First of all I want to say that I finished DS1-3, Bloodborne, Steel Rising, and some other soulslikes.
So I think I spent enough time with this genre to know that these games can be hard but rewarding.
But with every hour I put into the Nioh Franchise I simply can not understand why so many people seem to love it. It has so many flaws.

Almost everything is designed to p** you off. In difference to the first Nioh I spent almost every lvl into health - now I die after two hits from the bigger yokai/bosses. AFTER TWO HITS (!). Do I really have to grind for several hours to put up a fair fight?
And as if that is not enough I have to farm healing items?
I have to grind before every new Bosstry because my "god" is not ready?
Why do I even have to grind this much BEFORE getting my a* whopped again? It's just frustrating! Nioh can be unfair/unbalanced at times. And this is reason why it is so frustrating when you have to grind.
Sure there are some people beating this game using a vegetables-controller... but I have a job and I don't have time to grind for hours and hours.

Then there is still the thing with those amrita-memories being japanese with subtitles. Why? In a soulslike you don't have the time to stop walking and READ the subtitles. Why are those oneliners even there? Do they add to the story? Not really. Do they provide interesting lore? No. So why even include them?
And if you include them why keep them japanese with subtitles? It just makes no sense.

The game has so few different enemies that it feels lazy. Why do they recycle so many enemies from Nioh 1?

Nioh has also the bad taste of DS2.. either it throws 5-6 enemies at you or 1-2 of the bigger yokai (yeah the same enemies in every level..).
And the game is not ashamed to put you in arena-like side missions where you have to survive multiple waves (is this supposed to be fun?).

Then there are the Yokai...I just don't think they're cool. Not a bit. I don't want to be disrespectful for japanese culture but I wish Nioh had cooler enemies..
I have not found any cool/likeable/frightening NPC/Enemy in over 35 hours I put into the Nioh-Franchise. DS or Bloodborne had such cool enemies/bosses.

And Nioh is right there with Borderlands or Diablo lootwise.
You get a.lot.of.stuff. sometimes over 100 weapons/armorsets per level. Yes this is a soulslike, but you can pause the game every 2 mins to check the new stuff if you want. Thats just not what I want from a soulslike.

Why 3*? Because it is not a bad game after all.
But it is nothing I would recommend to anybody. There are enough positive reviews regarding Nioh 2 that will give you a better insight on the good sides of the game.

PS: After all this negative energy I must admit that I will give it another try soon... I just want to see what's all the buzz around Nioh. But at the moment I don't think it's my kind of game.