• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Shinobi PS2: is it good?

It's a great game and I love it. I'd recommend it, but be prepared, it's a really tough game (harder if you ramp up the difficulty, but more coins to unlock different characters).
 
It's a perfect blend of action and platforming. The game encourages you to kill enemies in an efficient manner, since each successive kill makes your sword more and more powerful, whereas failing to maintain the combo because you're too slow returns the damage value back to default. So you have to maneuver through the platforming level quickly while racking up kills, without ever slowly down. To increase the sense of urgency even more, if you don't kill enemies fast enough to devour their souls, you take hp damage over time, so that's even more extra incentive to play well. It's a pretty challenging, but fair, game. As you get better throughout the game, it gets more and more rewarding.

I'm a scrub, though, I never finished the last boss!

I even made a LTTP a few years back! http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=557252
 
This is the one with the ninja with the long ass scarf yeah?

I remember liking the first couple levels, but I bought it at the same time as DMC3, so yeah the game didn't get as much attention as maybe I should've given it and it ended up untouched after the first time, hope it gets a remaster someday.
 
It's a pretty neat game, imo a great transition into 3D for the franchise. Environments can come off as a bit bland or repetitive but the Tate system more than makes up for it in style, let alone as a solid game mechanic.

For the life of me I couldn't beat the final boss on hard mode back in the day when this game dropped, which was so infuriating since the game has some nice unlockables and challenges outside of the story.

I just opened my copy and still have my 10 year old receipt inside
 
The gamplay mechanics are super fun and unique. It's not as hard as it may seem at first, once you get the hang of the mechanics(killing small enemies to power up your sword to kill the big enemies) you can kill all the hard bosses in 1 slash of your sword!. The final boss is still pretty tricky though.

Biggest downside to the game is the environments can look pretty cheap at times.
 
I loved it back when it came out but it was incredibly hard. It's always best to get alot of kills in quick succession so you do more damage. That tends to be the best way to take out most bosses but it's easier said than done sometimes.

Edit: I should add that my case was completely ruined the day I bought it because the plastic it was wrapped in was stuck to the case and when I ripped it off it took all but the cover art with it. Had to tape the cover art down lol.
 
I remember back when it came out it got pretty meh reviews, like a bunch of 7s.

I ended up loving it through. I always remember that when games get mediocre reviews that I might still like them.

Feels like a "modern" Genesis game. Also love the character design, the satisfaction of chaining combos together, etc.
 
Almost nabbed it, then remembered 50hz in EU (I have 3 PSN accounts, US, EU, JPN).
So... this is 50hz, right? If so, this is a no go...

Edit: Would pick up God Hand, too, if not for the 50hz, and both Fear Effect games, too. This is a good sale.
 
The US PSOne Classics have a little American flag in the corner so you know they're 60hz, but I dunno about PS2 Classics. I never had one back in the day.

I assume PS2 games are 50hz? I don't see any with an American flag in the corner...
 
The last boss is one of the hardest ever made, and there will be times when you will die against him because the game didn't feel like making victory possible. It's extremely frustrating.

Tip to get started, though: remember that you can air dash again if you successfully land an attack (killing or not), so you can cover a lot of ground quickly by dashing from one kill to another. This comes in really handy if you were to fight, for example, in a long corridor.

Nightshade is good, too. It's much easier.
 
I thought it was one of the best examples of how to bring a 8-16-bit franchise into the modern gaming era. Fun but difficult. Sad we never got more. :(
 
MattKeil said:
It's very good. Nightshade/Kunoichi is better.
Click to expand...
I bought both last year, only played enough to make sure the discs work but haven't put any real time into them. I think I was put off by shinobi from a bad review I read from an old game magazine when I was a kid
 
Fudo Myo said:
Almost nabbed it, then remembered 50hz in EU (I have 3 PSN accounts, US, EU, JPN).
So... this is 50hz, right? If so, this is a no go...

Edit: Would pick up God Hand, too, if not for the 50hz, and both Fear Effect games, too. This is a good sale.
Click to expand...
Shinobi has 60 hz option
So does neo contra on eu psn
 
For some inexplicable reason I was so obsessed by this game back then during the PS2 era. I managed to beat it in all difficulties, unlock everything that was unlockable, etc etc.

Such a fond memory. I don't think, even up to know, I have ever screamed as loud as I did back then when I finally managed to fell the last boss in Super difficulty. I yelled really loud back then it awoke many of my dorm friends, lol.

Ahhh...
 
One thing I appreciate about Shinobi PS2 is that it's one of the few 3D action games of its era that isn't bogged down with crappy half-hearted exploration or pointless unlock/upgrade systems or "platforming" that's barely interactive--it's a bona fide action game and the only way to beat it is to get better at it.

On the flipside, I really don't like the way it looks--the environments are pretty boring and the aesthetic is generic "early-00s video game" with nothing to set it apart despite the scarf (but it is a cool scarf...) Even the 3DS game felt more Shinobi-like in that regard despite being a fairly ugly game.

The camera isn't great, either, but all the cameras sucked back then and many still do.
 
KingBroly said:
So, what's harder? Ninja Gaiden Black or Shinobi PS2?
Click to expand...

Hard to say.

-Ninja Gaiden Black is a deeper and more complex game, so it's probably harder to come to grips with than Shinobi - but NGB is more similar to other 3D action games, while Shinobi is kind of its own thing (so people who are into that genre will have an easier time getting into NGB, probably)

-NGB is more cheesable than Shinobi on default (normal) modes - exploitable moves, tons of healing items, and potential money farming spots if the player wants to take advantage of them. Shinobi doesn't really have much in the way of cheese; if you aren't half-decent at the game you won't beat it on normal mode.

-NGB is probably harder in moment-to-moment play, for the most part, but Shinobi is more punishing because its checkpoints are way more spaced out. I think this holds true across all difficulties; NGB's Master Ninja mode (where the lamest cheesing strategies no longer work) is much harder to survive in than Shinobi's Super mode, but because checkpoints are relatively frequent you can kind of brute force your way through NGB.

-Shinobi's last boss on the hardest mode is harder than anything in NGB by a wide margin.
 
Beating that final boss is easily one of my greatest gaming accomplishments ever.

One of the best games on the PS2 and a great reimagining of an already amazing IP.
 
I have fond memories of this game.

My brother got it out of Sega nostalgia, man he was not ready for the difficulty heh was fun taking turns struggling through a level.
It's been awhile but the system for chaining kills was fun and I liked the challenge even though I didn't beat it.
 
dlauv said:
How was the sequel with the ninja chick?

And on the samurai SEGA side, how was Blood Will Tell?
Click to expand...
Nightshade/Kunoichi was a bit more convoluted, but still great. Has an opening where you fight on top of a bomber jet, very Bayonetta-esque.
 
I enjoyed the art direction and soundtrack, didn't care much for how it actually played. Much preferred Shinobi III in respect to that franchise.
 
I really enjoyed what I played of it, which was up to the spider boss with the little spiders which power up the sword to one hit kill it, and it's so goddamn hype when you pull it off.
 
Rukumouru said:
It's more than good, it's damn good.

It's a shame that the Dreamcast died, because otherwise both Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden would have come out for it making the already legendary system even more legendary.
Click to expand...
May be here on NEOGAF, home of the leaks and insiders, somebody knows what happened with the cancelled Dreamcast edition.
 
dlauv said:
How was the sequel with the ninja chick?

And on the samurai SEGA side, how was Blood Will Tell?
Click to expand...

I loved Blood Will Tell. The Dororo segments can be a bit weak, but powering up yourself by recovering parts is amazing.
 
xaeroxcore said:
May be here on NEOGAF, home of the leaks and insiders, somebody knows what happened with the cancelled Dreamcast edition.
Click to expand...

Dreamcast Shinobi? It was pitched as a Dreamcast game but they shifted to PS2 when Dreamcast died. I don't think there's much to tell.
 
It was fun but hard as fuck. To be effective you had to keep combos going which iirc increased your attack strength. Doing this on bosses was tough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Yakoh Shinobi Ops - Announce Trailer
Trailer 
10
300
Zacfoldor replied
LTTP: Thinking about playing Fallout New Vegas, is it good?
37
380
TheUnicornGuy replied
Is this gaming laptop good?
13
74
Guardian Monkey replied
Would You Want To See AAA Shinobi Game?
25
467
Touch fuzZy. get BizZay replied
MechaCon: PS2 Unbreakable Gatekeeper ...Until it wasn't
Analysis Trailer Hardware 
1
170
Miyazaki’s Slave replied
Top Bottom