Nioh Will Get Player-Versus-Player Combat After Launch

Nioh, Team Ninja's Dark Souls-like historical action game, won't have a competitive multiplayer mode when it arrives on Feb. 7, but don't worry: according to Yosuke Hayashi, Nioh's director, a free update will add a player-versus-player mode shortly after the game's launch.

While speaking to Gamereactor Espana (in an interview partially translated by Gematsu), Hayashi also mentioned that, in addition the new multiplayer mode, Team Ninja has three "large" downloadable content packs in development, all of which should arrive in the "short term after the game is released," and will be free for players who have purchased Nioh's season pass. Cooperative multiplayer will be a part of the core game when Nioh arrives in stores next month.

For fans, Nioh has been a long time coming. On January 16, 2017 Nioh went gold after a lengthy 13-year development cycle. Originally based on Oni, an unfilmed script by legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, Nioh was at various points both a Japanese role-playing game and a fast-paced Dynasty Warriors-like action title before Team Ninja came on board and committed to the game's current direction.

The end result, which sees a Westerner named William fighting off hordes of Japanese demons, takes a number of cues from From Software's immensely popular Souls series, including the ability to summon other players in order to get an edge on the game's fearsome villains. Judging by the two demos that developer Koei Tecmo released in 2016, Nioh is set to be just as unforgiving as the Souls games, too—in fact, it might be a good idea to get some practice with these other brutally difficult games as you prepare for Nioh's impending release.