Ninja Gaiden Thread

[RoboJoe]

Yo CyberEvil, how's the a.i. compared to previous games? I ask because I heard the a.i. got somewhat "Koei-fied". If you've ever played a Dynasty Warriors game, you know what I mean. The a.i. there just stands around and wants for you to kill it only attacking if you fall asleep at the controller. Hayashi reminds me of a snake and I don't trust him with the series so I've got to know how the most important aspect turned out.

 

[CyberEvil]

I wasn't calling anyone in particular out. I'm just sick and very irritable at the moment. Well, for like the last four days at least. Probably picked it up at NEC. Don't mind me. Except for when I have a point.

RoboJoe, it feels quite similar to the base game except enemies are slightly more aggressive. I think some folks are talking the improvement up top much to be honest. You can still OL 360Y/Triangle/Wii U button nearly every enemy in the game and ignore strategy. The new weapons actually make the game even easier, uptick in aggression or not too.

Being a Warriors fan, it's nowhere near that bad.

 

[RoboJoe]

Thanks for the response, but I didn't play the base game and was actually wondering how the a.i. stacks up to NG1 and NG2.

 

[CyberEvil]

Oh...in that case the Warriors analogy isn't terribly far off lol. In direct comparison to the old games, especially the first, the enemies might as well be standing still. On higher difficulties they compensate with higher damage output per normal but that's about it.

 

[Chaos]

No they just didn't fix the actual problems with the core gameplay. Removing most of the kunai climbs? Those were new to 3 anyway and were just a terrible idea. Same with the ropes. Removing the slow mo parts? Same shit. How about fixing the fact that I effectively stun myself by attacking. You're telling me Ryu can't pull a slash to dodge all of a sudden? How about fixing the battles so they don't feel like arena matches? The AI being awful doesn't help anything.

Listening to reviews can only get you so far. I could give reasons for days about why RE didn't actually improve and weeks on why 3 itself was an awful Ninja Gaiden. There just isn't a point. I want to help steer the franchise back on course, not publicly attack it. NG isn't dead. The team just needs to realize why the hardcore among us loved it and the casuals still bought it. Ninja Gaiden and Black sold very well and satisfied everyone. The second also sold well despite some missteps. It went down from there largely due to a ridiculous iterative approach where stuff was added or removed but nothing was fixed or improved. Think about it. It's true.

Im extremely upset to see one of my favorite franchise turn into a pile of shit......its so depressing.

 

[P1naatt1ke1tt0]

Did anyone else find NG3 Master Ninja difficulty infernal? I'm a Master Ninja (c) in both NG Black and NG2 but I couldn't touch NG3 on master ninja.

 

[CyberEvil]

It was poorly designed but easier in my opinion. Depends on the approach you decided to take.

 

[P1naatt1ke1tt0]

It was poorly designed but easier in my opinion. Depends on the approach you decided to take.

I never studied the mechanics of NG games, so I really didn't have any tactics going in... I remember the agile, Arabian like enemies (with mouths covered) were too much for me, they keep grabbing you for like 50% damage.

 

[Brute]

I'm honestly surprised you guys even mustered the ambition to play Master Ninja. After playing it once on Hard mode, I felt like I had enough of that game to last a lifetime.

 

[Chaos]

I only played NG3 less than 8 minutes, than after that it was boring.

 

[CyberEvil]

I never studied the mechanics of NG games, so I really didn't have any tactics going in... I remember the agile, Arabian like enemies (with mouths covered) were too much for me, they keep grabbing you for like 50% damage.

Most enemies in the game, those included, could be one shotted with On Landing 360+Y/Triangle into Izuna. You had to play like an idiot to win at higher levels. That's why most of us didn't bother. I was writing the Achievement Guide for it at x360a though. Plus it's just something I need to do on NG titles. Always have to beat MN.

 

[Ghosty-J]

I don't know about you guys, but I pretty much had Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 down to a T. But Vanilla Ninja Gaiden 3 on Hard was such a frustrating ordeal. And I couldn't even FINISH Master Ninja on Stage 3. Ever since I've been too scared to touch Ultimate Ninja, so I don't know what's so easy about this game's AI other than the dummy Musou-tier AI in Normal Mode. The alchemists and Hokuto no Ken Colonel knockoffs can go suck it, hardcore.

 

[Brute]

I'm far from a "master" (Cyber's no dmg run on MN in Black is a bit beyond my capacity), but I am rather competent in NG 1 and 2. I was much less so in NG3 on Hard. My assumption is that it either has to do with the limited options, or simply the fact that I lack the drive to improve in it because I don't care. I had an easier time going through Master Ninja in Black and Sigma 2 than Hard in NG3. I'd still say I had a tougher time in vanilla NGII's MN mode than NG3's hard, though (largely due to my refusal to use any items through 80 or so % of the game, and my dedication to trying to beat the Tests of Valor with similar item use practices).

 

[Chaos]

Shit...I couldn't even beat the 1st stage on Hard difficulty (NG black) lol.

 

[CyberEvil]

Anybody who was able to beat MN on Black and didn't skip nearly every skippable encounter has my respect. Beating 3 on MN was me being stubborn and I felt next to no sense of accomplishment. It's all abusing OL360Y, anything with i-frames, and spamming UT as soon as you get it with few exceptions (like alchemists in a final wave). The worst part was the necessity of jump-shotting everything when you were close to death. Beating that made me feel like a coward and I still resent the game for it.

 

[Skilletor]

Here's a vid of Momiji. The sound is off. Something must've happened in the upload.

Ayane.

 

[Ghosty-J]

I'm far from a "master" (Cyber's no dmg run on MN in Black is a bit beyond my capacity), but I am rather competent in NG 1 and 2. I was much less so in NG3 on Hard. My assumption is that it either has to do with the limited options, or simply the fact that I lack the drive to improve in it because I don't care. I had an easier time going through Master Ninja in Black and Sigma 2 than Hard in NG3. I'd still say I had a tougher time in vanilla NGII's MN mode than NG3's hard, though (largely due to my refusal to use any items through 80 or so % of the game, and my dedication to trying to beat the Tests of Valor with similar item use practices).

For me, it's two reasons:

1) The limited options due to the heavily butchered gameplay mechanics. The biggest offender of them all being the removal of Dodge Canceling in favor of the lesser reflex-reliant Shuriken Cancel. I'm much more content with stopping my combos midway by dodging like I used to as I played through NG1 and NG2/S2 ( regrettably missed out on Black and Sigma 1 ). The need for Shuriken Canceling just makes moving around worse if anything.

2) The health of the enemies. Just, WTH man!? Sometimes I end up OHKOing my targets with little effort, and other times I'm like whaling 20 hits on them just to get them bleeding for an Obliteration Technique finisher. It's as if killing off my targets is based on random chance, leaving PURE LUCK on whether or not the schmo dies within the current hit or the next. That, and a few moves with a high chance of killing specific types of targets that would usually take a freaking generation to beat (Example for Alchemist: *running*YYXY-Izuna-). It does not help a single bit there are 50-something opponents at one wave every ten steps you take through a stage. Even the older iterations were more lenient about this. In Vanilla NG3, it's just repetitive, annoying, and a huge test of patience. I'm a very patient person, but there came a point where I actually said "Screw this, I'm gonna go play my Jak and Daxter HD Collection and drop this trash." I'm not sure how waves come and go in Razor's Edge, but I'm hoping it's not as annoying as this >_<;

OH YES, I ALMOST FORGOT!
3) The counter system is ridiculously useless in this game. Sweet Jee Wizz....

 

[Mesharey]

She's too fast. :O

 

[CyberEvil]

I'll have to admit they did a damn fine job making Kasumi look fun to play. Later enemies don't react to most attacks, though, so I'd imagine she'd have a real problem fighting against the gorillas in particular. Also curious as to how her teleports affect the game engine. It'll be fun to mess around and see where she becomes invincible and start breaking the game with it if she wasn't balanced properly. She seems to be able to teleport relatively quickly in strings.

 

[Zeo]

Now all we need is Hayate and the crew will be complete. Here's hoping for the full cast in NGS3 or NG4. As long as they don't outshine Ryu. But he's always been the coolest ninja of the 4 so that probably won't happen.