I'm playing through the first right now. I like the combat, but the level design is abysmal and there aren't many enemy types. In fact, I'm pretty sure that tongue oni in the video has the exact same moveset and animations he does in the first, which seems lazy. It's also not a very graphically impressive game (though I don't really mind this).
For those who have been keeping up with the gameplay released for the second, how does level design and enemy variety compare so far?
Enemy variety in the first game was fine, its just that it was heavily biased towards human enemies, with relatively few Yokai types mixed in. Probably because the original intent was to lean harder on the Sengoku era setting - remember it was based on an unfilmed Kurosawa script after all!.
The DLC zones added post-release showed TN moving away from that and from the looks the sequel flips it on its head with the folkloric enemies and bosses being dominant. Nioh2 has way more Yokai of all types than the original.
Not sure why you'd think the level design in Nioh was abysmal, but the sequel seems to offer more complexity and verticality. Yes it still punishes every slip, failure to check for ambushes and traps, but without that all the Ninjutsu and magical stealth/surprise attack abilities wouldn't have value!
Bottom line is that Nioh's just super old-school "gamey". Levels are designed to be replayed and learnt with the depth coming from how versatile and fun the combat/rpg mechanics are. To me, bringing up the amount of visual variety is missing how different fighting the same enemy feels as you both level up in power and loadout.