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Ninja Gaiden II: The Official GAF Thread of Chaos

Kreed

Member
Doodis said:
Argh! This is very upsetting. Very upsetting indeed.

You will miss out on the essence, but I believe the game will give you the items you miss in the trials in the normal game. The items will either appear in chests/on dead bodies elsewhere, or you will be able to purchase them in the store. On my first play through without the rod I noticed I got a lot more items like Talismans/Jewels/etc... in the normal game than I did when I got the rod in other play throughs and got the items in the trials.
 

raYne

Member
Kreed said:
You will miss out on the essence, but I believe the game will give you the items you miss in the trials in the normal game. The items will either appear in chests/on dead bodies elsewhere, or you will be able to purchase them in the store. On my first play through without the rod I noticed I got a lot more items like Talismans/Jewels/etc... in the normal game than I did when I got the rod in other play throughs and got the items in the trials.
Nah, some chests/bodies are random and it's the same with the rewards in the trials themselves. So if you do all of them as well opening the in-game chests, you have a better chance to get the good stuff.. and more of them. The essence reward is guaranteed though, since you have to kill everyone in the trials to begin with.

The only things that show up in the store if you missed them are the weapons themselves.
 

slade

Member
Beat the game tonight. What a chore it was at the end and not in a good way. General rule about boss gauntlets, they're only fun if you've got good boss design. This game doesn't. And then they go and make you rely on the bow again. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Also, the boss rush wasn't so bad. You could save between them and your health was always brought back before you faced the next boss. Since I'd read otherwise, I pretty much tried to save all my herbs. Got over 100 deaths, probably close to 200 but I was able to beat Genshin and Elizabet using only one Grain of Spiritual Life and Zedonius with half health and a herb of spiritual life. Didn't even need a herb for Alexei or Volf.

Anyway, I'm giving this one a 6.5/10. The game is marred by horrible design decisions and inexcusable glitches.

Edit: Earlier, I was wrong about the OT's. Using the Wind Ninpo to cut off the limbs of the larger enemies like the Werewolves or the Flying Fiends and then using the OT happened to save my life on many an occasion.
 

Gig

One man's junk is another man's treasure
Wow, that scythe is awesome, slow as hell, but still great. The obliteration techniques for it are so brutal!! Also, as echoed by others, the airship chapter is indeed totally rad. :D
 

raYne

Member
RattleHead_ said:
:lol 1st thing that comes to mind is the "Class A Ninja..." dude on the p.a. system.
:lol

Dax01 said:
What's the best way to avoid the Dragon Arch Fiend's beam? It's so damn accurate.
The what now?

edit:
Oh, you can just side dash through it when it gets close to you. It's even easier if you stay to his right because he can't grab you there and you'll be close enough to deal some damage once you dodge either that or the ground pound.
 

X26

Banned
So 7 ninpo is the max, right? I'm on my third warrior playthrough (BoA run) and I buy up life of the gods at the shop to make room in hopes that a red orb shows up
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
I don't see the problem with chapter 8.

It's not cheap at all, to me. Sure ninjas with rocket launchers, I just killed them first and then moved on onto the other enemies. The only mob that gave me some trouble was the one with rocket launcher ninjas and the big robots near the very beginning of the chapter, but that's where wind blades or fire balls ninpo came through. I do spam Izuna Drop, though... That's a guaranteed kill, at least on Warrior.

The Chapter 7 level is one of the best ever, in any action game. make the action in other games look tame and boring by comparison. I loved how all the weapons are fun to use and watch in action. My favorite I think at this point are the Falcon's Talons, but that'll probably change when I use other weapons more.

it's a shame about the technical problems and glitches, it's obvious this game was rushed. Despite that fact, it's still one of the best action games ever imo.

I'm really impressed with the music of this game, really fits the action on screen and the ambience songs when there isn't any action are really good. English VA is lulz, so I switched quickly to JP.
 

Kreed

Member
raYne said:
Nah, some chests/bodies are random and it's the same with the rewards in the trials themselves. So if you do all of them as well opening the in-game chests, you have a better chance to get the good stuff.. and more of them. The essence reward is guaranteed though, since you have to kill everyone in the trials to begin with.

The only things that show up in the store if you missed them are the weapons themselves.

While you may be right about the chest/bodies, I've purchased Life of the Gods/Jewels I've missed from time to time (although these could be ones that I missed in the normal game and not the trials).
 

jet1911

Member
Rented the game today, I guess I'm halfway through Chapter 3. I really like it, it's visceral, violent, super fast and quite challenging (Path of the Warrior). Also the fact that you can fight while running on water makes the game a perfect 10.
 

robot

Member
Just beat Chapter 7 - that end was great...I was watching with the controller down when the god damn boss shot through the ground. I wasn't expecting that. And finishing him with an obliteration technique was awesome.

Started Chapter 8 and it's a little frustrating, ninjas with even crazier launchers than Chapter 7! Seems somewhat manageable though. :lol
 

fernoca

Member
Well, after surviving the game crashing in Chapter 9..I finished that chapter and noticed that:
-The last segment of the chapter looked really awesome..the rocks, trees, waterfalls..the lighting effects..really nice.
-It was the easiest chapter so far, heck after the horrible Chapter 8 with the infinite rocket launchers..and the Test of Valor there was..darn..that Chapter left me with no currency and no items to heal anything...yet, 9 was so easy..got a lot of yellow orbs, got all the items again, the Test of Valor was so..easy..hehehe..

On my way through Chapter 10 right now..really pretty looking stage.. :)
 

Choabac

Member
Gig said:
I got knocked off and once your in the water you can't get back on the platform.

I just did that boss then. I got knocked off a couple of times, and both times I was easily able to climb back on.

That boss was ridiculously easy, just shoot charged up arrows at him and move from left to right on the platform to evade his attacks.
 

boco77

Banned
So I beat this game last night and I have mixed opinions on it. Firstly I regard Ninja Gaiden 1/Sigma/Black as greatest action game in terms of fighting of all time, even beating DMC and God of War in that asepct imo. However with this game it takes 2 two steps forward and like 5 steps back.

The combat looks a lot more gratifying and visceral than ever and very satisfying topping the first game even. This only applies to most of the normal enemies as the bosses are some of the worst parts of the game overall, and VERY cheap. The last boss is one of the most annoying I have come across in a long time. Almost all the bosses in this game are an exercise in frustration rather than actually being fun. Example the armadillo fight with two of them near the end, so many fire effects you cant possibly dodge attacks that make the screen covered in white bright flame effects. How is that fun? Or the almost zero margin for errors, the game is very unforgiving with bosses that have attacks that take off half your health with one hit, the first wasnt like that.

I played on Warrior so I expected the same challenge not some cheap shots Itagaki threw in where they make you think the bosses are tough but really they just take tons of health off you with one hit. The combat with them seems very unbalanced too. Something is really off. For example I will keep dying on a boss and the next time I will beat him in under a minute and I'm using the same strategy as before. Whats up with that? In the first game when you died it felt like it was all down to your skill in here it just feels like when you die the game is at fault for any number of reasons. The camera i got used to but it still doesnt hide the fact it doesnt show all the enemies on the screen around you making it more difficult than it should be.

After chapter 7 the game becomes pretty fucking lame too . The first half is actually on par with NG1 maybe even better with good enemies to fight against, after this it just takes a nosedive with shitty bosses and cheap enemies. (5 rockets from one dude with like 3 or 4 of enemies, really is that supposed to be fun Itagaki because I find it hard to believe you think its a cool thing to put in).

Graphics are very mixed too. There are only a handful of good looking stages which are mostly in the first half anyway. The jungle, the water city and nyc look awesome. but the rest are just average. For a game from Team Ninja this is disappointing. Most stages are set in dark or night time which doesnt help. Whats with the universal animation of the water and rain? it flows and pours in the same way everywhere. Ryu isnt even wet or drenched in nyc and it pouring. Kind of takes you out of the immersion. Feels like he was just pasted there. Whats up with the craptastic graphics at times? For example that green cave in the jungle. Or the dull boxy indoor environments such as the airship or other indoor areas. Having said that the enemy designs and the effects in combat are amazing. The speed at which it flows is impressive. Slicing limbs off never looks or gets old. Is this game really better looking than Sigma? The combat looks better but I woud say most stages are bland and ugly looking. More variety sure but thats it.

I know the game isnt known for its story but I did think the story in the first was quite a bit better in this aspect too. The story in here is just crappy and boring. The ending sucked, the cutscenes are stupid. For example
Why is Sonia at the end kidnapped and in her underwear waiting for sex? Was it even shown how she even got caught?
Talking werewolves make the cutscenes look worse than they already are. Why are the werewolves in the colleseum have human crowd voices? Also I didnt give a rats ass about the pickups from dead people explaining the plot. It made no sense.
I mean you dont even see Ryu's father again after the initial appearance. Nothing in the ending, only a quick mention from Sonia saying he will be ok, this clearly shows it was rushed. No satisfying conclusion.
.The fact that the last cutscene AFTER the credits is better than the actual ending itself speaks volumes.

Having said that I did enjoy the soundtrack and again the best of that was the first half...Some really great tracks there. After the "water capital" as the game stupidly puts it, the music gets more boring and ambienty and dreary sounding.

Overall good game with some generally amazing combat. However its flawed and cheap not the NG1 beater at all. Feels rushed and half baked. 8.0/10 from me.
 

smuf

Member
Can anyone tell me how to kill those bazooka ninja's on path of the mentor? Especially the ones that shoot multiple rockets at once are such a pain in the ass. I never manage to reach them without getting hit by a batallion of rockets. >_<
 

X26

Banned
jet1911 said:
The what of where?

there's your problem then, without that you can't do the trials. you can only get it in chapter 2, so if you want to do trials you're going to have to start over :/
 

Victrix

*beard*
I just finished C2 on Mentor. The cave save -> inside building save was about a week with breaks, then the Spider miniboss BSN ninja fight PLUS BONUS UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENE was an hour of so of swearing. Then Genshin was another hour or so of periodic invuluntary swearing.

I'm not really feeling like a skilled player right now, more like 'if I bash my head into this wall long enough, it will yield to my head bashing powers'

The stupid part is that Warrior feels like newbie mode now, so I have gotten better... but Mentor really does not care.
 

Draft

Member
I just beat Genshin on Mentor.

He's tough.

But I do enjoy the fact that I went from dead in 5 seconds, to dead in 30 seconds, to extra ninjas dead every time, to Genshin almost dead, to Genshin dead, pretty consistently, over the half our or so that I took him on.
 

Victrix

*beard*
Draft said:
But I do enjoy the fact that I went from dead in 5 seconds, to dead in 30 seconds, to extra ninjas dead every time, to Genshin almost dead, to Genshin dead, pretty consistently, over the half our or so that I took him on.

This part is true for me as well...

However, a number of 'oh shit framedrop/camera stuck behind burning wreckage GLIiTIThtHTITCH' deaths added more fuel to the burning flames of hatred

As did the 'welp, ur ded' rounds where I pretty much just fucking faceplanted instantly.

It's hard to feel like you're improving when you die 30 times in a row.

They could have lowered the burning hate quotient of this game by so much if the restarts were near instant and there was no shitty framedrop as you die to a sepia toned mocking screen. Dunno what that's all about.

Think I'm going to spend some time practicing counters, I had them ice cold in NGB, I'm sloppy here, the timing isn't the same, nor are the moves. BSNs have laughable light hitting combo strings that are really vulnerable to them.

Curiously, the Tech ninjas actually seem more risky, as they are a bit throw happy, and their combos aren't quite as easy to time the counter for, the two together make them easier to just murder with normal attacks.

Mentor is at least teaching me that a TON of stuff can be blocked :p It's funny, I went through Warrior the first time all panicked offense, but now I'm slowly incorporating defense back into my play again. Very slowly - boss throws blow.
 

Draft

Member
I noticed the same thing.

Wasn't blocking much at all. I mean I was, but only to dash, not to actually block.

Can't really do that on Mentor. Can't just stand there and block, either. It's tough.
 

Victrix

*beard*
Yeah... it's a weird feeling. If you stand still and block, you get thrown pretty quickly (not to mention eating rockets/shuriken/fireballs/etc). If you just dash/jump, you eat aerial projectiles and/or ground combos when you land in recovery.

But at the same time, reverse wind pulls you out of block stagger fast, and you can block damn near anything - stuck incendiary shuriken, the first hit of MRLS ninjas, giant fists from huge giant bosses, whatever.

And counters are pure murder - they tend to have either very high dismemberment properties, or let you go into an izuna drop or air combo (and then into insta-drop UT), or have fast movement/invuln/aoe capability.

Still struggling to learn when to time those blocks, and then either counter or reverse wind out and ground combo. Doing that has slowly increased my lethality on the ground (vs the usual panicked izuna drop/UT/flying swallow/jump/dodge spam), but one slip and you wind up dead.

Practice (and rage) make perfect I guess

edit: incidently, are you using wall combos much? I've found several of them are pretty damn cool, eg, wall run at an angle -> X -> hit ground -> X with lunar
 

Victrix

*beard*
Yeah, another one similar to the head jump into wall is the the delayed aerial flying swallow of the dual katanas, which is the most insanely badass shit - Air combo -> wait -> flying swallow into wall -> birdflip -> headslice on poor fools below OR swallow right back off the wall.

Pretty crazy, I didn't even notice you could do that my first time through, but a friend was over and playing on acolyte, and I bugged him to screw with that combo. It was seriously damn cool.

I need to play with head bouncing though, I wind run all the time but usually do so to start an attack, rather than jumping off someones head. Stuns are good. I HAVE been using basic shuriken a lot, its funny how much they stop even really aggressive ninja.
 

Draft

Member
IMO, headjump is like, a top 3 move. It stuns practically anything with a head, gives you invincible frames, keeps you moving, you can autoaim it with the XA jump, it's just madness.
 

Future

Member
Victrix said:
Yeah... it's a weird feeling. If you stand still and block, you get thrown pretty quickly (not to mention eating rockets/shuriken/fireballs/etc). If you just dash/jump, you eat aerial projectiles and/or ground combos when you land in recovery.

But at the same time, reverse wind pulls you out of block stagger fast, and you can block damn near anything - stuck incendiary shuriken, the first hit of MRLS ninjas, giant fists from huge giant bosses, whatever.

And counters are pure murder - they tend to have either very high dismemberment properties, or let you go into an izuna drop or air combo (and then into insta-drop UT), or have fast movement/invuln/aoe capability.

Still struggling to learn when to time those blocks, and then either counter or reverse wind out and ground combo. Doing that has slowly increased my lethality on the ground (vs the usual panicked izuna drop/UT/flying swallow/jump/dodge spam), but one slip and you wind up dead.

Practice (and rage) make perfect I guess

edit: incidently, are you using wall combos much? I've found several of them are pretty damn cool, eg, wall run at an angle -> X -> hit ground -> X with lunar

The biggest habit I had to kick from NG1 is roll/dash jumping. AI combos and strings are much longer in NG2, so jumping after the dash usually gets me hit because of the lack of invincibility frames. AI also roll and dodge around on their own even when they arent attacking, so guillotine throw is not as reliable, as an AI may be invincible to the attack. The ONLY thing reliable to me is the head jump.

I predict youll get stuck again on the first Test of Valor on Mentor :p. I had trouble in every area you mentioned and that was the next stopping point. You havent seen the buffer projectile ninjas yet or the buffer spider ninjas and they own up here.

After that its smooth sailing till Chapter 6. Thats where I am stuck, at this Test of Valor. I could skip it but I think I need the pickups in order to survive this difficulty
 

Pachinko

Member
So after a week long hiatus where I watched metal gear solid 4(lolz) I played through chapter 9. That worm was definetly irritating but I suppose it was meant as forshadowing for the boss. OOOh the 2 dragons are easily the worst boss so far and this is why-

1- For the first time since the cavern escape sequence in the first ninja gaiden I actually really really hate the camera, it's all well and good that during boss fights it tries to track the boss but the problem is your are on a massive circular arena and literally can't get the camera to just stay still or stay focused on ryu instead unless you mash the "see" button endlessly. I didn't evenknow there was an arrow corpse until I'd allready died about 3 times because I didn't see it.

2- Yes I know you can take 'em out with peircing void but there's still the matter of having to aim properly and they are only left wide open to the black gravity bomb of doom for a brief window, so you pretty much have to attempt to track 1 dragon at a time and well if you run out of ninpo you're left with using arrows which do piss poor damage unless you UT them but the UT won't reach the dragon unless it's within piercing void range. It just makes the fight more time consuming then it needs to be.

3- So you allready have to deal with a shitty camera that glitches and shakes the screen , bosses that are impossible to aim properly at but the final straw is that they decided it wasn't hard enough fighting a shitty camera and 2 dragons bombarding the screen with shit , no they throw about 8 weaker dragon feinds at you that are flying at you and spitting smaller fireballs constantly so you wind up having to play the whole battle by rolling and firing arrows until you kill all the small ones , avoiding the big ones attacks then in the breif small window you get before the next wave comes you have to hope one of the bigger guys comes close enough to peg with either a charged arrow or a peircing void.

I think I died about 15 times on that boss alone and spent nearly an hour fighting it, partially because being cocky at the last muramasa shop I didn't buy any healing items I merely had a talisman of rebirth hard fought for at the trial site (a super easy trial I might add ) . Sure I did eventually beat the stage but man, there's just so much this game does better then anything else out there that when it fails miserably it just makes you wonder what they were thinking and the 9th stage has had 3 or 4 of those moments alone. I mean unlike some complainers I didn't mind the 8th stage, I kind of wish there'd have been a store after the train before the midboss because I was stuck there for a bit with no healing items dying endlessly when even 1 seed of life might have helped me beat it sooner but really the rockets didn't bother me there. The stage 9 missile pod you fight in the room with the giant swamp in the middle... THAT was stupid , it's not my idea of fun running across the water and getting shot at the bottom of the steps before I can even block and then have ryu get stuck on teh side of the steps unable to climb them only to get pelted by yet more missiles. Also the freebie 100 hit combo fish lake, that was really dumb to, what's the point of a sequence you can only win by exploiting glitches? in this case hiding outside of the fishes movement zone and shooting them to death. It was just lame. Yet despite all this bitching stage 9 was saved from being a total wash by giving me the vigoorian flails which I immediately maxed out and proceeded to have a blast with fighting the purple chainsaw/sword gun guys.

So many of this games issues could have been fixed so easily, I mean as it stands right now I'd give this game a solid 8/10 compared to the 9.5/10 the original /black would get and the 9 I'd give sigma. Thems the breaks when you rush a game out the door when it's not ready.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Draft said:
IMO, headjump is like, a top 3 move. It stuns practically anything with a head, gives you invincible frames, keeps you moving, you can autoaim it with the XA jump, it's just madness.

You can also start holding Y as you come off the head giving you instant UT on landing.
 

DC R1D3R

Banned
Ok guys, I think Itagaki-san's claims of being the No.1 3-D action game developer, have been vindicated. Despite the games faults, the latest Egde review states:
The fighting engine is quite without equal in the genre
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You can find scans of the review here
 

glaurung

Member
DC R1D3R said:
Ok guys, I think Itagaki-san's claims of being the No.1 3-D action game developer, have been vindicated. Despite the games faults, the latest Egde review states:


You can find scans of the review here

I would edit that if I were you.
 

Saya

Member
I'm kinda sad that I only have 2 more weapon runs to go (claws & tonfas). Think it would be possible to add new weapons as DLC?
 
I decided to buy this thing a week ago and it was a good decision. I probably played NGB for half an hour due to not having a Xbox 1. As a NG noob, I didn't find it hard to get trough the game on acolyte and the tests. Probably the biggest flaw is the camera, and some minor frame rate drops. But apart from that I really like the game (I'm in ch11 so far) and I will definitely try it again on the other difficulties.
 

goldenpp72

Member
I just finished the game on master ninja, very challenging, now I just have to finish 6 of the weapon runs, i'm half way through the tonfa run though :)

I have about 32 million karma, and yes, I beat all of master mode with the giant skull since I didn't know what it did (still don't)

Anyways it was fun, cheap at many points but fun.
 

ShinAmano

Member
goldenpp72 said:
I just finished the game on master ninja, very challenging, now I just have to finish 6 of the weapon runs, i'm half way through the tonfa run though :)

I have about 32 million karma, and yes, I beat all of master mode with the giant skull since I didn't know what it did (still don't)

Anyways it was fun, cheap at many points but fun.
Congrats...I am trying to balance Mentor, MGS4, my kickball team, my social life and my girlfriend...wish I had more time to press through this...but currently I am in the first 1/4 of level 8...not to bad. :D
 

goldenpp72

Member
Mentor is so much easier than master, when I first played mentor I really struggled but now after master I can just like.. glaze through the parts of mentor that pissed me off, not simple, but a lot easier than before.

Master ninja is probably the hardest game achievement i've done this gen, and I beat PDZ on dark agent :lol
 

X26

Banned
I'm having terrrible luck this playthrough

Ch.3 - Boss dissapears

Ch.6 - While running between the big skeleton boss I somehow clip through something and can't see anything but a wall and the sky, then I come back into view to see the boss grab me, and pound me against the sky to my death

Ch.6 - While fighting volf my machine shuts off and gets 2 red-lighted (overheating?)

I'm going to get 3RL by the time I'm done this playthrough, I just know it
 

goldenpp72

Member
My game simply froze up during important parts 2 or 3 times through master, the technical problems of the game are depressing, just glad the rest is so good.
 

PhatSaqs

Banned
DC R1D3R said:
Ok guys, I think Itagaki-san's claims of being the No.1 3-D action game developer, have been vindicated. Despite the games faults, the latest Egde review states:

The full quote:

Edge NG2 Review said:
The fighting engine is quite without equal in the genre to the extent that it makes DMC4 feel like a wasted opportunity and God of War an over-bloated spectacle. It is fast, it is vicious, it looks fantastic, and it's very rewarding to master.
I'd say they nailed it :p
 

X26

Banned
They're right, but I don't see the point in bringing up GoW, it isn't meant to have complex fighting. The goal of the game is to be simple and inclusive, and is as much about the story/characters/art direction/etc. as it is about the combat.
 
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