Ninja Gaiden Series

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ninja Gaiden/Black (2004/2005/XBOX)

So, for those of you unacquainted with the franchise, you may notice a peculiar 12-year gap between the last Ninja Gaiden game and this one. That's because, for the longest time, the series suddenly just disappeared (very much like a ninja ). Attempts were made to make new games. There was a game in development for the Genesis which never saw the light of day, though a ROM of the unfinished Beta version has been leaked online for years. And then came the 64-bit era, where quite frankly, 2D games weren't usually as profitable, and Tecmo couldn't find a developer who could figure out how to translate the classic 2D franchise successfully into the 3D realm. So, an entire generation (arguably 2) went by without a new Ninja Gaiden game.

Enter in then Tecmo newbie Tomonobu Itagaki. He got his start in the company by working as an assistant programmer on the sports game Tecmo Bowl, and as I understand, was mentored by one of the senior programmers of the NES NG games. It wasn't until the mid-90's when he moved his way far up enough in the dying company to finally be given charge of directing a brand new IP of his own. He decided to make a fighting game called Dead or Alive, in reference to how this one game could decide the fate of the nearly bankrupt publisher, and using his hand-picked development team which would eventually come to be known as Team Ninja, they made a brand new fighting game series that was quite successful in Japanese arcades, and even managed to do well overseas, at the time. What does this have to do with Ninja Gaiden? Well, admittedly not much, except for the fact that, as an homage and tribute to the series, Itagaki saw fit to include Ryu Hayabusa as a playable character in these games, managing to barely keep the Ninja Gaiden legacy alive during its long hiatus.

Then, in 1999, while still in the development process of Dead or Alive 2, Itagaki along with Team Ninja had conceived the idea to make a new character action game for the Sega Dreamcast, a system which Itagaki rightfully loved for its top-of-the-line specs (at the time) and excellent controller which was ideal for the type of game that he wanted to make. This was actually never originally thought up as a Ninja Gaiden game, with Itagaki claiming that the higher-ups at Tecmo asked him to make it a new Ninja Gaiden game since the character of Ryu Hayabusa was still fairly recognizable and somewhat popular thanks to his inclusions in the DOA games. Itagaki complied, and thus we entered into a new era of Ninja Gaiden games.

In this case, since development of DOA2 was still underway, they didn't really get too much into the development process of this game until after DOA2's release, at which point the Dreamcast was failing and soon after halted production completely. Because of this, it was decided that development for the game would be geared toward the PS2, until Itagaki got his chance to try an XBOX dev kit, and instantly fell in love with it, partly because its design reminded him quite a bit about the Dreamcast, and also because the system was flat-out more powerful than the PS2 or GC, and he favored the console that he could make the better game on, rather than the one that would get him more sales.

Finally, the game was released on the XBOX in 2004, to unanimous critical acclaim. Quite frankly, this game had very little in common with the NES games, to the dismay of many classic NG fans. It did have the 3D interpretation of some of its classic elements, including stuff like the windmill shuriken and Ryu Hayabusa's Dragon Sword and platforming techniques, but other than that, it was a completely different type of game. Rather than an action platformer, it was a straight-up character action game, in the vein of Devil May Cry. And the haters can say what they want, but this was for the best. Unlike Contra, Castlevania, Mega Man, DKC, and so many other classic 2D franchises that didn't translate well into 3D, Ninja Gaiden instead took a different approach and instead was a game that was designed to fit a gameplay style that worked extremely well in 3D. What's the point of calling it Ninja Gaiden, then? Because even with all of these differences, it retained the spirit of Ninja Gaiden in its purest form. It was brutally difficult, but fair. It was super responsive with good controls and excellent pacing, but it still required a learning curve. And it had the trademark nonsensical story of the older games, but at the end of the day, the heart was still there in the gameplay.

Not only is this the best 3D Ninja Gaiden game to date, but it's the best NG game period, IMO. Despite Itagaki's denial, it does clearly take much influence from the original DMC, but the enemy design of the game is just as brilliant, with incredibly well-designed AI that is still unrivaled in the genre to this day. The combat was also (and still is) some of the most satisfying around, with this being one of the first games to force you to think just as much about how to play defensively as offensively. Button mashers were quickly punished, but those who learned the ropes were treated to an excellent combat system that, while not quite as deep as later action games like DMC 3/4 and Bayonetta, held its own against any of them through incredible nuance, responsive controls, and unparalleled action when it came to the actual fluidity of combat, which quite frankly no game has done better than this one, to date.

Rather than a level-to-level straightforward experience, we had more labyrinth like dungeon-style levels, much like in a Zelda game, with careful thought put into making it fun to explore, but easy to navigate so as not to offset the action elements of the game. There were chests in which you could find items, new weapons, or be treated to deadly bats depending on what chest you opened and what difficulty you were playing on. And that's ingenious. To date, no other game has done harder difficulties as well as NGB, in which you are introduced to completely brand new enemies that you never even encountered before on the lower difficulties, harder enemies appear much earlier on in the game, and the contents of chests and location of certain weapons has been completely swapped around to make each experience with the game feel completely different from the last, all the way up to Master Ninja mode. Speaking of which, as a testament to how well-designed and fair this game is, several people have managed to clear this game on that mode without taking any damage at all. Now you just flat-out can't bitch and moan and whine about a game's difficulty when it's possible to get that good at it through practice and skill.

As if that's not enough, this game was also remarkably ahead of its time in one regard you wouldn't expect: additional online content for console games, otherwise known as downloadable content, or DLC. Yep, an entire generation before this became such a common thing, and while this was already a common practice for PC games, Ninja Gaiden was one of the first games on consoles to expand the experience through additional downloads that enhanced the experience, and they were completely FREE, no less. We got 2 Hurricane Packs, which among other things, added new enemies to the game, as well as gave us the addition of Ryu's now famous Lunar Staff, one of the best weapons in the series.

Then Ninja Gaiden Black was released a year later, including most of the Hurricane Pack content, and way more than that, with an entirely new Mission Mode that skyrocketed the replay value of this game so high that it's insane. I could go on and on about how amazing this title is, but suffice it to say that it's clearly my favorite Ninja Gaiden game, AND my favorite video game of all time for a reason. I don't see anything dethroning it for a long time to come, in my eyes.


Ninja Gaiden Sigma (2007/PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita)

This was a retooled version of Ninja Gaiden Black, with updated HD graphics and certain level structure and enemy changes for the PS3, as well as a new playable character and even a new weapon for Ryu. The project was not overseen by Itagaki, but instead headed by his protege, Yosuke Hayashi....I won't bother saying much about the guy, but he'll definitely have an influence on the series later on....and not for the better. At any rate, while several of this game's changes and additions actually make the game come off as inferior to the XBOX version in the opinions of most fans, the fact that it's still based on that game makes it excellent by default, and to its credit, it had several little touches that would prove to be great gameplay additions and appear in later games. Among these, the game allowed Ryu to now fire his bow from mid-air, which made some frustrating segments from the earlier versions of the game now feel much more manageable, and the game also added in the Dragon's Claw and Tiger's Fan, otherwise known as the dual katanas, which would also show up in future installments of the series.


Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (2008/Nintendo DS)

This was a side-project that Itagaki and Hayashi both oversaw, and was meant to whet the appetite of fans eagerly anticipating NG2 later that year. Unfortunately, despite good reviews from critics, the game sold poorly, and to date is one of the most overlooked and underrated games that I have ever played. While not necessarily as great as the best games in the franchise, Dragon Sword was a completely unique experience that took full advantage of the DS's hardware and made for something that was fun form beginning to end. Rather than just using buttons, you controlled Ryu with the stylus, and used a combination of physical attacks and magic to progress through the game, killing enemies and solving puzzles. It's a fun game for what it is, and probably deserved a bit more attention than it got, but I'm just glad that it exists and that I got the chance to play it. It may not be for everyone, but as a Ninja Gaiden game, it's definitely a worthy entry in the franchise.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ninja Gaiden II (2008/XBOX 360)

I've already covered this game in detail on my most anticipated games list, so I won't say too much more over here. That said, yes, this was my most anticipated game of all time, and in some regards it can be seen as a letdown, while in other ways it's still a great game, just with numerous flaws holding it back from being as great as it should've been. You see, Itagaki was about done with Tecmo at the time, and this was the last game that he directed for them before he quit the company and sued them over unpaid bonuses that were promised to him. So, as a consequence, this game had to be rushed to meet a release deadline, and wasn't pushed back like his usual releases, meaning that he didn't have the time to fine-tun and polish the game to near perfection like usual, which meant that it had numerous balance issues, and in general felt unfinished.

Despite all of this, the game was still great, and generally well-received by critics, and whether people love it or hate it, most people unanimously agree that it succeeded in one area in particular: the combat. Everything that was great about the combat in the first game was even better here. Once again, rather than try to be as insanely deep as DMC 3/4, this game instead took a more accessible approach, but still made the combat extremely nuanced and skill-based for more hardcore players who really wanted to get good at the game, and implemented a new OT system that made this what I consider to be the best and most satisfying combat system of all time, for any game that I have ever played. Unfortunately....just about everything else in the game felt like a step back from the previous title, including some really annoying enemies and bosses, though most were pretty well-designed, though not nearly as well as in the first game. Additionally, while aesthetically pleasing, the level design was more linear rather than the interesting Zelda-like levels from the first game, which also didn't bode well with me, even though I still enjoyed most of the levels. Overall, the strengths outweighed the weaknesses with this one, but there's no doubt that it could've been better had it had the proper amount of time that it needed to be tuned into its full potential. Sadly, in the one chance that our good old friend Yosuke Hayashi had to do that after Itagaki's departure from Tecmo and Team Ninja, he didn't exactly deliver. Speaking of which....


Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2/Plus (2009/PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita)

Trust me, whereas the first Sigma had plenty of changes, this game was a complete overhaul of NG2, and quite frankly feels almost entirely like a different game. On the plus side, it added a lot of new content, including a mission mode, and for the first time ever in the series, co-operative multiplayer (albeit with a crappy net-code, making for some serious lag during certain sessions). Most notably, the blood and violence had been almost completely removed, but putting that aside, the way the game's mechanics worked were also botched to some degree. On the one hand, if you're one of the few whining pricks who hated the OT system, then this game sort of appeased you because it made it much harder to dismember enemies than before, though it was still a prominent feature in the game. That said, some people may enjoy that if they like more free-style combos and don't want to finish enemies off too quickly and efficiently, but quite frankly that's never what NG's combat was about to begin with. Also, enemy placements were completely changed, and some new bosses were added to the game, with some levels in particular feeling flat-out unrecognizable from their NG2 counterpart. In the case of NG2's Chapter 11 (which is NGS2's Chapter 14), the entire level was butchered, but it's only fair to mention that some of the worst NG2 levels were actually changed for the better (albeit not by much), including NG2's Chapter 9, Heart of Darkness, which was the worst level in the entire game, and was actually made a lot less frustrating and a lot more streamlined in Sigma 2, including with the change in the boss fights for that level. On its own, it's actually a really good and well above average character action game with excellent combat and tons of content and replay value. That said, compared to NG2, it does feel like they really just tried to make a different game, as opposed to fixing what was wrong with NG2 and helping it reach its true full potential, so in that regard, many fans, including myself, are disappointed in it and consider it to be a huge missed opportunity on Team Ninja's part.


Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012/XBOX 360/PlayStation 3)

And we finally come to this piece of shit. As the first game that Yosuke Hayashi directed from the ground up on his own, it's an utter failure. Quite frankly it's not all his fault. No doubt KoeiTecmo (this was the first new NG game released after the company merger) mandated that this game try to be more modern to appeal to a wider demographic of gamers, and they also wanted to take a note from Capcom and other big publishers by holding back content and trying to make more money on paid DLC. And, of course, multiplayer. That's exactly what a series that was always one of the premiere single-player action gaming experiences needed.

In all seriousness, I'm past being angry at this game. I accept that it's a thing, and I just choose not to really let it phase me anymore. I can't help but always be at least a little saddened by it, though. For one thing, it TRIES to convince us that this time we have a Ninja Gaiden game with a story worth telling, but whereas every other game in the series was charming at least in how cheesy and campy the stories were, this one is just as nonsensical and convoluted with the extra detractor of taking itself way too seriously for its own good, making it come off as self-indulgent and just flat-out cringe-worthy (That "Will you be my daddy?" part makes me want to hurl every time that I see it). So, what went wrong with this game?

Well, I could talk about how stupid the decisions were from the beginning, like limiting your arsenal to just one weapon, in a series that was known for having such a wide variety of different weapons. I could mention how making it button-masher friendly killed the fun for veteran players who wanted a fun challenge with plenty of combat options at their disposal. Maybe it might be how the game flat-out left out the OT system from the previous game and instead dumbed down the combat and killed combo potential with randomly generated Steel on Bone attacks which were just disgusting quick time events where you slowly sawed through an enemy's bones and organs. Perhaps I should talk about how the game abandoned its trademark difficulty in order for an easier experience, and instead gave us fake difficulty on the harder difficulty settings by throwing insanely large enemy gauntlets at us and making it so that one or two cheaply placed attacks could kill you, and unlike in previous games, you couldn't hold an inventory of healing items to wisely manage throughout your battles. But, no, those are merely features, and this game went horribly wrong in one particular way that explains how all of those things even happened in the first place.

Put simply, KoeiTecmo and Team Ninja betrayed the ideals and concepts of what made the NG franchise what it was. They made a game that was ashamed of its old-school roots and history, and ashamed of the fans who had supported it for so long. What we got was a game with a crappy story and just as crappy gameplay to complement it, in that they had even taken away the one thing that NG games had always gotten right since their inception: responsive controls. Deaths no longer felt fair in the slightest, and even when you were winning, you weren't really having fun. It made Ryu Hayabusa into as big of an ass-hole character as Kratos, just in the name of trying to make him a Dark Hero because they thought that somehow that made the game more mature and appealing. This game is just mediocre at best, and flat-out bad when it's anything less than its best. It may not technically be a terrible game, but more than anything, it just feels tedious and boring, which should never be used to describe a Ninja Gaiden game. Definitely pass on this one.


Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (2012/Wii U/XBOX 360/PlayStation 3)

Now, I'll give Team Ninja credit where it's due. They tried. They REALLY tried. They realized that NG3 was a failure, and they know they fucked up, so they tried to make up for it by completely overhauling the game even more than they overhauled the Sigma games. There is tons more content than ever before, tons of weapons added back in, new playable characters, over 100 playable co-op missions, the same shitty multiplayer except with more maps, and increased difficulty so that you can't button mash your way to victory. And yet, remember what I said in the previous entry. The real problem, rather than talking about all of the features and smaller details, was that when you look at the bigger picture, NG3 was a game that fundamentally, at its core, betrayed what the series was. When you have a game like that, it doesn't matter how much you add to it. You can't fix what already lacked the foundation to build anything off of in the first place. Is the game better with all these additions? Technically, yes. But it's better in the same way that adding ice-cream, whipped cream, and a cherry on top of a giant bowl of turd is better than just a giant bowl of turd by itself. That turd is still going to be there, and it's still going to taste like shit when you eat it.

I will say that the game did one solitary thing right, and that is how it changed the SoB mechanic from being a gross QTE that activated at random to being a calculated grab counter that added to the game's strategy. I hate grab moves in these games, and for a game like this to make it something that you can skillfully counter into an instant kill move is surprisingly brilliant. If just one thing from this game were to return in NG4 (if that game even happens), I would want it to be this. Other than that, this game can also be skipped.


Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (2014/XBOX 360/PlayStation 3)

**Sigh**....And it gets worse. Finally we come to this game. The most recent game released under the official title of "Ninja Gaiden," and I won't beat around the bush here. It doesn't deserve it. It deserves it even less than Ninja Gaiden 3 does, and that's saying something. The very little that I've tried of it is very telling, and everything that I've heard about it, whether it be from critics or actual fans of Ninja Gaiden, is completely and rightfully negative. Whereas NG3 was a game that betrayed what the franchise was all about, this is a game that flat-out doesn't understand it.

I'm so disappointed in Team Ninja for even allowing this game to happen. I'm disappointed in Keiji Inafune and Comcept for being the ones to propose this game in the first place, yet take no responsibility for developing it themselves, and in that regard Inafune has completely disrespected the NG franchise and its fan base, which seriously almost makes me want to flat-out not play Mighty No. 9 just to spite him, but I know that's meaningless and that the game will probably be good because HE AND HIS TEAM ARE ACTUALLY DEVELOPING IT. Just don't attach your name to a project that you really have absolutely nothing to do with. No, instead this game was outsourced to Spark Unlimited, a team who had not only never made a game even remotely close to the hack n' slash or action platformer genre, but who's highest crowning achievement to date is Lost Planet 3....just take that in for a second. Their best reviewed game is one that got mostly mediocre reception from critics and gamers, and was the third game in a series that was already mostly considered a failure since its second installment. Why a developer of that....caliber would be trusted with one of the most iconic (or previously most iconic) series in gaming history is beyond me, but it happened, and as predicted the game completely misses the point of what a Ninja Gaiden game is. Beyond that, it's just a flat-out bad game. The controls are bad, the difficulty is cheap, and the design is ugly. The humor is low-brow, which normally I actually kind of like in videogames, but over here it's just flat-out not funny. The game just sucks, plain and simple, and is a sour note to leave off on, so hopefully this isn't the last NG game that we ever get, and the series can redeem itself in the future. I'm not keeping my hopes up, though.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my comprehensive thoughts and analysis of the Ninja Gaiden franchise. Despite the hiccups that it's had in recent years, I still consider it to be one of my all time favorite video game series, and hopefully the pre-NG3 entries can help highlight why I love it so much. It's sad to see that the series has been all but forgotten by most modern gamers, and it's not what it once was in that regard. It truly does deserve more attention, or at least the older games do, and while the recent entries have hampered its reputation, I'm hoping that one day it can earn back its status as a seal of videogame quality.

[Avaitor]

Whoa, that was awesome to read! But I mean, it's NG, so I'm not surprised that you nailed it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks!

I had been writing that in bits and pieces during my spare time over the past couple of days.

I just wish that the series was more well respected than it currently is. Thanks to a few bad games, it seems to have almost become a complete joke among general gamers, but looking at the series as a whole, there is still way more good than bad, IMO.

[Foggle]

Good posts!

Ninja Gaiden Shadow is kind of fun, but not really worth playing. It's an okay time waster at best and a mediocre version of the NES titles at worst. There really isn't much good or bad to say about it.

Sigma is weird because it has just as many improvements as it does downgrades. Like, it's almost literally split down the middle: half of the additions to the game are for the better, but the other half are for the worse. It's generally my go-to version of the game at this point, though, since I actually own it on a disc unlike Black, and I have this weird thing about retail copies of games.

This may be getting off-topic a bit, but apparently Hideki Kamiya doesn't think too highly of Inafune (I believe he said something to the extent of, "he's a businessman, not a game designer"). Apparently Inafune's made a lot of bad decisions and enemies in the industry over the years, including pushing for Clover to be shut down.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Good posts!

Thanks!

Ninja Gaiden Shadow is kind of fun, but not really worth playing. It's an okay time waster at best and a mediocre version of the NES titles at worst. There really isn't much good or bad to say about it

That's about as much as I expected, but since I'm a Ninja Gaiden fan and the game is incredibly short, I don't see the harm in playing it just to say that I did.

Sigma is weird because it has just as many improvements as it does downgrades. Like, it's almost literally split down the middle: half of the additions to the game are for the better, but the other half are for the worse. It's generally my go-to version of the game at this point, though, since I actually own it on a disc unlike Black, and I have this weird thing about retail copies of games.

I think it's a solid port/re-release. It's just that I don't care for most of the additions and level structure changes, though like I said, some of them did improve the gameplay for the better, even if not by much.

This may be getting off-topic a bit, but apparently Hideki Kamiya doesn't think too highly of Inafune (I believe he said something to the extent of, "he's a businessman, not a game designer"). Apparently Inafune's made a lot of bad decisions and enemies in the industry over the years, including pushing for Clover to be shut down.

Well, it wouldn't be the first thing that he doesn't think too highly of.

But, yeah, despite being a great creator in his own right (and I would call him a game designer, myself), there is still some truth to that part about him being a business man, as well, and as we've clearly seen, he's not incapable of making bad decisions.

[gunswordfist]

that gb ng sounds good. i didn't know the reboot was originally for dreamcast. lastly, doom changes the location of some of its items but i don't think to the extent the good 3d ninja gaidens do.

[Spark Of Spirit]

For NG3, you should have used a screen of one of those soldiers begging for their life. Talk about misunderstanding basic concepts.

Good job on the posts. Ninja Gaiden was a pretty good series with a fairly spotless track record... until recently. The worst part about the Comcept game is that had Inafune given it to Inticreates, you would have basically got a Ninja Gaiden IV on par with the NES games. Those guys are the current reigning kings of sidescrolling action platformers in Japan.

But, nope. We get Spark Unlimited. Talk about a waste of everyone's time.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks!

Maybe I'll make that picture swap later on.

And yeah, I'm so disappointed that Inafune just lazily slapped a zombie concept one Ninja Gaiden (cuz zombies are kewl nowz, durrrrr.....), when he could've contracted a more talented developer to do something more interesting with the franchise.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, recently a petition has been going around to bring the Ninja Gaiden series over to Steam. While I doubt that anything will come of it, I think that it would be amazing to have the first 2 games on the PC. The things that a good modding community could do with them would be so interesting, and especially the 2nd game could benefit from a port since they could fix the frame rate issues and have it consistently running at 60 FPS with all of the blood, gore, and dismemberment intact. They could also get rid of some annoying glitches and remove some crappy enemy encounters and boss fights from the game, but unfortunately that would be asking too much from KoeiTecmo, who apparently don't know the first thing about how to make a good game anymore.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

http://mobile.siliconera.com/all/2014-12-02-tomonobu-itagaki-dead-alive-5-daughter-totally-ruined#2

Now, to be fair, I would have much rather had him say this about NG3, since that game actually hurt me a lot, whereas the general DOA fan community actually really seems to like DOA5, overall. That said, it's so refreshing to see classic Itagaki after so many years, doing what he does best: insulting and trashing any games that weren't made by him.

[gunswordfist]

no wonder him and kamiya get along so well.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Coming from a Polygon interview with Hideo Yoshizawa, director of 1988's Ninja Gaiden...

"Mr. Yoshizawa was great at enemy placement and pacing. I was always impressed by that. But unfortunately, the game's difficulty was too hard, even for the development team. So during the bug-checking process, team members were basically crying while trying to get through the game."

If they would have removed the birds and had more checkpoints the game would have been pretty close to perfect.

[gunswordfist]

i like getting into the zone in that game. it doesn't stop me from getting my butt kicked at certain parts though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Reading the interview, it helps hint at what I've always suspected: that Kato's script was heavily interfered with in NG3, seeing as how Hayashi was obsessively fixated on his theme for the game, limiting what Kato could work with. The dude wrote Chronno Trigger, so he can write good stories, but clearly he was half-assing NG3 for a paycheck, because he had no enthusiasm for such a half-assed game. That said, the one thing that he mentioned which I did appreciate in that game was all of the subtle little references and nods to the classic NES games, all of which I did notice on my first and only playthrough of it.