Actually Ryu has two jumping states in black. Vertical jump and forward jump. Flying Swallow has the input of Directional Command+Y but if you are in vertical jump mode this input does the downward slash which may account for some of the times it misfired in your playsessions. Also since the flying swallow animation is designed to be a high recovery move that ends with Ryu on the ground and Team Ninja designed the combat around uncancellable animations midair directional shifts for powerful moves were probably designed against in this title. Doing the downward slash when improperly angled might have been put in there to give every input a consequence to encourage you to keep your wits about you. Or maybe I'm reading to much into it. Either way, midair shift multiswallows are possible in Ninja Gaiden II so...hazzah?
Have you played 2002's Shinobi? That game was fucking rad. The Tate system was very unique and incredibly satisfying. Charging up the sword during a boss fight until you had enough power to one shot the boss and watch the Tate play out felt so good.
It should also be said that many years ago Ninja Gaiden was the game that was looked similarly to how people look at Dark Souls today (only no one claimed that Ninja Gaiden “invented difficulty”).
But they must do NG4 right for it to make A good return. Exploration puzzles items and dynamic combat is what it needs not NG3 button mashing and linear gameplay.
@@wisedragon2247 I’m really hoping that if they make another Ninja Gaiden, it takes a lot of inspiration of Nioh’s combat mechanics. Nioh’s combat alone is the reason why I love that game, I just despise the grinding aspect since it can get to unnecessary and ridiculous levels.
Wait, for real? Was development on Asura's Wrath somehow connected to Megaman Legends 3 getting canned, or is it some kind of in-joke I'm just not aware of?
I'd love an Asura's Wrath review. Just to see what he can say about it. Though I don't think he will ever cover Nier Automata. Doesn't seem to be his cup of tea narrative wise, but maybe I'm wrong
SaberRexZealot back in the day it wasnt appreciated that much either. Few people had an Xbox and it was released during a time when making games easier and more accessible (Fable) was a design trend. The high difficulty scared people away. I remember that reviewers in magazines complained that they couldnt get past the first boss, Murai. It had almost no publicity with reviews being half a page at best.
You know, I liked Ninja Gaiden 2 more than 1st one. But agreed there. NG3 was super easy... but NG3 Razor's Edge was made hard in "unfair" ways. The balance in that re-release was pretty bad...
It can be done. You light attack counter "once" to kick your enemy into the air, then immediately do forward Y to launch into the air and finish with an Izuna Drop.
I love how Charlie is willing to admit he isn't brave enough to play Ninja Gaiden on hard mode or to beat the "unwinnable" scripted boss, very humanizing touch.
MysteriousM I struggle to find many games with counter buttons. Unless you count a dodge button and a block button that can function as a counter with timing a counter button. The only system that does that I can remember right now is literally DMC3/4 which was easily exploitable especially in 3.
I hated that Sigma 2 got that ugly as shit HUD. While NG2 had issues, presentation was not one of them. I also HATE that we lost so many skins from NG2. Sigma 2 does not give enough costumes. I would have preferred less blood rather than the purple mists. And I never got to play Ninja Gaiden Black. The first has always been my favorite. The OST, the simple yet brutal Ultimate attacks, and the interconnected world. One of the things I HATE about Sigma/Sigma 2 is being forced to play as the other characters. They just feel like filler. As for Razor's Edge, that game is trash.
Sigma is also easier because they twinked some of the A.I. Best example is the lightning knife and shield guy, early on. In black if you just mash into his shield he ALWAYS punishes you during your recovery frames with his grab or kick. In Sigma he often times just let's you recover and attack again or roll away. A lot of changes like that make the game a lot easier.
citation? Shield and lightning rod guy grabbed you, at times that was his initial attack. If anything it goes back to Ninja Gaiden's use of RNG that heavily influenced what attack an enemy or boss did.
Sander Tegneby they weren't smart. These games don't have smart AI, they have aggressive AI with rng that makes you think they're smart. It's a good trick just like F.E.A.R. & Half life with having agressive ai that seek you out and call out what they're doing when they haven't found you, start flanking you when they do find you and speak loudly on their radio so you know what they're doing.
You know... there is something about these videos that I always keep coming back. The slick commentary, detail, and care that goes into these babies that keeps the fanbase coming back for more. This is my go-to channel for stuff like this. Does anyone else feel this way too?
Ninja Gaiden 2 on Xbox 360 kicked my arse hard. Ninja Gaiden 1 Sigma PLus was in PlayStation Plus a while back so I threw it on my Vita and... promptly got my arse handed to me again. You got skills, Cade
I always wanted you to do a NG video... very nice! About your complaint on the Flying Swallow technique: jump using A+X, not just the A button, A+X is a homing jump that targets the nearest enemy or, in case of a boss, the only enemy on screen. In my experience with NG, a manual lock-on isn’t really necessary.
nah cant compare them dark souls is ... not as hard or as good or as deep as ngb or ng2 nioh as the ninja gaiden of rpgs ? hmm ok but dark souls goes nowhere near any of those ... edit :(a few moths/(years?) later):also i kind of find the comparison weird cz u know dark souls is more about exploration and expirience againing(literally) wich is fun ofc but ng is more abut hardcore get good(learn the moves yours and enemys)or get stuck untill u learn them but then again its almost the same just in order to sutvive the higher difficulties u rly need ti mnaster not only the strategies but also the mechanics while having a much much faster paced combat with tons of different hard hitting moves and gadgets since im slmost done with nioh now i think i give ds another shit till nioh 2 comes out ;)
It came out first so it should be the other way.... But whatever. Getting sick of everything being a dark souls nowadays just cuz there hard, that makes them somehow the same. Cuphead is a platformer, and hard, those existed before souls
Fun fact - aside from that gameplay snippet of the Intercept at 16:47 I made some years back, my elbow and shoulder also appear briefly in this video. I was on that stage for the Master Ninja Tournament representing Europe. I thoroughly enjoyed both this video and the one for Ninja Gaiden 2, dude. Great work!
I suck at these kind of games, but I do love Ninja Gaiden Black and the original 360 version of Ninja Gaiden 2. This franchise really took a nose dive after Tecmo fired Itakagki. The guy was the heart/soul of this Ninja Gaiden revival. May be controversial, but I even kind of enjoyed Devil's Third back when I had a Wii U. Still hopeful Team Ninja gets their act together and makes Ninja Gaiden great again. Or at least a sweet HD collection on current consoles and pc of: Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden 2 X360 version, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. ^_^
Finally! I adore Ninja Gaiden Black (and 2 to an extent), and I think that these games are long overdue for the kind of critical recognition that DMC and God Hand have gotten in recent years. I'm very glad you got around to cover them on your channel! :) Edit: I respectfully disagree about the manual lock-on.
For the flying swallow input, you should use Wind run by hitting light attack and jump at the same time instead of the normal jump. Wind run has less preparation frames thus is faster, and it will automatically target and jump toward an enemy, so your flying swallow won’t miss. Also, throw a single shuriken at an enemy before using sword attacks to “lock on” to the enemy you want. Hope these tips help.
yeah, lock on will ruin the game. People complain about the camera, but it's all about positioning / evading. Free-roaming camera is only useful when standing still to get a lay of the land before engaging in battle. Moving the camera and lock-on during battle will be disorienting.
Thought you'd mention the more lackluster parts of the game, like the underwater segments, the fights where you can only use the bow and ignore the rest of the melee combat (there's like 3 of those bosses in a row at the military base) or some of the puzzles being infuriating between the camera and the enemies (the one where you have to dodge laser drones, or the undead temple where you have to dodge undead archers, pendulums and platform under a time limit). Like sure the ghostfish suck but you can shrug them off with a lot of different moves, the slow enemies you can't izuna drop make you vary your attacks.. but these other sour spots never get brought up when people discuss the game.
All fair points and I'd even add the extremely slow ledge and rope sections, luckily most of them are optional, but come on the peak of human performance that is Ryu Hayabusa needs an eternity to do it? But I also still agree that the most infuriating parts are the ones with the ghostfish 'cause they can stunlock you to death, even at full health
You forgot about the tower that fires missiles at you. My problem with those encounters is that it isn't very fun aiming with the bow in first person without a reticle and then having to go in third person to dodge. It's true that you can slow down the pendulums and that makes it significantly easier but you also have to spend arrows killing the undead archers so you are left with very few or none, in the other room where they give you arrows to pick up the problem isn't the pendulums it's the timed bridge that disappears. Neither of those puzzles are fun because of how the camera works with the jumping, if you are a bit off with the camera your jump is gonna be angled and you'll slip.
Or the shitty camera that gets bad when you fight bosses. The devs have a fully controllable camera that likes moving far more than it should and in other places doesn't move enough because it just can't stick behind Ryu. Then you have the invisible walls within certain boss rooms like Doku, Dark Murai and more that can block the players movement and/or viewpoint just by moving close to them. In general, Ninja Gaiden doesn't have the best bosses in this genre.
Laser drones were annoying. That being said in the military base just spam auto aim on the arrows and drones which takes them out easy as pie. Don't go into third person for those segments. I've never found any of the puzzles being infuriating. God of Wars, now that's a different story. This game was and still is a masterpiece considering it was made 14 years ago!
regarding your lock-on complaint: there's a technique in the game called "wind run" (press X + A at the same time) that performs a jump straight toward the nearest enemy without a directional input required. flying swallow and jumping on enemies' heads work much more reliably this way.
The legendary gaming brit meets the legendary Ninja Gaiden. Dude you need a modded Xbox, if not just for proper 480p-720p output but for hidden classic action games like magatama and gunvalkyrie. If you want one I'll hook you up if you cover shipping, no need to pay for the service.
I agree about that manual lock-on button. Too many times with Razors Edge, and the lack of healing items, I'd be trying to for the Steel on Bone on an enemy doing that red attack, only to go attacking in totally the wrong direction. Though I don't want that to come back, SOB. Bring back Obliteration Techniques from NG2 sure, but I could do without the SOB..... and the QTEs too from NG3. Also for all I'm not against trying to tell a better story, I don't want it to dictate what weapons I can and cannot use, like I don't want to be playing through NG4 with a demonic set of nunchucks because thats the big plot tool.
I love how the Izuna Drop is SO crucial to the game that every higher difficulty level pushes its acquisition farther into the campaign. It's like you forget how hard the game is until you start over at a higher difficulty and get forced to fight super tough, super aggressive enemies with starting health and no Izuna Drop.
Just played this through again with the master collection. Not only does it still hold up, it curb stomps most games being released today. Faster, harder, meaner. Take your God of War's or whatever, and stick it.
This a real masterpiece of the action genre a really complex and challenging combat system that's why i can't take seriously the people that say god of war 2018 is the best combat system that they have ever played it shows how low the standards are for gameplay for the modern gamers the are just so easily impressed with graphics and story that don't care if gameplay is just meh
I disagree and think the fact you’ve even brought up god of war combat as some sort of perfect analysis of why, as games have gotten older, the combat has been belittled or degraded which is just wrong, they’re vastly different games trying to give vastly different styles of play, plus your forgetting that ninja gaidan is one of the worst stories I’ve ever had to play through, if there wasn’t amazing gameplay there would literally be nothing. their is no comparison here.
The best thing about Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature is that now you can continue playing this wonderful gem in the current generation of consoles, which is perfect for me because I never had the original Xbox growing up.
You are the best my friend. Thanks to you (and HyperBitHero), I've gotten into so many awesome games. The Yakuza series (like my favorite thing ever now), Binary Domain, Vanquish, and now Ninja Gaiden. I got the Ninja Gaiden games thanks to this vid, and I just finished the beginning of NG1 and I'm already in love. Just by playing up to the beginning of the airship stage, I already love this game. The challenge, complexity, and mobility are amazing. I died plenty (I thought being a veteran of these kind of games, beating DMC3 on hard multiple times would prepare me...), but it was never rage inducing. It had me forcing my way forward and getting better. It's the same kind of thrill I got from Bloodborne, but amplified due to the sheer epicness of the gameplay. Seriously Brit, thanks man, for exposing me to these amazing games throughout the time I've been subscribed. Top notch content creator my friend.
Only played the Sigma versions but NG1 and 2 are without a doubt right up there as the best with DMC3. They offer a feeling you just don't get from DMC or other action games. I also really like how there's quite a bit of downtime between enounters, so you get a bit of running around the city, the church, library, or the underground river (or was it a sewer? a bit of an ornate one then) with no enemies and it's actually quite relaxing with the nice and rather ambient music and environmental sounds. In DMC you always get respawning encounters in every room, and you change rooms pretty much constantly and in DMC3 especially you're also surrounded by gothic horror and spooky music all the time too, so there's never time to relax. I'm hoping for an NG collection for modern platforms at some point. Though the existence of the Sigma (and Razor's Edge) versions might be the reason why they haven't bothered yet. Which versions should they port? For purists it would be NGB and NG2 absolutely. For completeness sake I would want the Sigma versions too because they're not strictly worse, though I'd probably play the original ones more. It's probably too much work and too expensive to port all of them though and therein lies the problem.
Well you have gotten your wish regard a collection, shame they didn't include the original versions however, though i heard that was partly cause they lost the code to the original versions.
This video completely does this legendary game justice. As soon as he started going "that ONE technique..." I started yelling at my TV "THE IZUNA DROP! THE IZUNA DROP!" For some reason I always played this game with Japanese VOs. Maybe cause I played a of DOA2 and DOA3 before NG came out and I liked Ryu's japanese VO. Anyway, excellent video thanks so much for making it. I can see myself going back and rewatching this later on just to pump myself up on this game. It is truly one of the greats. (Also I always used the upgraded vigoorian flail on the ghost fish, they have one really long bruce-lee combo that just clowns them as long as you can get it started)
the fact that you subtly hinted at how fucking annoying the god damned ghost fish are without directly saying how fucking annoying the ghost fish are made this video an absolute gem for us NG fans
ok a couple of things: 1. there is technically a lock on, by pressing X+A, or Square and X on PS3, Ryu does a homing jump to the closest enemy called the Wind Run and you can bounce of their head with the Wind Path, you press A/X when landing on the enemy. You can also use shurikens to help pinpoint where you're targeting. Other than that, Wind Path is the closest thing to a lock on. 2. You can do izuna drop after a counter in NG1, you have to use the X counter and follow up with forward Y into standard Izuna Drop. 3. Yes you are correct about Ninja Gaiden's commitment when it comes to attacking. However, you can cancel the recovery of attacks by using projectiles like shurikens, using ninpo, or holding block as an enemy attacks. it's not the most intuitive thing to get use to, especially if you come from a DMC or Bayonetta background.
9:02 that is absolutely your fault, after rolling in the direction of the wall, you pressed jump and Ryu automatically jumps in the direction of the roll if you don't switch commands and does a flying swallow after a wall run, which is never perpendicular to the wall. So yeah, git gud. 10:10 if you want to jump towards the direction of the enemy just press X+A at the same time.
Its funny how he uses slow mo so we can see how he is doing it wrong... and still blaming the game. I really hate when I see a review of a game I really love, and people just doesnt know how to play it, and ends blaming the game. I fuking Hate it !!!
The game missions are hilarious. You go to the Church, go to the underground, get the Skull Key, go back topside, use the Skull Key to get a vantage point to shoot an arrow to flip a switch to get into the Army base, go to the Army base and destroy it, and then steal a train. And that opens up a manhole which lets you go into a really fun sewer level. All that stuff, to open a 15 pound metal lid.
3:30 Agreed! Still the only game I've played where the enemies are actively aggressive when engaged in combat. It's almost as if they want to win and survive as much as you do, it's crazy how developers/gamers don't realize how that single element can take an action game to the next level.
It sounds like you actually had fun making this video. Unlike your God of War ones haha! Seriously though it took me forever to get past the first level of Ninja Gaiden Black as a kid. Beat the game? Forget about it. Liked the game? Hell yeah!
You wanna know the fan base GamingBRIT? Welcome to the club of respectful, disciplined, cool and calculated Ninjas. The games kicked our arses first, then we understood and overcame our weaknesses and urge to rage. This comment is approved by RagingImpaler.
DMC God of War and Ninja Gaiden are the founding fathers of action adventure / hack and slash (we never did get the naming down for the genre) I know these games are all very different but they all cover every aspect of the genre DMC brought dual weapon combat (melee and range) with combos and flashy special moves you mix in to look as cool as possible God of War brought spectacle and big set pieces with QTEs. It also had High enemy count and was meant for you to mow thru Ninja Gaiden had the most technical combat you really had to hit the moves near perfect as the game gave you no leeway, enemies were more about challenges then being used as fodder or make you look cool... There's more for each game but you get the idea
I am glad you talked about games preservation because things aren't good when you can't even get the halo multiplayer maps or well anything for that matter on xbox live
So many memories. This the first hard game I "got gud" at, and one of my all time favs. Hurricane Pack 2 still my favorite version because of that intercept move. It may have made the game easy, taking no damage letting you instantly absorb essence for UTs, but still took skill to pull off so it was satisfying when you timed it right. Especially when you intercept a barrage of attacks and the screen lights up in blue flashes for each intercept.
The Sigma series is really only worth it for the remixed versions of Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3, which were... erm... how do I put it... ... A teensy bit flawed in their original incarnations. Of course I was somewhat ignorant of the changes made to the original game in Sigma 1, so now that I'm aware of that, I'll have to pick up a copy of Black at some point to experience the game as it was meant to be. Really enjoyed this video, Brit. Well worth the wait! - Lewis
did you even see the difference between 2 and sigma 2? they look visually different. It's like 2 was alpha shit and sigma 2 is the definitive edition. I can't look at Aayane in vanilla 2 without laughter
Stronger more intelligent enemies in lower more controlled amounts, kinda like the original game. Dynasty Gaiden Warriors was misguided in the first place. The only issue with sigma 2's rebalancing is that it was altering a preexisting game instead of designing it that way from the ground up. Same issue with Razor's Edge.
As a hug fan of NG Black and someone who liked but was ultimately disappointed by Sigma, the changes that lead to those disappointments aren't that hard to talk about. 1. Sigma messed with Ryu's dodge roll. That back hand spring changes so much about how you move around in combat. Also changes his recovery timings on said rolls. 2. They fucked with the Challenges. You never mentioned these your review so im not sure if you know about them, I sure hope you do, but there are special fights in Ninja Gaiden/B/S. Like in the Catacombs if you go back into the room you got the Goblet in, in the next chapter, you'll get a special fight where something like 80 of those zombies down there will Spawn. If you defeat them all you get a Lives of a Thousand Gods. Well they messed with a lot of these, one they even changed from the old challenge to just 100 spawning Berserkers who just summon meteors over and over. It isn't fun, it isn't challenging, its just lame. 3.They changed Karma times and made around half of them impossible to actually meet and get the Karma bonus, especially in the challenge rooms mentioned above. Yea Karma times tie into "MLG Pro Pro" I get that, but if you give a shit about trying to score in Sigma then it will be important for you to realize that you wont be able to get a lot of the point bonuses because they are close to, if not actually impossible to get. Those are my 3 big complaints about Sigma. There other stuff to, I also find the removal of the puzzles rather annoying, the Twin Katana's actually aren't a very good weapon (much better in NGII, but that games a whole other bag of problems), and this might be dumb, but I find it really annoying they put Basts and Black and White Craps in Normal and Hard Mode instead of keeping them saved for Very Hard and up. These enemies especially where designed to give no mercy, they where the next unexpected surprise challenge for bumping the difficulty up to the next level and taking on the next Ninja Challenge. Its great they don't even tell you they are there, they just show up and proceed to stomp a mud hole in your ass. Those are the big things that stick out in my mind that bother me about Sigma, there's some other stuff to, but they are moslty a NGB fan nit picking the fuck out of the game at that point. Anyway another awesome video, keep up the good work TGB.
My biggest hatred towards Sigma was so minor I still can't believe it, but Marbus no longer takes damage from Explosive Kunai. It is such a minor change, but it really showed that the game didn't care about the little details and only the broad perspective.
While the Marbus exploding Kunai is a small change, the impact it has on the fight itself is actually pretty large, and a good example of them changing something either because as you said they didn't care enough to notice it was even changed, or just to change it. A lot of changes in Sigma feel like they were made just to make them, maybe so they could use it as a bullet point in the list of changes to justify another directors cut of this game, but the change didn't feel like it was made to improve the game, or because the director or whatever had alegitimate idea or feel about the mechanic. Instead they just changed it to change it, because they could with ery little thought for how that would impact the over all product as a whole. So i agree with you that the Marbus change is small, but i feel the impact it had in the fight was actually pretty large and thats why it bothers you so much. It's actually a big impact.
Idk, I liked Rachel's more counter-centric move-set. She's definitely better in Sigma 2, though. Anyway, I don't really agree with what you say about the game needing a lock on function. The game moves so quickly, I just feel like something like that would get in the way. The auto-lock certainly isn't without its issues, but I don't think that's something a manual lock-on would fix.
Heck, yeah! I was looking forward to this video! ^^ "Ninja Gaiden Black" is my favorite action game of all time. Yes, even more than any "Devil May Cry" or "Bayonetta". It's great to see you giving it credit. :) As for your criticism, the lack of a lock on feature never bothered me, even with the shortcomings you mention. They are more nitpicks, as far as I'm concerned. By the way, another cool feature I think is worth mentioning is that Ryu's moveset with the Dragon Sword has a lot of techniques that are taken from his moveset in the DOA series. Kudos to Team Ninja for that. Too bad this series fell from grace with its atrocious third installment (I don't count "Yaiba" since that was a spin-off by Keiji Inafune). But now that Team Ninja seems to have built back some good will with "Nioh", I think it's time for this series to make a come back.
Great content as always, just a few things to point out: 1) You forgot to mention the mission mode, and if I recall correctly Sigma had the possibility to play them online in coop. Sigma II missions are only playable in coop or with a not-so-good bot that uses whatever character you pick for him. 2) Master Ninja deserved to be mentioned, since to me and to the Ninja Gaiden community the most fun part of the game is to keep improving and setting the bar higher and higher for challenge, and Master Ninja is the most fun and at the same time frustrating thing about the game. 3) As for Rachel, IIRC she does have an Izuna Drop like move, but that might be implemented on NGS II so I can't be 100% sure. As for the best version, it has to be Black in this case and for NG II the standard version, you have to take Sigma like a "remixed" version of the game, it adds stuff and removes content at the same time, making it easier to approach. Also Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 has that weird censorship thing because Yosuke Hayashi has worked on it instead of Tomonobu Itagaki, but that will be a topic I think you'll cover on the next video, if you're willing to cover all 3 games (good luck with 3 and 3 Razor's Edge). As for the Vita versions, don't bother, they are literally the same as the PS3 Sigma version but they implement Vita controls.
Practically everyone, even the mega fans, will agree that nobody plays the Ninja Gaiden games for the story. Ninja Gaiden 3 tried to tell a more compelling story and give Ryu some more characterization, but it sort of just fell flat.
Ninja Gaiden 3 tried to tell a serious story... to bad it was some super generic garbage. I like to think of it like an old martial arts movie dub, it’s not super great but still very entertaining and fun.
X+A does not guarantee flying swallow, stop saying this before I helm splitter YOU!
TheGamingBritShow and shurikens don't cancel your moves, sure
I love it that you bring up the occasional unreliability of doing flying swallow, it drives me nuts. Brilliant video as always :-)
Damian black you have to press x+a 2 times for the throw.
Actually Ryu has two jumping states in black. Vertical jump and forward jump. Flying Swallow has the input of Directional Command+Y but if you are in vertical jump mode this input does the downward slash which may account for some of the times it misfired in your playsessions. Also since the flying swallow animation is designed to be a high recovery move that ends with Ryu on the ground and Team Ninja designed the combat around uncancellable animations midair directional shifts for powerful moves were probably designed against in this title. Doing the downward slash when improperly angled might have been put in there to give every input a consequence to encourage you to keep your wits about you. Or maybe I'm reading to much into it. Either way, midair shift multiswallows are possible in Ninja Gaiden II so...hazzah?
Nah i'm pretty sure you're exactly right, everything was programmed to discourage button mashing and incentivize mindful habits.
Doctor: Your first child has just been born. This must be the happiest moment of your life.
TGBS: Well... not quite DMC3, but baby steps I guess...
Literally, haha
Idgaf that this comment is a year old
@@zenny8877 and I don't give a fuck that your comment is now a year old
> You will never be as passionate about anything as Brit is for action games
Or platformers with furries
Or so-called "stealth" games with awful controls punctuated with endless cutscenes where you play the radar and pretend it's stealth.
Or God of War 2018 and not having a game script.
I'd argue Atrophy of Soul is just as, if not more passionate
Gaius Julius Caesar Damn, I didn't know Charlie was passionate about every 3rd person shooter on the market.
Take a shot every time he says the word "legendary". If you somehow survive, your liver has gained the title of "legendary".
Also for "cathartic"
I took last shot with your last word...that was a mistake, my legen....liver passed away
My liver says "Git Gud lightweights".
Now that’s...
Legendary
My liver is legendary
Have you played 2002's Shinobi? That game was fucking rad. The Tate system was very unique and incredibly satisfying. Charging up the sword during a boss fight until you had enough power to one shot the boss and watch the Tate play out felt so good.
Grim1952 agreed, really unique game!
The health drop when using the sword might slightly annoy him
If he can beat Ninja gaiden but is slow enough for his health to start dropping it'd be very awkward
Grim1952 tru that
Fuckin excellent game
Featuring Ryu from the Ninja Gaiden series
It should also be said that many years ago Ninja Gaiden was the game that was looked similarly to how people look at Dark Souls today (only no one claimed that Ninja Gaiden “invented difficulty”).
Dark Souls? Lol
Cough Battletoads Cough
@@armaansandhu3206 Battletoads seems a little bit unfair,there is a level where the player 2 controller don't even work.
**WE NEED NINJA GAIDEN 4**
Glad you finally covered Ninja Gaiden! It's a masterpiece and you did it more than justice! Thanks!
But they must do NG4 right for it to make A good return.
Exploration puzzles items and dynamic combat is what it needs not NG3 button mashing and linear gameplay.
They should but need to learn from there mistakes and take inspiration from the current great action games.
Thx you guys for wishing a next generation of my games
@@wisedragon2247 I’m really hoping that if they make another Ninja Gaiden, it takes a lot of inspiration of Nioh’s combat mechanics. Nioh’s combat alone is the reason why I love that game, I just despise the grinding aspect since it can get to unnecessary and ridiculous levels.
@@christopheryanez
Dunno man. Nioh's gameplay doesn't exactly lend well to Ninja Gaiden's balls to the walls high octane action gameplay.
A TGBS Ninja Gaiden video with DMC references and Dad of Bore dunking?
This party's gettin' crazy! Let's rock!!
Gokou Blacc Whoa slow down babe!
Nature calls? It’s in the back.
Time to go to work, guys!
I loved the new GoW fite me on twitter
Jersh
What a punk...
We need a asura's Wrath review
The Demon Hunter yes and nier automata
Matthew Lugo IKR
Ah yes, the game that caused the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3.
Wait, for real? Was development on Asura's Wrath somehow connected to Megaman Legends 3 getting canned, or is it some kind of in-joke I'm just not aware of?
I'd love an Asura's Wrath review. Just to see what he can say about it. Though I don't think he will ever cover Nier Automata. Doesn't seem to be his cup of tea narrative wise, but maybe I'm wrong
God I loved playing this game for the first time this year. It’s a wonder how under-appreciated it’s become.
SaberRexZealot back in the day it wasnt appreciated that much either. Few people had an Xbox and it was released during a time when making games easier and more accessible (Fable) was a design trend. The high difficulty scared people away. I remember that reviewers in magazines complained that they couldnt get past the first boss, Murai. It had almost no publicity with reviews being half a page at best.
Iceberqe It’s a shame the mainstream left such a gem of a series behind.
Literally the game I bought the console for.
Wish Ninja Gaiden 4 is a mix between Black and 2. Would be the best game ever.
You know, I liked Ninja Gaiden 2 more than 1st one. But agreed there. NG3 was super easy... but NG3 Razor's Edge was made hard in "unfair" ways. The balance in that re-release was pretty bad...
And a proper lock on
NG2 was just as bullshit as razors edge in my opinion
If it actually ever comes out it will be a mix of Yaiba Z and a wet piece of paper. The series has gone nowhere but down.
BonzaiThePenguin Yaiba was not developed by Team Ninja.
I'm sure you CAN launch parry into Izuna drop. Might only be in NG2, though.
NG2 definitely. NG Black i don't remember clearly its mechanics.
Yes it's only possible from NG2 onwards. And you can also do the gleaming blade into izuna drop from that game onward
Gaming Brit is going to be very happy indeed about that when he plays NG2
Pretty sure I counterattack-launched into izuna drop in NG Black or Sigma the other day.
It can be done. You light attack counter "once" to kick your enemy into the air, then immediately do forward Y to launch into the air and finish with an Izuna Drop.
I love how Charlie is willing to admit he isn't brave enough to play Ninja Gaiden on hard mode or to beat the "unwinnable" scripted boss, very humanizing touch.
“Back in my day we didn’t have counter buttons. We had counter abilities we slowly build up by blocking and relied on our dodging skills.”
MysteriousM I struggle to find many games with counter buttons. Unless you count a dodge button and a block button that can function as a counter with timing a counter button. The only system that does that I can remember right now is literally DMC3/4 which was easily exploitable especially in 3.
Back in my day we didn't have useless games and movies
We read books for real entertainment
BlueLightningSky Arkham games and their clones have counter buttons. Assassin's creed had a counter button.
I love these old games. Don't ruin it for me
Ryu trasforming into a bird was just an elaborate hallucination cause by a speciality smoke bomb, labelled: "That good Ninjuju"
Who is here after the collection is announced
Unfortunately only the Sigma games. So the best version of Ninja Gaiden is missing in the collection.
@@MrCosmos3 Yeah I feel sad now.
cheer up fellas, at least there’s finally a pc port of ninja gaiden
I hated that Sigma 2 got that ugly as shit HUD. While NG2 had issues, presentation was not one of them. I also HATE that we lost so many skins from NG2. Sigma 2 does not give enough costumes. I would have preferred less blood rather than the purple mists. And I never got to play Ninja Gaiden Black. The first has always been my favorite. The OST, the simple yet brutal Ultimate attacks, and the interconnected world.
One of the things I HATE about Sigma/Sigma 2 is being forced to play as the other characters. They just feel like filler. As for Razor's Edge, that game is trash.
@@HadesHatredEdge grow up
NINJA GAIDEN MASTER COLLECTION BABY, LET'S GO
Sigma* so not back, really.
@@2sallads unfortunately its the sh*tter versions but oh well... ill still get it
@@mitchleigh2369 I'll stick with the originals. Getting the series x will boost the resolution snd framerate, essentially making them remasters.
oh dear, and here i thought capcom are the masters of re-releasing a game billion of times
heyo didnt expect to see you here
Tell that to Square Enix.
@@loveshiningstar or Bethesda
“Rockstar has entered the chat”
i wouldnt call completely different versions/remakes of games re-releases...
Trickster before we even had trickster.
Indeed
"everything"
Sigma is also easier because they twinked some of the A.I.
Best example is the lightning knife and shield guy, early on. In black if you just mash into his shield he ALWAYS punishes you during your recovery frames with his grab or kick.
In Sigma he often times just let's you recover and attack again or roll away. A lot of changes like that make the game a lot easier.
citation? Shield and lightning rod guy grabbed you, at times that was his initial attack. If anything it goes back to Ninja Gaiden's use of RNG that heavily influenced what attack an enemy or boss did.
Having grown up with black, and beating it way to many times, i could feel they were dumber in Sigma
Sander Tegneby they weren't smart. These games don't have smart AI, they have aggressive AI with rng that makes you think they're smart.
It's a good trick just like F.E.A.R. & Half life with having agressive ai that seek you out and call out what they're doing when they haven't found you, start flanking you when they do find you and speak loudly on their radio so you know what they're doing.
Sigma also removed some encounters.
death to raiden wd exactly u talking here wrong statement 1 comment up wrong statement here wdf u even trying?
You know... there is something about these videos that I always keep coming back. The slick commentary, detail, and care that goes into these babies that keeps the fanbase coming back for more. This is my go-to channel for stuff like this. Does anyone else feel this way too?
Yeah.
18:26
Can confirm, once you complete the fight, you unlock a higher difficulty
I remember the first time I pulled it off, felt so awesome but then letdown that it unlocked a difficulty I already had.
I really wish you could select those difficulties from the get go. Would make coming back actually be on my to do list
Ninja Gaiden 2 on Xbox 360 kicked my arse hard. Ninja Gaiden 1 Sigma PLus was in PlayStation Plus a while back so I threw it on my Vita and... promptly got my arse handed to me again. You got skills, Cade
SJ Webster The Vita port is awful fam.
Good to know, might not have just been my clunky thumbs then! :D
SJ Webster Yeah it's an awful port all around. It's only 30 FPS and the touch controls are a complete abomination, among other things.
No the sequel is the awful one...the moment anything starts going down the entire screen goes pixelated.
So you're saying it's the Dark Souls of ninja games.
I always wanted you to do a NG video... very nice!
About your complaint on the Flying Swallow technique: jump using A+X, not just the A button, A+X is a homing jump that targets the nearest enemy or, in case of a boss, the only enemy on screen. In my experience with NG, a manual lock-on isn’t really necessary.
This game really makes you feel like Batman
I want more riffing on Ryu's self-seriousness.
I don't really mind it. The gameplay is meant to be the appeal. Tho it fails in most basic areas
I have money in my safe when ever Team Ninja decides to do a HD collection.
Aya ya Ninja Gaiden double trilogy collection: Includes the NES trilogy and the Xbox trilogy.
If they made that I’d buy 20.
Wish granted.
Master Collection confirmed.
@@myfaceisstuckpleasesendhel1255 Sigma Collection.
Bleh.
Master Ninja here,
you can kick counter (X) to -->Y XXXY to izuna drop after a counter.
Ninja gaiden is such a brutally hard but enjoyable title, truly the dark souls of ninja games
nah cant compare them dark souls is ... not as hard or as good or as deep as ngb or ng2 nioh as the ninja gaiden of rpgs ? hmm ok but dark souls goes nowhere near any of those ...
edit :(a few moths/(years?) later):also i kind of find the comparison weird cz u know dark souls is more about exploration and expirience againing(literally) wich is fun ofc but ng is more abut hardcore get good(learn the moves yours and enemys)or get stuck untill u learn them but then again its almost the same just in order to sutvive the higher difficulties u rly need ti mnaster not only the strategies but also the mechanics while having a much much faster paced combat with tons of different hard hitting moves and gadgets since im slmost done with nioh now i think i give ds another shit till nioh 2 comes out ;)
It came out first so it should be the other way.... But whatever. Getting sick of everything being a dark souls nowadays just cuz there hard, that makes them somehow the same. Cuphead is a platformer, and hard, those existed before souls
Ninja Gaiden is the OG the tho
We call these jokes
omfg my spelling lmao i think leave it like that xD
GO NINJA, GO NINJA, GO!!!
Cowabunga.
Fun fact - aside from that gameplay snippet of the Intercept at 16:47 I made some years back, my elbow and shoulder also appear briefly in this video. I was on that stage for the Master Ninja Tournament representing Europe.
I thoroughly enjoyed both this video and the one for Ninja Gaiden 2, dude. Great work!
I suck at these kind of games, but I do love Ninja Gaiden Black and the original 360 version of Ninja Gaiden 2.
This franchise really took a nose dive after Tecmo fired Itakagki. The guy was the heart/soul of this Ninja Gaiden revival.
May be controversial, but I even kind of enjoyed Devil's Third back when I had a Wii U.
Still hopeful Team Ninja gets their act together and makes Ninja Gaiden great again.
Or at least a sweet HD collection on current consoles and pc of: Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden 2 X360 version, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. ^_^
we all know the best action game is overblood 2
Time for a cinematic over the shoulder Ninja Gaiden reboot. Oh wait that is Ghost of Tsushima
It still looks dumb good to me, and I can't stand that seeming trend of zooming the camera in (Unless it's Ninja Gaiden 2)
Ghost of Tsushima reminds me more of Tenchu really. I mean, the trailer didn't have a single demon in sight.
We already had this, it is called Vanilla Ninja Gaiden 3. Don't try it.
The game looks cool and it is by Sucker punch
Those games don’t even compare wth
Finally!
I adore Ninja Gaiden Black (and 2 to an extent), and I think that these games are long overdue for the kind of critical recognition that DMC and God Hand have gotten in recent years. I'm very glad you got around to cover them on your channel! :)
Edit: I respectfully disagree about the manual lock-on.
God of war dosn't deserver to be at same level of ninja gaiden and DMC those two games have much deeper combat
@@juanmanikings Who said anything about God of War? At least read the three-year old comment you're responding to.
@@KSubzero1000 Nothing personal is just that god of war combat nowhere near as good as the other games you mentioned
@@juanmanikings Again, who said anything about God of War??
For the flying swallow input, you should use Wind run by hitting light attack and jump at the same time instead of the normal jump. Wind run has less preparation frames thus is faster, and it will automatically target and jump toward an enemy, so your flying swallow won’t miss. Also, throw a single shuriken at an enemy before using sword attacks to “lock on” to the enemy you want. Hope these tips help.
yeah, lock on will ruin the game. People complain about the camera, but it's all about positioning / evading. Free-roaming camera is only useful when standing still to get a lay of the land before engaging in battle. Moving the camera and lock-on during battle will be disorienting.
Thought you'd mention the more lackluster parts of the game, like the underwater segments, the fights where you can only use the bow and ignore the rest of the melee combat (there's like 3 of those bosses in a row at the military base) or some of the puzzles being infuriating between the camera and the enemies (the one where you have to dodge laser drones, or the undead temple where you have to dodge undead archers, pendulums and platform under a time limit).
Like sure the ghostfish suck but you can shrug them off with a lot of different moves, the slow enemies you can't izuna drop make you vary your attacks.. but these other sour spots never get brought up when people discuss the game.
All fair points and I'd even add the extremely slow ledge and rope sections, luckily most of them are optional, but come on the peak of human performance that is Ryu Hayabusa needs an eternity to do it?
But I also still agree that the most infuriating parts are the ones with the ghostfish 'cause they can stunlock you to death, even at full health
You forgot about the tower that fires missiles at you. My problem with those encounters is that it isn't very fun aiming with the bow in first person without a reticle and then having to go in third person to dodge.
It's true that you can slow down the pendulums and that makes it significantly easier but you also have to spend arrows killing the undead archers so you are left with very few or none, in the other room where they give you arrows to pick up the problem isn't the pendulums it's the timed bridge that disappears. Neither of those puzzles are fun because of how the camera works with the jumping, if you are a bit off with the camera your jump is gonna be angled and you'll slip.
Or the shitty camera that gets bad when you fight bosses. The devs have a fully controllable camera that likes moving far more than it should and in other places doesn't move enough because it just can't stick behind Ryu. Then you have the invisible walls within certain boss rooms like Doku, Dark Murai and more that can block the players movement and/or viewpoint just by moving close to them.
In general, Ninja Gaiden doesn't have the best bosses in this genre.
All the platforming puzzles are skippable or more specifically, sequence-breakable.
Laser drones were annoying. That being said in the military base just spam auto aim on the arrows and drones which takes them out easy as pie. Don't go into third person for those segments. I've never found any of the puzzles being infuriating. God of Wars, now that's a different story. This game was and still is a masterpiece considering it was made 14 years ago!
More like Izuna Drop Gaiden.
It's supposed to be Ninja Ryukenden than Ninja Gaiden.
regarding your lock-on complaint: there's a technique in the game called "wind run" (press X + A at the same time) that performs a jump straight toward the nearest enemy without a directional input required. flying swallow and jumping on enemies' heads work much more reliably this way.
The legendary gaming brit meets the legendary Ninja Gaiden. Dude you need a modded Xbox, if not just for proper 480p-720p output but for hidden classic action games like magatama and gunvalkyrie. If you want one I'll hook you up if you cover shipping, no need to pay for the service.
With an Xbox One X you can play Ninja Gaiden Black rendered in close to 4K ;)
Man It's 2021 and It still looks beautiful years later. Also I love this game so goddamn much!
"I wasn't able to.... Verify this" 😂😂😂
I agree about that manual lock-on button. Too many times with Razors Edge, and the lack of healing items, I'd be trying to for the Steel on Bone on an enemy doing that red attack, only to go attacking in totally the wrong direction. Though I don't want that to come back, SOB. Bring back Obliteration Techniques from NG2 sure, but I could do without the SOB..... and the QTEs too from NG3. Also for all I'm not against trying to tell a better story, I don't want it to dictate what weapons I can and cannot use, like I don't want to be playing through NG4 with a demonic set of nunchucks because thats the big plot tool.
I love how the Izuna Drop is SO crucial to the game that every higher difficulty level pushes its acquisition farther into the campaign. It's like you forget how hard the game is until you start over at a higher difficulty and get forced to fight super tough, super aggressive enemies with starting health and no Izuna Drop.
Hey if you like this game, you should check out Devil May Cry I think you'd like it.
what the hell
Downgrade
DMC is way better and not dead
Harry Willmore because not underrated like Ninja Gaiden.
Never heard of it...
Ninja Gaiden makes you *feel* like a ninja
NGB isn't just a great game, it's one of the best ever.
Ohh man, you got me with that Shadbase joke.
Endril D. Careful It's a trap
Just played this through again with the master collection.
Not only does it still hold up, it curb stomps most games being released today.
Faster, harder, meaner. Take your God of War's or whatever, and stick it.
This a real masterpiece of the action genre a really complex and challenging combat system that's why i can't take seriously the people that say god of war 2018 is the best combat system that they have ever played it shows how low the standards are for gameplay for the modern gamers the are just so easily impressed with graphics and story that don't care if gameplay is just meh
I love god of war 4 but it is definetly not the best combat wise but still fun imo
I disagree and think the fact you’ve even brought up god of war combat as some sort of perfect analysis of why, as games have gotten older, the combat has been belittled or degraded which is just wrong, they’re vastly different games trying to give vastly different styles of play, plus your forgetting that ninja gaidan is one of the worst stories I’ve ever had to play through, if there wasn’t amazing gameplay there would literally be nothing. their is no comparison here.
The best thing about Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature is that now you can continue playing this wonderful gem in the current generation of consoles, which is perfect for me because I never had the original Xbox growing up.
SetnaroX I just hope one day they put ninja gaiden 2 and 3 razors edge backwards compatible
Yep, the game holds up really well.
Thank God a video that isn't ratchet and clank
What a relief right?
Girl: Is it up yet?
Guy: Hang on I just need to charge up my thing
i remember as a kid that i lost so much to his master that i thought he is the final boss
You are the best my friend. Thanks to you (and HyperBitHero), I've gotten into so many awesome games. The Yakuza series (like my favorite thing ever now), Binary Domain, Vanquish, and now Ninja Gaiden. I got the Ninja Gaiden games thanks to this vid, and I just finished the beginning of NG1 and I'm already in love. Just by playing up to the beginning of the airship stage, I already love this game. The challenge, complexity, and mobility are amazing. I died plenty (I thought being a veteran of these kind of games, beating DMC3 on hard multiple times would prepare me...), but it was never rage inducing. It had me forcing my way forward and getting better. It's the same kind of thrill I got from Bloodborne, but amplified due to the sheer epicness of the gameplay. Seriously Brit, thanks man, for exposing me to these amazing games throughout the time I've been subscribed. Top notch content creator my friend.
Only played the Sigma versions but NG1 and 2 are without a doubt right up there as the best with DMC3.
They offer a feeling you just don't get from DMC or other action games. I also really like how there's quite a bit of downtime between enounters, so you get a bit of running around the city, the church, library, or the underground river (or was it a sewer? a bit of an ornate one then) with no enemies and it's actually quite relaxing with the nice and rather ambient music and environmental sounds. In DMC you always get respawning encounters in every room, and you change rooms pretty much constantly and in DMC3 especially you're also surrounded by gothic horror and spooky music all the time too, so there's never time to relax.
I'm hoping for an NG collection for modern platforms at some point. Though the existence of the Sigma (and Razor's Edge) versions might be the reason why they haven't bothered yet. Which versions should they port? For purists it would be NGB and NG2 absolutely. For completeness sake I would want the Sigma versions too because they're not strictly worse, though I'd probably play the original ones more. It's probably too much work and too expensive to port all of them though and therein lies the problem.
Well you have gotten your wish regard a collection, shame they didn't include the original versions however, though i heard that was partly cause they lost the code to the original versions.
@@zander2758 2 year old comment I know but some guy made a mod to restore and fix some things in sigma and sigma 2 to match with black and II.
This video completely does this legendary game justice. As soon as he started going "that ONE technique..." I started yelling at my TV "THE IZUNA DROP! THE IZUNA DROP!"
For some reason I always played this game with Japanese VOs. Maybe cause I played a of DOA2 and DOA3 before NG came out and I liked Ryu's japanese VO.
Anyway, excellent video thanks so much for making it. I can see myself going back and rewatching this later on just to pump myself up on this game. It is truly one of the greats.
(Also I always used the upgraded vigoorian flail on the ghost fish, they have one really long bruce-lee combo that just clowns them as long as you can get it started)
this game was literally far beyond its time, been playing it since the original box, about to play right now actually, while watching this.
Man I love this game. It can be difficult but SO rewarding when you make it past a boss or level.
mmm Ninja Gaiden Black = king of action gameplay = number one of arcade game
the fact that you subtly hinted at how fucking annoying the god damned ghost fish are without directly saying how fucking annoying the ghost fish are made this video an absolute gem for us NG fans
"You feel like a ninja."
Uhm, where is the stealth?
ok a couple of things:
1. there is technically a lock on, by pressing X+A, or Square and X on PS3, Ryu does a homing jump to the closest enemy called the Wind Run and you can bounce of their head with the Wind Path, you press A/X when landing on the enemy. You can also use shurikens to help pinpoint where you're targeting. Other than that, Wind Path is the closest thing to a lock on.
2. You can do izuna drop after a counter in NG1, you have to use the X counter and follow up with forward Y into standard Izuna Drop.
3. Yes you are correct about Ninja Gaiden's commitment when it comes to attacking. However, you can cancel the recovery of attacks by using projectiles like shurikens, using ninpo, or holding block as an enemy attacks. it's not the most intuitive thing to get use to, especially if you come from a DMC or Bayonetta background.
With all this talk about Izuna Drops, I feel like I'm watching Fighterpedia.
Wait, what's Fighterpedia?
What are you watching? I feel like you said something but I can’t hear what it was.
So familiar yet so distant.
I didn’t even know you could use the souls to instant charge the ultimate technique
9:02 that is absolutely your fault, after rolling in the direction of the wall, you pressed jump and Ryu automatically jumps in the direction of the roll if you don't switch commands and does a flying swallow after a wall run, which is never perpendicular to the wall. So yeah, git gud.
10:10 if you want to jump towards the direction of the enemy just press X+A at the same time.
Good to see you here Caeser!
Its funny how he uses slow mo so we can see how he is doing it wrong... and still blaming the game. I really hate when I see a review of a game I really love, and people just doesnt know how to play it, and ends blaming the game. I fuking Hate it !!!
The game missions are hilarious. You go to the Church, go to the underground, get the Skull Key, go back topside, use the Skull Key to get a vantage point to shoot an arrow to flip a switch to get into the Army base, go to the Army base and destroy it, and then steal a train.
And that opens up a manhole which lets you go into a really fun sewer level.
All that stuff, to open a 15 pound metal lid.
Man! The new Turbo Button video is here!
Heh, as if.
Go away TGBS, I was busy watching this new Turbo Button video.
(Also hi Will whats up)
3:30
Agreed!
Still the only game I've played where the enemies are actively aggressive when engaged in combat.
It's almost as if they want to win and survive as much as you do, it's crazy how developers/gamers don't realize how that single element can take an action game to the next level.
It sounds like you actually had fun making this video. Unlike your God of War ones haha! Seriously though it took me forever to get past the first level of Ninja Gaiden Black as a kid. Beat the game? Forget about it. Liked the game? Hell yeah!
I feel asif no one ever mentions the games amazing soundtrack. Haven't played the game in years yet I still remember it
4:32 You make it sound like one of those attacks is called bukake.
Man this has been my brothers favorite game since he got it as a kid thanks for covering it
You wanna know the fan base GamingBRIT? Welcome to the club of respectful, disciplined, cool and calculated Ninjas. The games kicked our arses first, then we understood and overcame our weaknesses and urge to rage.
This comment is approved by RagingImpaler.
I've been replaying this game recently; this game is an action game master class in fucking 2004. Team Ninja went above and beyond.
Undertale is my favorite Character Action game
DMC God of War and Ninja Gaiden are the founding fathers of action adventure / hack and slash (we never did get the naming down for the genre)
I know these games are all very different but they all cover every aspect of the genre
DMC brought dual weapon combat (melee and range) with combos and flashy special moves you mix in to look as cool as possible
God of War brought spectacle and big set pieces with QTEs. It also had High enemy count and was meant for you to mow thru
Ninja Gaiden had the most technical combat you really had to hit the moves near perfect as the game gave you no leeway, enemies were more about challenges then being used as fodder or make you look cool...
There's more for each game but you get the idea
You need to do Shinobi and Nightshade.
I am glad you talked about games preservation because things aren't good when you can't even get the halo multiplayer maps or well anything for that matter on xbox live
"You feel....like a ninja"
Rikimaru from Tenchu series strongly disagrees!!
tenchu is highly underrated, it actually focuses on stealth rather than the action
So many memories. This the first hard game I "got gud" at, and one of my all time favs. Hurricane Pack 2 still my favorite version because of that intercept move. It may have made the game easy, taking no damage letting you instantly absorb essence for UTs, but still took skill to pull off so it was satisfying when you timed it right. Especially when you intercept a barrage of attacks and the screen lights up in blue flashes for each intercept.
The Sigma series is really only worth it for the remixed versions of Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3, which were... erm... how do I put it...
...
A teensy bit flawed in their original incarnations.
Of course I was somewhat ignorant of the changes made to the original game in Sigma 1, so now that I'm aware of that, I'll have to pick up a copy of Black at some point to experience the game as it was meant to be. Really enjoyed this video, Brit. Well worth the wait!
- Lewis
did you even see the difference between 2 and sigma 2? they look visually different. It's like 2 was alpha shit and sigma 2 is the definitive edition. I can't look at Aayane in vanilla 2 without laughter
gotta love that ps3 architecture; ruined a generation of successors.
There are nothing like Ninja Gaiden 2's slowdowns in Sigma 2. Just a few frame drops. That single digit fps sequences on 360 are simply 30fps on ps3.
Stronger more intelligent enemies in lower more controlled amounts, kinda like the original game. Dynasty Gaiden Warriors was misguided in the first place. The only issue with sigma 2's rebalancing is that it was altering a preexisting game instead of designing it that way from the ground up. Same issue with Razor's Edge.
seriously, anyone who says vanilla ninja gaiden 2 is better than its sigma version is fucking crazy
Speaking of the Izuna drop. Team Ninja added it to Nioh 2. Surprised he hasn’t covered those games as they’re basically Ninja Gaiden meets Diablo.
Hey! Those pre rendered cutscenes are god damn beautiful who cares if they’re presented weird
Ninja Garden was the first super challenging action game I made it through as a kid. This made me super nostalgic, and the game still looks great.
As a hug fan of NG Black and someone who liked but was ultimately disappointed by Sigma, the changes that lead to those disappointments aren't that hard to talk about.
1. Sigma messed with Ryu's dodge roll. That back hand spring changes so much about how you move around in combat. Also changes his recovery timings on said rolls.
2. They fucked with the Challenges. You never mentioned these your review so im not sure if you know about them, I sure hope you do, but there are special fights in Ninja Gaiden/B/S. Like in the Catacombs if you go back into the room you got the Goblet in, in the next chapter, you'll get a special fight where something like 80 of those zombies down there will Spawn. If you defeat them all you get a Lives of a Thousand Gods. Well they messed with a lot of these, one they even changed from the old challenge to just 100 spawning Berserkers who just summon meteors over and over. It isn't fun, it isn't challenging, its just lame.
3.They changed Karma times and made around half of them impossible to actually meet and get the Karma bonus, especially in the challenge rooms mentioned above. Yea Karma times tie into "MLG Pro Pro" I get that, but if you give a shit about trying to score in Sigma then it will be important for you to realize that you wont be able to get a lot of the point bonuses because they are close to, if not actually impossible to get.
Those are my 3 big complaints about Sigma. There other stuff to, I also find the removal of the puzzles rather annoying, the Twin Katana's actually aren't a very good weapon (much better in NGII, but that games a whole other bag of problems), and this might be dumb, but I find it really annoying they put Basts and Black and White Craps in Normal and Hard Mode instead of keeping them saved for Very Hard and up. These enemies especially where designed to give no mercy, they where the next unexpected surprise challenge for bumping the difficulty up to the next level and taking on the next Ninja Challenge. Its great they don't even tell you they are there, they just show up and proceed to stomp a mud hole in your ass.
Those are the big things that stick out in my mind that bother me about Sigma, there's some other stuff to, but they are moslty a NGB fan nit picking the fuck out of the game at that point.
Anyway another awesome video, keep up the good work TGB.
My biggest hatred towards Sigma was so minor I still can't believe it, but Marbus no longer takes damage from Explosive Kunai. It is such a minor change, but it really showed that the game didn't care about the little details and only the broad perspective.
While the Marbus exploding Kunai is a small change, the impact it has on the fight itself is actually pretty large, and a good example of them changing something either because as you said they didn't care enough to notice it was even changed, or just to change it. A lot of changes in Sigma feel like they were made just to make them, maybe so they could use it as a bullet point in the list of changes to justify another directors cut of this game, but the change didn't feel like it was made to improve the game, or because the director or whatever had alegitimate idea or feel about the mechanic. Instead they just changed it to change it, because they could with ery little thought for how that would impact the over all product as a whole.
So i agree with you that the Marbus change is small, but i feel the impact it had in the fight was actually pretty large and thats why it bothers you so much. It's actually a big impact.
For some reason this reminded me how overlooked PS2's Shinobi is. It's so forgotten I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Still waiting for an action game with enemy AI on par with NGBlack/Sigma
When Ninja Gaiden is in the house you need no other hack slash game. 10/10.
Idk, I liked Rachel's more counter-centric move-set. She's definitely better in Sigma 2, though.
Anyway, I don't really agree with what you say about the game needing a lock on function. The game moves so quickly, I just feel like something like that would get in the way. The auto-lock certainly isn't without its issues, but I don't think that's something a manual lock-on would fix.
Heck, yeah! I was looking forward to this video! ^^ "Ninja Gaiden Black" is my favorite action game of all time. Yes, even more than any "Devil May Cry" or "Bayonetta". It's great to see you giving it credit. :)
As for your criticism, the lack of a lock on feature never bothered me, even with the shortcomings you mention. They are more nitpicks, as far as I'm concerned.
By the way, another cool feature I think is worth mentioning is that Ryu's moveset with the Dragon Sword has a lot of techniques that are taken from his moveset in the DOA series. Kudos to Team Ninja for that.
Too bad this series fell from grace with its atrocious third installment (I don't count "Yaiba" since that was a spin-off by Keiji Inafune). But now that Team Ninja seems to have built back some good will with "Nioh", I think it's time for this series to make a come back.
So where’s the Ratchet and clank vid that I thought was coming :(
Great content as always, just a few things to point out:
1) You forgot to mention the mission mode, and if I recall correctly Sigma had the possibility to play them online in coop. Sigma II missions are only playable in coop or with a not-so-good bot that uses whatever character you pick for him.
2) Master Ninja deserved to be mentioned, since to me and to the Ninja Gaiden community the most fun part of the game is to keep improving and setting the bar higher and higher for challenge, and Master Ninja is the most fun and at the same time frustrating thing about the game.
3) As for Rachel, IIRC she does have an Izuna Drop like move, but that might be implemented on NGS II so I can't be 100% sure.
As for the best version, it has to be Black in this case and for NG II the standard version, you have to take Sigma like a "remixed" version of the game, it adds stuff and removes content at the same time, making it easier to approach. Also Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 has that weird censorship thing because Yosuke Hayashi has worked on it instead of Tomonobu Itagaki, but that will be a topic I think you'll cover on the next video, if you're willing to cover all 3 games (good luck with 3 and 3 Razor's Edge).
As for the Vita versions, don't bother, they are literally the same as the PS3 Sigma version but they implement Vita controls.
The fact that Sekiro fans think Sekiro even compares to NG is laughable .......
You're supposed to use the flail on the fish. Makes dealing with them soooo much easier
The gameplay is cool but does it tell a story???
Literally 2/3 if the bad reviews of Ninja Gaiden 1/2
Practically everyone, even the mega fans, will agree that nobody plays the Ninja Gaiden games for the story. Ninja Gaiden 3 tried to tell a more compelling story and give Ryu some more characterization, but it sort of just fell flat.
Ninja Gaiden 3 tried to tell a serious story... to bad it was some super generic garbage.
I like to think of it like an old martial arts movie dub, it’s not super great but still very entertaining and fun.
no
Rachel has a good plot...
0:00 Introduction
1:57 Gameplay
6:36 Criticism
10:39 Presentation
15:56 Black & Sigma
22:44 Final Thoughts
That part in 17:01 about 7th gen preservation is a big yikes in 2021
Came here just to say that lol. Rip asura's wrath ending
Man I have seen so many of your videos and your channel is just one of my favorite