Ninja Gaiden II, Bloody hard and just plain bloody
So on Friday I finally got a chance to break open my copy on Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox 360. I was drop dead sick on Thursday but felt well enough by Friday to leave the house to pick up my copy at Game Stop. For those of you that have never played a Ninja Gaiden game before you play as Ryu Hayabusa of the Dragon clan. Ryu's clan has been entrusted with guarding an ancient artifact and as the game starts (similar to the first Ninja Gaiden on Xbox) the village is under attack by the Spider clan to get said artifact.
The game really is boiled down to one heck of a bloody ninja v. ninja fighting with some non-human monsters to spice things up a bit. This is by far the bloodiest game I've ever played, taking a Kill Bill approach to violence. You will be dismembering enemies, beheading them and occasionally cutting them in half. Bringing the gore up a notch, the attackers that lose an arm or leg won't just die, they'll keep coming after you! After an encounter with several attackers you'll see body parts lying around all over the place.
The one thing most people took away from the first Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was that it's hard. Ok, hard is an understatement. It's frick'en crazy hard. It was too hard for me to complete back then. I still have not played the entire original game because I got stuck on some boss that was hard to beat. Well this version for the 360 comes with some nice changes to make the game more "accessible." Now there are four difficulty levels and the upper two can only be unlocked after completing the game on the next lower difficulty. Your health bar will now regenerate a portion of the health lost in a battle as well. Both of these should make the game easier right? Well not exactly.
I'm currently playing on the easiest level and have gotten to the point I had to stop playing out of frustration. If anything the game ends up being fairly doable when progressing through the level. It's when you hit those famous boss battles that everything goes fubar. The first two boss battles were actually tame and I didn't die in the first one. The two boss battles in chapter 2 were a different story. The mid-boss was so tough I thought he was the main boss. I died several times until I figured out how to kill him and avoid him by jumping around. The boss at the end of chapter 2 was almost impossible for me to beat. I spent several attempts on this guy and until I got the timing right I was finally able to beat him. I avoided his big attacks and just spent the rest of the fight blocking and countering. It' unbelievable how hard he was to kill.
The boss that truly takes the cake so far has to be the iron fish at the end of chapter 3. He killed me left and right until I watched in Insiders Moves segment on how to beat this boss. It was like night and day, I beat him on my first attempt after watching that clip. This really does to show there is only one way to beat a boss in Ninja Gaiden II and if you don't pick that one you are screwed.
I'm now on Chapter 5 and felt the boss battles on chapter 4 were much easier and fairer that the previous boss battles. Considering the difficulty level I'm playing at I find it hard to believe anyone not seriously hardcore can make any progress in this game. The boss battles are just too difficult for a casual gamer to handle. The casual gamer will just give up after losing the same fight ten times in a row. Only a hardcore gamer is neurotic enough to hunt online for how to beat a boss in a game.
Now asides from the general difficulty of the game there are other issues that need to be mentioned. The camera system is absolutely horrible and will end up getting Ryu seriously hurt or killed. Often it will put the attackers off camera but in range of hitting you. I tend to think the issue it that you do not have the ability to target an enemy like you do in Devil May Cry 4. By locking on to an attacker you can center the camera on the enemy you wish to kill. This helps a lot in a fast paced action game. Another feature that Devil May Cry 4 has that Ninja Gaiden does not is when you kill one enemy, the camera centers on the next best one to attack. Often this one is preparing to attack you so it makes sense you want to see what it's up to. By not having these features it ends up forcing you to correct the camera while fighting which normally means you are in control of too many things to have a fun experience.
Now I have not gotten too far in Ninja Gaiden so I'm only judging the first four chapters of the game but so far the graphics are very lack luster considering what Team Ninja* (developers for Ninja Gaiden II) has been able to do in the past. The first mission in Tokyo looked ok I felt but the missions in New York and Hayabusa village were drab and looked like they were ported over from the first Xbox game. Considering this team created the one of the best looking launch 360 games (DOA4) it's hard to believe they couldn't improve the graphics in their game engine in 2+ years. The New York levels reminded me of Bullet Witch. Hopefully the upcoming levels will look better.
If there is one thing Team Ninja does know very well is action. The pace of action so far is perfect with no peaks and valleys but just a steady flow. You do have time to look around for items but this can be done quick and you will be on your way to your next encounter. Really the combat in the chapters is very fun once you've mastered some moves. As I can attest if this games wasn't fun I would have broken that game disk by now.
You really need have an open mind and have your eyes open to what you will experience in Ninja Gaiden II to have an enjoyable experience. This game is simply too hard for most casual gamers. This game will kick you in the month till you get the scenario correct the way they want you to attempt it. Once you do the game will open up to you and you will have a blast. I just hope you don't break a controller it a fit of frustration. I know I've been tempted to see what the insides of my 360 game pad look like after a defeat at the hands of a cheap boss. Ninja Gaiden has that effect on people, they love the game but still at times want to bust that game that keeps kicking them in the teeth.
*Note on team Ninja:
Legendary Japanese game developer, Tomonobu Itagaki , has announced he is leaving Team Ninja and is suing it's parent company over deflamatory remarks make by the CEO and for back payment on bonus owed. I fell it's safe to say His heart was not fully committed to this project and the quality of the game has suffered. The game feels rushed and would have had better success being a fall 2008 release.
The game really is boiled down to one heck of a bloody ninja v. ninja fighting with some non-human monsters to spice things up a bit. This is by far the bloodiest game I've ever played, taking a Kill Bill approach to violence. You will be dismembering enemies, beheading them and occasionally cutting them in half. Bringing the gore up a notch, the attackers that lose an arm or leg won't just die, they'll keep coming after you! After an encounter with several attackers you'll see body parts lying around all over the place.
The one thing most people took away from the first Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was that it's hard. Ok, hard is an understatement. It's frick'en crazy hard. It was too hard for me to complete back then. I still have not played the entire original game because I got stuck on some boss that was hard to beat. Well this version for the 360 comes with some nice changes to make the game more "accessible." Now there are four difficulty levels and the upper two can only be unlocked after completing the game on the next lower difficulty. Your health bar will now regenerate a portion of the health lost in a battle as well. Both of these should make the game easier right? Well not exactly.
I'm currently playing on the easiest level and have gotten to the point I had to stop playing out of frustration. If anything the game ends up being fairly doable when progressing through the level. It's when you hit those famous boss battles that everything goes fubar. The first two boss battles were actually tame and I didn't die in the first one. The two boss battles in chapter 2 were a different story. The mid-boss was so tough I thought he was the main boss. I died several times until I figured out how to kill him and avoid him by jumping around. The boss at the end of chapter 2 was almost impossible for me to beat. I spent several attempts on this guy and until I got the timing right I was finally able to beat him. I avoided his big attacks and just spent the rest of the fight blocking and countering. It' unbelievable how hard he was to kill.
The boss that truly takes the cake so far has to be the iron fish at the end of chapter 3. He killed me left and right until I watched in Insiders Moves segment on how to beat this boss. It was like night and day, I beat him on my first attempt after watching that clip. This really does to show there is only one way to beat a boss in Ninja Gaiden II and if you don't pick that one you are screwed.
I'm now on Chapter 5 and felt the boss battles on chapter 4 were much easier and fairer that the previous boss battles. Considering the difficulty level I'm playing at I find it hard to believe anyone not seriously hardcore can make any progress in this game. The boss battles are just too difficult for a casual gamer to handle. The casual gamer will just give up after losing the same fight ten times in a row. Only a hardcore gamer is neurotic enough to hunt online for how to beat a boss in a game.
Now asides from the general difficulty of the game there are other issues that need to be mentioned. The camera system is absolutely horrible and will end up getting Ryu seriously hurt or killed. Often it will put the attackers off camera but in range of hitting you. I tend to think the issue it that you do not have the ability to target an enemy like you do in Devil May Cry 4. By locking on to an attacker you can center the camera on the enemy you wish to kill. This helps a lot in a fast paced action game. Another feature that Devil May Cry 4 has that Ninja Gaiden does not is when you kill one enemy, the camera centers on the next best one to attack. Often this one is preparing to attack you so it makes sense you want to see what it's up to. By not having these features it ends up forcing you to correct the camera while fighting which normally means you are in control of too many things to have a fun experience.
Now I have not gotten too far in Ninja Gaiden so I'm only judging the first four chapters of the game but so far the graphics are very lack luster considering what Team Ninja* (developers for Ninja Gaiden II) has been able to do in the past. The first mission in Tokyo looked ok I felt but the missions in New York and Hayabusa village were drab and looked like they were ported over from the first Xbox game. Considering this team created the one of the best looking launch 360 games (DOA4) it's hard to believe they couldn't improve the graphics in their game engine in 2+ years. The New York levels reminded me of Bullet Witch. Hopefully the upcoming levels will look better.
If there is one thing Team Ninja does know very well is action. The pace of action so far is perfect with no peaks and valleys but just a steady flow. You do have time to look around for items but this can be done quick and you will be on your way to your next encounter. Really the combat in the chapters is very fun once you've mastered some moves. As I can attest if this games wasn't fun I would have broken that game disk by now.
You really need have an open mind and have your eyes open to what you will experience in Ninja Gaiden II to have an enjoyable experience. This game is simply too hard for most casual gamers. This game will kick you in the month till you get the scenario correct the way they want you to attempt it. Once you do the game will open up to you and you will have a blast. I just hope you don't break a controller it a fit of frustration. I know I've been tempted to see what the insides of my 360 game pad look like after a defeat at the hands of a cheap boss. Ninja Gaiden has that effect on people, they love the game but still at times want to bust that game that keeps kicking them in the teeth.
*Note on team Ninja:
Legendary Japanese game developer, Tomonobu Itagaki , has announced he is leaving Team Ninja and is suing it's parent company over deflamatory remarks make by the CEO and for back payment on bonus owed. I fell it's safe to say His heart was not fully committed to this project and the quality of the game has suffered. The game feels rushed and would have had better success being a fall 2008 release.
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