Every game with the "Soulslike" subgenre tag attached to it both needs to follow a familiar formula as well as bring something new to the mechanics in order to stand out among the crowd. Within the ever expanding Soulslike genre, Nioh 2 has done one of the best jobs, outside of FromSoftware's own attempts, to reinvent the genre with new ways to approach this type of gameplay.
While there are titles like Remnant: From the Ashes that throw in new gameplay styles like gun combat, Nioh 2 and its predecessor have both expanded on the melee combat and narratives of the genre. Beyond the storytelling, Team Ninja has also helped this series take a firm position as a top tier Soulslike with the impressive amounts of polish that keeps the game together.
Stories and Characters
The narratives of Soulslikes have often been determined by the storytelling within Dark Souls and FromSoftware's other titles that have a tendency to take a minimalist approach. So, games like Hollow Knight that take a similar approach to some of the gameplay features also tend to take the same approach for how to tell a story. This is one of many places where Nioh 2 chooses to diverge from the genre and use the moments between combat to tell a compelling story out of the Japanese culture that inspired the game.
In the case of the Nioh series, a lot of the story is based on historical events, with several twists made specifically to include the player character, as well as the more fantastical aspects. Not only does it give context to Nioh 2's Yokai abilities and more mythological moments, but this also gives the game a better chance to establish and develop stronger characters throughout the story. The sequel especially nails the characterization of certain important figures, especially with the characters with strong personalities like Tokichiro.
Combat Stances
On the side of the actual combat in Nioh 2, Team Ninja also added a new level of complexity to how the player deals with encounters by including combat stances. Each of the three stances, high, mid, or low, all have different strengths and weaknesses that can be used to break through the defenses of whatever enemy the player might encounter. It gives weapons a similar depth as the trick weapons in Bloodborne or the ability to two-hand any weapon in Dark Souls, though the trade-off is a bit different.
Instead of trading off the ability to block, like two-handing in Dark Souls, Nioh 2's stances change the attack speed and damage of different weapons. With the faster low stance able to attack quickly for bursts of low damage strikes and high stance fighting leaving the player open while unleashing huge damage, each one fits a different purpose. Considering how much of Nioh 2's ninja-like combat relies on attack speed, this trade-off becomes a huge part of how to best utilize different weapons against different enemies.
Polish
Much of the Soulslike genre has continued to expand within the indie realm, with few developers and publishers willing to throw triple-A money at this type of development the way FromSoftware has done. The result has been that a lot of games in the subgenre lack a certain level of polish that players would hope from these types of games. This goes a step beyond simply bringing a glitch-free experience, and goes into the smaller details like animations and particle effects that can both keep cohesion as well as make a game world feel more lived in.
When the first Nioh released, however, it marketed itself on being a masterfully polished experience that kept that cohesive feel from start to finish. The second game in the series continued this by increasing this enhanced level of polish both on PS4 and PS5, though the PC port of Nioh 2 has faced hiccups since release. As a result of this attention to detail and lack of obvious bugs, something that's even prevalent in Dark Souls, Nioh and Nioh 2 easily stand apart as some of the best examples of what the Soulslike genre can be.
Nioh 2 is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.