Round 2: Which has better level design?
The Souls series is widely considered a masterclass in level design, and that’s not surprising at all. The original Dark Souls, in particular, had such a dense world, with various levels and stages weaving together in interesting ways. There was a ton of verticality in Dark Souls, and exploring Lordran and discovering hidden little shortcuts like the elevator that took you out of Blighttown and back to Firelink Shrine was half the fun. Even in Dark Souls II, which is arguably the weakest entry in the series, that sense of exploration and discovery was always present. The levels were all unique and distinct from each other, even if there were a few questionable design choices here and there.
Nioh brings a little bit of that to the table as well. While exploring feudal Japan, William will inevitably run into doors that can only be opened from the other side, or ladders that can be kicked down to take you back to the first shrine of the stage. However, Nioh does have quite a few missions where the level design feels a little too sprawling and confusing, and it ultimately becomes difficult to make any sense of how certain areas are connected to each other. Nioh’s falter in level design also comes partially from the lack of any distinct landmarks. Throughout my experience with Nioh’s main campaign, I often found myself lost because so many of the environments and objects I was running into just looked the same. It was difficult to keep track of which door led to which area, or if that one ladder took me to a boss or a hot spring. Nioh has a ton of shortcuts for you to discover as well, but the game can go a little overboard with that at times, making the sense of discovery feel far less rewarding.
Most importantly, however, all three Dark Souls games (with the exception of III’s Firelink Shrine) feature an interconnected world. This means that players could literally walk from one end of the game’s world to the other without having to touch a bonfire or warp from point to point. This isn’t the case with Nioh, where Team Ninja has opted for a world map and a Mission Select screen. From a gameplay perspective, this is great for replaying missions. But from a design perspective, there’s a lot less satisfaction to be had from clearing one zone and heading into the next.
Winner: Dark Souls still reigns supreme in the level design department. The series has truly succeeded in rewarding players with a real sense of satisfaction just through the mere act of progressing naturally through the game’s world and getting to literally see how far they’ve come since the beginning.
