Lock-On
It’s 100% possible to make it through combat in Nioh while keeping the camera free, but there’s also no real reason to make things more challenging for yourself like that. Locking on to an enemy (done by pressing R3) has its perks. For starters, you can see where they are at all times, allowing you to evade attacks and look for openings for your own offensive moves. Also, it maps your evasions to the enemy. If you dodge without locking on, you will often find yourself rolling right into an enemy attack which is not something you want to do in Nioh. You have enough trying to kill you, so you don’t need to help them out in any way.
Locking on and evading lets you actually outflank and even end up behind them on purpose. You can also switch between targets using the right stick, so you can keep focus on who’s closest, or target a ranged enemy to make the battlefield a little easier to navigate.
