In a recent interview, Koei Tetmo founder and president Yoichi Erikawah admitted that he was responsible for the long period of development of Nioh, which it to have more than 12 years.
According to Ericava, the role-playing game in the style of masocore, which received the recognition of players, was released in 2017 after two alters, as he was dissatisfied with the presented results. According to him, the game should be a “new form of entertainment”, and if he does not see it in the project, he will redo it.
Ericawa even said that Nioh was a project he implemented with “self-satisfaction,” but if it was his employee who spent 12 years on the project, he would be fired. However, he does not regret that Nioh was redesigned three times, since the final result is a good game.
The development of Nioh began in 2004 in Koei, but after the merger with Tecmo in 2008, they decided to cancel the first version and entrust the work on the game Omega Force. This second version was canceled, and Team Ninja began working on the project, but Ericava was always attentive to the development.