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RTTP: Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox ver.)

SkylineRKR

Member
So yeah I played this on and off since I got the Series S last November, it was pulled from GP in a dick move, probably to boost Master Collection, but I bought it anyway. Kinda expensive digital only for such an old game but hey, its a timeless classic and the boost makes it feel like a bonafide PS4/X1 game. On S its 1440p/60/HDR. There are worse remasters being offered for full retail price.

So yeah the story is, I had an Xbox 360 from early 2006 onward and NG2 was actually one of the last games I played on it as the thing broke on me for the third time or so. I got it fixed and sold it before I could make some good progress. I bought a PS3 which was heavily discounted at the time. So I was thrilled when NGS2 was announced on PS3, since the 360 game was being published by MS I never saw this coming. I didn't really like NG2 on 360 to begin with. It lacked the polish Black and OG had, performance issues, locks, just a very sloppy game for Tecmo's standards at the time (though DoAX2 was a piece of shit imo, perhaps a bit of foreshadowing but I digress). There was however a decent game underneath. I loved the gore, the raw violence that didn't hold anything back. I was kind of gutted Sigma 2 cut corners here, and didn't stop at nerfing shuriken spam but removed like 70% of the enemies. So there was no perfect version of NG2 so to speak.

Until Phil Spencer boosted this shit for the Xbox One. The game has no slowdown anymore, no low ass near-SD resolution, no muted colors. The controls are perfect. Some fundamentals are still broken, the projectile spam is obscene in later levels and not fun on higher difficulties. Some (a lot of) bosses are trash. Some are there out to just troll you. The Armadillos. There is never a warning and never the need to block after beating an enemy to prevent an insta game over. Dashing away for an exploding enemy, sure. But not this shit. With explosive shuriken these guys are a joke, the rematch took me like 30 seconds in total on both. The same goes for the Zedonius rematch, he took me 10 tries. Until he slammed down and I combo'd him a few times, killing him within 20 seconds. For some reason Alexei took me numerous retries as well but is really weak to the claws and he falls in seconds against them. Its a bit weird. When you win its not like you accomplished something, its because the enemy didn't do a shitty airborne routine and didn't abuse grabs. The game does dick you with save point placements as well (there is none after Zedonius and if you just walk the lava, well, gg lol). And shops. After the second Volf encounter I had no heals and not enough money (should've restarted, hes easy, UT the shit out of the horses first), so I had to kind of cheese the annoying hallways with cyborgs, dragons and then those horses. The Scythe's UT is kind of broken though. Same shit happened against the climbing boss, who is really easy if you ascend quickly and I would have an easy time against the final boss if I had those 2 or 3 heals left or so. In general the game isn't hard on Normal. You can beat it with one weapon, using basic moves and not looking at the move list. But if you do, and use launchers, guillotine throw, combos that delimb, which means OT, which means essence, then you can get good at it.

There is a lot of bad stuff in the later half of the game, I hated the level with the swamp and the cave for example. I think Sigma 2 simply removed all bad shit there which is good. Early game I only hated the ghost fish boss, which was made far too easy in Sigma 2. In general I prefer to fight ninjas since you can launch them, and slice them into shabu-shabu.

Still, I think this is the best Ninja Gaiden game out there. Its just that I prefer the speed, gore and abilities of this game over the original which feels mundane in comparison but is still awesome. I kind of liked how they changed the levels, I don't mind a bit of searching but I felt NG1 had a bit too much of it. NG2 has streamlined this, but you still have to collect the odd key from a side hallway, blow up a wall, or beat the odd semi hidden encounter for an item. Sigma 2 went way overboard and removed any kind of keys I think.

If you have an Xbox One or higher, don't get Master Collection, get Black and 2. Do it.
 
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Marty-McFly

Banned
I'm playing through it for the first time right now.

My thoughts.

The Good

It's basically a retread of the first game with some cool new features and weapons, so that pretty much already makes it a high level action game

The Bad


I haven't even made it to the later part of the game yet but it's just not as good a game as NG Black in any respect so far: the pacing, level design and enemy encounters just don't seem as well thought out.

The Ugly

This game compared to NG Black
 
NG2 is one of my favorite 360 games. It wasn’t well optimized on the original hardware (since it tried to push enemy count so much), but playing it on Xbox One and especially Series X is significantly better, with the Series X being the definitive experience.
 
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I also played this on Game Pass when I received my Series X in November. I had played through OG Ninja Gaiden on my Xbox back in the day, and I had played this one only briefly in the 360 days. I absolutely loved playing through this on the Series X; it looked great, ran smoothly, and was very satisfying to play. I really miss games like this today. It seems like everything today has a much more complicated system for weapons, abilities, and upgrades which can be fine, but it was nice to play a game where your progress is more based on your skill with the different weapons rather than crafting some item or progressing through a skill tree.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Im playing this on S as well and also playing Master Collection on PS5. Its crazy how much worse Master Collection is.

I might buy it on sale one day. NGS2 is worse but its fun to compare. I did like the missions with the woman characters. Didn't care for their levels in the main campaign, its long enough as is.

NGS2 doesn't do everything worse. The armadillo fight in the volcano has been replaced by Marbus who is much better (and harder I think, those 2 guys fall extremely quickly in fact, but they're just shit). The nerfed the final few levels which wasn't bad. I think the final bosses were made a bit less obnoxious as well. They tend to fly around a lot in the original, which means you can't do shit. The dual dragon was replaced by one dragon and is a ground battle which is far more fun.
 
I might buy it on sale one day. NGS2 is worse but its fun to compare. I did like the missions with the woman characters. Didn't care for their levels in the main campaign, its long enough as is.

NGS2 doesn't do everything worse. The armadillo fight in the volcano has been replaced by Marbus who is much better (and harder I think, those 2 guys fall extremely quickly in fact, but they're just shit). The nerfed the final few levels which wasn't bad. I think the final bosses were made a bit less obnoxious as well. They tend to fly around a lot in the original, which means you can't do shit. The dual dragon was replaced by one dragon and is a ground battle which is far more fun.
I like having both versions as well. Fun to compare them and play the extra content.
 

stn

Member
Its a good action game for sure, I just don't like it as much as Black. That said, I do think the combat is better but everything else is worse.
 

assurdum

Banned
So yeah I played this on and off since I got the Series S last November, it was pulled from GP in a dick move, probably to boost Master Collection, but I bought it anyway. Kinda expensive digital only for such an old game but hey, its a timeless classic and the boost makes it feel like a bonafide PS4/X1 game. On S its 1440p/60/HDR. There are worse remasters being offered for full retail price.

So yeah the story is, I had an Xbox 360 from early 2006 onward and NG2 was actually one of the last games I played on it as the thing broke on me for the third time or so. I got it fixed and sold it before I could make some good progress. I bought a PS3 which was heavily discounted at the time. So I was thrilled when NGS2 was announced on PS3, since the 360 game was being published by MS I never saw this coming. I didn't really like NG2 on 360 to begin with. It lacked the polish Black and OG had, performance issues, locks, just a very sloppy game for Tecmo's standards at the time (though DoAX2 was a piece of shit imo, perhaps a bit of foreshadowing but I digress). There was however a decent game underneath. I loved the gore, the raw violence that didn't hold anything back. I was kind of gutted Sigma 2 cut corners here, and didn't stop at nerfing shuriken spam but removed like 70% of the enemies. So there was no perfect version of NG2 so to speak.

Until Phil Spencer boosted this shit for the Xbox One. The game has no slowdown anymore, no low ass near-SD resolution, no muted colors. The controls are perfect. Some fundamentals are still broken, the projectile spam is obscene in later levels and not fun on higher difficulties. Some (a lot of) bosses are trash. Some are there out to just troll you. The Armadillos. There is never a warning and never the need to block after beating an enemy to prevent an insta game over. Dashing away for an exploding enemy, sure. But not this shit. With explosive shuriken these guys are a joke, the rematch took me like 30 seconds in total on both. The same goes for the Zedonius rematch, he took me 10 tries. Until he slammed down and I combo'd him a few times, killing him within 20 seconds. For some reason Alexei took me numerous retries as well but is really weak to the claws and he falls in seconds against them. Its a bit weird. When you win its not like you accomplished something, its because the enemy didn't do a shitty airborne routine and didn't abuse grabs. The game does dick you with save point placements as well (there is none after Zedonius and if you just walk the lava, well, gg lol). And shops. After the second Volf encounter I had no heals and not enough money (should've restarted, hes easy, UT the shit out of the horses first), so I had to kind of cheese the annoying hallways with cyborgs, dragons and then those horses. The Scythe's UT is kind of broken though. Same shit happened against the climbing boss, who is really easy if you ascend quickly and I would have an easy time against the final boss if I had those 2 or 3 heals left or so. In general the game isn't hard on Normal. You can beat it with one weapon, using basic moves and not looking at the move list. But if you do, and use launchers, guillotine throw, combos that delimb, which means OT, which means essence, then you can get good at it.

There is a lot of bad stuff in the later half of the game, I hated the level with the swamp and the cave for example. I think Sigma 2 simply removed all bad shit there which is good. Early game I only hated the ghost fish boss, which was made far too easy in Sigma 2. In general I prefer to fight ninjas since you can launch them, and slice them into shabu-shabu.

Still, I think this is the best Ninja Gaiden game out there. Its just that I prefer the speed, gore and abilities of this game over the original which feels mundane in comparison but is still awesome. I kind of liked how they changed the levels, I don't mind a bit of searching but I felt NG1 had a bit too much of it. NG2 has streamlined this, but you still have to collect the odd key from a side hallway, blow up a wall, or beat the odd semi hidden encounter for an item. Sigma 2 went way overboard and removed any kind of keys I think.

If you have an Xbox One or higher, don't get Master Collection, get Black and 2. Do it.
After reading the whole post I never expected to read NG2 as the better NG game in the end. I played both NGS2 and NG2, outside some nips and tucks, I don't agree with the general notion which playing NG2 the consideration about this game changes radically; the sequel still remain a major letdown compared the prequel and it's not absolutely to the same league. Not bad at all, sure, not surely the garbage seen in NG3 (it's really disgusting and made me reconsider my disappointment for NG2) but for me NG1 still remain the perfection and the pinnacle of the series, even in the NGS1 form which is still superb.
 
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SafeOrAlone

Banned
Love this game. I too recently played the original version on Series X, and it was a blast. I was starting to think I even preferred it to "Black", until I finally went back and played Black on hard mode, realizing that it gives you all new enemies to fight. Love this series.
 
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After reading the whole post I never expected to read NG2 as the better NG game in the end. I played both NGS2 and NG2, outside some nips and tucks, I don't agree with the general notion which playing NG2 the consideration about this game changes radically; the sequel still remain a major letdown compared the prequel and it's not absolutely to the same league. Not bad at all, sure, not surely the garbage seen in NG3 (it's really disgusting and made me reconsider my disappointment for NG2) but for me NG1 still remain the perfection and the pinnacle of the series, even in the NGS1 form which is still superb.
I've always thought 2 is far superior. Playing Black is so much simpler, and so much slower in comparison. The obliteration techniques are just a massive addition to the combat flow. Triple flying swallows, many more weapons. Vastly improved graphics. If you actually are focused on the combat, NG2 is leaps and bounds better.

The bosses are a little better in NGB though, and as a whole, the game has a more refined and balanced difficulty curve. NG2 does have some unfair difficulty spikes.
 

assurdum

Banned
I've always thought 2 is far superior. Playing Black is so much simpler, and so much slower in comparison. The obliteration techniques are just a massive addition to the combat flow. Triple flying swallows, many more weapons. Vastly improved graphics. If you actually are focused on the combat, NG2 is leaps and bounds better.

The bosses are a little better in NGB though, and as a whole, the game has a more refined and balanced difficulty curve. NG2 does have some unfair difficulty spikes.
Don't like at all the combat system in NG2 honestly. You practically can't use some combo against some enemies which is really frustrating. I don't like most of the update in the combat mechanics frankly (as the final execution, spectacular is spectacular but unbalanced too much some encounter) and I add the ugliness and the flatness of some levels background and the boss fight. I can't find any major flaw in the prequel personally as the sequel.
 
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assurdum

Banned
I really might buy a series x just to play these old games. NGB is a top 5 videogame of all time. NG2 is excellent as well.
I don't think NG master collection is that bad offer. At 19,99 you should buy it. NGS2 at higher difficult is very similar to the original, the enemies counts rise vertically, of course the censored purple bullshit still remain .
 

assurdum

Banned
Ninja Gaiden 2 or Sigma 2 is MUCH better than the first one.
The platforming in 1 is disgusting.
Opinion 🤷‍♀️ Still I find the first, miles better and more balanced in most of his aspects. Not sure where are all that platforming though. It's very minimal. Well I guess the final level (the volcano) isn't it exactly enjoyable but outside that, I hadn't any problems with the platforming in the whole game and I barely remember such part.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I started Black yesterday, and I quit at Chapter 4. Its really solid and sometimes I can't believe its an OG Xbox game.

1 has some light platforming, more than 2. It doesn't really work well but there isn't that much. I do like the wall run jumps to reach higher parts but both games have them. 1 has some shit like enemies shooting while you need to cross a gap but the bow kills minions in 2 hits or so.

Its more cumbersome to play than 2 though. There is no quick menu, you have to pick up things with the attack button. The combat is way slower, though I didn't upgrade yet. But the enemies are more on the defensive and are in lesser numbers. UT takes a long ass time to charge without ki, which isn't bad since the enemy numbers don't really overwhelm you. Level design of the airship was pretty good, though I was surprised at how small the level actually is and there are barely any fights. Dynamo was a fun boss, he has a set pattern and it takes skill to beat him. You need to be in close range so that he won't hammer you with shots. Then bait his grab and punish. Its repetitive, but you can kill him without being hit if you time it well. In 2 you can obviously kill bosses without being hit too but it feels more random to the average player.

But for just some random slashing I rather boot up 2 since it puts you into a bloodbath from the get go. I might get mission mode lol.

Itagaki 2004:

IGN: What do you say to those lesser gamers who complain that Ninja Gaiden is too hard?

Itagaki: Just fight instead of complaining.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I beat Black also. Funny is that both games took me exactly 9 hours each.

I def. like NG2 more. The controls are far better, there is better crowd control and the bow is much better also. NGB starts on a high note, the first level is amazing. But gradually there is a lot of backtracking and the enemies become more annoying. NG2 has issues with projectile spam, well, I don't like the bazookas in 1 either. The comms tower is terrible. In fact, the entire military base is shit with its laser drones, tank and heli bosses. The underwater chapter is awful. The magma cave is hideous. I actually found it a plus that Sigma got rid of the ore collecting there. The skeleton enemies in the catacombs are horrible, and the dragons are shit. They can't be launched or anything, and their grab has super armor. I made short work of them with dabilahro. I think the final bosses are awful as well. The one on the platform and the skeleton barrage, good lord (I just inazuma'd the fuck out of him). Even Dagra Dai and the Archfiend are better. The Dark Disciple is relentless but you just need to pressure him with A,Y and then its a short fight, didn't even use a heal. Also fuck the ghost fish.

This franchise has bad boss battles in general. Alma 1 is good, Murai is good, Doku 1 is good, Marbus is good. But those worms, dragons, Paz Zuu, Yotunfrau etc are all stupid.

I like how 2 got rid of the backtracking and most of the platforming because it doesn't really work well. I think that on Normal, 2 is easier overall. You also get health back after every bout and UT's are far, far more powerful. 2 has better pacing for sure. Its ridiculous how good Black looks in HD though, and its not like its completely overhauled. The Xbox was just a beast, also Orta looks amazing today.
 
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Naked Lunch

Member
Black and NG2 are still the best 3D action games ever made. No nonsense, no pissing around from the jump - even regular enemies will fuck you up.
Its been 13 years since NG2 but the combat still feels so smooth, fast, and precise. Infinitely replayable.
The only games even remotely close are DmC 3 and 4.
God of War, Hellblade, even Bayonetta are so fucking weak in comparison.
 

Larsowitz

Member
I don't think NG master collection is that bad offer. At 19,99 you should buy it. NGS2 at higher difficult is very similar to the original, the enemies counts rise vertically, of course the censored purple bullshit still remain .

NGS2 encounters are completely different and overall much reduced. There are also many other unnecessary gameplay changes.

If you have an Xbox I highly recommend to play the far superior originals.
 

Kagey K

Banned
NGS2 encounters are completely different and overall much reduced. There are also many other unnecessary gameplay changes.

If you have an Xbox I highly recommend to play the far superior originals.
I'm playing the sigma versions now, because more ninja Gaiden is better than no ninja Gaiden.

But they wouldn't be my first choice if I recconended the series to anyone
 

TwiztidElf

Member
Single digit framerate on the staircase is the pure way to play NG2.
It's a shame it's gone forever.

When it first launched, there was a game breaking bug on one of the later chapters. It took ages until they patched it.
 

Larsowitz

Member
I'm playing the sigma versions now, because more ninja Gaiden is better than no ninja Gaiden.

But they wouldn't be my first choice if I recconended the series to anyone

Yep, still good games overall.

TN spend a lot of time/effort to make them different (for whichever reason).
 

Kagey K

Banned
Yep, still good games overall.

TN spend a lot of time/effort to make them different (for whichever reason).
The reason is obvious, for those that know the history.

Basically old man (master ninja) made it fucking awesome. New up and comer (ninja dog) tried to usurp old man's spot.

Ninja dog won and wanted to mark his territory by spoiling master ninja games.

He has never reached the peak of the old man's, and it infuriates him at every turn.
 
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PhaseJump

Banned
Xbox should give Itagaki everything he needs to make a new studio and franchise for them.

Instead, they're apparently giving 2 day embargo moneyhats to Team Ninja and trying to pass it off as having support for the Japanese content which they lack.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I really think Hayashit was out there to troll Itagaki.

I mean look at NG3. The original release was actually about punishment for killing countless men. They made you sort of hate killing and Ryu outright killing a defensive soldier didn't feel right for his character. NG3 was an incredible piece of shit.

The way it went was Hayashit first released Sigma 1 which wasn't bad as they didn't fuck up NGB too much with it though its worse. With Sigma 2 he changed more resulting in a much worse game overall. NG3 was his project from the get-go and guess what, its one of the worst games of that generation. Razor's Edge is a bit better (I still hate it) because he sort of reverted to OG NG2 with it lol.

Hayashit sucks.
 
I really think Hayashit was out there to troll Itagaki.

I mean look at NG3. The original release was actually about punishment for killing countless men. They made you sort of hate killing and Ryu outright killing a defensive soldier didn't feel right for his character. NG3 was an incredible piece of shit.

The way it went was Hayashit first released Sigma 1 which wasn't bad as they didn't fuck up NGB too much with it though its worse. With Sigma 2 he changed more resulting in a much worse game overall. NG3 was his project from the get-go and guess what, its one of the worst games of that generation. Razor's Edge is a bit better (I still hate it) because he sort of reverted to OG NG2 with it lol.

Hayashit sucks.
nah, he's genuine - just made a bad game.

NG3 was written by the writer behind the original trilogy on NES. They brought him back. He tied Ryu back in with some government / mercenary activity like in the original trilogy.

H2Y8IDQ.png


If you read Team Ninja interviews, they really take some elements of the story seriously even though the games are fairly ridiculous. Their mindset behind the obliteration techniques in Ninja Gaiden 2 was to try and show how incredibly hardcore ninjas are, and that all of them are not only prepared to fight to the death, but get even more deadly when near death since they're willing to blow themselves up and launch suicide attacks. Ryu is meant to be a stone cold killer, and that's just who he is. In Ninja Gaiden 2 he single handedly destroys the entire Black Spider Ninja Clan on one staircase singlehandedly. I think they tried to just write a villain that's able to use this against him.

Hayashit made a large mistake, but he's made amends. He publicly acknowledged his game sucked, and they've now doubled down on what they're good at and have put out multiple top tier titles since then.
 
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K' Dash

Member
NG2 is one of the best action games of all time.

I REFUSE to play NG Shitma 1 or 2, fucking downgrades... what irritates me the most is that those are the versions they will keep remastering, fuck that noise.
 
Guess I couldnt be game critic, played it on my Xbox one for the first time a bit back and was just completely blown away.
 
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NG2 is one of the best action games of all time.

I REFUSE to play NG Shitma 1 or 2, fucking downgrades... what irritates me the most is that those are the versions they will keep remastering, fuck that noise.
MS paid them for genuine exclusives. Tecmo treated them like dirt and added enough content to qualify as it being a different thing and then put it out on PS. Really the only versions that should even exist are the Xbox versions of 1 and 2.
 

SSfox

Member
The game that made me love Xbox back then, a relationship that ended when MS launched Kinect.
 
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Hayabusa83

Banned
Sigma 2 ran way better than NG2 though.

How is NG2 via BC?

Oh and Itagaki stole a weapon from the 1st Sigma, not sure what is was???

Where is Itagaki these days?
NG Black and NG II look absolutely spectacular on the Series Consoles, hell they looked great on Xbox One X as well.
 

Larsowitz

Member
Sigma 2 ran way better than NG2 though.

How is NG2 via BC?

Oh and Itagaki stole a weapon from the 1st Sigma, not sure what is was???

Where is Itagaki these days?

Basically perfect now via one x or series s/x.

I think you mean the dual katanas? This was a weapon from NG2 that Hayashi included into NG Sigma. There was an interview with Itagaki where he said the implementation wasn’t good ;)

Apparently Itagaki is back to game development, no information on what specifically he is doing though…
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Basically perfect now via one x or series s/x.

I think you mean the dual katanas? This was a weapon from NG2 that Hayashi included into NG Sigma. There was an interview with Itagaki where he said the implementation wasn’t good ;)

Apparently Itagaki is back to game development, no information on what specifically he is doing though…
I think it was them but either way he stole it from Sigma :)
 
Ninja Gaiden 2 is the game that got me into character action games, and it’s still one of my favorite 360 games. NGB is the better game but ironically I have more nostalgia for 2 since I played it first. Playing both on XSX in 4K/60 is glorious.
 
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