Fight the Warriors and the Yokai
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Nioh opens with a question the store asks directly, ready to die, and the answer it describes is a brutal action game rather than a power fantasy.
One traveller, two kinds of enemy
In the age of samurai, a lone traveller lands on the shores of Japan and must fight his way through the vicious warriors and supernatural Yokai that infest the land. Having both human and supernatural enemies from the start sets the tone: this is a place where the historical and the monstrous share the same roads.
The goal is deliberately vague
The store says he fights his way through all of it in order to find that which he seeks, without ever naming it. That is worth knowing before you start, because the motivation is delivered through the campaign rather than explained up front in a paragraph of setup.
Brutal is the operative word
Ready to die is the store’s own framing, and it comes from Team NINJA and Koei Tecmo Games. Pairing that with a lone protagonist means the difficulty is part of the premise rather than a setting to lower, so the useful preparation is patience rather than extra power.
What you are fighting through is covered in playing the three expansions. Where the story is going is covered in following the road to Osaka.