NGB > W101
This rumor reads like a fucking fanfic. Do not believe.
Every other game in the genre I guess
I love what Itagaki did with the Hurricane Packs and the Master Ninja tournaments and how all of that was incorporated into the development of Black. That kind of post release support for a single player action game was tremendous, and will probably never be seen again.
but in no way is the game perfect.(Karma and combo systems are complete trash) Especially when you consider all the above mentioned factors that played out in its development. NGB was the product of testing the game in a highly competitive setting among live players, a luxury most action games never have. and it still had problems.
Game is fun no doubt, but goddamn the way people talk about this particular version of it(to the point of shitting on other versions of THE SAME DAMN GAME) you'd think it was their religion.
The Karma system was great; you are never going to please everyone, but it was implemented very well for those that wanted to focus on that system from a competitive angle.
Also, NG was never about combos like say DMC was, so I'm curious to know what your criticism of that was.
Likewise, while DMC rewards high combos with increased health/orbs, NG actively discourages it. You are supposed to use On-landings and UT's.
I know that Karma runs are more than just spamming UT's.
but I still don't like the system. It doesn't reward creativity at all or play to the game's strengths. (Doesn't reward what most players of the game would define as "skill") Purely rewards game knowledge(in the most literal sense. Knowledge of wave composition and geography and time limits of each encounter) and memorizing numbers.
There's alot of filler in the moveset and combo theory is extremely linear and limited. and I can't tell if that was intentional or not.
It works fine in how the enemies and encounters are designed but I don't see how people could praise the combat mechanics of NG set apart from all that.
I don't think any action game is "about combos" to begin with. DMC was just about giving you interesting tools and options to play with. Combo videos were a result of its design, not a cause.
Black rewards high combos with Karma
That's why it's so confusing to me. Game has a combo counter and gives you points based on number of hits, but it has all these limits on what you can do to keep combos going. (Game never embraced Real Time Weapon switching and your only real canceling options are Shuriken and Jump cancels) and at times seems balanced around these limits with how its encounter design works.
Black to me just seems to have all these conflicting design decisions. Is it a fun game if you ignore all that? Yes. But I don't understand on what planet in which these systems are masterfully crafted as a whole.
After what he did with DOA4 and NG2 I dont know why so much people hold him on a pedestal still. Sure he made some great games but not everything he did was golden.
If I where you, I'd change that.
Regarding the game, one thing that really struck me was something he said about the art direction of Devil's Third: that's among the aspects i care the most in a videogame, and he said that when he entered the room the first time, the team had this huge wall full of concept arts, sketches, pics and whatever... but they were so random they made no sense.
He said there were crazy manga-style drawings, paintings similar to those you can find on ancient Greek pottery, the portrait of a dark cyber-old man, over the top characters taken from comics, reinassance paintings... Very diffente styles, that apparently had no coherence whatsoever as an ensemble.
So he asked what was the point of all that, why inspirations and concepts were so distant from one another (to his eyes there was no clear direction in what the team had come up with), and Itagaki basically answered "To us, it just makes sense. That's what matters, it's gonna be cool", and left him like that, without even adding a single word on that topic.
I know that Karma runs are more than just spamming UT's.
but I still don't like the system. It doesn't reward creativity at all or play to the game's strengths. (Doesn't reward what most players of the game would define as "skill") Purely rewards game knowledge(in the most literal sense. Knowledge of wave composition and geography and time limits of each encounter) and memorizing numbers.
There's alot of filler in the moveset and combo theory is extremely linear and limited. and I can't tell if that was intentional or not.
It works fine in how the enemies and encounters are designed but I don't see how people could praise the combat mechanics of NG set apart from all that.
I don't think any action game is "about combos" to begin with. DMC was just about giving you interesting tools and options to play with. Combo videos were a result of its design, not a cause.
Black rewards high combos with Karma
That's why it's so confusing to me. Game has a combo counter and gives you points based on number of hits, but it has all these limits on what you can do to keep combos going. (Game never embraced Real Time Weapon switching and your only real canceling options are Shuriken and Jump cancels) and at times seems balanced around these limits with how its encounter design works.
Black to me just seems to have all these conflicting design decisions. Is it a fun game if you ignore all that? Yes. But I don't understand on what planet in which these systems are perfect or masterfully crafted as a whole.
NG2 is an unpolished gem. It's clearly rushed, but still better than 90% of the games in the genre.
Could end up being one of those rumored Japanese XBO exclusives.
I'm just commenting on that I've just never seen such fanaticism for the game anywhere else. To the point where people feel the need to shout from the mountain tops every thread about how much better it is than every other game and why people should play it over the "garbage" ports.
Never seen any other game put up on this pedestal as being perfect and flawless.(especially in the face of glaring flaws) Never seen that mentality so commonly exhibited by fans of similar games. and for this game I've never seen it anyplace other than gaf.
Not implying that such an opinion is invalid so much as I'm implying that it's weird as fuck to me and I don't get it.
The ports ARE shit though, Sigma introduced alot of issues and didn't really improve on anything other than introducing the twin katana weapon.
NG:B is an amazing achievement and is rightfully considered a masterpiece. No game is absolutely flawless but NG:B is an incredibly well rounded, innovative action/adventure game that deserves all the praise it gets.
Eh... Sigma 1 is fine mostly. Yes, it has a few issues but it isn't as terrible as people make it out to be.
Now... Sigma 1+... yeah that's a terrible port and deserves all the hate it gets. Double so for Sigma 2+, which is the same story: Sigma 2 fixed some issues that 2 had (namely rushed so balance on higher difficulties was kinda fixed with less enemies. Screw the haters of this change), but then was ported really badly to where it can't even be played.
Ninja Gaiden 2 would probably be the best action game of all time, if Itagaki and his team had 6 months and no fucking interruptions to fix it.
That makes me sad, like knowing that in a parallel Universe Biggie and Big L could have made their watch the throne album, but it will never happen...
Sigma 2 (PS3) was the best thing Hayashi ever did thanks to all the tweaks and rebalanced Hayabusa (and Ayane) and I prefer it over NG2, he even gave me hope about the team ninja but sadly then he screwed everything again with NG3 and NGS2+ now I think Hayashi dude need to give NG to another director.
Game will be wack as hell anyway. Itagaki is so overrated. Dude is like the Baja Men of game designers.
Good news, if factual. Hopefully, this game comes out before we are well into next generation though. How long has it been since it has been announced?
"My dad works at Nintendo" but with a smaller lie.
Eh... Sigma 1 is fine mostly. Yes, it has a few issues but it isn't as terrible as people make it out to be.
Now... Sigma 1+... yeah that's a terrible port and deserves all the hate it gets. Double so for Sigma 2+, which is the same story: Sigma 2 fixed some issues that 2 had (namely rushed so balance on higher difficulties was kinda fixed with less enemies. Screw the haters of this change), but then was ported really badly to where it can't even be played.
I'm basically saying this has the potential to be the greatest third-person action game ever created.
As long as there is no multiplayer...who am I kidding.