game.
Plenty of players will have no trouble with this prologue fight whatsoever, but I’ve already come across plenty of recent Nioh inductees who have struggled. Here are some tips for skating past Yamagata Masakage.
Grind some levels
If you’re getting your ass kicked, go fight a bunch of guys until you have enough Amrita to get to level six or seven. Put points into stats like Constitution and Strength. You’ll also get better armor drops this way. There’s a Yokai right behind you at the last shrine before the Yamagata Masakage fight. Kill that thing a bunch to get some better gear.
Summon an ally
This is also where the game teaches you how to summon NPC allies at the little blue pools of light. You spend Ochoko cups to “call” AI-controlled Acolytes to help you. Doing so goes a long way toward making the Yamagata Masakage fight a walk in the park.
Memorize the attack pattern and stay out of harm’s way
Nioh 3 is a Soulslike which means you need to know when to watch, when to wait, and when to be aggressive. Yamagata Masakage only has a handful of different attack patterns and animations and you should be able to block them all without getting stunned and still have time to create space and recover your stamina before the next barrage. In Ninja stance, it’s extra easy to play keep away.
Master the Burst Counter
If you’re having trouble with this fight, the best thing to do is not to worry about chipping away at Yamagata Masakage’s health throughout the entire fight. Instead, keep blocking and maintaining distance until he uses his special attack that flashes a red glowing aura around him right before it lands. Hit the right trigger to stance-shift right at that moment to parry it. That’s called a Burst Counter.
When successful, you can transition into attacking to quickly stun him. Get a three-hit combo in and then back off until the next time he glows red before his attack. You can basically block and Burst Counter the entire fight as long as you manage your stamina meter carefully.
Let your Acolyte do all the work
While Yamagata Masakage is focused on attack you and you’re soaking up all his attacks by blocking, your AI-controlled Acolyte should be tearing into him from behind. Easy mode! Just keep aggro-ing him while your friend does all of the work.
Save your Living Artifact to finish the fight
Filling up your Amrita Gauge throughout the fight will let you press Y + B/triangle + circle to initiate a powerful transformation in which you summon your equipped Guardian Spirit and can unload on the enemy until the short cooldown expires. You only have to get Yamagata Masakage down to less than a third of his life before the battle ends and he’ll flee. Just watch out for his attack change-up in the second half of the battle, where his red glow animation adds some extra delays before it hits.
With these strats, hopefully you’ll be able to make short work of Yamagata Masakage and experience the first part of Nioh 3 which begins to open up exploration. From there you can do lots of stuff before taking on the game’s first real major boss: Jakotsu-baba. That fight is the game’s first real skill check, but you’ll have more tools in your arsenal by the time you get to it.
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