Ninja Gaiden Series

[Foggle]

Hero: A Nice label for what this pathetically easy mode has always been called- Ninja Dog.

From what I hear, Hero mode makes Ninja Dog look like Mentor. Isn't it actually impossible to die on this difficulty setting?

Ultimate Ninja: Itagaki would be proud. Your technique had better be perfect, because one hit from the weakest enemy will drain half of your health. Happy hunting...or more accurately, happy dying!

No, Itagaki would not be proud. That isn't hard... that's just unfair. As you say, this completely contradicts Itagaki's design philosophy.

Apparently nobody told Hayashi this after he made grabs kill you in just 1 hit in Master Ninja mode for NGS2.

...Seriously? That sounds absolutely horrible.

[Spark Of Spirit]

one hit from the weakest enemy will drain half of your health

How in any name of sanity is this considered difficulty? How about just giving enemies more attacks or add more obstacles to levels? Oh wait- effort, I forgot. There's nothing like relying on luck and hope you don't miss-time a single button press otherwise death and restart to rile up the blood. Real difficulty doesn't punish a player; it rewards them for doing well.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just for comparison's sake, Master Ninja in NGB had new enemies that weren't even on the lower difficulty, and harder/tougher enemies appeared earlier on. The difficulty came in that the enemies had more attacks than before, moved a bit faster, and did more damage to you (they also took more hits, but even they they never became sponges that absorbed all of your attacks as they still went down fairly quickly at the hands of skilled players). Also, some chests spawned enemies while others gave you really weak versions of stronger items that you got in the same locations on the easier difficulties. Also, given that the old games had a shop system, upgrading weapons and buying items cost a lot more money than it did on lower difficulties so you had to spend your essence wisely.

In this game they just made it so that enemies can kill you in 1 or 2 hits on the hardest difficulty.

This is a prime example of how the idea of "hardcore" gaming has fallen so far in the past few years. I love challenging games. I HATE masochistic games. Developers need to realize that there is a clear difference between the 2 of them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, going by the launch trailer at least we get a giant T-Rex boss to fight as the traditional stupidly over-the-top boss fight that every game in the series must have. Actually I'd say that a ninja working for the UN and fighting terrorists is by far the stupidest thing in a Ninja Gaiden game ever....which oddly enough may fit the series after all since its always been about stupid but cool things rolled into 1 game (I mean NG1 on the NES had ninjas on jet-packs for crying out loud). That said no NG game would feel right without at least 1 ridiculously over-the-top fight (and robots/mechs don't count, because lots of games have that). A ninja fighting a T-Rex is so absurdly stupid that it just screams Ninja Gaiden, and I actually love it. Its probably one of the only things in this game that I'll be looking forward to when I finally get around to playing it (hopefully its actually a well designed boss fight rather than a QTE-fest, which, given what's been shown of this game up until now, is unfortunately entirely possible).

As harsh as I've been about this game up until now, I should make it clear that I think it'll be a decent enough action game on its own. Its just that my disappointment comes from it being a piss-poor Ninja Gaiden game, as my bias has me hold the first 2 NG games way above almost any other action game ever made that I've played.

Also, fiends were confirmed a while ago for mission mode, and while I'd prefer to have them in story mode as well, at least I will still get to fight fiends in this game (I also hear that the mission mode in this game gives you the option of playing solo or going co-op, which if that's true is a really good thing for me). That said the replay value of this game will obviously be shit compared to previous NG games, but you all know I'm still going to cave in and get it anyways. As much as I hate what this game as become, I don't exactly want the NG series to die, so I'll support it this time. I just REALLY hope that Team Ninja is smart enough to listen to fan-criticism from this game and actually make a proper NG game next time (if here is a next time). As it stands, this is merely just an appetizer compared to previous NG games, which are much meatier and have a "full-course" value (if that makes any sense).

[Foggle]

T-Rex boss sounds awesome. I'm sure the game will be at least as good as Ninja Blade.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The funny thing is that even Ninja Blade had more weapons than this game....and they were all swords too, but at least they played differently from each other (whereas the different swords you get in NG3 only have slight combo variations that are barely noticeable to anyone who doesn't have the Dragon Sword's moveset completely memorized). Also, it may sound weird coming from me but Ninja Blade isn't really a bad game. Its just a derivative and uninspired hack n' slash, with way too many QTEs and brain-dead AI, but its not poorly designed or anything like that. Honestly its combat system is about as competent as that of God of War, and while it doesn't boast nearly the same level of sophisticated visuals it is at least self-aware of itself and its absurdly over-the-top for the fun of it. I don't really like it myself, don't get me wrong, but it got ragged on way more than it deserved, IMO. I at least liked what I played of it much better than what I played of Dante's Inferno (which for some reason seemed to get its own little cult following among gamers, even though its more of a God of War rip-off than Ninja Blade is a Ninja Gaiden rip-off....which its really not).

At any rate, if Ninja Gaiden 3 is going to be my hack n' slash "appetizer" for this year, then I'm definitely counting on MGS Rising to be my "main course." I'm really depending on Platinum Games to deliver, here.

[Rynnec]

Does the T-Rex boss coem equipped with lasers and missiles straped on to it? Because that would almost be enough for me to get the game.

Almost.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I can't really tell from the trailer, but it has little red eye things implanted into it (which sort of makes it look like a cyborg dinosaur) and it appears to catch a rocket/missile in its mouth at one point in the trailer if that means anything at all. As for me, its a fucking Ninja vs. a T-Rex. If I was 8 years old I would think that's the coolest thing in the world. In fact I do actually think its one of the coolest things ever, just to give you an idea of how immature I still am.

Seriously, though, its kind of sad that for an NG game this is one of the only few highlights that I can see for the game, and that's assuming its any good to actually play through; though, according to the OXM review it was the best boss fight in the game, if that means anything at all.

[Rynnec]

That'll probably be the only thing in this game I'll go out of my way to check out. Of course, it's not quite as awesome as a Ninja fighting a four-armed Werewolf-like creature in a Roman-style Colosseum, but it's up there.

I just remembered that the bosses in this game don't have health bars, that's probably gonna suck.

Maybe I'll finally get a copy of Ninja Gaiden Sigma once I've cleared a few games off my plate. I'd get Ninja Gaiden Black, but none of the Xbox controllers I have are in good shape, and I've been on the fence on NGS2, partly out of the stuff about it said in this thread, and partly because it removed most of the blood and gore apparently. I know that one sounds petty, but in a game that's supposed to be difficult like Ninja Gaiden, there's something rewarding about seeing an enemy that's been giving you lots of grief get sliced into pieces for me, like a good way to satisfy your anger y'know?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 is fine. It removes some of the puzzles from the the first game in order to make everything feel more action-oriented in general, but even so it doesn't change too much up. I don't like the added in Rachael missions which you're forced to play through, but her chapters are short so they aren't much of a hindrance to the pacing of the game. Everything else about the game is still great, IMO. Though, be forewarned that NG may give you its fair share of camera troubles. People exaggerate the problems with the camera, IMO, but I admit it can be uncooperative at times. That said it only takes one button tap to re-center it behind you, and I honestly prefer it to any fixed camera angle since you get complete control over it yourself, which is why I think its not too big a problem once you get used to how the camera works in this game. My favorite part about the game is the enemy AI. What separates NG from DMC, Bayonetta, God of War, etc., is that its enemies don't just willingly give you the opportunity to attack them. They will block you when they can, and they are very aggressive and keep you on your toes. It makes the combat feel more strategic and it really feels rewarding to clear a room full of tough enemies that forced you to fight at your very best to overcome. And keep in mind, in the first game at least most enemies don't rely on cheap tactics to give you a tough time. They actually each have a pretty diverse selection of moves and abilities to use on you, so it makes them less predictable until you've had enough experience fighting each of them.

As for NGS2 compared to NG2, each game has their problems, but as you already know I'm in the crowd that prefers NG2. To be fair, barring Master Ninja mode, NGS2 undeniably has more balanced difficulty all the way up to Mentor mode, but it also screws around with NG2's gameplay formula in baffling ways, and I'm not even referring the lack of blood and gore, here (though I do totally get what you mean about it being a really rewarding feed-back for successfully taking down an enemy; it really is very satisfying, as sick as that probably sounds ). For one thing, the number of enemies on-screen is significantly reduced, but they don't take the trouble to make them tougher to match NGB's approach (since that game had fewer but tougher enemies, whereas NG2 had more enemies but ones that were weaker individually, and challenged you by attacking you as a team). Also the game just feels barren due to the greatly decreased amount of enemies you encounter. That said I can't be fair by just saying to pass it off without giving it a chance. Try downloading the demo for NGS2 on the PS3 and compare it to NG2's demo on the XBOX360 if you ever get a chance. That'll give you a pretty good idea of how different each game is from one another, and which style of gameplay you might prefer.

[Rynnec]

Unfortunately, the NGS2 demo doesn't seem to be on the PSN store anymore. Kind of a pain since I only have a PS3 and all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I wonder what they're going to change for the Wii-U version since that's apparently the "Sigma" version of the game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

They'll probably just add in some additional content to it. I doubt that they'll find creative ways to use the tablet controller or anything like that, so it'll probably just be more of the same from the XBOX360/PS3 versions of the game. Now, if the game hadn't actually gimped out on the weapon variety and player choice options in general (there are no shops and consequently no items in the game, and you only get one weapon at a time and they are all swords with generally the same basic move-set throughout the entire game), then they could have used the tablet as a menu which allowed you to use items and switch weapons and such on the fly. That would be great and add a WHOLE new gameplay element with its own level of depth to the game. In fact after saying that I'd love to see a WiiU version of the first 2 NG games utilizing that feature.

[Rynnec]

I wouldn't be suprised if the first 2 NG games got ported to the Wii U, preferably as a sort of "Ninja Gaiden Collection".

[Spark Of Spirit]

It would be smart for them to give options for them if they did. Include:

Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden Black
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Ninja Gaiden 2
Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma

They would have more than enough space for all that. Not to mention adding touch screen menu controls would be extremely easy to put in.