Though slightly exaggerated, Nioh's protagonist, William is based on a real sailor from the
1600s.
Though he didn't fight mythical monsters, he was one of only a handful of survivors
from a five ship expedition for the Dutch East India Company and became the first Western
Samurai and an advisor to the Shogun.
Nioh began as a pet project when Koei founder Kou Shibusawa wanted to make an RPG adaptation
of "Oni", the unfinished screenplay by legendary Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa.
The game to be preceded by a feature film directed by Akira Kurosawa's son, Hisao Kurosawa,
though the film was cancelled a year later and the game bounced around before Team Ninja
was brought on board.
Noted to be notoriously difficult even before its release, Nioh director Fumihiko Yasuda
explained they balanced the game at the testing phase.
If the game tester could beat a boss without any armor, the boss fight was considered fair.
Believing that difficulty levels leave gamers with different feelings about a game, Team
Ninja decided to develop Nioh with only one difficulty setting.
If players want the most challenging gaming experience available, Nioh includes punishing
side missions and quests designed with gaming masochists in mind.
In Buddhism, Nioh are the two wrathful guardians that watch over Buddhist temples.
The two represent birth and death, and according Japanese tradition, they protected Buddha
during his travels throughout India.
Our video game hero William, on the other hand, is regarded as Nioh solely for his reputation
as a demon-slayer.