Ninja Gaiden Series

[Spark Of Spirit]

IGN review - 7.6

For reference they gave the original version a 3.

[Spark Of Spirit]

GamesRadar comparison video

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, basically Team Ninja used the XBOX360 and PS3 versions of the game as a glorified beta-test for the actual game they were releasing, which itself was a mediocre NG experience that didn't really strive to do anything more than the previous 2 games. Pretty much what I expected.

As per usual, I'm just more interested to see if Team Ninja can make up for NG3 by making NG4 a great game rather than just re-releasing NG3 and fixing up some of its numerous problems.

One thing that has always bugged me is how a lot of people just assume that people didn't like NG3 for taking out enemy dismemberment and toning down the difficulty (to which they use the argument that the game still has higher difficulty modes). Any fan of the 3D NG games could point out to you that fans of the series don't love it for the hyper-violence (I myself am indifferent to the violence for the most part, honestly). If you play the games, you'd know that dismemberment (at least in NG2, as it wasn't present in NG1 and I don't know how it works in this game) is an actual gameplay mechanic that isn't just for the visuals. It has its own strategic uses in taking down certain enemies and effects enemy AI, by making some enemy types for aggressive when they are dismembered while others become severely weakened and limited by it, yet hold some potentially more dangerous attacks if you are careless around them. To put it simply, the main thing that pissed fans off about NG3 was its utter lack of depth and soul. The game has no substance to it, on top of stripping away almost all of the content that previous games offered. Normal mode just rewarded players for mashing on buttons, while the harder difficulties completely missed the point of what fans liked about the challenge of the previous games. The challenge came from fighting tons of enemies in arena like environments and having to deal with tons of projectile spam (even more often than in NG2), which is NOT good challenge. Its just simply not fun and feels tedious. The previous games, mainly NGB/S, took the time and care, which most developers have given up on in the modern age of gaming, to really craft terrific higher difficulty modes that increased the level of difficulty without sacrificing the genuine fun of the game at its core. Stronger enemies were introduced in earlier levels in the game on harder difficulties and some completely new enemies appeared altogether, ensuring that you didn't know exactly what to expect around each corner. The game also took the time and care to change up the locations of where you find certain weapons and items, replaced the usual items you found in treasure chests with different ones (usually they would be inferior on harder difficulties, but sometimes they could throw you for a loop with even better items than what are usually there, or you could be surprised by a bunch of bats or ghost fish popping out of a chest that used to contain a healing item), ensuring that you couldn't just rely on memorization to know what you were going to get. I could list a plethora of other things that the previous games got right in the difficulty department, but suffice it to say that when I say Ninja Gaiden Black is my personal favorite game of all time, that's really taking Very Hard and Master Ninja modes into account as IMO those are the intended ways to play the game.

At any rate, I am genuinely glad to see that Team Ninja is at least moving away from all of the bull-crap they were trying to push in the original release of NG3, but when NG4 comes out, I want to see an NG game that really capitalizes on and pushes forward the series' strengths, rather than just try to be satisfactory by merely fulfilling the normal status quo.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's still the weakest NG game, but at least with this they seemed to fix everything wrong with it short of level design and level progression. If they learned this much, hopefully they can apply it to a brand new game in the future as every single thing they changed "for the better" was everything they ended up going back on in this remake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's still the weakest NG game, but at least with this they seemed to fix everything wrong with it short of level design and level progression. If they learned this much, hopefully they can apply it to a brand new game in the future as every single thing they changed "for the better" was everything they ended up going back on in this remake.

Actually, this version DOES have level progression (I'm assuming that you're referring to being able to level up your weapons). Pitifully enough, though, it still has less weapons than either of the first 2 games, and absolutely none of them are new.

I do have hope that Team Ninja can salvage this series and make it great again with future installments, but I hope that they don't rely so heavily on recycling material from past games. A lot of this extra content is STILL just re-rendered stuff that was already in previous games. I mean, I love NGB, but if I want to fight Alma or Doku, I'll play that game. I shouldn't have to be fighting those exact same bosses as extra content in this the 3rd game as well. Its funny that even 4 years after Itagaki's departure from Tecmo, Team Ninja is STILL cribbing heavily off of content from the NG games that he directed.

[Foggle]

Status quo NG is still better than shit like DmC, at least. And we need more games like Ninja Gaiden anyway, even if they are merely "good", since that genre is painfully underrepresented.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I certainly agree to some extent, but as a fan of the series its understandable that I along with others would want this series to stand out as being truly great once again. Back when NGB came out, it really blew a lot of people away, especially since it was at a time when fair challenge in a game was considered a good thing, as reflected by the overwhelmingly positive reviews at the time from critics (its kind of hard to believe these days that a game like NGB could be so critically acclaimed, but that's back at a time when gaming journalism still made sense). Its one of those games that has that magical quality of smoothness to it that most other games can only strive for. The moment I first started playing the game, everything felt perfect, from the simple and sensible controls to Ryu's wide arsenal of moves and how he could use his acrobatics to interact with and traverse his environment. The enemy design was also great with smart enemies being featured for this type of game and with plenty of variety to go around in terms of weapon variety and different enemy types, ensuring that the game never felt monotonous. There was also a healthy amount of mini-puzzle solving elements thrown in with some more Zelda-esque style exploration (albeit on a suitably light scale as this was still mostly an action game). Something about the game's general chemistry just worked perfectly for it, or at least for me and many devoted fans of the title.

When I think about it, 3D NG was at its best when it wasn't just about combat. I mean, the combat was amazing and it was still the driving force of what made the gameplay so great, but the first game also had, IMO, brilliant level design and much more well thought-out boss fights. I feel like even with NG2, which I still loved, the series had sort of forgotten that it had more to offer than just stellar combat, and sadly with NG3 the 3D NG games are just associated by the masses as being glorified gore-fests that are supposed to be hard (except for NG3 which made it easy). As a testament to NGB's greatness, it had only a little bit of blood, no gore (no dismemberment aside from the occasional head being lopped off), and in general had a very tame level of violence, even for its time. Yet, its still by far the best game in the series (even if we're bringing the classic 2D NG games into the mix), and it still holds up for many as one of the greatest action/adventure games ever made, hack n' slash or otherwise. While I think that NG2 is a great (but flawed) game, its hardly the best in its class like NGB, and NG3 is just a sad former self of what the series was at its peak.

So, I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I want the series to hit a peak again. Fans have been waiting for a true sequel that capitalizes on all of what made NGB such a great and memorable game to play, and that doesn't just include the combat. Blood and gore is all fine and dandy, and I really like the dismemberment system as a gameplay mechanic, but I just want to see Team Ninja make an effort to really try and make the best NG game in the series, rather than just try to make one that does stuff that previous games have already accomplished in order to make a quick buck from the loyal fan-base. Doing the latter will make for a satisfactory experience, but not for a great one.

[Spark Of Spirit]

When I said "level progression" I was thinking more along the lines of story progression which effect events, encounters, and bosses, but I didn't mean the actual story (which is irrelevant, really) just how the game progresses through levels. I just don't know what the proper term for that is. 

Also, I too would like the series to bring back more adventure elements that Black had. 2 was fun, but I would have preferred more things to do than combat.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, its worth noting that 2 was supposed to have more adventure elements and such but Team Ninja was focusing on perfecting the enhanced combat system first. The main problem with the game's development is that it had to be rushed out the door due to Itagaki's abrupt departure from Tecmo. In that regard, they had spent most of their time perfecting the new combat system (which is still to this day one of the best in the genre, IMO), but they clearly didn't get enough time to balance out the enemies and bosses and make more interesting level designs, hence we got a much more linear and far less polished NG experience, one which I have still learned to love and appreciate on its own merits, but one that also pales in comparison to its predecessor. To me NGB is still the gold standard for how to make a proper 3D NG game. Ninja Gaiden II on the NES is the gold standard for the classic games, IMO.

[Foggle]

RUMOR: Team Ninja Dog is bringing the Razor's Edge version of Ninja Gaiden 3 to Xbox 360 and PS3... for full retail price!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=501797

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If that happens, then I'll essentially just get the game when it comes down to around $20 in price, which shouldn't take too long.

[gunswordfist]

GamesRadar comparison video

Annndddd that's like the 2nd footage of a Wii-U game I've ever seen. I love comparison videos.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z has been revealed as a next-gen console title. Its also apparently a shooter....

[Rynnec]

So Gamefly just shipped my copy of Razor's Edge today, so I should be getting it in a few days. I'lll be sure to tell you my thoughts on the game once I get it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of Ninja Gaiden, have you tried the 2nd one yet? Its overall not as good a game as the first one, IMO (despite the improved combat, which IS saying a lot given how great it already was in the first game), but its still a worthy successor to it. I know that you don't have an XBOX360 but for what its worth while I do find Sigma 2 to be the overall inferior version of the game from a hardcore fan's standpoint (it is the better game, however, from a technical standpoint which is why it got better reception from critics), its not like Hayashi completely butchered the game, and the core of what makes it great is still mostly present, IMO. The lack of blood really isn't an issue, though fundamentally the way the game may feel can be quite different from the XBOX360 version, in which hacking off limbs happens at a less frequent rate than in the 360 version, which could be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask, since it is actually a game mechanic and not just used for flash effect.

My main gripe with the game is really more about how it handles its harder difficulties, which shouldn't be a problem. I criticized the original release of the game for its Master Ninja mode and how that relied a bit too heavily on some annoying enemy tactics that forced you to only follow one monotonous strategy in many situations in order to play it safe. Sigma tried to change things up with how it handled the difficulty to make it less frustrating but still just as challenging, and its solution was a radically different kind of difficulty that IMO is even worse than NG2's take on it. With Sigma, rather than worrying about stuff like projectile spam, you instead have to worry about 1-hit kills, which the original version of the game (to its credit) never resorted to. Sigma 2 does give you less enemies on screen at once for the most part, so it is doable, but from what I've played of it I just don't like the feeling of doing exceptionally good through a fight only to be completely screwed over by just one mistake (or sometimes you don't even make a mistake and get killed anyways because of occasionally bad hit detection).

Like I said, though, none of that really even matters if you don't play the harder difficulties of NG, anyways. My other gripe, though, is that Mentor mode, the most satisfyingly challenging yet mostly balanced mode from the original version of the game is made way too easy in Sigma 2, so you get the feeling that there was room for another difficulty in-between Mentor and Master Ninja in that game.

To Sigma 2's credit, though, it does offer up more content than the original game, and while it does sacrifice a lot of what made the challenge in the first game fun, it also rarely ever sinks to the lows of the most terrible points in that game, and generally removes all of the more frustrating elements that it had, the most notable of which being entirely replacing the end boss fight from Chapter 9, which I HATED in the original version of the game. Sure the new one is pretty generic and kind of bland, but I'll easily take it over the cheap, infuriating "pieces" of shit that we got for the end-stage boss fight of that chapter in the original version of the game.