What if ninja gaiden was vivisected and remade into a lame port?

Ninja gaiden sigma is everything i despise in a port it understands very little about what makes the original a concise challenging experience but what's make it bad compared to the original? well its quite simple.
sigma instead of choosing to elevate the already excellent and tight foundation of ninja gaiden black instead goes back on its design choices and throws it in the fucking dumpster the game destroys 90% of the bosses alma awakend literally lacks her back hitbox and spirit doku's AI was completely butchered he seems to spasm out whenever he gets close.

The art direction and OST have taken a massive hit as well. tairon went from looking like a vaguely middle eastern village to looking like fucking london lmao the first chapter level is now set in autumn for some strange reason they also removed the waterfall in that area because ?? Tairon under alert also suffers a strange art direction choice as the skybox is bright as hell for some reason in black it was a nice early sunrise look showing the passage of time in a authentic way, and it seems they knew this as the very next chapter has the correct skybox albeit a lot darker.

They somehow managed to fuck up the excellent pacing of black as well for some reason they decided to throw in random Rachel chapters during the game in an extremely awkward manner I'll be brief on Rachel as there's not a ton to say about her (and it seems the developers thought this as they gave her half a move set) but frankly her inclusion here fucking blows Rachel in the story is a joke character one who jobs endlessly to basic bitch enemies and just sort of exists the new chapters don't help with this as the story placement of them is extremely boring and brief much like her character.

The pacing in the ryu levels is also butchered quite a bit in a very strange decision the entire game just lacks puzzles for some unknown reason the only puzzle I noticed left was the monk safe and that was a simple counting puzzle there's no pyramid puzzle nothing its gone for absolutely no reason other then they thought casuals would get filtered by them (they're right).

Now you would think that at the very least the new additions would be very welcome to ninja gaiden right? wrong. The new weapon the dragon claw and tiger fang is an absolute joke of a weapon the recovery on it is extremely poor and it seems like the game doesn't know how to handle it because you end up whiffing a ton of hits for absolutely no reason now this might be a master collection issue (as that port alone has thousands of them) but it seems like it's also in sigma as they fixed nothing about the game in the master collection.

One of the new additions/QOL is also quick heals now you would probably think that this is a welcome change? absolutely not quick heals undermines the entire point of potions and elixirs, They could turn the entire tide of a fight in a single move and you were encouraged to consume them in small amounts as the game barely gave you any and if you consumed them foolheartedly you would have to restock and that would cut into your essence supply that you would be better off spending on weapon upgrades it was a very well designed system and it was a good balancing act but now because the game also gives you an abundance of elixirs (gates of hell literally has a elixir after every room) you end up with more then enough essence to spend on upgrades and occasionally restocking this undermines the entire balancing act.

Also shout out to the composer completely butchering his tracks here they sound way too quiet and lack any punch the original OST had oh and they didn't bother changing the FMV music so you can hear the original alma awakened track before it transitions to that absolute dumpster fire of a remix.

It is absolutely incredible that team ninja even considers this version a replacement for the original two due in no part to them completely losing the masters for black and vanilla and its frankly an insult that this version was even considered acceptable by anyone could itagaki have saved this port? maybe but lets not deal in hypotheticals in the end sigma is an absolute mess and a extreme downgrade from the classic title.

BFM is a game that obviously had a lot of heart put into it, but is ultimately let down by its own ambitions. Knowing this game's status as a cult classic and one of the more underrated games under Square's belt, I had always been looking forward to finally giving it a try. Well, upon finally getting through it, it's a shame that my thoughts end up being pretty negative for the most part. But to start, I'll address the positives.

As I said, a lot of love clearly went into crafting this game. The game's art direction is brimming with childlike whimsy and Saturday morning cartoon vibes. The voice acting is surprinsingly solid for the time; often times even hilarious, but authentically so. And I briefly stated in the beginning that it had ambitions. These include things like a day and night cycle (including specific days of the week), healing foods that can spoil if kept too long, a system of copying enemy abilities to overcome certain obstacles, etc. These things are cool and all in theory, as they make the game feel unique in its own right. But while variety is the spice of life, it's things like this that make the game much more cumbersome than they ought to be.

I played this game shortly after having completed my first playthrough of Threads of Fate (also made by Square) and I couldn't help but draw comparisons to it. Threads of Fate was by no means an amazing game imo, but it had enough charm and decent combat to keep me entertained. BFM certainly shares that whimsical charm with Threads of Fate, but many things it tries to accomplish, I just feel Threads did better. The combat for one just feels really stiff and uninteresting here. I decided to try avoiding engaging in combat relatively early on with the regular enemies and I ended up getting a nasty surprise later on as the bosses just became way too difficult due to being underleveled. Funny enough, I didn't think level mattered much in this game until then because it's got such a weird leveling convention (Mind, Body, Lum, etc). I didn't really know what any of these meant when looking at my stats.

As I also mentioned prior, you do have the ability to copy enemy abilities, which is required to navigate certain areas. This really is a pain, though, because you need to charge up your sword in order to throw it at an enemy and extract their ability. It sounds simple in theory, but the fact that you can only face one way while charging up is incredibly annoying because often times the enemy will be moving around and you can't properly line up your shot and end up taking damage from them in the process. It seems like a minor nitpick, but this was a problem I had early on and it was foreshadowing what was truly to come. All I can say is: My oh my, does this game have some really sadistic design choices. But first, a bit of sidetracking.

Again, bringing up the possibility of your items spoiling, this is quite silly, because there's really no point in buying almost anything other than cheese in this game, which is the only item that actually improves its healing properties the more time you keep it in storage. On the subject of time, the day and night cycle that was implemented means that certain events relating to the story can only be completed at specific times and in rare cases, even a specific day. It forces you to either go rest at an inn for however long or just let Musashi sleep on the floor until its the right time to get up. For such a cartoony game, they sure added quite a handful of real life inconveniances to its logic. Now, moving on from my side rant, what is it that makes me say this game is sadistic?

The main issue here is its difficulty due to questionable "dungeon" design and dodgy controls. It started off fine. I was even enjoying my time with the game for the first couple of chapters (though still not necessarily thinking it was a particularly great game). The real problems began when they started adding more platforming. The controls feel janky enough as is, and now you're forced to perform some often tricky jumps with a less than ideal camera angle and sometimes unresponsive controls. It made a lot of areas feel grating, but at the very least the bosses at the end of each chapter were interesting and often enjoyable. I did mention earlier that I seemed to hit a severe difficulty spike in the later stages of the game with the bosses, but granted, they would have been way easier if I had taken the time to engage in combat more to level up. But then again, if the devs wanted me to grind, then they should have made the combat more engaging.

If I had to make one more nitpick, it's that the game lacked level variety. With some of the backtracking you have to do, this can get quite annoying, especially when dealing with the overhead view which can get nauseating after going around in circles trying to figure out where to go. BFM is a cute game that deserved better gameplay, and while the story wasn't anything to write home about, I still enjoyed its personality and charm despite often finding myself completely defeated by its challenge and jank.

By the time I'd finished Final Fantasy IV, there were still two months left before the Switch release of FFVII. I looked back over my shoulder at that Chrono Triggerian crossroads, pondering the genre’s founding fathers. I’d followed Hironobu Sakaguchi’s path, but Yuji Horii hadn’t forsaken me. Noting my glance, he turned, tinted glasses flashing against the sun, and offered a smile. I sheathed the Paladin’s Sword, set aside my hoard of crystals, and stepped forward. It wasn’t without a hint of embarrassment.

At the end of the previous summer I’d taken the opportunity to try a demo of the upcoming Dragon Quest XI, and expressed bewilderment over the boilerplate simplicity of its combat system. Certain other RPGs had conditioned my tastes toward “action commands,” and the classic format was a thing of the past. Still, I considered that EarthBound might not have been a fluke, and I’d given FF a fair enough shake. It would’ve been easy to give in to skepticism and back out of the whole prospect of entering yet another massive role-playing series, but before I could fully consider that, Dragon Quest V materialized from behind a glass display case at a local shop.

Clicking it into my Nintendo DS and entering a name came with a whiplash I now realize Japanese fans of Super Famicom role-playing games might’ve shared in 1992. Though gifted with some substantial foreknowledge of what the genre had in store, the recency of my Final Fantasy IV completion kept its audacious, free-wheeling style at the top of my brain. FFIV began with a fleet of airships soaring against a booming Star Warsian score. Dragon Quest V opens with a man pacing slowly and anxiously. The repetitive ticking of an echoing clock envelops the throne room. The chancellor urges his king to take a seat. He plods himself down, but darts up again. A messenger rushes in to deliver the news. The music begins as King Pankraz emerges upstairs to reunite with his wife and meet his newborn son. He’s eager to provide the child a name, and Queen Madalena suggests what we’ve chosen. Pankraz delivers us into the world of Dragon Quest V, the scene shifts, and the title descends from the heavens to a chorus of trumpets. Some years will pass before we return.

Already, Dragon Quest V has impressed us with its patient direction and emotional maturity. It impresses us further. I learned quickly to respect and enjoy its commitment to sharpened, gambling-flavored battle mechanics and strict resource management. I became engrossed in its humble writing and subtle humanity as the story and gameplay quietly intertwined. Though full of tenderness and joyful whimsy, the wisdom sleeping beneath its life-spanning story never fails to sober me, even today. Where Final Fantasy IV had fought hard to astonish, Dragon Quest V managed to bring tears to my eyes more than once using simple lines of text. If Sakaguchi were a fireworks engineer, we might call Horii a master of sleight of hand.