Elden Ring for exploration, Nioh 2 for combat depth. Nioh 2 is a mission-based loot game with three stances per weapon and a genuinely deep skill tree — the closest thing to a character-action game in this space. Elden Ring is an open world you get lost in.
Both are hard, both are stamina-based, and both expect you to learn enemies rather than out-level them.
Stance switching, ki pulse timing and yokai abilities give it more mechanical ceiling than anything FromSoftware has made. The trade is structure: levels are missions from a map screen, and the loot is Diablo-style noise you will spend time managing.
Nothing in Nioh compares to cresting a hill and seeing somewhere you did not know existed. The combat is simpler; the sense of place is not.
More like this: games like Elden Ring.
Elden Ring for exploration, Nioh 2 for combat depth. Nioh 2 is a mission-based loot game with three stances per weapon and a genuinely deep skill tree — the closest thing to a character-action game in this space. Elden Ring is an open world you get lost in.
Better is the wrong question for these two — they are close enough that the answer depends on what you want from the next twenty hours. Pick Nioh 2 if the fighting is why you are here. Pick Elden Ring if the world is why you are here.
No. There are no scores anywhere on this page. This is a written opinion about what each game is for, so you can judge whether it matches what you are after.