Hardcore Action RPG Nioh Has Gone Gold

After 10 years spent in development hell, Team Ninja's Nioh has gone gold at last, and the developer has confirmed the game will release on schedule.

Following a successful alpha demo on the PlayStation Network nine months ago and months of new footage and development updates, Team Ninja and publisher Tecmo Koei are finally ready to move forward with Nioh and let gamers experience a game that's been developed for more than a decade. Today, the official Twitter account of Nioh announced that the game has gone gold and will release worldwide on February 9, 2017.

In the official translation of the tweet stands that Nioh has "succeeded in master up", which is the rough Japanese equivalent to having gone gold, as well as thanking fans for their patience with Nioh. Even though it's rare that games suffer from delays as long as Nioh and succeed once they're finally released, Tecmo Koei and Team Ninja won't have to go back too far to find a game that beat the odds - Final Fantasy 15's development has gone through many problems as well, and that game still managed to feature prominently as one of the best games of 2016.

It may seem strange to take into consideration, but Nioh might actually be best-suited to today's video game market than the one it would have released into in the years following 2004. The demo of Nioh strongly suggests that the full game will be something of a combination of Dark Souls and Dynasty Warriors, two series that have found their way in recent years after video game fans started to ask for more challenging gameplay and deeper combat systems. Although Nioh is still very much inspired by Ninja Gaiden as well, Team Ninja's extended development time with Nioh has definitely allowed for the team to adapt to modern gaming trends.

Nioh is scheduled to be released worldwide on February 9, 2017 for PS4.