Ninja Gaiden 2

And they still didn't fix the shitty camera, that they had fixed previously in Black. It's back to shitty. What, in fact, the fuck?

And I disagree with you. But, to be fair, I just don't like being raped when I play video games.

Ninja Gaiden is among the most intensely difficult and awesome games I've ever played; true, it's brutal, but you rarely experience the kind of satisfaction that comes from decimating rooms full of enemies once you get good. It is a shame to hear about some of the camera difficulties, but still, I've been looking forward to a sequel since I beat the first one.

Yes it was. It was so frustrating that the game became shit. Fuck it to hell.

Superior is a tricky word. Would I rather play God of War? No doubt. Does GoW have a better combat system? No, not at all. Does GoW have the superior camera? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Also, tits. And, as a personal preference, I like enjoy the story of Kratos, Asshole of the Gods as opposed to Ninja Gaiden's...shit, like, demons and stuff, man. Fucking tanks and airships, dude!

I recognize the superiority in challenge and combat thrills that NG offers, but I enjoy GoW's less insane difficulty, ease (button mash? fuck off. only if you WANT to keep replaying the same parts) of combat and sillyawesome story. Of the gods.

It's not the difficulty that makes GoW superior, it's the art direction, story, characters, enemy variety, etc...

I'm looking forward to NG2, but seriously, FUCK THAT CAMERA.

NG is a MAN's game.
Studies have shown that GOW is for polio-afflicted girls.

For whatever mystifying reason, I was much better at NG than I ever was at GoW. I managed to turn Kratos into a bumbling fool, constantly leaping off balconies for no real reason.

I made this analogy before but, it bears repeating.

Ninja Gaiden : God of War :: 2001 : Empire Strikes Back

I'm highly pissed the camera's back to bullshit, and it better be patched in a week, but I'm welcoming the chance to be challenged for the first time this gen with open arms.

Also, the vain part of me's wondering if any of my submissions made it into the list of secret achievements.

I haven't read reviews, but what are the comments about the camera? As I recall, it was originally an automatic camera in Xbox's Ninja Gaiden - later downloadable Hurricane Packs allowed you to manipulate the camera. Ability to manually adjust camera was retained in Ninja Gaiden Black as well. Is the manual camera removed from NG2?

From the IGN review (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/876/876569p2.html)

Black is the only version of NG1 that I've played, so as long as the camera isn't too different from the Hurricane Pack upgrade I should be fine.

Naturally the Ninja Gaiden thread is going to try to crap on God of War but fuck that. I enjoyed GoW way more than I have any of the 8 versions of the Xbox Ninja Gaiden (seriously they released 3+ versions for Xbox and then remade it for PS3!).

The truth is that both have pretty fair and consistent fighting systems but I found myself enjoying destroying things with Kratos much more fun. Kratos is a much more entertaining character that rips his way through Greek mythology. How many other games let you rip the wings off Icarus, watch Jason get killed and steal the golden fleece, fight Harry Hamlin (voicing Perseus), battle the Colossus of Rhodes.

I appreciate that Ninja Gaiden has a great system in place and interesting levels and stuff. I just don't have that extra level of entertainment that I get from a game like God of War where I just want to see what epic tale I'm going to destroy next that makes working through really difficult combat worth the trouble.

A NG thread and no Otis?

Guess I'd better see if I can *try* to finish NG1 before I am even tempted to pick up NG2. I seem to recall being close to the end.....after 2+ years of playing, giving up, then picking back up, giving up, you get the picture.

Greatest game ever made? I'm going to go ahead and vote a big yes to that. So what if it isn't actually out yet. Who cares that I haven't played it yet. The vote has been cast, and I stand by it.

God of War is a shit pile.

THERE'S the hyperbole this thread has been missing!

Your face is a shit pile!

Yeah. What gravedigger said.


Good to see you again Otis.

The camera isn't nearly as irritating as that in the last game, but it ain't great.

Animations are amazing, but I can't believe the rest of the level design and production values are so last-gen.

And with the progressive health system, so far this one isn't nearly as difficult as NG was. But I'm only about 5 or 6 chapters in, so it might become a motherfucker soon enough.

Safe to assume everyone else is acting out the first game with stuffed animals to get ready for the sequal?

Yes, I gave my girlfriend's stuffed rabbit breast implants and have been consistently bathing it in canola oil since April.

Y'know how in Ninja Gaiden the difficulty was all about how skillfully you could, block and counter and stuff and as such difficulty spikes were something to improve to get over.

Ninja Gaiden 2's difficulty spikes come from repeated sections where you'll walk through a door and be shot by an enemy you can't even see, or you'll fight a dozen enemies and have two dozen more spawn in and around you. There is absolutely no finesse to the game whatsoever, it's just ridiculously punishing and offers no way to progress other than blind luck at times.

Sounds almost like the NES Ninja Gaiden.

It is still fun as all fuck though, and cleaving an enemies legs and arm off and watching it use its remaining arm to crawl back into the fight never gets old, but it just doesn't feel as precise as Ninja Gaiden and at times it sort of veers into Devil May Cry territory.

Fuck those birds that spawn right next to ledges! fuck em in the beak!

Yeah, i guess that was frustrating as hell when i was young.

Well I played this yesterday, I'd never played other versions so I can't compare over the whole series but my first impressions were....

The fucking camera sucks, jamming in corners, flipping about without any apparent rhyme or reason. At one point I was fighting in an L shaped corridor and the camera was pretty much hiding for cover on the corner staring at a wall in my general direction half way down the other side of the corridor.... I spent more time fighting with the camera than the enemy, so that's a big thumbs down.

You're a black and silver ninja, fighting grey/silver and black bad guys who all bundle in on you, so when combined with the camera flying about like a caffeine jazzed, drunken bumble bee with A.D.D. its almost impossible to see what the hell is going on or even keep a track on the action. This reduces some parts to pure button mashing, just to get to a position where you get a handle on your situation.

I understand that the Ninja Gaiden has a big following, something that till now has passed me by obviously, but based on what I played yesterday for about an hour (yes only an hour but by that point I wanted to throw the controller through the window*) I don't see what the appeal is**




* Prior to anyone saying I didn't give it enough time or I'm not very good at playing it, let me just say any game that immediately frustrates, with confusing action, poor camera and repetitive game play, doesn't get more than an hour because I don't get much in the way of game time with the kids about and if all I'm going to do is sit there swearing at the damn thing then that's a waste of time, I'd rather play Codemasters excellent racer - Grid

** Apart from taking ninja legs off at the knee caps, when the camera stops still long enough to let me see it.

Ok, im jealous. How the hell are all of you playing this so early?!?!

I haven't looked but maybe it's out in the UK. I was planning on picking this up but I saw that Amazon had NEW copies of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for $40. Seeing as I can't find any used copies of Nocturne anywhere here, I'll have to wait on Ninja Gaiden.

It's supposed to come out on the 6th in the UK. Maybe a few places broke street date?

Weren't we supposed to get a demo in May?

I just found out from my cousin that the head guy from Team Ninja, I can't remember his name but he always wore sunglasses, quit Tecmo and is suing them. I'm at work right now so I can't look it up but can anyone confirm this?

Yeah, Itagaki is pissed that he isn't getting paid a bonus he was promised so he quit the company and is suing for it. I saw something on both Kotaku and Joystiq about it I think.

What a time to quit, it must've been alot of money. Does Tecmo own the rights to the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series?

Yes, in his press release/statement he apologized for never being able to create another DoA or Ninja Gaiden. I'm not a DoA fan, but the graphics are always a treat to gawk over for a bit. And I'll probably pick up Ninja Gaiden 2 when it drops in price, mostly because the first kicked the hell out of my old ass.

The Ninja Gaiden II Demo is up, and it looks like what I was playing was maybe unfinished code. Certainly is a lot smoother than the other version I played, still has the annoying 'enemy you can't see shooting the shit out of you' moments but the blood splatter is too great to miss out on. Just walking back down a corridor you've just cleared, and seeing severed limbs, and mutilated torsos all over the place is an unusual sort of joy.

From what I know, Team Ninja published NG II through Microsoft, not Tecmo, but that doesn't really matter since NG II is supposed to be the last game in the series. That said, Itagaki also said something in his letter about not being able to make DOA 5. because of this. What happens there is contingent on whether the rest of Team Ninja follows Itagaki out the door.

No doubt that the game is fun but the camera is so goddamn broken, I just don't understand how they couldn't improve it from the first game. If nothing else, they could have cut down on the number of inside locations since these seem to be the levels the camera causes the most trouble in.

Man, I haven't even beaten GTAIV, Mass Effect, Oblivion or even Guitar god-damn Hero II for my 360 yet, and now NGII is taunting me like the cheerleader in high school who needed my help on her math homework.

The more things change, man, the more things change...

After playing this i would happily welcome back the camera from Ninja Gaiden Black. Its been awhile, but i dont remember getting nearly as frustrated with it as NG 2's.

This is going to be an interesting experience though. After dieing from the first fight atleast 3 times, i can only imagine what's in store for me later down the road.

So yeah, the camera is pretty awful; it's definitely a step back from what I thought worked pretty well in Black. Also, it seems that the controls aren't as tight as before and it seems more forgiving towards button mashing--maybe I just haven't gotten fully re-acclimated yet. Still, the game is a hell of a lot of fun, and bloody as fuck. So far I've sliced people to pieces with the Dragon Sword and beaten them to a bloody mush with the Lunar Staff (which I will say seems improved since Black, where I never used it at all) and it's glorious.

Also, I've heard from some that it's easier; I'm playing through on "Warrior" and it seems pretty comparable to "Normal" from the previous game. Maybe it's the aforementioned button mashing potential that makes it easier later in the game--the original punished button mashing harshly.

The Lunar is pretty damn fun to use this time around, the down Y slash will pop werewolf heads in one shot every now and then.

I'm also playing Warrior, and don't think it's any easier than normal from Black. The regen health is really off-set by the limited number of healing items you can have.

I do wish they would let you replay old levels (like just about every other game) so I wouldn't have had to start over after learning I missed the item in Ch 2 that opens all the side challenges.

Im probably about 1/2 way through level 3. All camera problems aside the game is good. Its absolute shit when your losing but when you do awesome in a brawl its amazing. Im just finally getting the hang of things and having a blast.

Fuck Chapter 3, fuck that boss, and fuck anyone who accused this game of being easy; I don't think I've been as satisfied at the end of a level as after killing that damn electric subway slug bastard.

So far I'm enjoying the variety in the bosses. Chapter 1 was pretty much a pushover, Genshin was all about finesse in Chapter 2, and the Chapter 3 boss was a battle of attrition (at least for me).

I'm honestly surprised I haven't gotten the 100 continues achievement yet. I did get the 20g for the 100+ Combo and that was really gratifying. I'm loving the Lunar staff--it's a bit too slow for ninjas but it's great for turning fiends into paste.

Got it today and already loving it so much...except here's hoping for a lot of weapons...Im at Chapter 3 and Ive already collected 3 aditional weapons to the sword.
When I get my hands on the scythe, I doubt ill be able to let go of the game.

Emphasis added to reflect my feelings on that particular enemy.

Any time a cache of arrows is close to a boss, take it as a blaring recommendation from Itagaki. A handful of fully charged arrows takes the thing down pretty well. Just have to do some nimble dodging between each.

You'll hate the tunnel slug boss/sub-boss in chapter 8...