Ninja Gaiden II (2008)

Coming from Ninja Gaiden Black, there are many positives. Playing on Warrior difficulty, I didn't want to put my head through the dry wall as I did playing Normal in NGB. There are tons of checkpoints everywhere, but most importantly immediately before the bosses. There's also a get out of jail free card - finisher moves that are triggered when an enemy is bleeding out which shows you a short execution animation that makes you invincible. In the heat of the battle it's quite useful. You get a lot more money and health orbs are abundant.

The graphics are great. I know the game didn't run very well on the 360 but Series X makes this game shine as does emulation on PC I'm sure.

The gameplay is said to have been made more aggressive and therefore less defensive. I agree. The problem is not that in itself, but rather the fact that the game emphasizes just rushing the enemy and spamming the most appropriate attack until the health bar goes to zero. Enemies are way harder to read and they have too many moves to remember, despite how well telegraphed they are (sometimes not at all). Weapons deal way more damage and everyone, including the bosses die very quickly, so instead of learning the attack patterns and all that stuff there's always that temptation to go up close and start spamming attacks, since you can get lucky and the enemy will get stunlocked and will die. Works most of the time, especially using the Scythe. More human bosses like Genshin are actually fun to fight so you make the effort to try a little harder but all the guys that teleport or do something crazy or the giant ones, I just spammed them most of the time.

Flying swallow and izuna drop are your bread and butter, even moreso than in NGB (especially the former) and it gets a little boring towards the end since you're doing the same thing over and over. Maybe it doesn't work on higher difficulties but Warrior is the hardest available from the start so I couldn't really solve this problem until I beat the entire game. I don't remember DMC games really forcing you to rely on the same move as much.

All in all, it's fun. But NGB feels more balanced, precise and fair. Way way waaay harder, but more fair.

I played this game on loan from my cousin on 2 separate occasions separated by a few years. The first time, I played on Warrior difficulty (normal) and got as far as chapter 9. I got the achievement for dying 100 times and my controller has split and has a brown stain from being repeatedly slammed into my coffee table. That does not even begin to describe the frustration that is this game; in fact a new word beyond frustration must be created just for this game. I did not get any further than that because my cousin took the game back.

Years later I got a loan of the game again and was no longer using the xbox account I had before. Why not play the game again? This time I did Acolyte (easy). I did beat the game. I did not get the 100 deaths achievement again. The game was still frustrating but not as difficult. I had tried out all of the weapons on the first playthough but this time I focused on the dragon sword and sometimes used the dual blades. There are multiple problems with this game though it boils down to the game being deliberately designed to be unfair and user unfriendly, which is not the good kind of difficulty. The camera is obnoxious, the controls are awkward, and many enemies have unavoidable attacks. I looked up online how to play this game and had to roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it; the best way to play the game is to ignore many of the moves and focus on spamming the charge up ultimate technique. What kind of game is so unbalanced so as not to have every move and style of combat be viable? And how is it fun to sit there charging up attacks?

The only part of this game that I liked was the violence and gore, though I did appreciate the auto saves for boss fights. Overall I believe this game was a waste of time for me. It is hard to believe that so much could change for the worse from Ninja Gaiden Black to this.