Inside Nioh 2 Documentary Gives You An Intimate Look At The Faces Behind The Game

*WARNING: The video is in Japanese. English subtitles can be turned on by clicking the CC option.*

I’m always surprised that pieces like this don’t get more of a following. People complain left and right that there’s no integrity to gaming journalism. That it’s all just clickbait and headline chasing. The world of gaming discourse has been overrun by juvenile morons more concerned with having as many 12-year-olds as possible smash that like button than actually advancing the conversation. If you really do care about games as an art form, do yourself a favor and actually watch some content that has substance. Something like the new Inside Nioh 2 documentary.

Clocking in at over an hour, the documentary by Game*Spark and Archipel gives us an intimate look into the final months of Nioh 2‘s development. Reminiscent of Geoff Keighley’s The Final Hours series, the documentary goes deep into the design process, decision making, and struggles of realizing Nioh 2‘s final vision. The main focus of the doc is director/producer Fumihiko Yasuda, and from him were introduced to a wide-ranging cast of key figures from the development team. Through their stories, we get a picture of just how many moving parts must align to get a game of this scale ready for launch.

It’s really rare that we get this level of personal connection in the world of games. Far more than any other entertainment medium, we don’t get a sense of the people behind the box art. There are the rare cases of Hideo Kojima and John Ramero, but how many of you can tell me off the top of your head who were the key names behind The Last of Us? If we want gaming to grow as a medium, we have to stop and take time to recognize the people that make this industry possible. So take the time to give Inside Nioh 2 a watch.

Nioh 2 is out now on PS4. You can buy it now on PSN for $60 by clicking here.