Soon after my character set foot on the village shore that begins the Nioh alpha demo, I noticed a small gathering of glowing swords sticking out of the ground. As I approached them, they displayed names that were obviously user names of other unfortunate players. As Nioh is expected to be derivative of Dark Souls, I activated a grave, expecting to see a player ghost re-enact how they had met their end. Instead, a phantom of that player appeared and slaughtered me in a single unexpected blow.
I took this to be an upfront reminder that Nioh has its own ideas and wants to be more than Dark Souls with a Japanese aesthetic.
Pixel Ocean 