In an industry that continues to blindly chase accessibility, I can't help but appreciate a game that unabashedly tells you to play "its way." Funny to imagine a game as acclaimed as this coming out today and being regarded as "dated" for being like it is. We no longer accept games that simply want us to play "their way," because "some people can't play that way!" Even funnier seeing the medium doggedly pursuing the status of "real art" even though they keep compromising it for the sake of appealing to all audiences. You know, even when the game is a violent action title. Ninja Gaiden Black hasn't endured in the same way that other action games have for a reason. Maybe "the game's way" is too hard, maybe the checkpoints are too far apart, maybe it doesn't have a manual lock-on feature. But it wants you to play "its way" for a reason. Too many checkpoints may trivialize certain encounters or make them blend together. Some encounters are intense battles which would be made far less threatening and engaging if they had the same stakes as a casual brawl while exploring an exciting new area.
This is just one example of Ninja Gaiden Black teaching you to play "its way." Once you've begun playing "its way," you become one with the systems. Every attack is punishing so dodging them is always satisfying. There aren't rigid attack windows, you must dynamically react to every enemy to begin your ultra-crunchy violent massacres. You need to be committed to your decisions, every move has weight and can determine whether you live or die, but everything is so quick that the amount of possible decisions is never compromised. The game becomes a simple matter of reacting and attacking, pushed forward by a perfectly paced campaign through an intriguing world with the best visuals of the entire generation. It becomes almost hypnotic...
This is just one example of Ninja Gaiden Black teaching you to play "its way." Once you've begun playing "its way," you become one with the systems. Every attack is punishing so dodging them is always satisfying. There aren't rigid attack windows, you must dynamically react to every enemy to begin your ultra-crunchy violent massacres. You need to be committed to your decisions, every move has weight and can determine whether you live or die, but everything is so quick that the amount of possible decisions is never compromised. The game becomes a simple matter of reacting and attacking, pushed forward by a perfectly paced campaign through an intriguing world with the best visuals of the entire generation. It becomes almost hypnotic...
the simultaneous success of dmc1 and failure of dmc2 put a variety of studios in an interesting position of "who could develop the next essential character action title," and team ninja really capitalized on the opportunity to try to take the crown. this became apparent to me during the game's beefy runtime considering just how different it is than today's CAGs in terms of structure and focus. in many ways ninja gaiden '04 (and by extension black) is a bold attempt at the 3D action-adventure game that sits as a bit of an evolutionary dead-end as CAGs have become increasingly combat-focused.
much of this can be seen in parallels between ninja gaiden and devil may cry 3, which released just a year after the former. dmc3 still retains some of the resident evil-derived exploration and interconnected world of its predecessors, but really pushes towards a focus on flashy and dynamic combat at every turn. ninja gaiden instead truly leaned into the scenario design that dmc1 played around with. instead of focusing on a single castle awkwardly chopped up into different missions, ninja gaiden generally focuses each chapter on a completely different area of the map, serving as mini-dungeons with their own puzzles, unique hazards, enemy types. as the game comes to a close these areas become more and more entwined, but the level segmentation is tremendously well-planned, and it clears up much ambiguity over what key items work where and how to progress the story. thanks to helpful notes from ayane, objectives are explained to the player, and if you pay any attention to the various locks around the game world it's easy to keep track of where to go. this kind of simple exploration really does wonders to vary the pace and avoid the trap of "I just did combat arenas for an hour straight and it's all memory-sludge in my head."
on the contrary, each scenario sticks out so precisely in my head that it's a wonder they came up with so many excellent ideas. taking down the airship by destroying the main generators and slaughtering a cyborg on the roof while flying through a storm, descending into the crypt and rising back up to place the chalice at the altar only to fight a giant skeleton monster and watch it crash to the bottom, where the floor has collapsed into a egyptian-tinged den of traps, the half-ice half-magma section where you switch between sides in order to eventually relight a furnace; hell, they nailed a 40-minute underwater section that serves as a great breather between non-stop action otherwise. unlike devil may cry, ninja gaiden manages to entirely switch its mood and playstyle on a dime when it wants to and surprise the player with some new idea at every turn. the variety kept me going "one more save point" over and over again where most CAGs generally lose me at 60/90 minute sessions, which is a credit to how itagaki and the team understood how to perfectly scale the intensity of an adventure over a 16 hour runtime.
of course, with so many great ideas thrown into the mix, there's bound to be some bad ones, and unfortunately there are some major clunkers to be found here. the entire military base raid for one is suffocating both in how the enemy forces exclusively use firearms which stagger the battle pacing and how there are not one but three different vehicular bosses in this section, all of which necessitate use of the clunky OOT-style first-person bow aiming controls. another particular sore point for me near the end of the game was the dreadful phantom pirahna labyrinth, where the game explicitly tells you to spam your flail light attack to avoid needing to mash out of their bite grab that bleeds your health as more and more leech onto you. the fact that these fish will blip into existence as others die really ratchets up the frustration during these sections, which frankly I died to the most during the last two chapters of the game (and ghost doku lmao). smaller puzzles and platforming sections will likely jolt you as the game wears on much as they did me, and it occasionally requires taking a break and coming back to it another time when the brutality of failure in one of these less-than-fair sections becomes too heavy.
thankfully overall I found the rest of the game surprisingly fair. given that ryu's powerful ultimate technique attack harnesses "essence" drops from enemies (colored orb drops shamelessly cribbed from dmc), currency and health drops are exceedingly frequent, and you will have an abundance of currency and health at any point in the game so long as you balance your UT usage. health consumables are also in fair supply, and the smaller variety are rather cheap at the in-game store; I virtually always bought a full set without significantly denting my essence reserves. save points are smartly placed in high foot-traffic locations and replaying sections will rarely take more than a few minutes as long as you diligently save. this latter point is frequently harped upon as a major problem with the game, and I have to assume people bothered by it are simply not used to having to replay sections of games at all; the devs thankfully didn't force us to restart the mission entirely as in dmc1 or pre-SE dmc3, and the backtracking necessary in most levels makes frequently passing by save points common. on that note: I never found the lack of lock-on frustrating given that ryu's soft lock-on is intelligent and don't really see a need for it in a game without firearms anyway. rarely did I whiff without it being completely my fault, and if you're blocking and countering frequently you should already be lined up with your foe.
I've neglected to discuss the combat given that I wanted to highlight less-discussed elements of the game, but yes, the combat is phenomenal. another aspect of this game's odd branch off of dmc1 is its more traditional and less combo-focused combat that instead favors rapid decision-making and opponent reads. it's not surprising to me that this was developed by a fighting game studio, because the combat first-and-foremost reminded me of something like tekken. in those games I am frequently weaving around opponents, waiting for openings, and then seizing on split-second encounters to score a juicy launcher and deal the bulk of my damage. here it's the same, removed from the one-to-one paradigm to instead wider groups of enemies all vying to attack you at once. izuna drop was my bread-and-butter and securing that light attack (or simply whiffing and catching them with the launcher) was my prize. much like a fighting game enemies will punish you for repetition of simple maneuvers or grab you out of a block frequently, and thus staying instinctual and reactive during combat is a must. it's free-flowing and easy to come up with new links or surprise enders given ryu's strong moveset and stable of weaponry, and while I primarily stuck to dragon sword during my playthrough, I still felt like I was discovering new things and improving the more I played.
a few minor quibbles about the combat (mainly controls) that I would like to bring up however: for one, the density of different button combinations and the amount of contextual ones meant that it occasionally felt like a crapshoot on what would actually come out at any given time. flying swallow was a particularly noticeable one for me, as I didn't really nail down its use until I started incorporating the homing jump into my play, and even afterwards it was a bit dodgy even when I was clearly pointing towards an opponent. incorporating the platforming moves in also never came naturally to me, especially since ryu's wall-run can be spotty on whether it will go vertical or horizontal, and the battle camera further aggravates that. in general I would say ryu's platforming is a little slippery: for 2004/5 it's excellent and an improvement on dmc1's stiff movement and a contemporary like sands of time's rigid traversal system, but it definitely shows its age and results in some unneeded frustration.
bosses are also mostly good, but not particularly ambitious in terms of movesets of fight setup. larger bosses mostly boil down to typical [look to the windup -> dodge the move -> spam an attack for a bit] flowcharts that leave a bit to be desired, especially for bosses like the dragon where I felt like I was mainly just chipping away with the windmill shuriken. humanoid bosses tend to suffer from ryu being too fast and dynamic and the boss needing to stay somewhat calm in order to be fair and predictable, and thus to balance it away from ryu's favor there's a lot of indeterminate blocking that I found annoying and perplexing. using two flying swallows back to back with one clinking off and one hitting makes little sense, and it ruins some of the immersion of trying to figure out the fight when it feels like random chance and not taking advantage of openings. none of them are particularly bad though (except the tanks/copters), and all of them are absolutely manageable or even a little easier than you would expect given the notorious difficulty of the game. the endgame fight where you float on a chunk of rock was also way better than the space harrier section of dmc1, so major props to team ninja there.
there's so much to discuss with this game, and I'm not sure I can even accurately give an opinion given that I've only done a normal playthrough and will likely not go for a hard run anytime in the near future (that's just not how I play games unfortunately). there's so much more content waiting for me when I get back, and hopefully I will given how much this game has imprinted on my brain. equally invigorating, anxiety-inducing, thrilling, and frustrating in all the best of ways.
much of this can be seen in parallels between ninja gaiden and devil may cry 3, which released just a year after the former. dmc3 still retains some of the resident evil-derived exploration and interconnected world of its predecessors, but really pushes towards a focus on flashy and dynamic combat at every turn. ninja gaiden instead truly leaned into the scenario design that dmc1 played around with. instead of focusing on a single castle awkwardly chopped up into different missions, ninja gaiden generally focuses each chapter on a completely different area of the map, serving as mini-dungeons with their own puzzles, unique hazards, enemy types. as the game comes to a close these areas become more and more entwined, but the level segmentation is tremendously well-planned, and it clears up much ambiguity over what key items work where and how to progress the story. thanks to helpful notes from ayane, objectives are explained to the player, and if you pay any attention to the various locks around the game world it's easy to keep track of where to go. this kind of simple exploration really does wonders to vary the pace and avoid the trap of "I just did combat arenas for an hour straight and it's all memory-sludge in my head."
on the contrary, each scenario sticks out so precisely in my head that it's a wonder they came up with so many excellent ideas. taking down the airship by destroying the main generators and slaughtering a cyborg on the roof while flying through a storm, descending into the crypt and rising back up to place the chalice at the altar only to fight a giant skeleton monster and watch it crash to the bottom, where the floor has collapsed into a egyptian-tinged den of traps, the half-ice half-magma section where you switch between sides in order to eventually relight a furnace; hell, they nailed a 40-minute underwater section that serves as a great breather between non-stop action otherwise. unlike devil may cry, ninja gaiden manages to entirely switch its mood and playstyle on a dime when it wants to and surprise the player with some new idea at every turn. the variety kept me going "one more save point" over and over again where most CAGs generally lose me at 60/90 minute sessions, which is a credit to how itagaki and the team understood how to perfectly scale the intensity of an adventure over a 16 hour runtime.
of course, with so many great ideas thrown into the mix, there's bound to be some bad ones, and unfortunately there are some major clunkers to be found here. the entire military base raid for one is suffocating both in how the enemy forces exclusively use firearms which stagger the battle pacing and how there are not one but three different vehicular bosses in this section, all of which necessitate use of the clunky OOT-style first-person bow aiming controls. another particular sore point for me near the end of the game was the dreadful phantom pirahna labyrinth, where the game explicitly tells you to spam your flail light attack to avoid needing to mash out of their bite grab that bleeds your health as more and more leech onto you. the fact that these fish will blip into existence as others die really ratchets up the frustration during these sections, which frankly I died to the most during the last two chapters of the game (and ghost doku lmao). smaller puzzles and platforming sections will likely jolt you as the game wears on much as they did me, and it occasionally requires taking a break and coming back to it another time when the brutality of failure in one of these less-than-fair sections becomes too heavy.
thankfully overall I found the rest of the game surprisingly fair. given that ryu's powerful ultimate technique attack harnesses "essence" drops from enemies (colored orb drops shamelessly cribbed from dmc), currency and health drops are exceedingly frequent, and you will have an abundance of currency and health at any point in the game so long as you balance your UT usage. health consumables are also in fair supply, and the smaller variety are rather cheap at the in-game store; I virtually always bought a full set without significantly denting my essence reserves. save points are smartly placed in high foot-traffic locations and replaying sections will rarely take more than a few minutes as long as you diligently save. this latter point is frequently harped upon as a major problem with the game, and I have to assume people bothered by it are simply not used to having to replay sections of games at all; the devs thankfully didn't force us to restart the mission entirely as in dmc1 or pre-SE dmc3, and the backtracking necessary in most levels makes frequently passing by save points common. on that note: I never found the lack of lock-on frustrating given that ryu's soft lock-on is intelligent and don't really see a need for it in a game without firearms anyway. rarely did I whiff without it being completely my fault, and if you're blocking and countering frequently you should already be lined up with your foe.
I've neglected to discuss the combat given that I wanted to highlight less-discussed elements of the game, but yes, the combat is phenomenal. another aspect of this game's odd branch off of dmc1 is its more traditional and less combo-focused combat that instead favors rapid decision-making and opponent reads. it's not surprising to me that this was developed by a fighting game studio, because the combat first-and-foremost reminded me of something like tekken. in those games I am frequently weaving around opponents, waiting for openings, and then seizing on split-second encounters to score a juicy launcher and deal the bulk of my damage. here it's the same, removed from the one-to-one paradigm to instead wider groups of enemies all vying to attack you at once. izuna drop was my bread-and-butter and securing that light attack (or simply whiffing and catching them with the launcher) was my prize. much like a fighting game enemies will punish you for repetition of simple maneuvers or grab you out of a block frequently, and thus staying instinctual and reactive during combat is a must. it's free-flowing and easy to come up with new links or surprise enders given ryu's strong moveset and stable of weaponry, and while I primarily stuck to dragon sword during my playthrough, I still felt like I was discovering new things and improving the more I played.
a few minor quibbles about the combat (mainly controls) that I would like to bring up however: for one, the density of different button combinations and the amount of contextual ones meant that it occasionally felt like a crapshoot on what would actually come out at any given time. flying swallow was a particularly noticeable one for me, as I didn't really nail down its use until I started incorporating the homing jump into my play, and even afterwards it was a bit dodgy even when I was clearly pointing towards an opponent. incorporating the platforming moves in also never came naturally to me, especially since ryu's wall-run can be spotty on whether it will go vertical or horizontal, and the battle camera further aggravates that. in general I would say ryu's platforming is a little slippery: for 2004/5 it's excellent and an improvement on dmc1's stiff movement and a contemporary like sands of time's rigid traversal system, but it definitely shows its age and results in some unneeded frustration.
bosses are also mostly good, but not particularly ambitious in terms of movesets of fight setup. larger bosses mostly boil down to typical [look to the windup -> dodge the move -> spam an attack for a bit] flowcharts that leave a bit to be desired, especially for bosses like the dragon where I felt like I was mainly just chipping away with the windmill shuriken. humanoid bosses tend to suffer from ryu being too fast and dynamic and the boss needing to stay somewhat calm in order to be fair and predictable, and thus to balance it away from ryu's favor there's a lot of indeterminate blocking that I found annoying and perplexing. using two flying swallows back to back with one clinking off and one hitting makes little sense, and it ruins some of the immersion of trying to figure out the fight when it feels like random chance and not taking advantage of openings. none of them are particularly bad though (except the tanks/copters), and all of them are absolutely manageable or even a little easier than you would expect given the notorious difficulty of the game. the endgame fight where you float on a chunk of rock was also way better than the space harrier section of dmc1, so major props to team ninja there.
there's so much to discuss with this game, and I'm not sure I can even accurately give an opinion given that I've only done a normal playthrough and will likely not go for a hard run anytime in the near future (that's just not how I play games unfortunately). there's so much more content waiting for me when I get back, and hopefully I will given how much this game has imprinted on my brain. equally invigorating, anxiety-inducing, thrilling, and frustrating in all the best of ways.
Okay,
I've dabbled into a lot of Character Action games for the past three years and was excited to finally give this one a swing since the 3D Ninja Gaiden games are the only few CAGs I have yet to explore, but after finishing this one I can't help but find myself having very mixed feelings on it. I feel like an insane person for not liking this as much as I should, considering how much praise this game gets around the CAG community, and while there are aspects of NGB I like a lot, I couldn't help but be a little dissatisfied with this one.
That disappointment stings more for me considering I took a full week trying to get the game physically and pulling out my old Xbox only to find out my Xbox's disc drive stopped working when I was testing it, an issue notorious with old Xboxes. The Xbox is kind of a worthless console, like if this thing didn't have Halo I'd probably prefer owning a Dreamcast. Couldn't emulate this game either because Xbox emulation is still very far behind and unstable. But luckily I still had my 360 laying around (until I realized I had no controllers for it so I had to spend another 30$ on one) so I could finally play it. Thanks Microsoft for at least having decent backwards compatibility on your platforms. This'll be the one credit I'll give you, you evil bastards.
Tangent aside, finally booting up this game after all the trouble I went through had me on the edge of my seat. The game makes a strong first impression. This is hands down one of the best looking Xbox games and it still holds up fairly well to this day with the exception of overly shiny, plasticy looking character models common in the 6th gen era of consoles, but even they have a higher polygon count not seen before from that era. The most notably impressive aspect is the animation. Ryu’s movement and attacks have a perfect amount of weight and impact to them. Whether you’re running on walls, doing the Izuna drop, or doing a fully charged Ultimate Technique, the game never stops selling you on the idea that Ryu is this badass skilled ninja. His weapons also have some of the most visceral sound effects in any CAG I’ve played. The swords have this loud comical slicing sound upon every hit while the flail’s whipping sounds always made it fun to, well, flail around. The presentation of this game cannot be understated and the fact the game always runs at 60FPS (arguably the most necessary inclusion for these types of games) is beyond impressive. On a technical level, Ninja Gaiden Black is still a mind-boggling marvel.
The game also makes it apparent how different it’s combat is almost immediately from it’s competition. You notice right away Ryu’s moves have quick start up frames but a ton of end lag to them, necessitating every attack to be a commitment and inviting enemies to punish Ryu upon missing, and enemies don’t let up, they’re dynamically aggressive and hit like bulldozers. Ninja Gaiden Black enemies see you from a country mile and will make an immediate B-line towards Ryu upon smelling him. They’ll charge in numbers, dodge/jump over your attacks, grab you if you’re blocking for too long, throw projectiles or shoot guns at you etc. This makes every encounter an immediate threat to be dealt with, but upon successfully killing them you get rewarded with Essence, a multi-purpose item that either gives you currency, health, or Ki charges (a limited use special move Ryu can use), but what’s interesting is charging a strong attack near these will absorb them and decreases the time needed for an Ultimate Technique, a super powerful move that does devastating damage and makes Ryu fully invincible during the animation, but normally requires a long charge up time to activate them. Normally these Essences are picked up automatically near Ryu, but if Ryu is blocking they won’t be collected, allowing the player to choose whether to take them for their bonuses or absorb them with a strong attack for a quick UT. This turns the combat encounters into a gigantic split-second decision making balancing act where the player upon every kill has to decide whether to collect their earnings, heal, refill their Ki, or sacrifice all of that for a more aggressive option in combat. All of this makes Ninja Gaiden Black’s combat stand out from other CAGs I’ve played, and on paper this makes for a really engaging combat system. Here’s the thing though, as I got more comfortable with how NGB works, I found I liked these ideas more in isolation.
The reality is because a lot of Ryu’s normal combos aren’t rewarding enough to justify them in normal use, it railroads a lot of the combat into doing the more obviously viable options. A lot of Ryu’s combos surprisingly don’t do a ton of damage, can’t deal crowd control very well, and carry a lot of end lag baggage with them, making them feel flimsy and weak to throw out. Except for one: The Izuna Drop. For the low cost of 100 Essence at the shop, Ryu gets a combo from a light > strong attack launcher that puts him in the air to execute it more safely, instantly kills whatever is in it, and does a small AoE when he lands on the ground to deal damage around Ryu which makes him more safe upon landing. This works for every human-sized enemy in the game, and while the Izuna Drop is indeed the sickest move in video game history, I begrudgingly became rather tired of looking at the same animation for the 200th time to set up essences around me for UTs with every Ninja/Soldier/Human-sized fiend demon thing that approached me. To compensate for this, you sometimes have to fight larger sized enemies with super armor moves or weak flying enemies that ask you to think more outside the box, but even they have a samey feeling strategy attached to dealing with them. Because UTs reward is so massively safe and strong, this makes fighting the larger enemies like the dinosaur fiends or zombies with full UTs the more sane option and the same can be said after killing a few smaller enemies and waiting for the rest of them to charge into a UT. I see a lot of praise go towards the humanoid enemies in this game like the Spider Ninjas, but not these enemies and because none of them are fun or interesting, and don’t get me started on the command grabbing Ghost Fishes that spawn in front of you in swarms and can pin you down and loop you if you don’t mash fast enough. For about 90% of the encounters in this game I found myself rolling back and holding Y near essences to watch the same five second animation over and over again or positioning myself to do an Izuna Drop on a human enemy over and over again, and after a while I couldn’t help but find the combat surprisingly dull and stale, no matter how cathartic that Izuna Drop animation is.
But if I wasn’t straight up bored by the lack of options in combat, I was frustrated with the design decisions that the game was built around. The most obvious complaint being that Ryu has a 3rd person manual camera throughout but lacks a hard Lock-On mechanic similar to games that predates NGB like Kingdom Hearts or Devil May Cry and the game’s soft Lock-On is not really intelligent, making it a real hassle to reposition the camera in the middle of combat to see the enemy only for a move to miss because Ryu wasn’t targeting the correct person, or if he was targeting anything at all. I’ve grown more and more disdain for manual cameras in CAGs that aren’t Bayonetta or God Hand (But even Platinum Games had to compensate for Bayo’s camera by making it so enemies don’t attack you unless they’re on screen, despite that game both having a soft and hard lock-on. This is why the isometric camera in The Wonderful 101 was good, people! Because you didn’t have to manually adjust the camera to see what you’re fighting! It just simply displayed everything on screen! It was just too “different” for you guys to appreciate!) so this is like a CAG nightmare for me. It also doesn’t help that the game doesn’t really care where these enemies are placed. A lot of praise is given to this game for it’s Resident Evil-esque level design, but the cramp hallways mixed with the aggressive enemies makes it so you will get side-swiped by enemies running at you with an attack near a corner or shot at by a bullet across the level on a first playthrough. It’s like they designed the map first and made the decision for the game to have hyper-aggressive AI after. The most funny example I found highlighting this haphazard enemy placement was at a save point in chapter 6 I walked out and was immediately surrounded and hit by three Spider Ninjas that were spawned just a little off-screen from the save point. This was the only example of this happening near a save point to be granted and may have been intentional for this one save point, but stuff like this happens in normal play nearly all the time, especially in the city missions.
Speaking of the city, let me bring back that Resident Evil-esque exploration into the spotlight again. A lot of praise is given to it’s lock and key design similar to those games, but here I don’t like it. Because this game is chapter based, when a chapter ends there are a lot of times the game doesn’t give you good direction on where to go next unless you’re in a linear set piece chapter. You kind of just have to stumble around the city to look for a key item that just might be relevant to the current chapter you’re on. (Some of these items you grab don’t even get used till the end game like the stone tablets.) and some methods of getting them are clumsy. Like in chapter 5 you’re supposed to go into this bar and the guy tells you that you need a ticket to get in. I’ve walked around the plaza for a while fighting the same enemies respawning over and over again only to figure out I was supposed to go into Muramasa’s shop and buy something to trigger a cutscene of him giving me the ticket, even though before I triggered the “need ticket” cutscene I actually visited Muramasa’s shop beforehand. I have no idea why he couldn’t just give me the ticket when I visited his shop for the first time, but it made the realization all the more frustrating when unintuitive flags like this show up in the game’s progression. The level design also makes the chapters long dude, like I was clocking in about 30 minutes to an hour each chapter, ballooning the runtime to about 17 hours on my first playthrough (HowLongToBeat reports around 16 ½ hours.) making this the longest CAG I’ve played so far. Even The Wonderful 101 which I always hear criticized as being too long is only 14 hours, and that kind of pacing for an action game like this is grueling and tiresome! Chapter 11 is all about fucking swimming in water for half an hour and then the boss fight shows up and it’s Doku, your rival fight the game built up to! In a level where you barely have combat encounters for the entirety of it! Why!? This is like Jeanne 4 being after the 40 minute After Burner level in Bayonetta levels of bad here and nobody talks about it! At least let me dry off my boots a little.
The boss fights in Ninja Gaiden Black is kind of what kills this game the most for me personally. One of the things I love the most about CAGs is how many of them come up with very unique and interesting boss fight concepts to test your mastery of the game’s mechanics. They’re usually my favorite parts in each of these games, especially rival fights that pit you against an opponent that mirror the strength of your character like Vergil from Devil May Cry, Jeanne from Bayonetta, Azel from God Hand etc. Good boss fights alone is what gets me coming back to replay these games, and I think here in NGB they’re all kinda bad! Don’t think I can name a single one I liked except for maybe Alma, because she dodges around your attacks dynamically which forces you to deal with her attack animations and punish them quickly, which can lead to her getting knocked down for more attacks on her deleting mass chunks of her health bar. Everything else though are either kind of boring like the boss in Chapter 4, or the bone dinosaur, or the dragon, or the rehash fights of the tentacle monster or the elemental worms (You hit a big thing that doesn’t flinch and dodge it’s slow super armor attacks at the right time.) or boss fights in the military base chapter where you fight two tanks and a helicopter where all you do is shoot arrows at it with your bow and roll away to go refill them. (Boy I hope that's not a trend in the sequel!!!) and then there's just fights that don’t make a lot of sense even after beating them? Doku was easily the biggest disappointment for me because he not only highlights how limited your combat options really are in this game with his arbitrary windows to deal damage to him without him blocking. (Speaking of which, you get this jumping dive attack with your Dragon Sword called “Flying Swallow” that kinda breaks the game, and Team Ninja knew this so they made the bosses simply not take damage from it, rather than just rebalancing the move better. Lol.). It was incredibly frustrating to go after him with a laggy attack while he was throwing his sword only for the sword to magically appear back into his hands, blocking the attack and punishing me before I got a chance to dodge roll. Very unsatisfying rival fight, and then you get to fight him again in his spirit form with a worse arena and camera! Aw yeah now this is gaming!
Look, I get it, I get that there's a lot of people who are really into this game. Whether I watch videos of it, scroll through reviews, or talk about it in Discord servers, there's a lot of people who herald this game as "THE GOAT" or "ONE OF THE BEST XBOX GAMES" or "ONE OF THE BEST CAGS" and yeah I get it, there's still a lot to like about this one. It's presentation is slick and sharp like a katana blade, the game does it's best to give Ryu all the grace of a badass ninja whether he's running on wall to wall or elegantly finishing off crowds of enemies in rapid succession. Putting all my grudges with the combat aside, there's a genuine satisfaction in stumbling into a room with seemingly infinitely spawning enemies and after clearing it being rewarded with a health upgrade, it triggers all the dopamine receptors in my brain most of these dumbass games give me. But like any other blade you use for too long, I found it to dull out on me after a while. Annoyances I've had with the combat and level design kept rearing their ugly heads over and over again and I just kept wanting the game to be over 4 hours ago and yet Team Ninja kept insisting to throw more gimmicky sections for another half hour chapter at me. I know this review is probably my longest and rambly yet, but as I said, this is what the game did to me: it made me feel like an insane person bro! So many times this game made me turn over my shoulder and look at my library of CAGs I could be replaying that arguably does a lot of the things this game does but better. I thought about replaying this game on Hard mode before writing this down, but then I thought about fighting those fucking Ghost Fishes again and figured I'd take my internally planted advice and go replay Bayonetta instead.
Sorry guys. :/
I've dabbled into a lot of Character Action games for the past three years and was excited to finally give this one a swing since the 3D Ninja Gaiden games are the only few CAGs I have yet to explore, but after finishing this one I can't help but find myself having very mixed feelings on it. I feel like an insane person for not liking this as much as I should, considering how much praise this game gets around the CAG community, and while there are aspects of NGB I like a lot, I couldn't help but be a little dissatisfied with this one.
That disappointment stings more for me considering I took a full week trying to get the game physically and pulling out my old Xbox only to find out my Xbox's disc drive stopped working when I was testing it, an issue notorious with old Xboxes. The Xbox is kind of a worthless console, like if this thing didn't have Halo I'd probably prefer owning a Dreamcast. Couldn't emulate this game either because Xbox emulation is still very far behind and unstable. But luckily I still had my 360 laying around (until I realized I had no controllers for it so I had to spend another 30$ on one) so I could finally play it. Thanks Microsoft for at least having decent backwards compatibility on your platforms. This'll be the one credit I'll give you, you evil bastards.
Tangent aside, finally booting up this game after all the trouble I went through had me on the edge of my seat. The game makes a strong first impression. This is hands down one of the best looking Xbox games and it still holds up fairly well to this day with the exception of overly shiny, plasticy looking character models common in the 6th gen era of consoles, but even they have a higher polygon count not seen before from that era. The most notably impressive aspect is the animation. Ryu’s movement and attacks have a perfect amount of weight and impact to them. Whether you’re running on walls, doing the Izuna drop, or doing a fully charged Ultimate Technique, the game never stops selling you on the idea that Ryu is this badass skilled ninja. His weapons also have some of the most visceral sound effects in any CAG I’ve played. The swords have this loud comical slicing sound upon every hit while the flail’s whipping sounds always made it fun to, well, flail around. The presentation of this game cannot be understated and the fact the game always runs at 60FPS (arguably the most necessary inclusion for these types of games) is beyond impressive. On a technical level, Ninja Gaiden Black is still a mind-boggling marvel.
The game also makes it apparent how different it’s combat is almost immediately from it’s competition. You notice right away Ryu’s moves have quick start up frames but a ton of end lag to them, necessitating every attack to be a commitment and inviting enemies to punish Ryu upon missing, and enemies don’t let up, they’re dynamically aggressive and hit like bulldozers. Ninja Gaiden Black enemies see you from a country mile and will make an immediate B-line towards Ryu upon smelling him. They’ll charge in numbers, dodge/jump over your attacks, grab you if you’re blocking for too long, throw projectiles or shoot guns at you etc. This makes every encounter an immediate threat to be dealt with, but upon successfully killing them you get rewarded with Essence, a multi-purpose item that either gives you currency, health, or Ki charges (a limited use special move Ryu can use), but what’s interesting is charging a strong attack near these will absorb them and decreases the time needed for an Ultimate Technique, a super powerful move that does devastating damage and makes Ryu fully invincible during the animation, but normally requires a long charge up time to activate them. Normally these Essences are picked up automatically near Ryu, but if Ryu is blocking they won’t be collected, allowing the player to choose whether to take them for their bonuses or absorb them with a strong attack for a quick UT. This turns the combat encounters into a gigantic split-second decision making balancing act where the player upon every kill has to decide whether to collect their earnings, heal, refill their Ki, or sacrifice all of that for a more aggressive option in combat. All of this makes Ninja Gaiden Black’s combat stand out from other CAGs I’ve played, and on paper this makes for a really engaging combat system. Here’s the thing though, as I got more comfortable with how NGB works, I found I liked these ideas more in isolation.
The reality is because a lot of Ryu’s normal combos aren’t rewarding enough to justify them in normal use, it railroads a lot of the combat into doing the more obviously viable options. A lot of Ryu’s combos surprisingly don’t do a ton of damage, can’t deal crowd control very well, and carry a lot of end lag baggage with them, making them feel flimsy and weak to throw out. Except for one: The Izuna Drop. For the low cost of 100 Essence at the shop, Ryu gets a combo from a light > strong attack launcher that puts him in the air to execute it more safely, instantly kills whatever is in it, and does a small AoE when he lands on the ground to deal damage around Ryu which makes him more safe upon landing. This works for every human-sized enemy in the game, and while the Izuna Drop is indeed the sickest move in video game history, I begrudgingly became rather tired of looking at the same animation for the 200th time to set up essences around me for UTs with every Ninja/Soldier/Human-sized fiend demon thing that approached me. To compensate for this, you sometimes have to fight larger sized enemies with super armor moves or weak flying enemies that ask you to think more outside the box, but even they have a samey feeling strategy attached to dealing with them. Because UTs reward is so massively safe and strong, this makes fighting the larger enemies like the dinosaur fiends or zombies with full UTs the more sane option and the same can be said after killing a few smaller enemies and waiting for the rest of them to charge into a UT. I see a lot of praise go towards the humanoid enemies in this game like the Spider Ninjas, but not these enemies and because none of them are fun or interesting, and don’t get me started on the command grabbing Ghost Fishes that spawn in front of you in swarms and can pin you down and loop you if you don’t mash fast enough. For about 90% of the encounters in this game I found myself rolling back and holding Y near essences to watch the same five second animation over and over again or positioning myself to do an Izuna Drop on a human enemy over and over again, and after a while I couldn’t help but find the combat surprisingly dull and stale, no matter how cathartic that Izuna Drop animation is.
But if I wasn’t straight up bored by the lack of options in combat, I was frustrated with the design decisions that the game was built around. The most obvious complaint being that Ryu has a 3rd person manual camera throughout but lacks a hard Lock-On mechanic similar to games that predates NGB like Kingdom Hearts or Devil May Cry and the game’s soft Lock-On is not really intelligent, making it a real hassle to reposition the camera in the middle of combat to see the enemy only for a move to miss because Ryu wasn’t targeting the correct person, or if he was targeting anything at all. I’ve grown more and more disdain for manual cameras in CAGs that aren’t Bayonetta or God Hand (But even Platinum Games had to compensate for Bayo’s camera by making it so enemies don’t attack you unless they’re on screen, despite that game both having a soft and hard lock-on. This is why the isometric camera in The Wonderful 101 was good, people! Because you didn’t have to manually adjust the camera to see what you’re fighting! It just simply displayed everything on screen! It was just too “different” for you guys to appreciate!) so this is like a CAG nightmare for me. It also doesn’t help that the game doesn’t really care where these enemies are placed. A lot of praise is given to this game for it’s Resident Evil-esque level design, but the cramp hallways mixed with the aggressive enemies makes it so you will get side-swiped by enemies running at you with an attack near a corner or shot at by a bullet across the level on a first playthrough. It’s like they designed the map first and made the decision for the game to have hyper-aggressive AI after. The most funny example I found highlighting this haphazard enemy placement was at a save point in chapter 6 I walked out and was immediately surrounded and hit by three Spider Ninjas that were spawned just a little off-screen from the save point. This was the only example of this happening near a save point to be granted and may have been intentional for this one save point, but stuff like this happens in normal play nearly all the time, especially in the city missions.
Speaking of the city, let me bring back that Resident Evil-esque exploration into the spotlight again. A lot of praise is given to it’s lock and key design similar to those games, but here I don’t like it. Because this game is chapter based, when a chapter ends there are a lot of times the game doesn’t give you good direction on where to go next unless you’re in a linear set piece chapter. You kind of just have to stumble around the city to look for a key item that just might be relevant to the current chapter you’re on. (Some of these items you grab don’t even get used till the end game like the stone tablets.) and some methods of getting them are clumsy. Like in chapter 5 you’re supposed to go into this bar and the guy tells you that you need a ticket to get in. I’ve walked around the plaza for a while fighting the same enemies respawning over and over again only to figure out I was supposed to go into Muramasa’s shop and buy something to trigger a cutscene of him giving me the ticket, even though before I triggered the “need ticket” cutscene I actually visited Muramasa’s shop beforehand. I have no idea why he couldn’t just give me the ticket when I visited his shop for the first time, but it made the realization all the more frustrating when unintuitive flags like this show up in the game’s progression. The level design also makes the chapters long dude, like I was clocking in about 30 minutes to an hour each chapter, ballooning the runtime to about 17 hours on my first playthrough (HowLongToBeat reports around 16 ½ hours.) making this the longest CAG I’ve played so far. Even The Wonderful 101 which I always hear criticized as being too long is only 14 hours, and that kind of pacing for an action game like this is grueling and tiresome! Chapter 11 is all about fucking swimming in water for half an hour and then the boss fight shows up and it’s Doku, your rival fight the game built up to! In a level where you barely have combat encounters for the entirety of it! Why!? This is like Jeanne 4 being after the 40 minute After Burner level in Bayonetta levels of bad here and nobody talks about it! At least let me dry off my boots a little.
The boss fights in Ninja Gaiden Black is kind of what kills this game the most for me personally. One of the things I love the most about CAGs is how many of them come up with very unique and interesting boss fight concepts to test your mastery of the game’s mechanics. They’re usually my favorite parts in each of these games, especially rival fights that pit you against an opponent that mirror the strength of your character like Vergil from Devil May Cry, Jeanne from Bayonetta, Azel from God Hand etc. Good boss fights alone is what gets me coming back to replay these games, and I think here in NGB they’re all kinda bad! Don’t think I can name a single one I liked except for maybe Alma, because she dodges around your attacks dynamically which forces you to deal with her attack animations and punish them quickly, which can lead to her getting knocked down for more attacks on her deleting mass chunks of her health bar. Everything else though are either kind of boring like the boss in Chapter 4, or the bone dinosaur, or the dragon, or the rehash fights of the tentacle monster or the elemental worms (You hit a big thing that doesn’t flinch and dodge it’s slow super armor attacks at the right time.) or boss fights in the military base chapter where you fight two tanks and a helicopter where all you do is shoot arrows at it with your bow and roll away to go refill them. (Boy I hope that's not a trend in the sequel!!!) and then there's just fights that don’t make a lot of sense even after beating them? Doku was easily the biggest disappointment for me because he not only highlights how limited your combat options really are in this game with his arbitrary windows to deal damage to him without him blocking. (Speaking of which, you get this jumping dive attack with your Dragon Sword called “Flying Swallow” that kinda breaks the game, and Team Ninja knew this so they made the bosses simply not take damage from it, rather than just rebalancing the move better. Lol.). It was incredibly frustrating to go after him with a laggy attack while he was throwing his sword only for the sword to magically appear back into his hands, blocking the attack and punishing me before I got a chance to dodge roll. Very unsatisfying rival fight, and then you get to fight him again in his spirit form with a worse arena and camera! Aw yeah now this is gaming!
Look, I get it, I get that there's a lot of people who are really into this game. Whether I watch videos of it, scroll through reviews, or talk about it in Discord servers, there's a lot of people who herald this game as "THE GOAT" or "ONE OF THE BEST XBOX GAMES" or "ONE OF THE BEST CAGS" and yeah I get it, there's still a lot to like about this one. It's presentation is slick and sharp like a katana blade, the game does it's best to give Ryu all the grace of a badass ninja whether he's running on wall to wall or elegantly finishing off crowds of enemies in rapid succession. Putting all my grudges with the combat aside, there's a genuine satisfaction in stumbling into a room with seemingly infinitely spawning enemies and after clearing it being rewarded with a health upgrade, it triggers all the dopamine receptors in my brain most of these dumbass games give me. But like any other blade you use for too long, I found it to dull out on me after a while. Annoyances I've had with the combat and level design kept rearing their ugly heads over and over again and I just kept wanting the game to be over 4 hours ago and yet Team Ninja kept insisting to throw more gimmicky sections for another half hour chapter at me. I know this review is probably my longest and rambly yet, but as I said, this is what the game did to me: it made me feel like an insane person bro! So many times this game made me turn over my shoulder and look at my library of CAGs I could be replaying that arguably does a lot of the things this game does but better. I thought about replaying this game on Hard mode before writing this down, but then I thought about fighting those fucking Ghost Fishes again and figured I'd take my internally planted advice and go replay Bayonetta instead.
Sorry guys. :/
On one hand, the combat is satisfying and getting past that one section or boss after being stonewalled is extremely gratifying. On the other hand, I find the camera to be absolutely vile at times (usually during bosses). It likes to get stuck behind pillars and rubble. The camera also has a hard time keeping up with the action at times. I also think most of the bosses are completely uninteresting. In character action games (I despise this term) the bosses are usually a big highlight, but here you get an electric worm, then two electric worms, then a fire worm, two tanks, a helicopter and a tentacle monster you fight multiple times. This game also commits one of my personal pet peeves and that is boss fights with added trash mobs. Off the top of my head two bosses on normal are like this, but on harder difficulties way more do this, like most of the bosses. I didn't find the lack of a lock-on to be a problem, but this seems to vary from person to person. I did enjoy a few of the bosses like Murai, the first Doku fight and the final boss!
I find these two points to be detrimental to my overall enjoyment, so I sadly can't say this is an all-time favorite for me, but it's still a solid action title that isn't afraid to kick your ass. So give it a shot! Maybe you won't have issues with these things and remember to keep trying! If I can do it, then so can you.
I find these two points to be detrimental to my overall enjoyment, so I sadly can't say this is an all-time favorite for me, but it's still a solid action title that isn't afraid to kick your ass. So give it a shot! Maybe you won't have issues with these things and remember to keep trying! If I can do it, then so can you.
I desperately want to be able to love this game, I think the fundamentals of combat are excellent and I deeply respect what it’s doing on that front. There’s a tendency in character action games, even ones I love (thinking of DMC primarily) for enemies to be relegated to being a punching-bag, whether they’re too passive or not really able to keep up with the protagonist's superior mobility. Ryu is one of the most mobile (and well animated) of them all - being able to wall run and flip over the heads of enemies while air-slashing through them, but it's cleverly counterbalanced by enemies having very quick attacks and especially grabs which can go through blocks without it being possible to react, which necessitates the constant use of that mobility to avoid being pinned down. In that sense it has a fighting game feel to it, simultaneously promoting good aggressive and defensive play. Those prone to getting frustrated would call untelegraphed, unblockable attacks “bad game design”, but its constructed in accordance with Ryu’s toolkit and gives the combat incredible stakes, often focused around who lands the first hit, and lends a very distinct thematic character to Ryu as a human at the height of training rather than someone with supernatural power, which is felt because the player has to approach combat in a similarly disciplined way. Other ideas like the essence mechanic, despite being poorly conveyed, are also very good and make charge moves actually useful when even in the best action games they’re mostly useless due to being so slow.
So why don’t I love it? I think as early as chapter 6, the game plummets in the quality of its level and boss ideas and never really climbs back up. Every platforming section feels finicky and frustrating, the ones where you have to platform while ranged enemies shoot at you feel particularly sadistic, the military base infinitely spawning laser drones that send you flying if they hit you takes my nomination for the worst of all. I don’t mind the general difficulty of the game but these sections are difficult in a way which is not interesting or enjoyable to engage with. The swimming chapter is another example of an idea so disconnected from what makes the core mechanics good that it's difficult to imagine anyone finding it fun. Bosses were also mostly pretty terrible. Bland and simplistic movesets aside, I feel this combat is very obviously complimented by opponents similarly sized to Ryu who will react to being hit, whereas the game is content to throw these massive boss monsters at you over and over again, even having the gall to recycle a very bad worm miniboss four times in quick succession. There seemed to be a commitment to having diverse scenarios but some of its ideas are awful: infinitely spawning phantom fish that lock you into a grab animation, fights vs tanks and helicopters with awful ranged combat, grab attacks in the final tower that pull you through the floor and make you slog through the same section again, and so on.
It's fashionable to bemoan the shift of action games away from exploration and worldbuilding and towards an endless stream of combat arenas but I'll be honest and say that I found the attempt at an interconnected world here pretty underwhelming, at no point did any of its lame lock-and-key puzzles or frictionless backtracking impress me. While I agree with the overall sentiment about CAG's neglecting the importance of their worlds, I would rather not return to this particular incarnation of it.
It feels pointless to complain about the story given that nobody cares but it’s kind of impressively bad and incoherent, Rachel is a particularly trashfire character design that feels like what outsiders to gaming have in mind when they deride the gaming sphere as juvenile and unserious and every cutscene that with her in it had me looking over my shoulder to quickly get the game off the monitor if someone walked in.
The camera is a common point of complaint with a lot of players. Its permanent inverted controls (+ a very awkward activation which I didn’t figure out for quite a while) already make it inherently weak but the game seems determined to construct environments that make the camera freak out in its winding, claustrophobic tunnels. There are frequent combat arenas where enemies will just spawn behind you, requiring you to either reposition or just try to guess what the enemy is doing, which feels like playing around a bad camera rather than actually engaging with the mechanics. Context sensitivity is another issue revolving around this. Interact and attack being the same button was particularly frustrating but in terms of the most frequent fuck-ups flying swallow is inconsistent both in activation and damage and will just sometimes hit an armored part of the enemy and do nothing.
My laundry list of gripes I can only lay out in a boring manner because it's not a unified problem but a sort of consistent stream of ancillary issues that stick themselves onto a very fundamentally sound core, and so I do come out the other end still favourable towards Ninja Gaiden Black, but I am disappointed that unlike a lot of people I respect on this platform I can’t really call it one of my favourites. I will say that I think the visuals of the game are generally very good and I could easily see myself appreciating it more on a second playthrough, but for now it can sit at a strong 7.
So why don’t I love it? I think as early as chapter 6, the game plummets in the quality of its level and boss ideas and never really climbs back up. Every platforming section feels finicky and frustrating, the ones where you have to platform while ranged enemies shoot at you feel particularly sadistic, the military base infinitely spawning laser drones that send you flying if they hit you takes my nomination for the worst of all. I don’t mind the general difficulty of the game but these sections are difficult in a way which is not interesting or enjoyable to engage with. The swimming chapter is another example of an idea so disconnected from what makes the core mechanics good that it's difficult to imagine anyone finding it fun. Bosses were also mostly pretty terrible. Bland and simplistic movesets aside, I feel this combat is very obviously complimented by opponents similarly sized to Ryu who will react to being hit, whereas the game is content to throw these massive boss monsters at you over and over again, even having the gall to recycle a very bad worm miniboss four times in quick succession. There seemed to be a commitment to having diverse scenarios but some of its ideas are awful: infinitely spawning phantom fish that lock you into a grab animation, fights vs tanks and helicopters with awful ranged combat, grab attacks in the final tower that pull you through the floor and make you slog through the same section again, and so on.
It's fashionable to bemoan the shift of action games away from exploration and worldbuilding and towards an endless stream of combat arenas but I'll be honest and say that I found the attempt at an interconnected world here pretty underwhelming, at no point did any of its lame lock-and-key puzzles or frictionless backtracking impress me. While I agree with the overall sentiment about CAG's neglecting the importance of their worlds, I would rather not return to this particular incarnation of it.
It feels pointless to complain about the story given that nobody cares but it’s kind of impressively bad and incoherent, Rachel is a particularly trashfire character design that feels like what outsiders to gaming have in mind when they deride the gaming sphere as juvenile and unserious and every cutscene that with her in it had me looking over my shoulder to quickly get the game off the monitor if someone walked in.
The camera is a common point of complaint with a lot of players. Its permanent inverted controls (+ a very awkward activation which I didn’t figure out for quite a while) already make it inherently weak but the game seems determined to construct environments that make the camera freak out in its winding, claustrophobic tunnels. There are frequent combat arenas where enemies will just spawn behind you, requiring you to either reposition or just try to guess what the enemy is doing, which feels like playing around a bad camera rather than actually engaging with the mechanics. Context sensitivity is another issue revolving around this. Interact and attack being the same button was particularly frustrating but in terms of the most frequent fuck-ups flying swallow is inconsistent both in activation and damage and will just sometimes hit an armored part of the enemy and do nothing.
My laundry list of gripes I can only lay out in a boring manner because it's not a unified problem but a sort of consistent stream of ancillary issues that stick themselves onto a very fundamentally sound core, and so I do come out the other end still favourable towards Ninja Gaiden Black, but I am disappointed that unlike a lot of people I respect on this platform I can’t really call it one of my favourites. I will say that I think the visuals of the game are generally very good and I could easily see myself appreciating it more on a second playthrough, but for now it can sit at a strong 7.
with this game i found out i can cum with my hands
WARNING: WAY TOO LONG REVIEW INCOMING!!! TL:DR GAME IS GREAT!! PLAY IT!
There is this weird misconception in the idea of games being art that artfulness is all in narrative and story, and that the act of play is just a part of the form and not also an extension of that. It's what I notice when I play games that strive for an artistic expression, that they seem to regard actually PLAYING a video game as a formality. I very much disagree with this line of thinking, as there is an artistic brilliance to classic arcade games like Galaga that has me dumping quarter after quarter into them just to play more. The feedback of getting really good at dodging, weaving, blasting, it's an artistic expression in itself. Games are the only ones that can provide this.
So anyway here is Ninja Gaiden Black.
A franchise that is regularly used in the same breath as words like "excess" and "gratuitous" might not seem like an art game, but when it plays this well, looks this great, and mechanically is just rock fucking solid? That's artwork to me. What's most interesting though is how deftly put together NGB really is when you really sit down to play it! Just saying "oh the ninja game with the big booby ninjas where you slash dudes a lot" completely downplays what work has went into making Ninja Gaiden a cohesive experience from open to close. The pacing in this game!! Holy shit!! I can casually play through half the game without even realizing it because it is always keeping things fresh and interesting. You're in a night time city, fighting ninjas and solving traversal puzzles, now you're in a monastery battling fiends, now you go underground to explore crypts, oh shit! it's the military! go to their base and disrupt their communications!
It's such a finely tuned experience.
What you also don't expect going into NGB is the atmosphere, and a lot of that is helped by the game's peerless visual presentation. For an Xbox game from 2005,
this looks amazing even today. Animations are just slick as hell, enivornments are varied and gorgeous to behold, it is no surprise that this was considered the tour-de-force as far as graphics on the Xbox were concerned. Some of the vistas later in the game will make you glad you can go into first person and take a look
at everything, it's just such an interesting world to exist in.
I'm also really fond of the music, which NGB takes a surprisingly understated approach to. It's all very atmospheric and moody electronics, with occasional breaks into early 2000s industrial rock or drum'n'bass. So it's essentially my dream OST. I especially love the music in the caverns, that's when it really dawned on me how considered the atmosphere of this game really was. There's something genuinely incredible about getting into an incredible beat down with fiends and ogres while soft
beautiful bells chime in the background. What a game.
As for gameplay, I mean, what needs to be said? Ninja Gaiden plays like a dream. I suppose the extremely high skill-floor is a point to look at, and it is absolutely true:
this game is so vicious to first-time players. But it creates one of the most incredible sensations I've gotten from a game: getting GOOD at it. I'm not talking the asinine "git gud" mentality that Dark Souls has bred into people whose only action game has been Dark Souls, but the actual feeling of getting good at a skill. I play guitar,
and Ninja Gaiden hits that same part of the brain that goes nuts when I play something difficult flawlessly, something hard to describe but when you feel it you feel it.
I think it's absolutely worth considering a game as art when mechanically playing it and getting good at it is extremely fulfilling in a way few games are. I don't want to get
weepy about NGB but you have to understand, this game is just so much fucking fun to play. Every difficulty you ascend gives a sensation of personal growth, that you accomplished something that seemed impossible by just putting the effort in. When I first played, black spider ninjas were just impossible to deal with, they were killing me over and over again, I had to drop to Ninja Dog and learn the game. Now? Smoke bomb, izuna drop, counter, on-landing, simple. Jump to hard mode. Damn, they're replaced with cat fiends now?
They can flying swallow ME?? No way I'm ever beating this. Well, how about this? Their recovery from whiffing a flying swallow is pretty bad, you can easily exploit that.
It goes on and on like that, just learning, adapting, trying new things, it's so exciting. You never fall into a pattern because Ninja Gaiden's enemies defy your attempts to, the game
requires reactive play rather than reflexive. You can't block and dodge-roll through everything, because an enemy will counter you eventually, you have to observe, adapt and overcome the odds.
It means that fights never play out the same, that the game always feels fresh no matter how much you play it, and that learning to deal with total bastards like Ogres and Berserkers is like unlocking a cheat code.
I also really love the enemy designs here, not since Devil May Cry 1 has an action game had such a great assortment of foes to beat the hell out of. I mentioned Berserkers, but goddamn those guys are awesome. One of my favorite enemy types in any game. I also love the cat fiends, they are relentless but also a lot of fun to guilottine throw. Oh, and yes, even ghost fish. Weaklings see ghost fish and think "oh no I'm going to die!!" Chads see ghost fish and think, "Oh my god I am going to get some yellow essence!" The art design is also so well-considered, Ryu's outfit might seem outrageous (which I mean, it is. He's a ninja battling monsters. I feel like he should have an outfit for that) but from a gameplay perspective it's perfect: Ryu is always visible, the camera is focused on him, nothing else in the game has the same coloring as his outfit, his arms being visible makes it easy to read what moves he's doing, nothing clashes against him.
Every design seems crafted towards making sure enemy moves are telegraphed and nothing gets lost. You might think I'm reading too much into it, and perhaps I am, but with how much time went into the making of this game, I am dead-certain they turned every stone over to make sure it all worked together.
Of course it isn't all perfect, I know the story gets dinged a lot, which I mean, it's functional. I personally do resent games that just focus on action and take a "So random" approach to storytelling or world building. It's why I bounce so hard off of shit like My Friend Pedro in particular. Feeling like a badass is more fun when it's contextualized in a world, when the world boils down to "it is a video game LOL!!!" it's almost impossible to feel any stakes, odds, or pressure against you. Ryu is the master ninja, he is a stoic professional, and his demeanor makes me want to perform at that level, to inhabit the title of Master Ninja. It's why Thief is more fun when you are not killing people and going thorugh like a ghost, because Garrett is the master thief and would absolutely pull a job off like that. So, while Ninja Gaiden definitely doesn't have a gripping narrative, it absolutely doesn't have a random events plot that is without meaning or merit. Even still, it does have a competent story with effective story beats, such as Alma using the last of her humanity to save her sister before dying, or Ryu going to the shrine maiden's grave to get the gem to power up the dragon sword. Yeah it's not going to blow your mind but you'll be able to understand character motivations the whole way through.
Oftentimes in reviews you'll see people discuss the theme of a game, but they'll just use keywords. A game is about abuse, violence, war, greed, etc. Those aren't descriptive enough in my opinion to describe a narrative's thematic angle. It's like saying Metal Gear Solid is about "war." It's technically true, but some a vague descriptor. A good theme should reflect in your head when you are done playing, as a question you ask yourself, something you are meant to take away with you when you finish a piece of art. When you finish Metal Gear Solid 3, for example, the question the story should have you asking is "how right is it for our allegiances to change our enemies within a day?" I believe Ninja Gaiden wants you asking, "what does it mean to be the master ninja?" But not just in the context of Ryu in the story, but for the player and how much they are willing to learn and improve until they truly are a master ninja. It's a game that extends its theme outwards to the player, it's why Ryu's inputs are so precise to what the player does, you are connected to him and through him you are the master ninja.
This shit is getting pretentious so I will simplify it a little: it's a meticulously crafted action game where you fight a lot of ninjas and demons. Its easy to understand at a glance which makes it easier to get immersed in the extreme mechanical density of its combat.
A lot of common complaints you'll hear about this game usually come down to 2 very important things: 1. Ninja Gaiden is NOT Devil May Cry. These games have similar verbs and on a surface level look alike, but are completely distinct entities. 2. Ninja Gaiden is a game you learn. The camera, the lock-on system, it's all elements of the game you end up learning to use to your advantage. I feel like these things trip people up, going in expecting it to play Devil May Cry With Ninjas, when it is Ninja Gaiden. There is this irritating mentality I've seen online where every game has to be like Dark Souls, when Dark Souls is its own game, other games can be other games. It sounds obvious, but it bleeds into people getting mad at Ninja Gaiden for not being like something else, when there is NOTHING like NG, so to strip it of its idenity and what makes it click with so many people is an Art Crime.
Oh this game has also been ported a shit-ton. Black itself is a re-release of Ninja Gaiden 2004 with every enhancement from the Hurricane Packs minus the intercept move (the world was not ready for a sensual ninja to parry it back intercept style...) So you might wonder, which version should I play? Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus Ultra HD Arcade Neo Edition or Ninja Gaiden 2004? Well it's pretty simple actually! Do you own an Xbox One/Series X? Buy Black! Even a physical copy isn't that bad and digitally it's 10 bucks if memory serves. Don't have an Xbox? The Master Collection is a fine game! Sigma compromises the experience slightly in ways I'm not crazy about but might be more your taste. Removes a lot of the adventure elements that make NG so unique in its pacing, adds in some dogshit new enemies, and makes Rachel playable in fun ableit short chapters. Also Ryu's outfit is very shiny in a way that I don't like, but your mileage may vary. Probably don't buy it on Switch though because that piece of shit will no doubt chug trying to run a game from 2007.
Okay that's my overlong Ninja Gaiden review bye!!!!
There is this weird misconception in the idea of games being art that artfulness is all in narrative and story, and that the act of play is just a part of the form and not also an extension of that. It's what I notice when I play games that strive for an artistic expression, that they seem to regard actually PLAYING a video game as a formality. I very much disagree with this line of thinking, as there is an artistic brilliance to classic arcade games like Galaga that has me dumping quarter after quarter into them just to play more. The feedback of getting really good at dodging, weaving, blasting, it's an artistic expression in itself. Games are the only ones that can provide this.
So anyway here is Ninja Gaiden Black.
A franchise that is regularly used in the same breath as words like "excess" and "gratuitous" might not seem like an art game, but when it plays this well, looks this great, and mechanically is just rock fucking solid? That's artwork to me. What's most interesting though is how deftly put together NGB really is when you really sit down to play it! Just saying "oh the ninja game with the big booby ninjas where you slash dudes a lot" completely downplays what work has went into making Ninja Gaiden a cohesive experience from open to close. The pacing in this game!! Holy shit!! I can casually play through half the game without even realizing it because it is always keeping things fresh and interesting. You're in a night time city, fighting ninjas and solving traversal puzzles, now you're in a monastery battling fiends, now you go underground to explore crypts, oh shit! it's the military! go to their base and disrupt their communications!
It's such a finely tuned experience.
What you also don't expect going into NGB is the atmosphere, and a lot of that is helped by the game's peerless visual presentation. For an Xbox game from 2005,
this looks amazing even today. Animations are just slick as hell, enivornments are varied and gorgeous to behold, it is no surprise that this was considered the tour-de-force as far as graphics on the Xbox were concerned. Some of the vistas later in the game will make you glad you can go into first person and take a look
at everything, it's just such an interesting world to exist in.
I'm also really fond of the music, which NGB takes a surprisingly understated approach to. It's all very atmospheric and moody electronics, with occasional breaks into early 2000s industrial rock or drum'n'bass. So it's essentially my dream OST. I especially love the music in the caverns, that's when it really dawned on me how considered the atmosphere of this game really was. There's something genuinely incredible about getting into an incredible beat down with fiends and ogres while soft
beautiful bells chime in the background. What a game.
As for gameplay, I mean, what needs to be said? Ninja Gaiden plays like a dream. I suppose the extremely high skill-floor is a point to look at, and it is absolutely true:
this game is so vicious to first-time players. But it creates one of the most incredible sensations I've gotten from a game: getting GOOD at it. I'm not talking the asinine "git gud" mentality that Dark Souls has bred into people whose only action game has been Dark Souls, but the actual feeling of getting good at a skill. I play guitar,
and Ninja Gaiden hits that same part of the brain that goes nuts when I play something difficult flawlessly, something hard to describe but when you feel it you feel it.
I think it's absolutely worth considering a game as art when mechanically playing it and getting good at it is extremely fulfilling in a way few games are. I don't want to get
weepy about NGB but you have to understand, this game is just so much fucking fun to play. Every difficulty you ascend gives a sensation of personal growth, that you accomplished something that seemed impossible by just putting the effort in. When I first played, black spider ninjas were just impossible to deal with, they were killing me over and over again, I had to drop to Ninja Dog and learn the game. Now? Smoke bomb, izuna drop, counter, on-landing, simple. Jump to hard mode. Damn, they're replaced with cat fiends now?
They can flying swallow ME?? No way I'm ever beating this. Well, how about this? Their recovery from whiffing a flying swallow is pretty bad, you can easily exploit that.
It goes on and on like that, just learning, adapting, trying new things, it's so exciting. You never fall into a pattern because Ninja Gaiden's enemies defy your attempts to, the game
requires reactive play rather than reflexive. You can't block and dodge-roll through everything, because an enemy will counter you eventually, you have to observe, adapt and overcome the odds.
It means that fights never play out the same, that the game always feels fresh no matter how much you play it, and that learning to deal with total bastards like Ogres and Berserkers is like unlocking a cheat code.
I also really love the enemy designs here, not since Devil May Cry 1 has an action game had such a great assortment of foes to beat the hell out of. I mentioned Berserkers, but goddamn those guys are awesome. One of my favorite enemy types in any game. I also love the cat fiends, they are relentless but also a lot of fun to guilottine throw. Oh, and yes, even ghost fish. Weaklings see ghost fish and think "oh no I'm going to die!!" Chads see ghost fish and think, "Oh my god I am going to get some yellow essence!" The art design is also so well-considered, Ryu's outfit might seem outrageous (which I mean, it is. He's a ninja battling monsters. I feel like he should have an outfit for that) but from a gameplay perspective it's perfect: Ryu is always visible, the camera is focused on him, nothing else in the game has the same coloring as his outfit, his arms being visible makes it easy to read what moves he's doing, nothing clashes against him.
Every design seems crafted towards making sure enemy moves are telegraphed and nothing gets lost. You might think I'm reading too much into it, and perhaps I am, but with how much time went into the making of this game, I am dead-certain they turned every stone over to make sure it all worked together.
Of course it isn't all perfect, I know the story gets dinged a lot, which I mean, it's functional. I personally do resent games that just focus on action and take a "So random" approach to storytelling or world building. It's why I bounce so hard off of shit like My Friend Pedro in particular. Feeling like a badass is more fun when it's contextualized in a world, when the world boils down to "it is a video game LOL!!!" it's almost impossible to feel any stakes, odds, or pressure against you. Ryu is the master ninja, he is a stoic professional, and his demeanor makes me want to perform at that level, to inhabit the title of Master Ninja. It's why Thief is more fun when you are not killing people and going thorugh like a ghost, because Garrett is the master thief and would absolutely pull a job off like that. So, while Ninja Gaiden definitely doesn't have a gripping narrative, it absolutely doesn't have a random events plot that is without meaning or merit. Even still, it does have a competent story with effective story beats, such as Alma using the last of her humanity to save her sister before dying, or Ryu going to the shrine maiden's grave to get the gem to power up the dragon sword. Yeah it's not going to blow your mind but you'll be able to understand character motivations the whole way through.
Oftentimes in reviews you'll see people discuss the theme of a game, but they'll just use keywords. A game is about abuse, violence, war, greed, etc. Those aren't descriptive enough in my opinion to describe a narrative's thematic angle. It's like saying Metal Gear Solid is about "war." It's technically true, but some a vague descriptor. A good theme should reflect in your head when you are done playing, as a question you ask yourself, something you are meant to take away with you when you finish a piece of art. When you finish Metal Gear Solid 3, for example, the question the story should have you asking is "how right is it for our allegiances to change our enemies within a day?" I believe Ninja Gaiden wants you asking, "what does it mean to be the master ninja?" But not just in the context of Ryu in the story, but for the player and how much they are willing to learn and improve until they truly are a master ninja. It's a game that extends its theme outwards to the player, it's why Ryu's inputs are so precise to what the player does, you are connected to him and through him you are the master ninja.
This shit is getting pretentious so I will simplify it a little: it's a meticulously crafted action game where you fight a lot of ninjas and demons. Its easy to understand at a glance which makes it easier to get immersed in the extreme mechanical density of its combat.
A lot of common complaints you'll hear about this game usually come down to 2 very important things: 1. Ninja Gaiden is NOT Devil May Cry. These games have similar verbs and on a surface level look alike, but are completely distinct entities. 2. Ninja Gaiden is a game you learn. The camera, the lock-on system, it's all elements of the game you end up learning to use to your advantage. I feel like these things trip people up, going in expecting it to play Devil May Cry With Ninjas, when it is Ninja Gaiden. There is this irritating mentality I've seen online where every game has to be like Dark Souls, when Dark Souls is its own game, other games can be other games. It sounds obvious, but it bleeds into people getting mad at Ninja Gaiden for not being like something else, when there is NOTHING like NG, so to strip it of its idenity and what makes it click with so many people is an Art Crime.
Oh this game has also been ported a shit-ton. Black itself is a re-release of Ninja Gaiden 2004 with every enhancement from the Hurricane Packs minus the intercept move (the world was not ready for a sensual ninja to parry it back intercept style...) So you might wonder, which version should I play? Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus Ultra HD Arcade Neo Edition or Ninja Gaiden 2004? Well it's pretty simple actually! Do you own an Xbox One/Series X? Buy Black! Even a physical copy isn't that bad and digitally it's 10 bucks if memory serves. Don't have an Xbox? The Master Collection is a fine game! Sigma compromises the experience slightly in ways I'm not crazy about but might be more your taste. Removes a lot of the adventure elements that make NG so unique in its pacing, adds in some dogshit new enemies, and makes Rachel playable in fun ableit short chapters. Also Ryu's outfit is very shiny in a way that I don't like, but your mileage may vary. Probably don't buy it on Switch though because that piece of shit will no doubt chug trying to run a game from 2007.
Okay that's my overlong Ninja Gaiden review bye!!!!
Uma coisa que sempre tive interesse era em me aprofundar mais em jogos de ação, especialmente em sua estrutura e sistema de combate, e sinto que Ninja Gaiden foi a escolha perfeita para isso. É um jogo que faz o básico com perfeição, cada encontro exige um uso inteligente de seu kit e são preenchidos por micro-decisões interessantes de se fazer durante a gameplay, desde o uso de outros inimigos a seu favor, pela administração do sistema de essência, até aproveitar dos iframes, que boa parte do jogo vão ser seu maior recurso defensivo, já que os inimigos são ágeis e agarram o Ryu constantemente. Além disso, o jogo é bem conciso e bem cadenciado e que consegue mesclar muito bem sua parte aventura com sua parte ação - até certo ponto. Ironicamente por mais que o jogo tenha uma base muito sólida e se segure muito bem boa parte do tempo, quando ele decai, a queda é abismal, ele nunca fica no medíocre; ou é muito bom, ou é muito ruim. Sério, tem partes nesse jogo que são insuportáveis, são corredores com alguns dos piores inimigos que já vi em um videogame e que parecem que vão ativamente contra todos os sistemas do jogo, além das próprias boss fights, que por mais que sejam boas no começo, quase todas as outras são péssimas e são quase uma antítese ao design dos inimigos comuns do jogo. Mesmo assim, o brilho do jogo não é apagado por isso, e continua sendo uma experiência extremamente gratificante e memorável, já que mesmo em seus piores momentos, ainda há algo a se extrair daquilo, e traz uma perspectiva interessante sobre os próprios sistemas do jogo.
I've known about the NG series for a while now, and after beating Black, I regret not getting around to playing it sooner since this is easily one of the best action games I've ever played.
To start with, the story is fine, it's not any more complex than the NES games and most of it feels underdeveloped but who cares about that. The real meat is in the combat and Black's combat is amazing. It took some getting used to, but once it clicked with me, I just couldn't put the game down. It's quick and responsive, and the weapon variety is great too. They mostly feel distinct from one another and each one is fun to experiment with, my favourite being the lunar staff and vigoorian flail since I found their multi-hitting attacks to be great at stunning enemies. The thing that elevates the already great combat is the perfect difficulty curve the game has. Every chapter introduces a few new enemies, gradually pushing you to get better at the game and it's challenging while never feeling overwhelming since there's usually only 3-4 enemies on the screen at most.
Special mention has to be given to the essence mechanic. You can absorb essence dropped from enemies to charge your Ultimate Techniques faster and it creates this neat dichotomy which has you decide between gaining resources like health and ninpo or unleashing a powerful, visually stimulating attack. Heading into the game, I thought I wouldn't utilize it too much since throwing away resources seemed too risky, but as I grew in confidence, I ended up using it more and more and it was a great feeling.
The combat never feels monotonous either since long battling segments are broken up by moments of platforming or RE style exploration. The latter is another high point of the game for me since I just love the design philosophy of being put into a huge area and slowly growing familiar with it as you explore every place possible. The platforming, atleast when it's strictly wall jumping and wall running is enjoyable enough, but this is overshadowed by moments in which you'll need Ryu to jump from one platform to another and it sucks. Ryu feels extremely rigid when jumping, and if you dare to tap a wall while jumping then Ryu will start wall running past the platform and end up falling off completely. There's thankfully not many examples of this throughout the game, but when it does pop up, it really made me groan.
Some other gripes would be that switching weapons and using items is pretty slow since you have to open up the menu for it, grabs do way too much damage, the bosses seem to let you hit them whenever they feel like it and in general they're just not very memorable. Ultimately though, I can overlook the flaws I have with the game since Black lands a bullseye in every area it needs to from combat, to graphics, to music to exploration and it results in a game that's incredibly tightly designed.
To start with, the story is fine, it's not any more complex than the NES games and most of it feels underdeveloped but who cares about that. The real meat is in the combat and Black's combat is amazing. It took some getting used to, but once it clicked with me, I just couldn't put the game down. It's quick and responsive, and the weapon variety is great too. They mostly feel distinct from one another and each one is fun to experiment with, my favourite being the lunar staff and vigoorian flail since I found their multi-hitting attacks to be great at stunning enemies. The thing that elevates the already great combat is the perfect difficulty curve the game has. Every chapter introduces a few new enemies, gradually pushing you to get better at the game and it's challenging while never feeling overwhelming since there's usually only 3-4 enemies on the screen at most.
Special mention has to be given to the essence mechanic. You can absorb essence dropped from enemies to charge your Ultimate Techniques faster and it creates this neat dichotomy which has you decide between gaining resources like health and ninpo or unleashing a powerful, visually stimulating attack. Heading into the game, I thought I wouldn't utilize it too much since throwing away resources seemed too risky, but as I grew in confidence, I ended up using it more and more and it was a great feeling.
The combat never feels monotonous either since long battling segments are broken up by moments of platforming or RE style exploration. The latter is another high point of the game for me since I just love the design philosophy of being put into a huge area and slowly growing familiar with it as you explore every place possible. The platforming, atleast when it's strictly wall jumping and wall running is enjoyable enough, but this is overshadowed by moments in which you'll need Ryu to jump from one platform to another and it sucks. Ryu feels extremely rigid when jumping, and if you dare to tap a wall while jumping then Ryu will start wall running past the platform and end up falling off completely. There's thankfully not many examples of this throughout the game, but when it does pop up, it really made me groan.
Some other gripes would be that switching weapons and using items is pretty slow since you have to open up the menu for it, grabs do way too much damage, the bosses seem to let you hit them whenever they feel like it and in general they're just not very memorable. Ultimately though, I can overlook the flaws I have with the game since Black lands a bullseye in every area it needs to from combat, to graphics, to music to exploration and it results in a game that's incredibly tightly designed.
DISCLAIMER 1: favor ler essa review curtinha (e pouco relacionada ao jogo) sobre Ninja Gaiden II: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Lenz/review/576401/
Sim, um pouco mais de 5 meses pra zerar um jogo. É parcialmente minha culpa, já que enrolei até outubro pra continuar essa merda, mas a partir de certo ponto no capítulo 11 meu jogo simplesmente congelou, me impedindo de prosseguir. Acabei dropando o game indefinitivamente e pulando logo pra sua sequência (Ninja Gaiden II)
Nessa primeira semana de janeiro eu consegui, finalmente, consertar o crash do capítulo 11 de Ninja Gaiden Black (graças ao meu amigo luquinhas tmj wolvez) e acabei terminando o game hoje, dia 6. Como eu joguei o segundo game antes, vou usá-lo como comparação diversas vezes na review porque infelizmente é inevitável a essa altura.
DISCLAIMER 2: Joguei no modo normal e o que eu falo aqui reflete apenas minha primeira experiência/run com o jogo, pouco me aprofundo no que ele oferece como action game.
DISCLAIMER 3: Vou falar bem pouco da parte narrativa do jogo porque não é algo que eu me importe muito.
Enfim, partindo pro jogo, caralho, que relíquia. A franquia, originalmente 2D e de nintendinho, acaba ressuscitando como um action-adventure pela Team Ninja em 2004(ou 2005 já que eu joguei o Black)
E porra, pelo tanto de enfoque na exploração, no loot, na progressão metroidvania-esque e seu mapa interconectado, os caras criaram um combate surreal até mesmo pra época, visto que apesar de eu ter jogado o Black, o 04 lançou um ano antes de Devil May Cry 3, o "divisor de águas" de seu gênero (Character Action, num geral). Eu ainda tô devendo Dead or Alive mas o fato deles terem começado como uma desenvolvedora de jogos de luta deve ter influenciado bastante em como NGB foi feito.
Reverenciando um pouco mais DMC (why not?), vou usar como parâmetro aqui: Ninja Gaiden Black é como se DMC1 tivesse o combate do mesmo nível de qualidade do 3 mas com os pontos baixos do 2 (...desculpa)
Sobre DMC1: O mapa
Assim, eu ainda gosto mais de como DMC1 lida com sua própria estrutura e vícios por ser um "Resident Evil younger brother", o que apesar de ter (alguns) elementos que servem de rascunho para o que formula o gênero futuramente, se autossustenta sendo um ótimo jogo em seu próprio território. Ninja Gaiden Black segue uma narrativa parecida: focado na exploração e progressão por puzzles que por acaso acabou se firmando com um ótimo combate e seu design envolta disso. Diferente de seu/seus sucessores, o foco da progressão não se destaca apenas em encontros com chefes e inimigos, mas também com sua ambição em criar levels dignos de uma boa exploração.
O que denota minha preferência por DMC1 vai além da qualidade de ambos, mas uma solidez maior ao se apresentar como aventura. Não só denota meus problemas com NGB, como também sua pretensão em me provar, mais uma vez, suas qualidades honestas como um jogo de ação.
Num meio totalmente subjetivo eu diria que curto mais a forma em que Ninja Gaiden 2 se estrutura: linear com certos trechos de exploração e focado em manusear seu loop com o combate ao invés de tentar algo mais emergente como puzzles, seções de plataforma e exploração como combustível. É preferência minha, mas há quem sinta falta do mapa interconectado do primeiro jogo.
Deixando isso de lado - é inegável que NGB exerce muito bem o que diz respeito ao design de seus níveis. Tenho nitpicks, alguns bem sérios, tipo o fato dessa porra de jogo forçar platforming o tempo todo quando a movimentação do Ryu não se adequa 100% a isso, trechos e CAPÍTULOS em level aquático e alguns puzzles pouco intuitivos. Mas a o backtracking, enemy encounters, recompensa em loot e a progressão geral do jogo são geralmente cativantes o suficiente pra me animar por horas. Geralmente.
Essa abordagem à la Doom com diversos trechos e segredos mapeados de uma forma orgânica e integral dentro do jogo (I mean, tem área dos capítulos finais do game que abrem atalho pra área do começo do jogo) é de fato algo bem inteligente e coerente com seu loop de gameplay -- e de forma super enraizada, Ninja Gaiden Black é um dos jogos mais consistentes que joguei.
O ponto que me levou a compara-lo com DMC2 é a queda de qualidade em certos capítulos. Sigo me perguntando e imaginando como o Itagaki e a Team Ninja desenvolveram esse jogo, porque tanto ele quanto o 2 me dão um sentimento de que fizeram os capítulos em épocas completamente diferente com tempo, orçamento, disposição e ambiente distintos também (já que em algumas entrevistas o Itagaki menciona que NG2 passou por um devhell)
E apesar dos problemas ficarem mais aparente no segundo jogo (linearidade, trechos incompletos, bossfights imbecis e até alguns inimigos super mal polidos), eu acho que os pontos baixos do Black me incomodam muito mais... o capítulo 9 é o maior exemplo: tem uma bossfight contra dois (ou três? nem lembro) tanques e logo em seguida, contra a porra de um HELICÓPTERO. O único game que vi fazer isso antes, por incrível que pareça, foi Devil May Cry 2, vai tomar no * Itagaki
Capítulo 11 também é uma bosta, já que 90% dele é exploração e puzzles num level aquático e os controles underwater do game são horríveis, e se eu ficar de nitpick com o jogo a review inteira aqui vou acabar não fazendo jus à nota que dei pro jogo (apesar de números serem meramente representativos). NGB tá longe de ser um game perfeito do início ao fim, assim como seu sucessor, mas acho que, nesse caso, eles lidam de forma diferente com suas próprias falhas: enquanto NG2 assume e as integra em seu core de gameplay, o Black acaba se desdobrando e achando um jeito de me surpreender novamente, como exemplo, o capítulo 10: logo após duas das piores bossfights que já vi na minha vida (a do helicóptero, principalmente), o game prossegue pra um dos levels mais interessantes e divertidos de explorar (que é o aqueduto) e acaba respirando, mais uma vez, se redimindo em frente aos meus olhos.*
Avançando pra última parte mas não menos importante do jogo: o combate.
Definitivamente o que eu mais curti jogando. Me surpreendeu num nível em que eu não achei que iria conseguir me divertir tanto, mesmo tendo voltado a jogar após NG2, mas que continuou se firmando como um dos melhores combates já vistos num action game.
Respeito muito como o título se expressa por uma abordagem diferente, em desafios mais inerentes à sobrevivência e eficiência do player, contrapondo os desafios implícitos, o enfoque estético e a filosofia de “escolha como derrotar seus inimigos!” de Devil May Cry.
Você é introduzido como um Ninja (duh) e o estilo de animações do Ryu acabam se assemelhando mais à artes marciais, casando bem com a temática e trama do jogo. A movimentação do Ryu com o Wall Running, o arsenal, as skills e projéteis (como a Shuriken) e os inimigos se situam no mesmo departamento, e provável que muito disso venha de tropes da cultura japonesa, mas não sou versado nisso o suficiente pra me aprofundar.
Ao longo do jogo o player se depara com diversos elementos fantasiosos e até contemporâneos (como a merda da base militar), convergindo diferentes gêneros dentro do jogo (e isso fica muito mais aparente no 2), e apesar de não dar a foda pra história e universo de Ninja Gaiden, acho muito divertido como o jogo se despiroca com esses elementos.
Voltando ao combate, gosto da forma como ele progride: é metódico, e até slow-paced se comparar com suas sequências, é super bem cadenciado tanto pelo design de inimigos do jogo quanto pela diversidade de mecânicas que vão moldando certa liberdade pro jogador descobrir seu playstyle, acho legal que por boa parte do game os inimigos se comportam como peças de xadrez, cada um tendo sua forma diferente de lidar numa linha de progressão bem gradual e bem gerenciada, o que eu pouco sentia no segundo jogo (provavelmente pelo quão desorganizado ele é). Apesar disso, eu ainda prefiro o design de inimigos e chefes do 2, pois no Black eu sinto muito do que eu gosto desse jogo indo embora em diversos trechos e capítulos, e acaba ficando amargo que na reta final do jogo tu basicamente só enfrenta ghost fish e pink fiends, em certas partes tu mal enfrenta inimigo (cap 11 é basicamente um Jolly Roger Bay, tem nem combate essa bosta) e outros incômodos que tive nessa run.
E mesmo assim, quando o jogo tá brilhando: ele diverte MUITO. Desculpa pros fromfags de plantão mas quem colocou o dodge no mesmo input do block com o analógico merecia um aumento da Tecmo. Quem enaltece e até cultua o combate de Sekiro por ser “mecanicamente deep” ou “skill-based” deveria jogar um pouquinho de Ninja Gaiden, não é querendo pagar de elitista nem nada (até porque provavelmente eu gosto mais de Sekiro lmao) mas o sistema de parry de NGB é mil vezes melhor. NG2, apesar de ser um contraponto, mantém a mesma filosofia que é, na minha opinião (considerando os dois que eu joguei), a base de Ninja Gaiden: “morrer mais devagar que seus inimigos” (obviamente não fui eu que criei essa frase icônica, favor darem uma olhada nesse vídeo incrível: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBnIYXZ12BI)
Mas enfim, o que acaba me pegando mais no Black do que no 2, de certo modo, é proposital: o jogo é muito mais recompensador e satisfatório de jogar de forma reativa aqui. O 2 te encoraja a abusar da própria sanidade, dedos, mecânicas que podem parecer quebradas mas que estranhamente entram em harmonia com o resto do jogo, etc. Enquanto no Black, procurar brechas pra punir o inimigo logo após meia hora de gatilho segurado (ok não é pra tanto) é muito mais satisfatório pelo quão grounded e restrito o combate é. É provável que seja um sentimento comum ao jogar isso, mas os “limites” que NGB te impõe na real só contribuem pras nuances da gameplay do jogo, enquanto o 2 te dá uma liberdade maior em troca de ritmo. Apesar de ser em diferente escala, é uma reação parecida que tive ao jogar DMC4 logo depois do 3: o ritmo da campanha era open-ended até demais pro meu gosto.
Em algumas situações eu me estranhava jogando o Black pós-NG2 porque muitos dos sistemas do jogo foram aprimorados em sequência, como por exemplo o arsenal, que apesar de ser bem eficiente no Black, o 2 faz com que tu seja muito mais livre em descobrir seu estilo de gameplay e seus pontos fracos e fortes em cada situação com cada arma do jogo.
O sistema de cura também é algo a ser debatido, mas eu não mexeria no que o Black fez com os consumíveis, porque apesar de tudo, ainda é um jogo de aventura e muito da exploração acaba te recompensando com cura e ninpo pela simples e honesta curiosidade do player. A mecânica de Ninpo e os projéteis também foram aprimorados no 2 então é algo que eu levei mais como um “rascunho” do que como problema do jogo, assim como a falta de lock on: mesmo com a câmera zoada, o sistema de prioridades funciona muito bem no Black (que é basicamente o input de seus ataques serem programados de forma circunstancial, como por exemplo, proximidade: entre dois inimigos pertos do Ryu, ele vai sempre direcionar o ataque ao inimigo mais próximo, como um IS Ninja te encarando logo antes de tentar te explodir), mas acho que talvez um soft lock-on, pelo menos em bossfights, seria saudável pro jogo. No 2 seria impossível adaptar qualquer lock-on porque a implementação do sistema de prioridades é muito mais sofisticada pela adição de diversas mecânicas e padrão de inimigos que o Black não tinha, além do jogo ser infinitamente mais fast-paced.
O sistema de ranking é total rejeitável, pois serve exclusivamente pra leaderboards e não recompensa o player em absolutamente nada in-game.
Sobre os chefes: diria que é o maior defeito do jogo
Alguns demandam o uso do arco, outros tem padrões de bloqueio/desvio insanamente mal telegrafados (como a primeira bossfight contra a Alma), e há chefes que são terríveis por natureza mesmo (tipo o helicóptero do capítulo 9). Assim, lutar contra o Doku foi muito memorável e divertido, mas acho que não tem nenhuma outra luta que chegue perto dele no jogo então fica por isso aí mesmo. Não que o 2 tenha melhorado muita coisa, mas falar de bossfights em Ninja Gaiden é tipo falar de política no jantar com a família, sei lá
O que eu falei aqui não representa nem 10% da qualidade do jogo mas posso afirmar que, definitivamente, esse game é um must-play. Xemu é um emulador terrível, é melhor jogar pela retrocompatibilidade do Xbox One/Series, talvez vale até mais a pena comprar um Xbox original, jogar o 2 pelo Xenia ou até mesmo as versões Sigma (que não joguei pra recomendar com clareza), mas faça um favor a si mesmo se tu gosta de videogame e vá jogar Ninja Gaiden porque mesmo que eu tenha jogado só dois jogos, é definitivamente uma franquia especial a ser levada em consideração pra falar sobre action games. Não espere um Devil May Cry de ninjas ou God of War com mais sangue, mas sim um jogo essencialmente distinto com uma metodologia completamente diferente no core de sua gameplay.
No fim das contas, mesmo que NG2 seja "uma sequência com esteróides", eu acabo entendendo bem quem prefere o Black, justamente pelo quão opostos eles são e funcionam em suas metodologias.
Sim, um pouco mais de 5 meses pra zerar um jogo. É parcialmente minha culpa, já que enrolei até outubro pra continuar essa merda, mas a partir de certo ponto no capítulo 11 meu jogo simplesmente congelou, me impedindo de prosseguir. Acabei dropando o game indefinitivamente e pulando logo pra sua sequência (Ninja Gaiden II)
Nessa primeira semana de janeiro eu consegui, finalmente, consertar o crash do capítulo 11 de Ninja Gaiden Black (graças ao meu amigo luquinhas tmj wolvez) e acabei terminando o game hoje, dia 6. Como eu joguei o segundo game antes, vou usá-lo como comparação diversas vezes na review porque infelizmente é inevitável a essa altura.
DISCLAIMER 2: Joguei no modo normal e o que eu falo aqui reflete apenas minha primeira experiência/run com o jogo, pouco me aprofundo no que ele oferece como action game.
DISCLAIMER 3: Vou falar bem pouco da parte narrativa do jogo porque não é algo que eu me importe muito.
Enfim, partindo pro jogo, caralho, que relíquia. A franquia, originalmente 2D e de nintendinho, acaba ressuscitando como um action-adventure pela Team Ninja em 2004
E porra, pelo tanto de enfoque na exploração, no loot, na progressão metroidvania-esque e seu mapa interconectado, os caras criaram um combate surreal até mesmo pra época, visto que apesar de eu ter jogado o Black, o 04 lançou um ano antes de Devil May Cry 3, o "divisor de águas" de seu gênero (Character Action, num geral). Eu ainda tô devendo Dead or Alive mas o fato deles terem começado como uma desenvolvedora de jogos de luta deve ter influenciado bastante em como NGB foi feito.
Reverenciando um pouco mais DMC (why not?), vou usar como parâmetro aqui: Ninja Gaiden Black é como se DMC1 tivesse o combate do mesmo nível de qualidade do 3 mas com os pontos baixos do 2 (...desculpa)
Sobre DMC1: O mapa
Assim, eu ainda gosto mais de como DMC1 lida com sua própria estrutura e vícios por ser um "Resident Evil younger brother", o que apesar de ter (alguns) elementos que servem de rascunho para o que formula o gênero futuramente, se autossustenta sendo um ótimo jogo em seu próprio território. Ninja Gaiden Black segue uma narrativa parecida: focado na exploração e progressão por puzzles que por acaso acabou se firmando com um ótimo combate e seu design envolta disso. Diferente de seu/seus sucessores, o foco da progressão não se destaca apenas em encontros com chefes e inimigos, mas também com sua ambição em criar levels dignos de uma boa exploração.
O que denota minha preferência por DMC1 vai além da qualidade de ambos, mas uma solidez maior ao se apresentar como aventura. Não só denota meus problemas com NGB, como também sua pretensão em me provar, mais uma vez, suas qualidades honestas como um jogo de ação.
Num meio totalmente subjetivo eu diria que curto mais a forma em que Ninja Gaiden 2 se estrutura: linear com certos trechos de exploração e focado em manusear seu loop com o combate ao invés de tentar algo mais emergente como puzzles, seções de plataforma e exploração como combustível. É preferência minha, mas há quem sinta falta do mapa interconectado do primeiro jogo.
Deixando isso de lado - é inegável que NGB exerce muito bem o que diz respeito ao design de seus níveis. Tenho nitpicks, alguns bem sérios, tipo o fato dessa porra de jogo forçar platforming o tempo todo quando a movimentação do Ryu não se adequa 100% a isso, trechos e CAPÍTULOS em level aquático e alguns puzzles pouco intuitivos. Mas a o backtracking, enemy encounters, recompensa em loot e a progressão geral do jogo são geralmente cativantes o suficiente pra me animar por horas. Geralmente.
Essa abordagem à la Doom com diversos trechos e segredos mapeados de uma forma orgânica e integral dentro do jogo (I mean, tem área dos capítulos finais do game que abrem atalho pra área do começo do jogo) é de fato algo bem inteligente e coerente com seu loop de gameplay -- e de forma super enraizada, Ninja Gaiden Black é um dos jogos mais consistentes que joguei.
O ponto que me levou a compara-lo com DMC2 é a queda de qualidade em certos capítulos. Sigo me perguntando e imaginando como o Itagaki e a Team Ninja desenvolveram esse jogo, porque tanto ele quanto o 2 me dão um sentimento de que fizeram os capítulos em épocas completamente diferente com tempo, orçamento, disposição e ambiente distintos também (já que em algumas entrevistas o Itagaki menciona que NG2 passou por um devhell)
E apesar dos problemas ficarem mais aparente no segundo jogo (linearidade, trechos incompletos, bossfights imbecis e até alguns inimigos super mal polidos), eu acho que os pontos baixos do Black me incomodam muito mais... o capítulo 9 é o maior exemplo: tem uma bossfight contra dois (ou três? nem lembro) tanques e logo em seguida, contra a porra de um HELICÓPTERO. O único game que vi fazer isso antes, por incrível que pareça, foi Devil May Cry 2, vai tomar no * Itagaki
Capítulo 11 também é uma bosta, já que 90% dele é exploração e puzzles num level aquático e os controles underwater do game são horríveis, e se eu ficar de nitpick com o jogo a review inteira aqui vou acabar não fazendo jus à nota que dei pro jogo (apesar de números serem meramente representativos). NGB tá longe de ser um game perfeito do início ao fim, assim como seu sucessor, mas acho que, nesse caso, eles lidam de forma diferente com suas próprias falhas: enquanto NG2 assume e as integra em seu core de gameplay, o Black acaba se desdobrando e achando um jeito de me surpreender novamente, como exemplo, o capítulo 10: logo após duas das piores bossfights que já vi na minha vida (a do helicóptero, principalmente), o game prossegue pra um dos levels mais interessantes e divertidos de explorar (que é o aqueduto) e acaba respirando, mais uma vez, se redimindo em frente aos meus olhos.*
Avançando pra última parte mas não menos importante do jogo: o combate.
Definitivamente o que eu mais curti jogando. Me surpreendeu num nível em que eu não achei que iria conseguir me divertir tanto, mesmo tendo voltado a jogar após NG2, mas que continuou se firmando como um dos melhores combates já vistos num action game.
Respeito muito como o título se expressa por uma abordagem diferente, em desafios mais inerentes à sobrevivência e eficiência do player, contrapondo os desafios implícitos, o enfoque estético e a filosofia de “escolha como derrotar seus inimigos!” de Devil May Cry.
Você é introduzido como um Ninja (duh) e o estilo de animações do Ryu acabam se assemelhando mais à artes marciais, casando bem com a temática e trama do jogo. A movimentação do Ryu com o Wall Running, o arsenal, as skills e projéteis (como a Shuriken) e os inimigos se situam no mesmo departamento, e provável que muito disso venha de tropes da cultura japonesa, mas não sou versado nisso o suficiente pra me aprofundar.
Ao longo do jogo o player se depara com diversos elementos fantasiosos e até contemporâneos (como a merda da base militar), convergindo diferentes gêneros dentro do jogo (e isso fica muito mais aparente no 2), e apesar de não dar a foda pra história e universo de Ninja Gaiden, acho muito divertido como o jogo se despiroca com esses elementos.
Voltando ao combate, gosto da forma como ele progride: é metódico, e até slow-paced se comparar com suas sequências, é super bem cadenciado tanto pelo design de inimigos do jogo quanto pela diversidade de mecânicas que vão moldando certa liberdade pro jogador descobrir seu playstyle, acho legal que por boa parte do game os inimigos se comportam como peças de xadrez, cada um tendo sua forma diferente de lidar numa linha de progressão bem gradual e bem gerenciada, o que eu pouco sentia no segundo jogo (provavelmente pelo quão desorganizado ele é). Apesar disso, eu ainda prefiro o design de inimigos e chefes do 2, pois no Black eu sinto muito do que eu gosto desse jogo indo embora em diversos trechos e capítulos, e acaba ficando amargo que na reta final do jogo tu basicamente só enfrenta ghost fish e pink fiends, em certas partes tu mal enfrenta inimigo (cap 11 é basicamente um Jolly Roger Bay, tem nem combate essa bosta) e outros incômodos que tive nessa run.
E mesmo assim, quando o jogo tá brilhando: ele diverte MUITO. Desculpa pros fromfags de plantão mas quem colocou o dodge no mesmo input do block com o analógico merecia um aumento da Tecmo. Quem enaltece e até cultua o combate de Sekiro por ser “mecanicamente deep” ou “skill-based” deveria jogar um pouquinho de Ninja Gaiden, não é querendo pagar de elitista nem nada (até porque provavelmente eu gosto mais de Sekiro lmao) mas o sistema de parry de NGB é mil vezes melhor. NG2, apesar de ser um contraponto, mantém a mesma filosofia que é, na minha opinião (considerando os dois que eu joguei), a base de Ninja Gaiden: “morrer mais devagar que seus inimigos” (obviamente não fui eu que criei essa frase icônica, favor darem uma olhada nesse vídeo incrível: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBnIYXZ12BI)
Mas enfim, o que acaba me pegando mais no Black do que no 2, de certo modo, é proposital: o jogo é muito mais recompensador e satisfatório de jogar de forma reativa aqui. O 2 te encoraja a abusar da própria sanidade, dedos, mecânicas que podem parecer quebradas mas que estranhamente entram em harmonia com o resto do jogo, etc. Enquanto no Black, procurar brechas pra punir o inimigo logo após meia hora de gatilho segurado (ok não é pra tanto) é muito mais satisfatório pelo quão grounded e restrito o combate é. É provável que seja um sentimento comum ao jogar isso, mas os “limites” que NGB te impõe na real só contribuem pras nuances da gameplay do jogo, enquanto o 2 te dá uma liberdade maior em troca de ritmo. Apesar de ser em diferente escala, é uma reação parecida que tive ao jogar DMC4 logo depois do 3: o ritmo da campanha era open-ended até demais pro meu gosto.
Em algumas situações eu me estranhava jogando o Black pós-NG2 porque muitos dos sistemas do jogo foram aprimorados em sequência, como por exemplo o arsenal, que apesar de ser bem eficiente no Black, o 2 faz com que tu seja muito mais livre em descobrir seu estilo de gameplay e seus pontos fracos e fortes em cada situação com cada arma do jogo.
O sistema de cura também é algo a ser debatido, mas eu não mexeria no que o Black fez com os consumíveis, porque apesar de tudo, ainda é um jogo de aventura e muito da exploração acaba te recompensando com cura e ninpo pela simples e honesta curiosidade do player. A mecânica de Ninpo e os projéteis também foram aprimorados no 2 então é algo que eu levei mais como um “rascunho” do que como problema do jogo, assim como a falta de lock on: mesmo com a câmera zoada, o sistema de prioridades funciona muito bem no Black (que é basicamente o input de seus ataques serem programados de forma circunstancial, como por exemplo, proximidade: entre dois inimigos pertos do Ryu, ele vai sempre direcionar o ataque ao inimigo mais próximo, como um IS Ninja te encarando logo antes de tentar te explodir), mas acho que talvez um soft lock-on, pelo menos em bossfights, seria saudável pro jogo. No 2 seria impossível adaptar qualquer lock-on porque a implementação do sistema de prioridades é muito mais sofisticada pela adição de diversas mecânicas e padrão de inimigos que o Black não tinha, além do jogo ser infinitamente mais fast-paced.
O sistema de ranking é total rejeitável, pois serve exclusivamente pra leaderboards e não recompensa o player em absolutamente nada in-game.
Sobre os chefes: diria que é o maior defeito do jogo
Alguns demandam o uso do arco, outros tem padrões de bloqueio/desvio insanamente mal telegrafados (como a primeira bossfight contra a Alma), e há chefes que são terríveis por natureza mesmo (tipo o helicóptero do capítulo 9). Assim, lutar contra o Doku foi muito memorável e divertido, mas acho que não tem nenhuma outra luta que chegue perto dele no jogo então fica por isso aí mesmo. Não que o 2 tenha melhorado muita coisa, mas falar de bossfights em Ninja Gaiden é tipo falar de política no jantar com a família, sei lá
O que eu falei aqui não representa nem 10% da qualidade do jogo mas posso afirmar que, definitivamente, esse game é um must-play. Xemu é um emulador terrível, é melhor jogar pela retrocompatibilidade do Xbox One/Series, talvez vale até mais a pena comprar um Xbox original, jogar o 2 pelo Xenia ou até mesmo as versões Sigma (que não joguei pra recomendar com clareza), mas faça um favor a si mesmo se tu gosta de videogame e vá jogar Ninja Gaiden porque mesmo que eu tenha jogado só dois jogos, é definitivamente uma franquia especial a ser levada em consideração pra falar sobre action games. Não espere um Devil May Cry de ninjas ou God of War com mais sangue, mas sim um jogo essencialmente distinto com uma metodologia completamente diferente no core de sua gameplay.
No fim das contas, mesmo que NG2 seja "uma sequência com esteróides", eu acabo entendendo bem quem prefere o Black, justamente pelo quão opostos eles são e funcionam em suas metodologias.
FromSoftware, dificuldade? Nunca jogou um NGB...
Master Ninja Energy
This was a journey. I think it's possibly my new favorite action game. The combat relies more on reflexes than memorizing combos. Playing it was invigorating, but I was also reminded that games like this were a dying breed.by 2005. Having a simple story of revenge was quickly becoming passe'. Contemporary to Ninja Gaiden Black were games like Devil May Cry 3 and Shadow of the Colossus, both of which released in 2005, as well Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3, which released a year prior to Black (The base game Ninja Gaiden released the same year as Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3). All of them were doing more interesting things with how stories could be told in games. Ninja Gaiden's story isn't bad, mind. It's just simple, with plenty of worldbuilding, llore, ambient music, and atmosphere to soak in if one is so inclined.
And the game gives you plenty of time to take in the sights. The map is sprawling, with lots of collectibles to find, secrets to uncover, and puzzles to solve. It reminds me of a Resident Evil game or a Zelda game from the Nintendo 64 era in terms of level design, while also having a foot firmly planted in the glories of the NES. You have a Ninja that travels to an evil empire by airship, fights, using primarily a sword, bad guys with guns, other ninjas, zombies, demons, and dinosaurs, with the help of a beautiful woman. It's all stuff you would have seen in the 8-bit days. The aesthetics, plot, and gameplay would fit right in with that era, especially given how hard the game is to finish.
i won't try to sugarcoat it, folks: this game is hard. To the point where it might seem unfair. It has mobs, enemies that respawn, and even classic NES knockback into lava pits. This version of the game does have an easy mode, and it makes fun of you for using it. So naturally, I played on Normal, learned the moveset, got better, and had the time of my life doing so. Every weapon in the game has a use (except for the nunchuks, which are basically a worse version of the flail). In addition, the game is very generous with healing items, so make sure to stock up if you get stuck, and don't be afraid to use your magic. This game does have a ranking system, but the rankings don't seem to do much. Which is a good thing, as that means all the bonuses, costumes, and extra missions can be unlocked and earned simply by playing the game at your own pace.
In summary, this is a perfect reboot of an old franchise. Fun story, immaculate level design, a combat system that will really put a player's reflexes to the test, an interesting world to explore, and lots of bonuses to unlock make this an amazing game that could potentially keep a player busy for months. Probably the best Xbox exclusive not published by Microsoft themselves. Don't miss it. But ignore the remake of this game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Sigma eliminates a lot of the puzzle elements that made this game so interesting to explore, in my opinion. Sigma is a fine game on its own, but it is not a substitute for Black. There is no other game like Ninja Gaiden Black. And given the nature of video games now, there never will be.
And the game gives you plenty of time to take in the sights. The map is sprawling, with lots of collectibles to find, secrets to uncover, and puzzles to solve. It reminds me of a Resident Evil game or a Zelda game from the Nintendo 64 era in terms of level design, while also having a foot firmly planted in the glories of the NES. You have a Ninja that travels to an evil empire by airship, fights, using primarily a sword, bad guys with guns, other ninjas, zombies, demons, and dinosaurs, with the help of a beautiful woman. It's all stuff you would have seen in the 8-bit days. The aesthetics, plot, and gameplay would fit right in with that era, especially given how hard the game is to finish.
i won't try to sugarcoat it, folks: this game is hard. To the point where it might seem unfair. It has mobs, enemies that respawn, and even classic NES knockback into lava pits. This version of the game does have an easy mode, and it makes fun of you for using it. So naturally, I played on Normal, learned the moveset, got better, and had the time of my life doing so. Every weapon in the game has a use (except for the nunchuks, which are basically a worse version of the flail). In addition, the game is very generous with healing items, so make sure to stock up if you get stuck, and don't be afraid to use your magic. This game does have a ranking system, but the rankings don't seem to do much. Which is a good thing, as that means all the bonuses, costumes, and extra missions can be unlocked and earned simply by playing the game at your own pace.
In summary, this is a perfect reboot of an old franchise. Fun story, immaculate level design, a combat system that will really put a player's reflexes to the test, an interesting world to explore, and lots of bonuses to unlock make this an amazing game that could potentially keep a player busy for months. Probably the best Xbox exclusive not published by Microsoft themselves. Don't miss it. But ignore the remake of this game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Sigma eliminates a lot of the puzzle elements that made this game so interesting to explore, in my opinion. Sigma is a fine game on its own, but it is not a substitute for Black. There is no other game like Ninja Gaiden Black. And given the nature of video games now, there never will be.
Izuna dropping the underground monastery level and the phantom fishes
The great thing about NGB,You get to learn from your mistakes and improve yourself. Just like in real life ryu hayabusa is my idol.
The acceptable shape of "hard games" has grown small. They have lock on, they have generous I-frames in the form of a big dodge roll, they have little 6 pixel platforms surrounded by spikes, they have big flashing symbols telling me the dangerous attack is about to hit, they have little 30 second checkpoint loops so that I don't have to waste my time replaying a section i beat, they present all information with absolute clarity, they make sure I have enough resources so that I don't need to think about it. These things are not bad but they are so common it becomes limiting. If a game breaks the formula, it's fake difficulty, fake difficulty is when the game is difficult in ways I don't like, making it fake.
Ninja Gaiden has enemies who will grab you for blocking too much, the grab has almost no tell, you simply need to be aware it's a risk. Ninja Gaiden has enemies who will pelt you with exploding knives for daring to be in the same room as them, that's not their only attack it's just a thing they'll do. Ninja Gaiden gives you a dozen attacks that'll insta kill just about any goon in the game if you know where to apply them. Ninja Gaiden does not have a lock on, it would simply cause problems. Ninja Gaiden remains thrilling even as your expertise grows because it demands you remain mindful of enemies that you understand perfectly. I forgot to make a punchline for this one.
Ninja Gaiden has enemies who will grab you for blocking too much, the grab has almost no tell, you simply need to be aware it's a risk. Ninja Gaiden has enemies who will pelt you with exploding knives for daring to be in the same room as them, that's not their only attack it's just a thing they'll do. Ninja Gaiden gives you a dozen attacks that'll insta kill just about any goon in the game if you know where to apply them. Ninja Gaiden does not have a lock on, it would simply cause problems. Ninja Gaiden remains thrilling even as your expertise grows because it demands you remain mindful of enemies that you understand perfectly. I forgot to make a punchline for this one.
What we have here is an incredible action game with a high skill ceiling. Would be a shame if someone added worms to it...
First things first: Ninja Gaiden Black looks incredible running on a Series X. There is a level of clarity and sharpness here that you just won't see in most other backwards compatible Xbox games - not unless it's also developed by Team Ninja - and even some 360 games upscaled to 4k don't look nearly as good. You can see every pixel on Rachel, and I know because I've spent hours in the lab analyzing her model. I have access to high-end Digital Foundry tools, and you will not believe the frame graph I've generated for Ryu's crotch-- this technology was NOT intended for these purposes!
Now this is where I out myself as a hack, because I did not beat this game on Ultra Lord-God Ninja mode or whatever the hell Ninja Gaiden Black's most powerful warriors insist is the one true way to enjoy the game. I'm a Centrist Ninja, I think any way you enjoy a game is the best way to enjoy it, even if you're a dog. A ninja dog, as some might be.
Even though I lack the requisite amount of skill to play Black on its highest difficulty, I'm more than capable of seeing what the game is going for and respect how technical it is. Look up any boss tutorial and you'll get a sense for how layered and complex Ninja Gaiden's combat can be. It's worth noting that none of the strategies therein actually helped me overcome some of Black's nastiest bosses when applied directly, but they did give me insight into the game's underlying mechanics which allowed me to develop tactics that worked for me. Brute force is seldom the answer, and Black rewards experimentation and thoughtful play, which is appreciable on any level of difficulty.
Unfortunately, I don't think I can jump onboard with the sentiment that this is the best action game ever. The rote reuse of certain bosses on normal difficulties and below can get tiresome, and though you can mitigate this by playing at higher levels, the trade comes at the cost of adding more mobs to boss battles. The few tastes I had of this during my playthrough didn't leave a positive impression, as the increased number of enemies didn't pay nice with the camera. An egregious case of this comes early with the second boss fight, where you have to manage an enemy on horseback running between the two edges of the arena while contending with wizards sniping at you and vanishing.
As the game crept on and abandoned interesting traversal for intense combat challenges in its last two levels, I found my investment waning. In a way, this is true to Ninja Gaiden's NES lineage, because like those games I found myself nearing the end and thinking "yeah I've had enough, I'm good." I understand clawing your way through several small rooms of meaty and tenacious enemies and rolling right into a boss rush is meant to be a true test of your skills, but I personally didn't find the attrition nearly as enjoyable as others. This shouldn't be taken as a full-throated dismissal of the game's combat, which I do like overall, but I did find myself waxing between disengagement and frustration towards the end.
Maybe some of my issues stem from a real bad case of Resident Evil brain for which I'm entering the terminal stages, because I found the parts of Black where you're roaming around and solving puzzles to be the most enjoyable. Yeah, I know, I'm a freak for thinking the combat is secondary to platforming and picking up weird totems to trek back to locked doors a level-and-a-half away. I have to live with myself every day of my life.
It's easy to get lost in the minutia of Ninja Gaiden Black's combat and difficulties, and if you really want to trip headfirst down the rabbit hole, you should check out all the subtle and big differences in Ninja Gaiden's many releases. I actually own a copy of 2004's Ninja Gaiden, which I mistakenly bought thinking it was a totally different game. It was only when I was a breath away from grabbing Sigma under the same assumption that I realized what I'd done, so I just have a spare lying around if anyone wants it. Just post your full address in the comments (DO NOT DO THIS, I WILL DELETE YOUR COMMENT AND SEND YOU A COPY OF AMERICA'S AMY INSTEAD AND IT WILL BE ON YOU FOR TRUSTING ME.)
Some problems inherent to the game and more still that amount to personal taste keep Ninja Gaiden Black from leaving the same impression on me that it does others, but I certainly see why people feel so passionately about it. I eagerly await them telling me how I played the game wrong and am a bastard for it, which is always the best way to get people to enjoy things the same way you do.
First things first: Ninja Gaiden Black looks incredible running on a Series X. There is a level of clarity and sharpness here that you just won't see in most other backwards compatible Xbox games - not unless it's also developed by Team Ninja - and even some 360 games upscaled to 4k don't look nearly as good. You can see every pixel on Rachel, and I know because I've spent hours in the lab analyzing her model. I have access to high-end Digital Foundry tools, and you will not believe the frame graph I've generated for Ryu's crotch-- this technology was NOT intended for these purposes!
Now this is where I out myself as a hack, because I did not beat this game on Ultra Lord-God Ninja mode or whatever the hell Ninja Gaiden Black's most powerful warriors insist is the one true way to enjoy the game. I'm a Centrist Ninja, I think any way you enjoy a game is the best way to enjoy it, even if you're a dog. A ninja dog, as some might be.
Even though I lack the requisite amount of skill to play Black on its highest difficulty, I'm more than capable of seeing what the game is going for and respect how technical it is. Look up any boss tutorial and you'll get a sense for how layered and complex Ninja Gaiden's combat can be. It's worth noting that none of the strategies therein actually helped me overcome some of Black's nastiest bosses when applied directly, but they did give me insight into the game's underlying mechanics which allowed me to develop tactics that worked for me. Brute force is seldom the answer, and Black rewards experimentation and thoughtful play, which is appreciable on any level of difficulty.
Unfortunately, I don't think I can jump onboard with the sentiment that this is the best action game ever. The rote reuse of certain bosses on normal difficulties and below can get tiresome, and though you can mitigate this by playing at higher levels, the trade comes at the cost of adding more mobs to boss battles. The few tastes I had of this during my playthrough didn't leave a positive impression, as the increased number of enemies didn't pay nice with the camera. An egregious case of this comes early with the second boss fight, where you have to manage an enemy on horseback running between the two edges of the arena while contending with wizards sniping at you and vanishing.
As the game crept on and abandoned interesting traversal for intense combat challenges in its last two levels, I found my investment waning. In a way, this is true to Ninja Gaiden's NES lineage, because like those games I found myself nearing the end and thinking "yeah I've had enough, I'm good." I understand clawing your way through several small rooms of meaty and tenacious enemies and rolling right into a boss rush is meant to be a true test of your skills, but I personally didn't find the attrition nearly as enjoyable as others. This shouldn't be taken as a full-throated dismissal of the game's combat, which I do like overall, but I did find myself waxing between disengagement and frustration towards the end.
Maybe some of my issues stem from a real bad case of Resident Evil brain for which I'm entering the terminal stages, because I found the parts of Black where you're roaming around and solving puzzles to be the most enjoyable. Yeah, I know, I'm a freak for thinking the combat is secondary to platforming and picking up weird totems to trek back to locked doors a level-and-a-half away. I have to live with myself every day of my life.
It's easy to get lost in the minutia of Ninja Gaiden Black's combat and difficulties, and if you really want to trip headfirst down the rabbit hole, you should check out all the subtle and big differences in Ninja Gaiden's many releases. I actually own a copy of 2004's Ninja Gaiden, which I mistakenly bought thinking it was a totally different game. It was only when I was a breath away from grabbing Sigma under the same assumption that I realized what I'd done, so I just have a spare lying around if anyone wants it. Just post your full address in the comments (DO NOT DO THIS, I WILL DELETE YOUR COMMENT AND SEND YOU A COPY OF AMERICA'S AMY INSTEAD AND IT WILL BE ON YOU FOR TRUSTING ME.)
Some problems inherent to the game and more still that amount to personal taste keep Ninja Gaiden Black from leaving the same impression on me that it does others, but I certainly see why people feel so passionately about it. I eagerly await them telling me how I played the game wrong and am a bastard for it, which is always the best way to get people to enjoy things the same way you do.
one of the greatest action games ever made, and a worthy successor to one of the best sidescrollers of all time
rather than being focused on stylish/technical combos, ninja gaiden hails to its roots as a platformer by being purely movement-driven. swift and well-timed strikes are key, as ryu - despite his mobility - is just as vulnerable as anything he fights. there are no "pushover" enemies here. any foe can and WILL kick your ass if you take them lightly
despite that however, black doesn't really warrant its reputation as being impossibly hard or bullshit. it's consistently challenging, but certainly never unfair by any means. moreover the controls are pretty simple all around. definitely an easy to learn, but hard to master type of game. there's a fuckton of challenges and unlockables too, so completionists and masochists still have their work cut out for them
all in all, a must-play for people who like good things; avoid if you hate having fun
rather than being focused on stylish/technical combos, ninja gaiden hails to its roots as a platformer by being purely movement-driven. swift and well-timed strikes are key, as ryu - despite his mobility - is just as vulnerable as anything he fights. there are no "pushover" enemies here. any foe can and WILL kick your ass if you take them lightly
despite that however, black doesn't really warrant its reputation as being impossibly hard or bullshit. it's consistently challenging, but certainly never unfair by any means. moreover the controls are pretty simple all around. definitely an easy to learn, but hard to master type of game. there's a fuckton of challenges and unlockables too, so completionists and masochists still have their work cut out for them
all in all, a must-play for people who like good things; avoid if you hate having fun
In an interview by 1up.com in the year 2000, prior to Ninja Gaiden's (2004) release on the Xbox, creator Tomonobu Itagaki stated "Ninja Gaiden for Xbox will have a higher difficulty level than what most people are probably used to from recent action games. However, this will not be an unreasonable or frustrating amount of difficulty; it will be very fair. Gamers might find it difficult at first, but as they play, they will become surprised at their increasing ability to play well."
When I first picked up the game, I was getting completely bodied. The enemies were, in a word, unrelenting. The first chapter's boss curb-stomped me more times than I'd like to admit. I pressed onward, albeit feeling as if I was brute-forcing my way through chapter 2. And then, in chapters 3-4, I don't know what changed, but something began to click with the game's combat. The game hadn't gotten easier; threats only escalate as the game goes on. No, this was the feeling of me getting better at the game.
Ninja Gaiden Black is a game where you need to learn how to play the game. I don't mean that in an "uwu here's the controls" way, I mean that you experiment and learn what works. Understanding the moves at your disposal is crucial for survival. It's just as important to study your enemies' movements and abilities, and react accordingly. It all results in a game that only grows more satisfying as you keep playing, and where taking damageusually feels like it's entirely your fault.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that NGB actually has really cool level design and setpieces. The game looks excellent and runs at a silky-smooth 60 FPS (Team Ninja always had a gift when it came to polished visuals). Levels have a ton of useful items and secrets if you go out of your way to explore, and I enjoyed the light puzzle-solving that you did along the way as well. Just when you think you're getting the hang of things, the game introduces new enemies or a boss that will obliterate you in a couple hits. The title screen's attract mode also showed me enemies that I didn't encounter on normal difficulty, making this a game where higher difficulties actually introduce new threats (instead of being "same game but more of same enemies and they hit harder"). This is a game I can actually see myself returning to on higher difficulties in the future.
The game isn't flawless by any means; I think the worst enemy I fought in the game was the camera, and that's not something you can simply defeat with Ryu Hayabusa's Dragon Sword. Fortunately, the camera is an elusive enemy who rarely wreaks havoc upon the player. However, when it does decide to rear its ugly head, it's often at the worst possible times, and you have very few ways to control it. Second-worst enemy was Awakened Alma, that boss is just painful.
Ninja Gaiden Black walks the thin line of "hard but fair" unlike any other action game I've played in my life. I've got very little to complain about, I fucking loved this game. Listen, if a chump like me can beat this game, I believe that you can too.
When I first picked up the game, I was getting completely bodied. The enemies were, in a word, unrelenting. The first chapter's boss curb-stomped me more times than I'd like to admit. I pressed onward, albeit feeling as if I was brute-forcing my way through chapter 2. And then, in chapters 3-4, I don't know what changed, but something began to click with the game's combat. The game hadn't gotten easier; threats only escalate as the game goes on. No, this was the feeling of me getting better at the game.
Ninja Gaiden Black is a game where you need to learn how to play the game. I don't mean that in an "uwu here's the controls" way, I mean that you experiment and learn what works. Understanding the moves at your disposal is crucial for survival. It's just as important to study your enemies' movements and abilities, and react accordingly. It all results in a game that only grows more satisfying as you keep playing, and where taking damage
I was pleasantly surprised to find that NGB actually has really cool level design and setpieces. The game looks excellent and runs at a silky-smooth 60 FPS (Team Ninja always had a gift when it came to polished visuals). Levels have a ton of useful items and secrets if you go out of your way to explore, and I enjoyed the light puzzle-solving that you did along the way as well. Just when you think you're getting the hang of things, the game introduces new enemies or a boss that will obliterate you in a couple hits. The title screen's attract mode also showed me enemies that I didn't encounter on normal difficulty, making this a game where higher difficulties actually introduce new threats (instead of being "same game but more of same enemies and they hit harder"). This is a game I can actually see myself returning to on higher difficulties in the future.
The game isn't flawless by any means; I think the worst enemy I fought in the game was the camera, and that's not something you can simply defeat with Ryu Hayabusa's Dragon Sword. Fortunately, the camera is an elusive enemy who rarely wreaks havoc upon the player. However, when it does decide to rear its ugly head, it's often at the worst possible times, and you have very few ways to control it. Second-worst enemy was Awakened Alma, that boss is just painful.
Ninja Gaiden Black walks the thin line of "hard but fair" unlike any other action game I've played in my life. I've got very little to complain about, I fucking loved this game. Listen, if a chump like me can beat this game, I believe that you can too.
A true icon in gaming history. A perfect action and hack and slash game. Tough as nails, gritty, and brutal action leaves players to learn and adapt with the games combos and mechanics. Combat is fluid and rewarding with well timed attacks and defense. The main glaring flaw is the bane of most early 3D games, the camera. Alongside the problems of the camera, move registration and lock-on can occasionally be wonky (specifically with the Flying Swallow) but is not very noticeable. Level and enemy design is almost perfect (Temple chapter with mummies, Water level with swimming, and the Ice chapter is just boring). The soundtrack is a perfect blend of a stealthy ninja movie and a cinematic thriller tone. Story is lacking but doesn't need to be as fleshed out due to the gameplay more than making up for it. Characters are fine and serve their purpose. Ryu is a serious no-nonsense character who has simple and determined goals. Rachel leaves more to be desired as a side character. Ninja Gaiden Black retains its identity from the classic 2D arcade games while evolving into the 3D scene. A true gamers game. Izuna Drop is the best thing in gaming.
esse jogo exala um certo tipo de sexualidade que não é comumente explorada: ela exige certos rituais, atenção, até beleza, mas é completamente desprovida de ego. nada é performativo. percebi que eu não tenho muita afinidade com os grandes jogos de ação dos nossos tempos (bayonetta, dmc) em partes justamente porque eles são extremamente performáticos, os personagens se comportam de forma titilante, confiante, e sabem que há uma câmera ali os assistindo — suas frases são ditas para alguém ler, seus movimentos são feitos para alguém assistir, e até mais: para alguém controlar. é nossa responsabilidade ou afirmar o dante ou fazer ele ser um mentiroso, mas todos os comandos são expressões de ideias dos personagens, toda virada é auto-consciente; um espelho de teto no motel, a gravação de celular, o culto à própria performance.
o ryu não atribui uma moral aos seus movimentos: se você não fizer o que o jogo quer, você não passa, e se você passou, é porque fez o que o jogo quer. não importa quantos itens de cura usou, quantas flechas de fogo, quantas vezes a Alma te matou com uma coluna de mármore (e a igreja ainda se manteve em pé): se foi, foi. ele te tranquiliza mostrando que nem toda vez vai ser tão boa assim, mas que o ato de se despir já é coragem o suficiente e comunica infinitas passagens. não acredito que seja uma eficiência clínica, mas confiante. é impressionante intrínsecamente conseguir jogar, sem a parte extrínseca do rank e dos combos; seja greater ninja ou ninja dog, a parte importante é ninja.
aquela citação da phillys diller do "never go to bed angry; stay up and fight" alcança outros significados aqui, demonstrando certa intimidade com o processo que permite tornar o que é sexy em algo rotineiro, menos preocupado em impressionar e mais preocupado em comunicar que mesmo que dessa vez não dê certo é só tentar de novo.
em 2015 eu argumentei que o ninja gaiden original era o primeiro jogo que poderíamos usar para impressionar um interesse amoroso, e agora consigo dizer que o ninja gaiden black é casar com ela.
o ryu não atribui uma moral aos seus movimentos: se você não fizer o que o jogo quer, você não passa, e se você passou, é porque fez o que o jogo quer. não importa quantos itens de cura usou, quantas flechas de fogo, quantas vezes a Alma te matou com uma coluna de mármore (e a igreja ainda se manteve em pé): se foi, foi. ele te tranquiliza mostrando que nem toda vez vai ser tão boa assim, mas que o ato de se despir já é coragem o suficiente e comunica infinitas passagens. não acredito que seja uma eficiência clínica, mas confiante. é impressionante intrínsecamente conseguir jogar, sem a parte extrínseca do rank e dos combos; seja greater ninja ou ninja dog, a parte importante é ninja.
aquela citação da phillys diller do "never go to bed angry; stay up and fight" alcança outros significados aqui, demonstrando certa intimidade com o processo que permite tornar o que é sexy em algo rotineiro, menos preocupado em impressionar e mais preocupado em comunicar que mesmo que dessa vez não dê certo é só tentar de novo.
em 2015 eu argumentei que o ninja gaiden original era o primeiro jogo que poderíamos usar para impressionar um interesse amoroso, e agora consigo dizer que o ninja gaiden black é casar com ela.
Ryu got that anti-oedipus look
Bom pra porra, é o que eu mais joguei de todos os Ninja Gaiden, dos que eu joguei, esse certamente tem a melhor combinação de combate + design geral + bosses + trilha sonora + enredo
Stylish fast paced and addicting. Also after 16 years izuna drop is still the best move in all video games
https://youtu.be/CuTcZ5O4uxs
https://youtu.be/CuTcZ5O4uxs
There are seven beast games, this is one of them.
The input for the Izuna Drop is more important than anything I learned in school
Schizophrenic ninja going on a rampage to murder a godly emperor.
Gaming in its rawest form.
Gaming in its rawest form.
if you have not played this game you are not legally allowed to slop me off
I said I was going to wait a while before I played on Hard mode but then every game I played wasn't as good as this one so I came back. As with any great game, raising the difficulty only further revealed the tightness of the design, with new enemies and more aggressive AI pushing the player in great ways. A few cracks show too, auto targetting can get hairy in boss fights that now employ adds (in a way that does increase the strategic depth) and some of the enemies are a little too clammy to be fun to fight, but dog damn dog fuck this game is so fun. Will be taking a nice long break before tackling Very Hard tho, I feel like I climbed a damn mountain
Xemu devs making the most stable emulator challenge (impossible)
Thanks to devs, only left choice to me playing this game is shitty ass sigma version of it
Thanks to devs, only left choice to me playing this game is shitty ass sigma version of it