Nioh's third and final free pre-release trial is this weekend

Team Ninja's highly anticipated samurai folklore action game Nioh is getting a third pre-release trial ahead of its 8th February launch.

Running from 21st through 22nd January, this demo of the near final build will encompass the same content revealed at the PSX event from December.

Completing it will result in bonus goodies for the full game. Finishing the main mission will grant players the Ogress Headgear, while conquering the Twilight Mission will offer the Mark of the Conqueror and Mark of the Strong goodies that were available from besting the alpha and beta. These latter rewards require players to download them as separate free DLC, while the Ogress Headgear will just stay linked to your save data.

Nioh previously had an open alpha and beta that launched in April and August, respectively. Significant changes were made between the two builds, though creative director Fumihiko Yasuda told me during a Tokyo Game Show interview that the changes between the beta and final release would be more muted in comparison.

That's probably a good thing though, as I called Nioh "the rare [Dark] Souls successor to really grasp what made From's series such a success while still imprinting its own unique stamp" in my beta impressions. "As long as the rest of the game can hold pace with what's been released so far, Nioh seems poised to be among the best in its class."

I wasn't the only one who dug Nioh either, as our own Johnny Chiodini offered a list of seven cool things he learned from playing it at a recent press event. You can watch that above.