How you were introduced to Ninja Gaiden, and when did you start playing?

[RH_Stealth]

If you have a special... or not-so special story about how you were introduced to NG, what is it? I'll tell you mine. It's a bit lengthy.

I was born in '96. Ninja Gaiden Black was released in 2005... so I was pretty young when it came out. I don't know if I was "exposed" to NGB in 2005, or if it was a year or two later, but either way, I was still young.

My dad had a friend who lived in Japan and he came to visit one day. They stayed up pretty late into the night. I woke up in the middle of the night and came downstairs, seeing my dad's friend playing Ninja Gaiden Black. I don't know if it was by what I saw that made me come to this conclusion, or if I was told it, but I figured out that the game was damn hard. I barely remember any gameplay I saw. But I do remember one thing. I'll get to that later.

That was technically the first time I'd seen the game, but I didn't play it. When I was a kid, there'd be video game magazines in the backseat for me and my brother to read/look at. OXM, Playstation magazines, whatever. I think I remember one of them having a picture of Ryu fighting... Alma in the Monastery? I think that was it. So there's another little thing. I was interested enough in NG to look at that.

I'm not sure if I eventually got a Ninja Gaiden game at my house as a kid. If so, I don't really remember.

Now, fast forward allllllllllll the way to May 7th, 2013 (checked my download history for that date). On that day, I downloaded the Ninja Gaiden 2 playable demo on my Xbox. I don't need to tell you that I enjoyed it, because later that day I also downloaded the Ninja Gaiden 3 playable demo. I was hooked.

My brother had been making regular trips to the closest game store -- buying mostly old games that we used to have. I asked him to buy Ninja Gaiden 2 and Ninja Gaiden Black for me. (I'd researched and found out that NGB was surely better than vanilla NG). I told him I'd pay him back.

The next time he went, he came back with just Ninja Gaiden 2. Said the place didn't have NGB.
So, Ninja Gaiden 2 was the first Ninja Gaiden game I truly played.

After that, it happened fast. Not too long after I beat Ninja Gaiden 2 for the first time (which was on Acolyte, of course...) I searched the Xbox Live Marketplace and saw that Ninja Gaiden Black was available to download for $10.

Yeah, I bought it.

Annnnd a little while later, I downloaded Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. That was on December 3rd, 2013.

Oh, the one thing I remembered from the first time I saw Ninja Gaiden Black? The streets of Tairon. Right when I arrived in Tairon, when I played NGB in 2013, I remember it instantly. Pretty nice moment.

 

[Intelligent Alpha]

DOA for me when they included Kasumi, but I do more than CC as Kasumi, too! I have RE, btw! The difficulty is no joke even when utilizing the exploits! I'm on Day 7 - Hard in story mode! Trying to complete CC (Normal) with Kasumi (Day 8). Not to mention the grindfest that is with the cheevos - especially the unknown ninja ones!

 

[Fiend Busa]

Around somewhere in the 2004/2005 era I remember playing the original NG demo at a store and was amazed and terrified at how big Murai HP bar was LOL

Fast forward to 2007, I was at a local mom and pop gameshop. I saw NG vanilla on the shelf and was like, "Hey I remember that from before!" Picked it up for like $12 and man I fell in love

Fast forward a few months later and totally addicted to NG I found out there was a new version called NGBlack. I just had to have it! Begged my parents forever for it and finally got it for $20. Got home and the game kept telling me to clean the disc when it tried loading the first chapter >.<. Though luckily gamestop had another copy. I was so excited to try out the lunar, I used to have dreams of using it when I only had the vanilla version.

I think I quit NGB around 2009/2010 and picked up NGS2 in 2012. That's when I got back into NG, rest is history lol.

Hate to say it but NGRE has become my favorite game surpassing NGB D:

 

[Intelligent Alpha]

How's the difficulty compare? I've been hearing the NGB was very difficult. Of course, they ramped it up for RE, too?

 

[RH_Stealth]

That's when I got back into NG, rest is history lol.

Yes, now you're a masochist -- playing NGRE on Ultimate Ninja without using exploit-ish tactics. Hell, just Day 1 on Master Ninja was destroying me yesterday, although I never thought I'd be good enough to feel like I could even try an MN playthrough...

 

[Fiend Busa]

How's the difficulty compare? I've been hearing the NGB was very difficult. Of course, they ramped it up for RE, too?

well from my experience in percentage wise NGRE is 20% "hard" and 80% bullshit if that makes any sense. Like most deaths don't come from the game being hard but from the game cheating you.

But still to give an answer, NGRE is much harder than NGB. NGB is nothing compared to NGRE IMO

NGB you were basically god like if you held the block button but not in NGRE. Almost every enemy has a couple of moves that break your guard and follow up with a very quick attack, a lot of chip damaging moves that damage you even if you block, and unblockable moves (not talking about grabs)

 

[RH_Stealth]

well from my experience in percentage wise NGRE is 20% "hard" and 80% bullshit if that makes any sense. Like most deaths don't come from the game being hard but from the game cheating you.

But still to give an answer, NGRE is much harder than NGB. NGB is nothing compared to NGRE IMO

I so understand that 80% bullshit part. You have to resort to ass tactics to win because the enemies just say NOPE to pretty much everything except for the 360 Scythe attack lmao.

I don't know if I'd say NGRE is harder than NGB... but I haven't played on the hardest difficulties. I had the... "courage" to start NGRE on MN, but I'm hesitant to start NGB on Very Hard...

Hold up... I saw you edited your first post... NGRE better than NGB? Hell nawwwww I didn't even start with NGB and I like it the best! =P (But seriously, whatever, you like what you like. *shrug*)

 

[Intelligent Alpha]

@ Fiend Busa: Shit Easy or Bullshit Hard - that seems to be the two settings for TN games! XD

Btw, RE has Hero Mode (Normal, auto-block @ low-health. Can't believe I wasted a playthrough! *sigh*) Well, the "Guard Breaking" shouldn't surprise you! *Ahem*

@RH_Stealth: You can test Master and Ultimate via the trials! That shit is no joke!! I barely got through one trial on each! (And these are just the minions - the bosses - they shame and shit on
)

Did I mention the grind-fest? Survival in Vanilla pales in comparison - and I mean PALES! *SMDH*

 

[NinjaRayMan]

I got Ninja Gaiden 3 for the NES on my 7th birthday. I played the shit out of that game for years and never beat it until I got the NES trilogy on the SNES in college (because there were save points)
I bought a Xbox in 2004 for the sole reason of playing Ninja Gaiden after i saw this commercial:

I've bought every NG day one since and my man cave is Ninja Gaiden themed (I'll post pictures if anybody cares)
Lookin forward to a stellar NG 4 !

Cool fact: I have the same birthday as Ryu Hayabusa, June 15.

 

[J.D.E.]

I was really really young when I got into NG. I'm talking way back in the NES days when I watched my pops play it. Then when I got old enough to play, I started playing & haven't put it down. I was around like 3 to 5 years old I wanna say.

 

[deathofaninja]

My first experience was with the originals, but I didn't care for them. A lot of people loved them, and complained about the difficulty, but I thought games back then were pretty much always hard.

 

[Intelligent Alpha]

My first experience was with the originals, but I didn't care for them. A lot of people loved them, and complained about the difficulty, but I thought games back then were pretty much always hard.

Until the Vanilla version of III; thus, RE! (Complaints here, too) XD

 

[CyberEvil]

I don't consider the original trilogy part of the new series of games (the Ninja Gaiden name was actually added after Tecmo reportedly begged Itagaki to make it a part of the franchise). My first introduction, then, came from the Official Xbox Magazine demo disc which was the first publicly available demo for the game. I had been keeping up on trailers for the title and to this day still remember content from those trailers that was never included in the final version. Look around and you'll find the old trailers include some scenes and areas from the Military Base that weren't included. The trailer hidden on Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball includes the footage I'm talking about if you can dig that up.

Anyway.

I was enthralled by the game immediately, though the demo was not particularly difficult for me at any point. The highest available difficulty was Hard and Murai was rather handily defeated. I must've played that demo dozens of times prior to launch and I got the game the day it released. Before Ninja Gaiden's release I was never a huge difficulty guy. I played on Normal and that was that. I likely played through the game several times before ever bumping up to Very Hard. After that, the hooks dug in and I dove into making the game my bitch. I do admit to being killed by the first ninja encounter on MN. Was not expecting the damage they could do and messed around too much and paid for it.

I had beaten MN several times before the first Hurricane Pack released, introducing Intercept (you guys missed out on this broken ability if you started with Black or later titles) and the Lunar. Intercept enabled God mode, no question. I was one of the first ten people or so to complete Hurricane Pack 2 but didn't score highly enough to win the competition. By the time I realized you could manipulate the karma system to get additional points (not a thing I had done up to that point and the internet wasn't as good a resource back then) it was too late.

Black released not long after that and like all NG titles then and now I had it day one. I rushed through to Hard just to fight the mimic and wasn't disappointed. It felt like fighting another person at times and was easily the most thrilling thing in a NG title. I'm not sure I consider it matched by anything in subsequent games. My crowning achievement in gaming happened after months of practicing and mastering the game: I achieved a no damage run on Master Ninja in NGB. I learned which fights I could avoid, learned which paths I could run on walls to avoid damaging floors or enemy encounters (particularly useful in later chapters) and employed every trick I knew to avoid damage in boss encounters. I almost flubbed it against Dark Murai at the very end with a mistimed wind run that had me very nearly eating an attack but I recovered by the skin of my teeth. I wish streaming was a thing back then.

Ninja Gaiden 2 had me buying my first HDTV (monitor, techically) just to play it at its best. I did play the demo first like most people. Loved the game, hated the UT chaining garbage that most people used to cheapen higher difficulties, and overall found the game to be solid but not as good as NGB. Not much else to say about NG2 other than the fact that the introduction of the OT was brilliant and I disliked the linear stage progression after the hub world style of the first games. The projectile spam was bullshit but not as terrible as some make it out to be. It was manageable to me.

Ninja Gaiden 3 was an abomination. I played the demo build at DID7 (I believe it was 7) and straight up warned Hayashi, in person, that things needed to change. I listed out several mechanics that I knew people would hate. I went home and wrote a massive post about my problems with the build that went up on NinjaFortress. I was VERY worried about the game and those worries turned out to be well-placed. The game we got was a travesty, albeit one with excellent music, art, and a few solid ideas thrown in like Steel on Bone (thankfully improved upon in RE). The less said about this game the better. Doubly true of the multiplayer (not co-op).

Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge was a MASSIVE improvement. I genuinely consider this my second favorite iteration of the franchise, second only to NGB. Ultimate Ninja was and still is complete bullshit and could not have been playtested at all however the changes made elevated the game to a degree I didn't think possible. The sheer amount of content by the time of the 360 and PS3 release was staggering, the changes to the mechanics were smart and well-implemented (SoB particularly), and the multiplayer was...well, that was still throwaway. The additional co-op missions that were added were mostly fun but the boss AI was not intended for multiple players and it shows. Through exploits and gaming the AI you can make the UN missions doable but without messing with the AI or spawn patterns they are not possible. I consider getting all achievements in this title my second best accomplishment in gaming.

Guess we'll see what's next to continue the story.

 

[Nameless Sama]

My first Xbox Game was Ninja Gaiden Black. So I met Ninja Gaiden and couldnt believe how awesome this game was and even today I play this awesome game. I really miss the time where you played games with a lot of unlockable things and a lot of content.

 

[Malth]

Hate to say it but NGRE has become my favorite game surpassing NGB D:

Wow, better than NG2? Care to elaborate?

 

[CyberEvil]

Wow, better than NG2? Care to elaborate?

NG2 is considered by most to be behind NGB so all he was saying is that NG3RE surpassed Black. NG2 is where it belongs. I would have had it at second as well had RE not been so much better than 3.

 

[Radiance]

I was introduced to NG through DOA, which is a bit different for most people. The first Ninja Gaiden I played I believe was NGS2

 

[Malth]

NG2 is considered by most to be behind NGB so all he was saying is that NG3RE surpassed Black. NG2 is where it belongs. I would have had it at second as well had RE not been so much better than 3.

I respectfully disagree. My personal favorite is NGII. I think the combat is way more smooth than NG3RE, and a bit faster than NGB (but not as fast as RE admittedly). NGII also feels a lot more polished than RE. The only thing I think RE does better unabashedly is have more content than NGII, and even NGB(Trials, Co-op, CC, etc.).

I read an interview where Itagaki said(about NGII) ~ "this is the definitive version of Ninja Gaiden", as far as he was concerned. TBH, Fiend Busa is the only person I've ever heard say NG3RE was his favorite! Cheers

 

[CyberEvil]

I respectfully disagree. My personal favorite is NGII. I think the combat is way more smooth than NG3RE, and a bit faster than NGB (but not as fast as RE admittedly). NGII also feels a lot more polished than RE. The only thing I think RE does better unabashedly is have more content than NGII, and even NGB(Trials, Co-op, CC, etc.).

I read an interview where Itagaki said(about NGII) ~ "this is the definitive version of Ninja Gaiden", as far as he was concerned. TBH, Fiend Busa is the only person I've ever heard say NG3RE was his favorite! Cheers

You disagree that most people think Black is better than 2? It's an opinion and a popular one. Not much to disagree with there. Had I said that NGB is superior in every way to NG2 I could see some disagreement. Odd statement.

For a little extra information, though, NG2 was rushed out the gate. It had a sub-720p resolution which was unheard of at the time for a AAA title, unstable framerate (leading to the most epic slowdown of all time on The Stairs), weaker overall package until the paid DLC adding extra modes arrived (and when those did show up, they came packing completely broken achievements which pissed me off at launch), and a completely linear progression system for the stages which most would agree is a step back from the hub-based NG/B. Don't get me wrong, I loved the hell out of the game but it is definitely a weaker package overall than Black. If it weren't for the inclusion of the OT I might have even disliked the game. Pretty much the saving grace for me.

 

[Malth]

You disagree that most people think Black is better than 2? It's an opinion and a popular one. Not much to disagree with there. Had I said that NGB is superior in every way to NG2 I could see some disagreement. Odd statement.

For a little extra information, though, NG2 was rushed out the gate. It had a sub-720p resolution which was unheard of at the time for a AAA title, unstable framerate (leading to the most epic slowdown of all time on The Stairs), weaker overall package until the paid DLC adding extra modes arrived (and when those did show up, they came packing completely broken achievements which pissed me off at launch), and a completely linear progression system for the stages which most would agree is a step back from the hub-based NG/B. Don't get me wrong, I loved the hell out of the game but it is definitely a weaker package overall than Black. If it weren't for the inclusion of the OT I might have even disliked the game. Pretty much the saving grace for me.

Yeah, I know that most fans think NGB is 'better' than NGII, but I personally enjoyed NGII more. The pace of the combat, the onscreen chaos (explosions, etc.) is quite a spectacle! Do you think NG3RE is 'better' than NGII? Cheers