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Finally finished Ninja Gaiden II (360)

B

BumblebeeCody

Member
Brilliant game. Perfect controls and great overall play. I prefer to combat if NG3:RE but I think NG2 is a better game. I think people over exaggerate how hard it is though. It's not. It's the only action game I've played that really had a fast pace to it and kept you constantly moving and being better than the enemies.
 
I

Iva Demilcol

Member
When you have a guy without limbs trying to take you down with an explosion, you know you have an special game in front of you, even with all its flaws.

I'll put NGII above NG in everything except level design. The interconnectedness of the first game is what make it superior to NGII imo.

But playing the game using only the Dragon Sword is a mistake. I don't remember its name but running on the water fighting demons with a fucking chain is something you can't experience anywhere.
 
T

Tuorom

Neo Member
NGB is one of my favourite games, and NG2 looked so fucking phenomenal, the god damn combat. Oh my fucking god I was so hyped for this game.

But then I read reviews and read what people were saying and I was so let down. I didn't end up buying it until a few years ago at 20 bucks. My god, the combat is actually so deep with so many combos for each weapon but the enemies were just complete shit.

I stopped in the city level where rocket spam guys show up and these ridiculous giant mechs. I had had enough of the games bullshit.

The combos though and the obliteration techniques are delicious. It could have been the greatest.
 
nelo_inc

nelo_inc

Member
This thread has fueled my appetite for the game, guess i will try to find my 360 copy and give a go!

I miss these kind of games, almost non existent in this Re-Remasters generation, good thing all my old consoles work..
 
D

DrD

Member
It has the most satisfying combat of any action game and had the potential to top NGB as the king of action games. Would be cool to see it added to XB1 BC.
 
M

Mass Effect

Member
I really did like this game... except for those rocket ninja motherfuckers and that worm boss. I finished the game on every difficulty except Master Ninja. I might go back and try it one day.

I'm actually going to be picking up Ninja Gaiden Black soon. Everyone says it's one of the best action games of all time.
 
D

Dead Man Typing

Member
So unpolished yet still so much fun.

Ninja Gaiden Black is an amazing game. Ninja Gaiden 2 is better in some ways but because it was abandoned we'll never know Ninja Gaiden 2's true potential.

Itagaki falling out with Tecmo robbed us of something special.
 
P

Pein

Banned
No game has matched the feeling of the cut and slash of NG2, sigma lost it and Razors edge can't even compare.

The visceral feel and the blood spraying an cascading was fantastic.

The wind ninpo when it tore through enemies and the wind just carried the carnage was awesome.
 
N

norm9

Member
Naudyboy16 said:
I've always thought they should of added more puzzles and platforming segments to bring in some variety, but who am I kidding...
Click to expand...

Nah, the last thing we need is a badass ninja that's ace at killing and decapitating but has bad depth perception on platforming sections and keeps falling down the cliffs over and over. Ruins the ninja fantasy.
 
V

Varna

Member
Wish we would get some of these games on PC. I had a ton of fun with whatever version hit the PS3 (think it was the first game remastered).

It was pretty much the only game in the genre I actually enjoyed. Mainly because it was very demanding with it's mechanics.
 
B

Brannon

Member
Only way Black and 2 OG are getting on PC is if people give up on emulating the Xbox proper and just focus on getting these two games to run.

They've already pretty much given up; we're halfway there!
















:(
 
S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
Team Ninja games on PC just isn't going to happen.

And definitely no platforming sections. It's fun to run across a wall and jump across a pipe every so often, but the depth perception and imprecision of the jumping make actual platforming just bad.
 
J

Jimrpg

Member
I have this bought twice once on 360 and once the Sigma Plus version on Vita. I also have the first NG bought twice as well. I really need to start this shit.

I did beat Nioh this year though, so if I can beat that, maybe I can beat this too.
 
J

Jimrpg

Member
Snacks the sober sea lion said:
Team Ninja games on PC just isn't going to happen.

And definitely no platforming sections. It's fun to run across a wall and jump across a pipe every so often, but the depth perception and imprecision of the jumping make actual platforming just bad.
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DOA5?

I'm actually surprised DOA3X isn't on Steam, but I think they might be worried about modders for that.
 
V

Valkerionseven

Member
Great game for sure but yeah weirdly balanced in basically everything it does. For how good it feels to play some of the enemies are awkward to fight like the OP said. Can be cheesed for sure and probably should in a lot of areas. And despite what people say, the modern NG trilogy has some of the worst and best bosses around. Normal enemies seemed like there was thought put into them on how to fight against the player. Bosses just always felt like rabid large targets doing whatever the heck they wanted while the play chips away at them.

Favorite part about 3:RE was the amount of humanish enemies which I hated the amount of monsters in 2. Though 3's absolutely rabid pace and nonsense bosses took the "feel" out of each encounter imo.

Would LOVE a NG4 and I think it's time the team started looking at doing one, taking a page out of all three entries books and seeing what people liked about each exactly to make them better as a whole.
 
S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
Mass Effect said:
Devil May Cry 3 (SE) son

and Bayonetta

okay I haven't play Black yet, but those two games are hard to top
Click to expand...

I think Black does the action part best of character action. Everything is very controlled and deliberate. DMC3 is the best for player expression and making up combos, Black is the best for really optimizing the game or challenging yourself.
 
M

mao2

Member
DJwest said:
How is Sigma 2 on PS3?
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It's great. Many people say that it's inferior to vanilla 2 because of the changes (lack of gore, less enemies etc) but I enjoyed it and would highly recommend. Ayane, Momiji and Rachel are playable in Sigma 2 so that's a plus. :)
 
C

Crab Milk Mickey

Member
Waddle Dee said:
Yeah, I'll never understand how anyone can prefer Vanilla NG2 to the Sigma release. I'm not the sort of guy you'd see combo videos of, but I have all the achievements for DMC3 SE on the HD Collection, and I have done almost everything on DMC4SE and I actually 100% The Wonderful 101 and Viewtiful Joe so I think I'm pretty good at character action games but Vanilla NG2 is absolute bullshit.
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The way Sigma 2 rebalanced the vanilla version was hokey at best, because said tweaks could hardly be called a natural improvement with regards to encounter design. Team Ninja substantially increased the durability of all enemies (even the weakest) compared to their earlier iterations to compensate for the drastically lowered enemy count, which resulted in nothing more than making most fights feel like a slog (as well as downplaying strategical dismemberment) and command grabs now had a tendency to be instant-kill moves as a cherry on top. Forgot if the latter was the case even on the lower difficulties, but I digress. For a direct comparison: revisiting the ninja village in chapter 11 was an endurance test where you fought dozens of Spider clan ninja (enemies you could quickly dispatch even en masse) before you reached the first save point, whereas in Sigma 2 it's a ghost town to the point this specific stretch only includes 6 ninja dogs. Not only are those dogs one-note in their attack patterns, but most importantly this re-occurring design MO completely undoes the cutthroat nature of the original combat while simultaneously giving the larger levels an unintended desolate vibe thanks to all the unused space. I don't disagree that vanilla NG II had its moments of "bullshit" as you put it, however the above to me is nothing more than an opposite extreme with its own myriad of glaring issues when looking at the big picture of it all.

Toning down the violence - not exactly a must in an action game, but it did sell the impact behind Ryu's moves extraordinarily well - to such an extent was also ultimately detrimental. Nonetheless, ripping out egregious sections such as the worm boss and adding more features was welcome... but I'd struggle to think of more compliments to give Sigma 2. Some were even superfluous, like the new characters not being nearly as fleshed out as Ryu. Sigma 1 on the other hand did a better job of retaining the original vision, with its own additions for the most part being complimentary in relative terms.
 
D

danmaku

Member
Best combat in an action game ever. It's a rough diamond because it's basically an early access game that was never finished, but when it shines... it's amazing. I'll never get tired of replaying the best parts. I still have a savegame for every checkpoint of chapter 11 on Master Ninja, just in case I wanted to replay it.
 
S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
One thing I can appreciate over Black is more distinctive enemy design. Ninja Gaiden Black had some really dull-looking enemies at times, like those red and black dragon type Fiends.

ArchAngel said:
The scythe is the best weapon in an action game ever. Scythe + unpatched stairs = pure epicness!
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They made it even more broken in Razor's Edge.
 
Jetboxx

Jetboxx

Member
Ninja Gaiden II obviously had some flaws but it's still better than Sigma 2 by the mediocrity Hayashi. Team Ninja just raped and killed Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden after Itagaki left...
 
D

Diabolical

Neo Member
I've got the full 1250 GS in Ninja Gaiden II on 360, but I honestly believe that Team Ninja shouldn't look into the past anymore.

The market has actually demonstrated a demand for more Nioh (and new IPs in general). Nioh 2 -or something brand new- is what I'd rather see. Nioh could become their new flagship series... or one of them. The Koei portion of KoeiTecmo already has Dynasty Warriors.

If they do decide to go back to Ninja Gaiden any time soon, then I hope it will be for a brand new entry instead of another port or rehash. I wouldn't be interested in buying another version of any of the previous Ninja Gaiden games again. They've already been re-released too many times as it is.
 
S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
Even if they weren't working on more Nioh, I'm not sure where they can go with Ninja Gaiden. What weapons are left to add? I feel like Ninja Gaiden has gotten a satisfactory number of games, unlike Devil May Cry which was completely cut short for no good reason.
 
C

Coriolanus

Banned
Snacks the sober sea lion said:
Even if they weren't working on more Nioh, I'm not sure where they can go with Ninja Gaiden. What weapons are left to add? I feel like Ninja Gaiden has gotten a satisfactory number of games, unlike Devil May Cry which was completely cut short for no good reason.
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Spear, naginata, thrusting swords, new/revised moves for existing weapons.

I mean, as long as you can conjure up new enemies and levels, you can crank out a new game. We still get several shooters every year and they all have the exact same P/AR/R/SMG/LMG/Sniper/Shotty/RL/GL weapon types and still sell by the bucketloads, all while having 90+% of the enemies the player faces armed with some shitty AR. No reason why a character action game couldnt do the same.
 
S

Spirit of Jazz

Banned
Team Ninja shouldn't go back to NG, because Hayashi made the most dull expansions possible. DoA's stronger under TN and Niho's a pretty good Souls game, but all the NGs that weren't headed by Itagaki were worse than the games they were meant to build on.

I loved the number and aggressiveness in the enemies in Ninja Gaiden 2 as it really differentiated it from the first game. Black was focused on really difficult duels with defensive play where as 2 made you go on the offence as you attempted to kill 100s of enemies as quickly as possible. It was a little like a Dynasty Warriors game where there was depth to the combat and enemies who actually did something.

A NG2 Black would have been spectacular (as opposed to Sigma which just tried to turn it back into NG1) and the pre patch 10FPS hallway fight was one of my favourite dumb sections in gaming.
 
S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
Bumping because I'm playing on Mentor now.

This is awful. 90% of the enemies are the gun ninjas or the rocket launcher guys, so you're basically required to constantly block pre-emptively lest one of the 5 enemies onscreen start shooting and stunlock you. The game has you fight Rasetsu with shuriken lackeys, and then immediately recycles the encounter in the next level, but changes Rasetsu AI so he rarely uses attacks that allow you to counter. The Van Gelf encounters take the number of enemies far past the point that it's reasonable and wear you down through sheer attrition rather than any sort of actual I don't know, encounter design. The real problem which is making me want to just stop right now is the subway boss. Unbelievably terrible. It has attacks that are literally undodgeable, forcing you to spam UT or ninpo. Unless of course, it decides to use two attacks at once, in which case you automatically lose/ are forced to use healing items. Had to use a Lives of the Thousand Gods and grains to beat that disaster of a boss.

So, very poor impressions right now.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
Snacks the sober sea lion said:
Bumping because I'm playing on Mentor now.

This is awful. 90% of the enemies are the gun ninjas or the rocket launcher guys, so you're basically required to constantly block pre-emptively lest one of the 5 enemies onscreen start shooting and stunlock you. The game has you fight Rasetsu with shuriken lackeys, and then immediately recycles the encounter in the next level, but changes Rasetsu AI so he rarely uses attacks that allow you to counter. The Van Gelf encounters take the number of enemies far past the point that it's reasonable and wear you down through sheer attrition rather than any sort of actual I don't know, encounter design. The real problem which is making me want to just stop right now is the subway boss. Unbelievably terrible. It has attacks that are literally undodgeable, forcing you to spam UT or ninpo. Unless of course, it decides to use two attacks at once, in which case you automatically lose/ are forced to use healing items. Had to use a Lives of the Thousand Gods and grains to beat that disaster of a boss.

So, very poor impressions right now.
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I wish I had more time for tips but...

The claws are the most OP weapon for ninja enemies (and almost anything to be honest). Forward Y cuts limbs of almost everything in one hit and reverse wind, flying swallow to izuna drop is super OP.

For the skeleton fiends you can neutral jump and do it with the Lunar. Certain weapons will cut limbs easier with certain enemies FYI.

Anyway, most bosses are easily killed with Scythe jump XXY (i think, been years). Otherwise Claws forward YYYYY or in general, the idea is to wait u till they do an attack that is punishable and your first hit staggers them, otherwise you dodge out the way and seek another chance.

Mentor is by no means super BS and you're going to hate Master Ninja in Chapter 1 XD.
 
S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
I can kill the ninjas fine, it's just not fun to be fighting the exact same enemies 90% of the time, especially ones who can stunlock you at range. The Lunar delimbs Van Gelfs and their variants in one hit, but there are always so damn many of them and they're always spawning, plus one fireball instantly takes like 60% of your health.

I don't have the Scythe yet, this is only Chapter 3. Overall it's fine but tedious with the sheer number of enemies and lack of variety, but that completely irredeemably bad subway boss was exasperating. Even the no damage run/ Master Ninja playthroughs on the boss are nothing but ninpo and Lunar UT, you genuinely cannot dodge that boss's attacks. Horrible.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
Snacks the sober sea lion said:
I can kill the ninjas fine, it's just not fun to be fighting the exact same enemies 90% of the time, especially ones who can stunlock you at range. The Lunar delimbs Van Gelfs and their variants in one hit, but there are always so damn many of them and they're always spawning, plus one fireball instantly takes like 60% of your health.

I don't have the Scythe yet, this is only Chapter 3. Overall it's fine but tedious with the sheer number of enemies and lack of variety, but that completely irredeemably bad subway boss was exasperating. Even the no damage run/ Master Ninja playthroughs on the boss are nothing but ninpo and Lunar UT, you genuinely cannot dodge that boss's attacks. Horrible.
Click to expand...

FYI, the no damage run is segmented, it isn't real.

But I think you're on the right track regardless. Mentor is my fav difficulty because Master Ninja has bow ninjas and they REALLY suck haha.

But neutral jump with Lunar is your friend, for sure. I'd say the game gets easier chapter 4 onwards.
 
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